Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “A Fresh Encounter”
Our Bible verse for today: “The man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence indeed is the Lord, is blessed. He will be like a tree planted by water. It sends its roots out toward a stream, it doesn’t fear when heat comes, and its foliage remains green. It will not worry in a year of drought or cease producing fruit.” Jeremiah 17:7-8 (HCSB)
Our thought for today: “A fresh encounter with God will result in deep spiritual roots.”
I love it when God paints word pictures for us like the one in Jeremiah 17:7-8. Here He compares our spiritual health to that of a living tree that has deep roots. Because the roots run deep, they have constant access to underground springs of cool and refreshing water. That being the case, even if there’s a drought on the surface, this tree continues to remain healthy and producing fruit while others with shallow roots are wilting and dying.
This is intended by God to be a picture of our spiritual lives. Our roots need to go deep so they are continually being nourished by the deep living water that is Jesus Christ. When that’s the case we will be strong and healthy, flourishing and producing spiritual fruit, even if on the surface life has become like a barren desert with the blistering heat of difficulty and the hot dry winds of adversity.
But roots don’t grow deep automatically or quickly. This takes time and in the case of spiritual roots, it takes work on our part. There are things that we need to do in order for our spiritual roots to run deep. Prayer, Bible study, worship, fellowship, acts of service, as well as the other spiritual disciplines of the Christian life are all essential to spiritual growth and deep roots.
Also, participation in the life of a good church family is crucial. I’m convinced that Biblically you cannot and will not be a spiritually healthy Christian if you are out of church. The Bible simply makes no allowance for it. Exactly the opposite is true. The Bible explicitly tells us not to skip church (Hebrews 10:24-25). Part of a healthy spiritual life includes full participation in church with other Christians.
It’s also true that the Bible makes no allowance for “pew potatoes”. These are people who do attend worship services, but mostly they just sit there. They arrive a minute before the service begins, they just sit there and watch, and they leave the minute the service is over. Then you won’t see them again until the following week.
Regularly attending worship services is certainly important, but a worship service is not a show to be watched, and it is also not just a religious duty that is performed once a week. Instead, attending and participating in the worship services is but one element in our participation in the full life of a church family, and active participation in the life of a good church is but one part in developing deep spiritual roots.
I encourage you to gather with your church family this Sunday and participate fully in the life of the church. If you don’t have a church home then I invite you to visit us at Oak Hill Baptist. Sunday school begins at 9:00; the worship service is at 10:00; and at 6:00 we will continue our Bible study “Fresh Encounter”. I hope to see you there!
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 