Bitter Roots
The people of Israel were excited at the prospect of the land God had promised. It was to be a land of blessing and fruitfulness, but along the way, something kept sabotaging their progress: bitterness. Their backs were free of Egypt's burdens, yet they still carried Egypt in their hearts. Every trial—whether it was the Red Sea, hunger, thirst, or delay- triggered complaints, fear, and blame. Even at Marah, where God showed them that bitterness is always premature, their default was distrust, and it poisoned their perspective.
Jesus said A good tree bears good fruit, and a bad tree bears bad fruit. But the fruit of a tree is determined by its root. Bitterness is a root that chokes out fruitfulness because it focuses on what you don’t have instead of what you have. It’s the quiet resentment that God didn’t give us what we wanted—or gave us something we never asked for. We can all go through loss, disappointment, and become bitter. We may have known betrayal or unmet expectations: left to grieve over the choices of those we love. But if we don’t bring that pain to God, it festers. It defiles our faith, our relationships, and our view of life. “Looking carefully... lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and defile many.” Hebrews 12:15. Hurt people see life through their wounds. Healthy people see life through their hopes. Bitterness dulls our faith. It convinces us that nothing good will ever happen. And it keeps us from fully trusting God or loving others.
So friend, if there is a root of bitterness choking your joy, your faith, or your relationships, don’t let it stay buried. Bring it to the cross. As you repent, hate only the hurt that bitterness is creating in your life. Let Jesus, the Root of Jesse, replace the root of death with His life. Even if bitterness had a truly painful root in your past, it doesn’t have to define your future. God has a plan to make you fruitful. Bitterness is always self-sabotaging and self-centered. So, dig up the root and let Him be your centre. Receive His grace. And let hope and life flow again.
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New Creation
What a blessing children are and what a miracle birth is. In the weeks following, they will begin to recognize their parent’s faces. They look up and because they are content with the sight of their father’s familiar face, they feel that all is well in their world. A child’s identity is related to their father and mother. Identity is about, who we are, who we are related to and the value we have to them.
Our identity first comes by seeing our father’s approval in his loving face, as we were growing up. The images in our hearts and minds, of his smile, encouragement and love, even when we failed, stamped us with inner security and worth, giving us the strength to live life courageously. This is important as our identity will always express itself. If you are a postman, you do things that postmen do. If you are a policeman, you act like a policeman. And even if you think you are a policeman and you are not really a policeman; you still act like one! If we feel we are worthless we may begin to do worthless things or crave the approval of others to validate ourselves in some way.
As we see God our Father’s face and His love for us in the Word, we develop a new identity that will determine what we do and what we act like. When we know He has declared us to be His holy children, we can more easily live as we want. When we know we are accepted by Him we are more able to live acceptably.
Friend, our Father has revealed Himself to us in Jesus and He wants us to look into the realm of Spirit and see His look of love and approval.
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Idolatry and anger
Some anger is caused because our goals and possessions have become idolatrous. Bill Gothard said it is because we haven’t yielded our rights. Think about that. If we get angry because another has wrecked our coat, it's because we never yielded that coat up to God; we saw it as our own and not belonging to God.
When we are angry at a person for not doing what we wanted them to do, its sinful because anger says you believe that this person is in charge of your future and life. Somehow you believe that they are determining what you can be. That their cooperation is key to your life becoming happy and successful. No, your life and fulfillment is not determined by anyone else but you and God. Whose goals in life are you pursuing; whose will do we want to do? |If God gave you the goal, no one can stop it.
And here is the one goal God has for all of us.... to be conformed to the image of Jesus. So traffic jams, screaming kids, etc are all working toward His goals as we need to develop patience and character. That is why the lady Elizabeth young wrote disappointments are his appointments!
Friend, when our goals become more important than His goals, it is an idol and we will tend to become angry!
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Growing in the Lord
The old farmer walked home as the sun slowly set behind him. He was happy the seeds had been sown and with rain about to fall, there was nothing more to do but wait. God also wants us to grow from babies into fully mature sons of God but He knows that we can’t make ourselves grow up. If a parent said to his child to increase in height it would be impossible. Jesus said “consider the lilies of the field. They don’t toil or spin yet they are beautiful” He also said. “Which of you can by worry can add an inch to your height?’ In other words you cannot make yourself grow up. Only God can make you grow. The seed, the flower, the lily of the felid does nothing except receive. It just stays rooted in the ground or connected to the vine. Similarly the little baby, doesn’t try to grow; it just grows. The seeds DNA says grow and as long as it receives, it will grow. Be a hungry receiver!
Friend, receive the Word and the grace of God and the water of the Spirit and you will grow.
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Through the cross
Although the cross is central to our believing, when Paul says that we died with Christ on the cross, it seems a bit hard to grasp as we never literally hung on a cross. So what happened on that terrible day of suffering and how did we die? Five things transpired.
First the flesh was crucified or the old man was crucified. This referring to the old nature; our dead spirit that was cut of from God; this was brought to an end.
Also the world is crucified to us. In Galatians 6:14 he says: But may it never be that I should boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. Christians can never belong to the world again - we are aliens here.
The law is taken away on the cross as it was "nailed to the cross.’ When a debt was paid, they would nail the notice of debt to the door of the debtor but written on it was paid in full.
On the cross the enmity between Jews and Gentiles (which covers everyone in the world), is removed. God has forever removed all class distinctions.
And of course as Isaiah says, we have peace with God because of what Christ did. We were once enemies of God, but through Christ we have been brought near (Ephesians 2:13). In other words, we have been reconciled to God through the cross (verse 16). It is a basic Christian belief that our relationship with God depends on the death of Jesus Christ.
Friend, the work of the cross is so great and so complete that now we are free from everything that we couldn’t be freed from, by the law.
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Give no place
The man goes to work wearing a suit and sits in the nice wood paneled room filled with expensive leather chairs. Nobody would guess that it is not his title or position that shape his life the most, but his heart.
It always will be, until he is healed and set free. He will always be affected in some way every day by his past. The father who committed adultery and left the home or the time when his friend died after he gave him too much to drink or the trip overseas when he visited a prostitute, nags away at his heart and the devil will keep him captive to that secret shame, till he is set free.
When there are unresolved or un-confessed issues in our life, it gives a place in our lives, for him to occupy areas in your life; it gives him a foothold and it may ultimately affect those in the family and around you. The devil prowls around seeking who he can devour. And the only way Satan gets a place and keeps a place in our lives is by places of brokenness and damage in our lives through our sin, or others sin or his lies about us or about others.
Friend, every person either looks back or looks forward. We are either more conscious of our past or more conscious of our future. And while our brokenness is not healed and the devil still has hooks into our life because of the wounds, we will be hindered in some measure to be able to go where Jesus wants to take us.
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Suffering of the Cross
It was necessary for the Messiah to die, but he couldn’t die in a painless way. He needed to suffer for our salvation. It was an essential part of Jesus’ ministry, and an essential part of the gospel. Jesus had predicted his own suffering and death, even his death on a cross. For the transgression of my people he was stricken.... Though he had done no violence ... it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer ... the Lord makes his life a guilt offering.... He will bear their iniquities.... He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. The cross allowed for suffering. Jesus even refused to speed up or dull the suffering with wine. On the cross he took the curse upon himself that was upon mankind. Jesus redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. He was made sin for us and bore our curses so we could be righteous and blessed. Since we failed to keep the law perfectly, we fell under its curse and we all deserved death. Jesus, being sinless, did not need to die, but he willingly died for us. The righteous died for the unrighteous. He received death so that we might receive life.
Friend, it is through the cross that we can be given the blessing promised to Abraham. It is through the cross that we are reconciled to God. It is through the cross that God forgives our sins, taking away the written note of debt that was against us. Thank God for the One on the Cross!
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Blessed are the peace makers
We know God is on a peace mission. There was peace in the Garden of Eden, and history closes with peace in eternity, but soon after the man was created, peace was taken from the earth when man sinned. There has been trouble on earth ever since. There seems to be no economic peace, religious peace racial peace, social peace, family peace or personal peace on earth.
There are strikes, referendums rallies and riots. There are demonstrations and wars are multiplying: the need for peace has never been greater than today. God never forgot His plan for peace, so God ramped up his peace mission in Jesus Christ. When He was sent, the angels announced peace on earth and good will to men. And in this verse in Matthew, Jesus says whoever joins Him in this peace mission, will become a son of God or a daughter of God. The one blinding fact about this verse is that peace makers are blessed. Not the peace lovers, it’s not those who love peace that are blessed or called sons of God. Not the one that heads for the hill, buys a block of land in the county to get some quiet. It’s not the one that withdraws from confronting those that need it, but the peace makers.
Friend, we are peace makers when we confront the problem, seek to solve it and after the problems is solved, seek to build a bridge between those who were separated by the problem.
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