Active Christianity

Thank you very much. Good afternoon, everyone. I will say a joke that one of my conductors once said was, we've got two groups of people in this group. We have musicians and we have drummers.

Not something I would say, it's just something someone said to me once.

Well, hello to everyone on Zoom as well. Good to have everyone here with us today. Did you know God has a special place in his heart for gardening?

I think a lot of us do as well. I know there are a lot of people here in this group that enjoy gardening, but gardens are actually a repeating motif in the Bible. When you think about it, you only have to get to the second chapter of the Bible in Genesis 2 when you get introduced to the Garden of Eden and everything that God set there. And in fact, mankind's original purpose included tending and dressing and keeping the garden, tending to everything that God had created there. And something we don't always think about, but Revelation 22, the very last chapter of the Bible, makes reference directly back again, in this case to the Tree of Life, calling back to mind the whole idea of the Garden of Eden and where everything began. And while that's not specifically a topic I want to talk about today, gardening and some of the things that go with it is, last Sunday, probably like many of you, I spent the better part of the morning doing yard work. And whenever I'm out doing yard work, and I'm not a master gardener or anything close to it, I'm more like the menial laborer that helps the person who helps the master gardener. So I'm best at just hacking away at things and putting them in bags and carrying them out to the curb. I spent most of the morning anyway last Sunday doing yard work and doing that, especially hacking away at shrubs, trying to cut things back and dealing with all the things that tends to grow up. It brings a lot of things back to my mind in terms of scriptures, things that are written in the Bible that actually go back to the idea of gardening. If you will, turn with me to Hebrews 12, and we'll focus on a couple of verses in Hebrews 12 in that vein, and that's where we'll spend our time in this message today. Hebrews 12, and we'll start reading in verse 14. This passage begins, pursue peace with all people and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord.

Looking carefully, lest anyone fall short of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled. And this scripture came to my mind last week as I was digging around, because I was dealing with shrubs that tend to spread. You've probably seen some of these. You know, the shrub sits within a very little small footprint, and you come out in the springtime, and suddenly you've got a space like the diameter of three feet, and you've got all this stuff growing up around it. And when you start digging down below, at least what I was doing last week, you find that there are all of these roots that are down below the ground that you never see, and they're springing out from this shrub. And as soon as the conditions are right, they send these shoots up, and pretty soon, if you don't tend to those, after a season or two, this what was a pretty small concentrated bush or shrub can spread and take over the entire area of the yard that it's in. Well, in this set of verses here in Hebrews 12, there's actually a contrast being drawn out. We often look at this, we jump immediately to this idea of the root of bitterness. But there's actually a strong contrast that's being put out, and that's what I'd like to go through today. It's relevant to this time of year, as we mark the days to Pentecost. We heard we're 70 days into the 50 days to Pentecost.

Or seven, as the case may be. And we'll spend a few minutes then taking this whole thing apart. So before we get to the root of it, let's look at the first part of the passage. That was supposed to be a pun, but that's okay. So the first part of the passage, starting really in verse 14, is all about activity. And the way I look at it, the way I'd categorize it, is the idea that Christianity is an active vocation. An active vocation. And this passage, of course, uses language that brings this out. It talks about pursue. It talks about looking carefully. It talks about not falling short of the grace of God. And in doing this, something we might not always think about, it's echoing a pattern. It's a pattern that's woven all the way through the Bible in terms of activity.

Activity that God expects his people to take part in. All different types of activity, but this common denominator of the fact that God doesn't just do things for us, he expects activity from us as part of what we do. A couple of quotes from commentaries here, specifically to this idea of falling short of the grace of God that we see here in Hebrews 15. William Barclay wrote in his commentary that the phrase, fall short of the grace of God, could also be translated, failing to keep up with the grace of God. So you think of something that's moving forward and that you have to keep up with and that you have to move with. Barclay lays out that the idea that the grace of God is moving on past pains and hurts of the past, and we have to move on, we have to move forward as well with that grace. Another commentator, G. Campbell Morgan, indicates in a book called Living Messages of the Books of the Bible that falling short of grace means being unable to run the race or cooperate with God in the work that establishes His kingdom. I found those words interesting as well. Running the race, cooperating with God in the work that establishes His kingdom. He goes on to write that this extends beyond personal salvation to encompass one's capacity to participate in God's purposes. Participating in God's purposes. So again, think about action, the fact that this is not a passive situation where God does everything and we sit back.

You know, I think in this context as an example of using an app on our phone, how many people use an app with a map on it, a map app, when you're trying to go somewhere? And what do you do when you want to go somewhere? You punch in the address. If you've got voice recognition, you even say into your phone, I want to go to whatever the location is, and it charts out the course for us, right? And it lays out exactly what you need to do. What's the next thing that we do? Well, it's second nature. Usually we're going to drive. Sometimes we might walk, but we know we get in the car, we turn on the ignition, we hit the gas pedal, and we have to drive. It's not just having the map of where we're going. We have to take action, and we have to move to that direction. So we're involved, and that to me is a really good analogy for everything that we're thinking about today. The fact that God lays out a direction for us. He lays out a path, and we'll see this pattern here in a minute as we look through a few accounts in the Bible. But it also requires action and walking down that path, because a map is only good to get you to the destination if you are moving. It's not going to transport you by itself. So let's look at a few examples of this across the Bible. Again, thinking about what is it that we need to do? What are the actions that we need to take? What is it that God expects of us? So when we look at some of the events that happened for the children of Israel around this time of year, it very much uses these types of examples. We're not going to read these, but I'll refer to them. Exodus 14 lays out the crossing of the Red Sea.

Exodus 14. In verses 13 through 15, we see that Moses is told, first of all, stand still and see the deliverance of the Lord. But then, in verse 15, it very quickly shifts to tell the children of Israel to go forward. Now we know God had the power. He had a pillar of fire.

And he chose, though, that he wasn't just going to take that pillar of fire and mow down the Egyptians, burn them all up, and then everything was going to be good. There was a combination of factors that had to happen. He opened up the Red Sea. He stopped the armies. But then the children of Israel had to go forward. They had to walk forward with faith. They had to take action in order to see the full deliverance that God had prepared for them. There's a very similar pattern that plays itself out in the conquering of Jericho. I don't think we saw it addressed head-on in this past feast, but the Passover is kept by the children of Israel right before they go and take Jericho. So it's usually understood to happen during the time of the Days of Unleavened Bread. And in Joshua 6, we see the instructions that are there for the children of Israel, God speaking to Joshua, in terms of how the city of Jericho was to be taken. And again, God had the power to do everything that was required, but he didn't just tell the children of Israel to sit there and watch what I'm going to do to Jericho. Some of us might remember what the instructions were. Again, we're not going to read through all of them if you want to look at it later. Joshua 6, verses 3 through 5 is the section I'll refer to right now. And Joshua is told and passes on to the children of Israel, we're going to go, we're going to march. Six days, we're going to march around this city.

And then on the seventh day, we're going to march around it again. Then we're going to shout, we're going to have trumpet blasts, and then the walls will fall down. Now, why? It's hard to really come up with a good reason in terms of why the children of Israel had to march in order physically for those walls to come down, because there really isn't one. But God was showing in an unmistakable way this combination of activity that he was wanting and requesting and requiring from his people to bring the victory. And at the very same time that he was doing a miracle. Because no one in their right mind was going to say, because we marched around for seven days and blew a trumpet, the walls fell down. That's just not physically possible. But God wanted them to do those things so that they were participating in it, they were active, they were part of what was happening. We'll see it one more time with the children of Israel. Again, I'll just refer to it, Deuteronomy 30. This is a fairly familiar passage, I think, to all of it. It lays out in one of the well-known verses, I set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore choose life that you and your seed may live. Now, what's wrapped up in that? Again, it's active, isn't it? God says, I'm laying these things out before you. There's life, there's death, there's blessing, there's cursing. And what does He say to them? Choose. That's active.

He doesn't say, I'm going to make you do the thing that leads to life. He's saying, I'm setting these things before you, and there's an action that has to be chosen by the people. So we see over and over again in the Old Testament, God was dealing in the Old Covenant with His nation, asking these things of them, requiring action, having them participate in the working out of His plan.

Let's shift to some of the New Testament accounts and think through this as well, especially now as we're looking towards using the power of the Holy Spirit that we think about as we approach Pentecost. The parable of the talents is one of the first ones that comes to my mind. Again, one that we won't read through in detail today, but in Matthew 25, there are parallel accounts as well, but in Matthew 25, verses 14 through 30, that's the one that I jotted down. Talents are given to the servants, all in different measures. And what is it that God says to the two servants who are considered profitable? Why is it that they're considered profitable servants? They took action. They multiplied what was given to them. And so this is an example of how God gives resources, whether those are physical resources, whether they're abilities, whether they're what we refer to nowadays as talents or aptitudes, whether they're spiritual gifts. And the people who took action with those and multiplied them in proportion to what they were given, not unreasonably, God rewarded them. And the third servant, the one who was called unprofitable, was the one who buried his talent in the ground. Took no action, was afraid, and said, you know what? Not sure I can do anything. I'm just going to bury it. And at least when my master comes back, I'll be able to give back what was given to me. And God indicated that's not what I was after. He was after growth, those talents being multiplied action, again, that was being expected. Let's look at the last words of Jesus Christ before he ascended into heaven. Again, thinking very much of this time of year. Acts 1 records that event. We'll just read a couple of verses in Acts 1, verses 4, and verse 8.

Here the accountant Acts records in verse 4 of chapter 1, being assembled together with them, Jesus commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which he said, you have heard from me. And then in verse 8 he says, you will receive the power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be witness to me in Jerusalem, in Judea, and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. What I find interesting here is there's a bit of a parallel here between what's told to the apostles and what was told through Moses to the children of Israel back before they crossed the Red Sea. Because there's again a double element. First it's wait.

Just be still. Wait here in Jerusalem. Got to go through this time between the ascension and when the Passover or the Pentecost would come, and then take action. Because everything that's talked about here in verse 8, preaching the Gospel, going out into the entire world, is again a very active thing that's to be done. And if there's any doubt there, we can look in Matthew's account of the Great Commission, as we call it. Matthew, we'll start in chapter 28, and we'll read verses 18 through 20. Similar idea, similar command by Jesus Christ that's brought forward by Matthew and his account. Matthew 28 starting in verse 18. Jesus came, he spoke to the disciples, and he said all authority has been given to me in heaven and earth. Go, therefore. Active. Move. Go. Don't just stand here. Go and do something. Make disciples of the nations. Baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Teach them to observe all things that I've commanded you, and I'm with you always, even to the end of the age. So I think back again to the map software in this. He laid out what should happen in Acts. He talks about taking the word out to Jerusalem, to Samaria, to the ends of the earth. Here he talks about going out, making disciples, baptizing them. He lays out the map of what should be done, and what is it that's expected of us at that point in time? The apostles, first of all, who heard these words physically, and then those who read it and understand it, it's that we take action based on these things. So just as we saw with the children of Israel in the Old Testament, this carries on in the way that God deals with human beings, asking for actions as part of what we do in following Jesus Christ. Let's move forward to Timothy. We see Paul, of course, wrote much of the New Testament. Timothy is an epistle written to Timothy, a young minister, and we'll read chapter 6. We'll read verses 11 and 12, and I'll use a more modern translation. I'll use the message translation, which we heard about a few weeks ago, which gives great insight in more modern language in some cases. This passage in the early part of 1 Timothy is talking about materialism, as Paul is warning Timothy to avoid and be careful of these things that are out there in the world. And then in verse 11 he says, but you, Timothy, man of God, run for your life from all of this. Feel the action there. Run for your life from all this. Pursue a righteous life, a life of wonder, faith, love, steadiness, courtesy. Run hard and fast in the faith. Seize the eternal life, the life you are called to, the life you so fervently embraced in the presence of so many witnesses. Interesting how he refers to his baptism, talking about what he did in the presence of so many witnesses, fervently embracing that new life. So again, we see action here. It's not a passive situation. It's not a situation of sitting back and waiting. It's very much active. Run, pursue, run hard and fast. Seize, fervently embrace. So we can feel the urgency and the action that's being put forward here. We'll turn to one more passage in Timothy that we're probably very familiar with. That's 2 Timothy 1, and we'll read verses 6 and 7, talking again here about the Holy Spirit. Paul writes in 2 Timothy 1 to Timothy, Therefore I remind you, stir up the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

The word that's used here, you might have heard before, the Greek word that's used here for power is a Greek word, dunamis. And Thayer's lexicon talks about dunamis carrying the meaning of inherent power. Power residing in a thing by virtue of its nature, or which a person or thing exerts or puts forth. Again, think action, think use. It's not something that's just there to sit on the shelf. It's something that's exemplified in what it does. And that same word, dunamis, is what comes into English. We talk about things being dynamic. We talk about a person being dynamic, a situation that's fast-moving, being dynamic. We talk about dynamite and how it blows things up. Those things all come if you're a fan of Wylie Coyote and the Road Runner, you know all about dynamite. Acme Corporation is not in the Bible, though. But dunamis, that Greek word, that's where all of these ideas of action and power and motion come about. And that's something that's being brought across here through the Holy Spirit. That's the same word in Acts 1, verse 8, when the apostles are told that you shall receive power by the Holy Spirit. It's that ability to take action, to move, to cause dynamic change that's going to happen. And interestingly, this is the same word that's used in the parable of the talents to refer to abilities.

Dunamis. We're thinking about, in terms of how these things tie together, the Holy Spirit, these abilities that are given to us, the things that God expects of the people that follow him. It's not just sitting back and waiting to see what God does for us. Certainly his salvation, the things that he does, the conditions that he creates are incredibly important, and he requires action from us as a part of that. This word, dunamis, is used depending on where you look around 120 times in the Bible. I think one account I read said 118 times in the New Testament. If you're looking for something to study and consider more, grab a concordance, go online to a place like Blue Letter Bible. There are other sites, and you can search, and you can find all of the different places where this word is used in the New Testament. It would make a very good study in the time here before Pentecost, and if you're having challenges figuring out how to do that, let me know. I'm happy to help you find those scriptures. It's a great way to think about and, again, consider action. What is it that God expects us to do? So, if we wrap up this first section in looking at Hebrews 12, 14, and 15, God does expect action on our part.

We see that as a way that He works with mankind, starting all the way back with the children of Israel and through these accounts that we see in the New Testament as well. Another thing to do that I encourage is think about and look at all the active verbs used in how Christians are to conduct their lives. I just jotted down a few in like 30 seconds time. Pursue, strive, fight, battle, run with endurance. There are a lot more of them out there. Think about that. Consider it. What are those active verbs that are attached to the way that we live and conduct our Christian lives? And in wrapping up this first section, a question, again, I'll point this one at myself, how do I need to live a more active Christian life? Not just reading the map, but actively following what's laid out in Hebrews 12, verse 14, the path of peace, holiness, and the grace of God.

So let's look at the second part of this passage and the contrast that's laid out there.

I think often when we think of the root of bitterness, we don't think about what comes before. We don't think about the contrast that's laid out here. I've called this second section the consequences of inaction, the consequences of inaction. So let's get back to gardening.

What is it that happens in a garden when we don't do anything? We don't cultivate it? Yeah, we hear lots of people saying weeds right away because that's what we're experiencing right now. And, you know, often probably one of the complaints I hear a lot from people, I'll come here to church, say what's going on this time of year. What is it that we experience? We're working all week.

Beautiful day on Sabbath. Sunday it's raining. And what is it that we tell each other after a few weeks? My lawn is a disaster. I haven't been able to mow it for three weeks, and because of that, the grass is just growing nuts out there. And any of us who've been around for a little while have learned through some hard lessons at some point in time that you seize that small moment, even if it's a few hours at the end of a work day, when it gets nice out this time of year, to mow your lawn, right? Because we know if you don't get to it, it rains the next time you have a chance. Pretty soon you've got a foot of grass that you've got to get through. The consequences of inaction. And that's really the contrast that's being laid out in this passage in Hebrews 12. We read through there again, starting in verse 14, pursue peace with all people and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord, looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled. The root of bitterness is more than just being mad at somebody and not getting over it. Let's explore that for a little while. We hear the topic in terms of being bitter or angry towards a person, and that certainly is a piece of it, but bitterness is much more than just being mad at someone and not resolving it.

Let's look a bit at this. Alternate translations in some verses, like the versions, like the NIV, rather than saying, root of bitterness, use the words bitter root. Similar, but not quite the same thing. It's talking about something specific when it talks about a bitter root. Let's look across a couple of other passages and understand a little more about what a bitter root is.

Most commentators will tell you this goes back to Deuteronomy 29, and I'll read this again from the message. Deuteronomy 29 verses 14 through 21. Again, we'll see that this has a broader meaning, a meaning that includes what we often think in terms of relationships between people, but at the same time a meaning that's much broader than that. Deuteronomy 29 starting verse 14. I'm not making this covenant and its oath with you alone.

I'm making it with you who are standing here today in the presence of God our God. Yes, but also with those who are not here today. You know the conditions in which we lived in Egypt and how we crisscross through nations in our travels. You got an eye full of their obscenities, their wood and stone, silver and gold, junk gods.

Don't let down your guard, lest even now today someone, man or woman, clan or tribe, gets sidetracked from God, our God, and gets involved with the no gods of the nations. Lest some poisonous weed, that's the word bitter root in a lot of translations. Lest some poisonous weed sprout and spread among you.

A person, and this is defining what that is, a person who hears the word of the covenant oath but exempts himself thinking, I'll just live the way I please, thank you, and ends up ruining life for everybody. God won't let him off the hook. God's anger and jealousy will erupt like a volcano against that person. The curses written in this book will bury him.

God will delete his name from the records. God will separate him out from all the tribes of Israel for special punishment according to all the curses of the covenant written in this book. That's pretty heavy stuff that's being said there, but clearly here the idea of a bitter root, as it's translated in most translations, is much broader than just an idea of having unresolved anger or conflict with another person. It's talking more broadly about breaking of the covenant, turning to practices other than what it is that God expects of us, what we know to be right.

And it lays out the fact that it has an impact not just on the individual, as we look through this passage, but on the entire community. Just like a root, as it starts to go in the ground, what does it do? It starts to spread out, doesn't it? I was grubbing the ground last week against this shrub, and I would just start digging down in my hands or use a bit of a trowel, and you know, I'd get a bit of a root that was maybe a half inch, three quarters of an inch in diameter, and I'd get underneath it, and I'd put my hands in there, and it starts sort of pulling up on it.

And what do we find when we do that? It has like five or six tentacles that just start going out and spreading in all kinds of different directions. Nothing even coming up above the soil. And that's the way a root grows. That's the symbolism that's being brought out here in this idea of a bitter root. Not only the fact that the root goes out, but what it produces has no good fruit.

We don't have time to go into the whole discussion of wormwood and these types of things that are there. We see in the New King James translation, but it's talking about something that has no good fruit, no useful fruit that goes with it. And yet it's this root that just spreads all over the place. And again, it's talking about the fact that we have to make sure that we don't get inactive. Again, if we look at that contrast in Hebrews, because when we get inactive, just like when we get inactive in our garden and we wait a season or two and things just start growing up all over the place, our lives are the same way as Christians.

If we get lax, we get inactive, we just sort of let nature take its course, we don't do anything. Those roots, those things grow up in our lives as we just follow what we think is right. We don't have that reference point back to God's Word, taking in daily of Him as we learn during the days of Unleavened Bread. And then these things just start to grow out in our lives. And then when the conditions are right around us, boom, they sprout up. Whatever it might be, the weaknesses, the things that we've followed, and when the conditions are right around us, they just pop right up out of the ground and they start to take over.

And they impact everyone who's around us, whether it's our families, our neighbors, our congregation, they have those effects. So that's what's being talked about here in terms of bitter root. Let's look at one more usage of this same term. This one is in Acts 8. Acts 8. And again, looking at two things here. Number one, this does include but is more than just having conflict with another person. This bitter root is much broader than that. And secondly, it can be the result and is the type of thing that grows up when we're inactive in our spiritual lives.

We'll read here in verses 20 through 23. Acts 8 is the account of Simon the Sorcerer, or Simon Magus, as we might know him as. He's someone who saw the power of the Holy Spirit as he saw Peter and John exercising it and performing miracles, and he offers money to the two of them in order to receive the Holy Spirit. There's still a word in the English language called simony that's applied to the idea of purchasing religious office that comes because of Simon the Sorcerer and what he did here.

Peter said to him in verse 20 of Acts 8, "'Your money perish with you because you thought that the gift of God could be purchased with money.'" Complete lack of understanding, he demonstrates. "'You have neither part nor portion in this matter, for your heart is not right in the sight of God. Repent, therefore, of your wickedness, and pray, God, if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you, for I see that you are poisoned by bitterness and bound by iniquity.'" So if we look at the context and what's being laid out in this verse and being attached to this idea of bitterness, we see it includes wickedness, a heart that's not right in the sight of God, bad thoughts of the heart being bound by iniquity.

These are all things that are tied together with this idea of a bitter root or bitterness as it's laid out here. It ties very much back to the concept as it's laid out in Deuteronomy and goes forward into what we read in that contrast that's laid out in the book of Hebrews. It's interesting also in this account in Acts to see how it's tied together with the Holy Spirit and the complete misunderstanding of the Holy Spirit, what it is, and how it works that's connected with this idea of bitterness. Again, ties back, I think, very clearly to what we read in Hebrews. So let's consider briefly how inaction allows the growth of a bitter root. You know, for people back in that day and age whose lives were very close to the soil, many of them, if not all of them, were growing a good portion of their food and would have had to cultivate the soil. Again, this came home to me this spring as I was dealing with things in the garden and I've had things like this in past years as well. We moved into our house now 12 years ago and when we moved into it there was a stand of trees on one side of the house that hadn't been tended to in years before that. And so there was brush and it was starting to grow into the yard. We didn't deal with it for the first year or two that we were there and finally the third or fourth year we were there around this time of year. I think it was probably in late March. I spent probably three weeks where I would spend four or five hours in any given day and just starting to rip brush out of there. I built this huge pile on the backyard of brush. A lot of it was brambles. You know, you get these spiny brambles and they grow and what's crazy about them is they grow, they lean over, they hit the ground, and what happens when they hit the ground? They lay out roots and then they grow up and they go and they hop even further and they just start to spread. And again, that's how inaction starts to create this. At first I saw them. I thought, oh, you know, I see thorns here. Maybe I got some great blackberries and raspberries, at least, that I can eat and enjoy. But they weren't anything.

They grew nothing of any use. They just went. They propagated. They grew all over the place and they took over and crowded everything else out. Why was it? Because of my inaction, because of the inaction of the people who owned the house before us, because they didn't tend to what it was that was going on there. So as we wrap up this section, think about the second part of this contrast. A root of bitterness or a bitter root represents belief and actions that are contrary to our covenant, our agreement with God. They can go undetected before sprouting up in unexpected places when conditions allow it to happen. You know, you think about when we look at our own lives. I can think about things in my own life, the way I react when some external event happens.

And sometimes those things just come together. You can just feel the heat rise inside your body. You can feel the loss of control and you know you're just going to go off on somebody. Or whatever it is, the weakness that you have. And those conditions, when you look back at it, you can see that combination of conditions come together and cause or result in, I should say, that action.

That's these bitter roots. They're there. They're under the surface. They're just waiting for the right events if we're not tending to them. They can have an impact beyond us into our families, our communities, our congregation. And they represent, and this is, I think, the important thing to remember, they represent default human behavior when there's not involvement by the Holy Spirit. That's really what's being laid out when we read about this contrast that's there in Hebrews. And the fact that we have the ability to pursue peace, to pursue holiness, or we can let default conditions happen. Default conditions for us as humans, this stuff just starts to grow inside of us. And then it manifests itself in very unattractive ways when the right conditions come up.

That's the choice and the contrast that's being laid out. So as we wrap up today and we think about these things, let me try to tie it all together. God has a special place in his heart for gardening. We see him mention gardens from the second chapter of Genesis all the way through to the end of the Bible. And the analogies to our spiritual lives are extremely rich. As we're all out working in our yards, many of us, it's a great time to let these thoughts kind of just percolate in our minds as we have our hands on the ground and we're working with whatever it is that we're doing out there. Let's read again in Hebrews 12 verses 14 and 15 as we wrap up.

Pursue peace with all people and holiness without which no one will see the Lord.

Looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled. Through God's Holy Spirit, we have a dynamic and active power that we're expected to exercise in our lives so that the impact on our communities, especially the body of Christ, is one of the grace of God. In being active spirit-led Christians, we can keep invasive thoughts and actions, those bitter roots from growing up within ourselves and spreading to have a negative effect as well on those around us. So as we continue to march from Passover in the days of Unleavened Bread to Pentecost, I'll end with just a couple of questions. First, where do we need greater focus on action in our own lives powered by the Holy Spirit? It's a different answer for every one of us, but where do we, each of us, need a greater focus on action? And secondly, where do we need to dig for the roots under the soil that are silently spreading so that we can avoid bitter roots from springing up in our own lives to cause trouble? Wish you all happy gardening!