Bible and Theology on Roots

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Hardships Force our Roots to Go Deep

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Scripture

Colossians 2:6-7, 2 Corinthians 4:16-17, Ephesians 3:17-18, Isaiah 58:11, Romans 5:3-5

A. Parnell Bailey visited an orange grove where an irrigation pump had broken down. The season was unusually dry and some of the trees were beginning to die for lack of water. The man giving the tour ...

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Author

Michael Beckwith

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Grow deep roots to harvest rich fruit! When your roots run deep, you cannot help but bear the fruit of the Spirit.

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Author

Jackie Hill Perry

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Like trees, words have roots. Dig underneath the letters’ soil and you’ll discover its definition. The root word of “holy” means “to cut” or “to separate.” When applied to everything outside of God, w...

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Author

Rowan Williams

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Scripture

2 Corinthians 517:null

Christ as incarnate Word does not ‘exercise an influence’ on finite agents like that of ordinary finite causal agencies, nor does he introduce extra causal factors into the finite world or simply init...

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Author

Kevin DeYoung

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Scripture

Colossians 1:10, 1 John 3:18, Titus 3:8, John 15:5, Galatians 5:6

Faith and good works are both necessary. But one is the root and the other the fruit.

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Developing Deep Roots

Author

Mark D. Roberts

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Scripture

Ephesians 3:16-17, Colossians 2:6-7, John 15:5, Jeremiah 17:7-8, Psalm 1:1-3

A couple of weeks ago, my wife and I made the long drive from San Antonio, Texas, to Pasadena, California, where we now reside. We passed through hundreds of miles of southwestern desert, most of whic...

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Holy Trinity, Community of Love

Author

Lisa Ann Moss Degrenia

Keywords

Scripture

John 1:1-5, John 10:30, Matthew 28:18-20, 2 Corinthians 13:14, Hebrews 1:1-4, Matthew 3:16-17

Holy Trinity, Community of Love, Draw us together in your creative light Root us in the ground of your being, Vulnerable before one another, Unashamed in your presence and each other’s Make us joyfu...

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Digging Down Deep

Author

Bianca Juarez Olthoff

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Scripture

John 15:5, Proverbs 12:3, Isaiah 61:3, Matthew 13:5-6, Ephesians 3:17-19

I’m more of an aboveground type of girl, as in, I like the stuff you can see. Flowers, trees, and vegetation symbolize life, growth, and transformation. The problem with focusing on external manifesta...

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Author

John D. Zizioulas

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Scripture

Romans 5:2-5, 1 Peter 1:3-4, Colossians 1:27, Romans 8:24-25, 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, Philippians 3:13-14

[The Christian Faith] has its roots in the future and its branches in the present.

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The Fruit Comes at the End

Author

Banning Liebscher

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In the growth cycle of fruit-bearing plants, fruit comes at the very end. The cycle starts with a seed being planted in the ground. When watered, the seed will break open and begin to put down roots. ...

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Our Place of Roots and Beginnings

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N. T. Wright

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In all our pilgrimages, we begin by going back to our roots. When Christians go to the Holy Land today, we do not go because God is present there in a way in which he is not in New York or Nottingham,...

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Author

Marcus Garvey

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A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.

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Adapted from Jeremiah 17:7–8 & 1 Corinthians 15:12–20

Author

Ruth C. Duck and Maren C. Tirabassi

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Scripture

Jeremiah 17:7, 1 Corinthians 15:12, Psalm 1:3

Leader: Let us praise God, who gives living water, through which the faithful flourish. People: Like trees planted by the water, God, are those who trust in you. Leader: Like trees with deep roots a...

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The Theological Roots of Apartheid

Author

Brenda Salter McNeil

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Did you know that apartheid in South Africa was based in large part on theological doctrines that were formed at Stellenbosch University in the 1930s and 1940s? Isn’t that chilling? Many of the intell...

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The Roots of Ash Wednesday

Author

Beth Bevis

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Scripture

Joel 2:12-13, Romans 3:20-26, Job 42:5-6, Ezekiel 9:4, Genesis 2:7, Ecclesiastes 3:20

Since the seventh century, the Western church has observed the start of Lent on Ash Wednesday—the fortieth day before Easter, not counting Sundays. In addition to providing ample time for self-examina...

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You Are the Tree

Author

Jake Meador

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Scripture

Psalm 1:null

In the film Of Gods and Men , director Xavier Beauvois tells the story of a small group of mostly French monks living in Algeria during a time of civil unrest. These monks live a life of quiet fideli...

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The Bible has its Own Garden Path

Author

Murray Andrew Pura

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Scripture

Genesis 2:8, Genesis 3:23-24, Exodus 15:27, Song of Solomon 4:12-15, John 18:1, Matthew 26:36

The Bible has its own garden path. It runs from Genesis to Revelation. In fact, some of the most important events in the Christian faith take place in Biblical gardens, evens around which Christianity...

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Oaks of Righteousness

Author

Alan Fadling

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Scripture

Isaiah 61:3, Jeremiah 17:7-8, Psalm 1:3, John 15:5, Galatians 5:22-23, Colossians 2:6-7, Hebrews 6:12

In his excellent book, An Unhurried Life, Alan Fadling contrasts our overly busy lives with a vision of the kingdom from Isaiah chapter 61: Isaiah envisioned a kingdom in which those people in need ...

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A Relationship Among Fellows

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Scripture

Colossians 3:14-15, 1 John 1:7, Ephesians 4:3-6, Galatians 3:28, Philippians 2:1-2

Did you know that the history of the word “fellowship,” is, rather simply, a relationship among fellows? The idea of a fellowship being that two or more people have been bonded together in some signif...

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The Origins of the Prosperity Gospel

Author

Kevin Nye

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Russell Conwell, founder of Temple University and half the namesake of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, was an American minister who began his ministry in 1880. While he wrote and preached countle...

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Transgression is Pushing Past Good Boundaries

Author

Ashley Hales

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Scripture

Genesis 2:, Genesis 3:, James 1:14-15, Romans 5:12-19, Psalm 19:7-8, Genesis 11:

After the fall of our first parents, boundaries were something to push past, to transgress. It’s worth pausing to note how we use the word transgression for “sin.” With its Latin roots, “across” and ...

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The Three Basic Problems of Sin

Author

R. C. Sproul

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 11:1–9, Genesis 3:1–13, Judges 16:4–22 , Matthew 23:12, Acts 5:1–11, Psalm 51:10–12

Karl Barth (1886-1968), the famous Swiss theologian, once wrote that all human sin finds its roots in three basic human problems. He included pride (hubris), dishonesty and slothfulness in his list of...

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Psalm 1 | God's Law (Free Preview)

Author

Scott B. Bullock

Scripture

Psalm 1:, Matthew 5:17, Matthew 5:3-12

Ancient lens What’s the historical context? Wisdom Song It is not too far a stretch to imagine an eager young person sitting at the feet of a well-seasoned elder and receiving the words of thi...

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The Art of Remembering

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Scripture

James 1:17, Ephesians 4:null

The Necessity of Memory Memory—or, more actively, remembering , plays an all-important role in our lives. Our culture likes us to focus on the now, "looking forward rather than looking back&q...

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Prayer Service for Peace in Israel and Palestine

Author

Lisa Ann Moss Degrenia

Keywords

Scripture

John 1:1-5, Psalm 86:1, Psalm 22:1-2, Psalm 28:7, Psalm 65:5

Prayer Service for Peace in Israel and Palestine This service is designed as an evening, outdoor prayer vigil using handheld candles. Feel free to modify the order of worship as needed, including...

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The Thrill of Truth in a Time of Fads and Fashions by Trevin Wax

Author

Trevin Wax

Keywords

Theology

"Just Believe..." “It doesn’t matter what you believe, just as long as you believe something.” That’s the sentiment once expressed by President Dwight Eisenhower. America would be stro...

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Transgressing Boundaries After the Fall

Author

Ashley Hales

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 3:1-24, Romans 5:12, 1 Timothy 2:12-21

After the fall of our first parents, boundaries were something to push past, to transgress. It’s worth pausing to note how we use the word transgression for “sin.” With its Latin roots, “across” and “...

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The Origin of the Imposition of Ashes

Author

Beth Bevis

Keywords

Scripture

Joel 2:12-13, Romans 3:20-26, Job 42:5-6, Ezekiel 9:4, Genesis 2:7, Ecclesiastes 3:20

The imposition of ashes, now a familiar Ash Wednesday tradition in Catholic, Anglican, and many Protestant churches, has its roots in an early church penitential practice. For people who had been excl...

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Meals in Heaven and Hell

Author

Matthew Sleeth

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I once heard a description of what meals are like in heaven. The saints are seated on either side of a four-foot-wide banquet table. The table is set with delicious foods on every plate. The only thin...

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Descent and Resurrection

Author

C. S. Lewis

Keywords

Scripture

Philippians 2:null, 1 Corinthians 15:22, Romans 6:4, John 12:24, Luke 24:5-6, Matthew 20:28

In the Christian story God descends to reascend. He comes down; down from the heights of absolute being into time and space, down into humanity; down further still, if embryologists are right, to reca...

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