Roots...

Our Daily Bread
When I was a child, I loved dandelions.  They were so pretty when in bloom!  I also loved picking them when the blooms faded and blowing away the furry cap.  Little did I know that I was helping a weed spread and grow!  The roots of a dandelion grow deep! There are several images of "roots" in the Bible.  They mostly refer to trees being planted by the water.  Their roots will grow deep and they will not be moved!

There are some other things that can be deeply rooted.  The devotional talks about bitterness being deeply rooted.  The author talked about a long hidden root of bitterness that had been twisting around in his mind and heart and strangling him without him even realizing it! 

How many of us have these same issues?  Let us pray for each other to find these roots of bitterness and dig them out like a nasty dandelion root!

Lord, thank you for the special tool of your love that will help us root out the roots of bitterness!

Teaching Tuesday
The last two weeks have been about the books of Joshua and Judges.  Very interesting historical stuff.  Some very interesting stories and fables (an example is the story about the talking donkey).  The stories are mostly from the D writer, who portrays things from the point of view of YAWH conquering all when the people of Israel are faithful.  An example is the way many of the stories start "And the people of Israel forgot YAWH and sinned in his sight".  That is when the people of Israel were conquered or lost battles when they were on the offensive. 

What did I learn?  The people of Israel were much like we are today -- we have trouble not being absorbed into the culture around us and absorbing its mores.  The people of Israel started worshiping the fertility gods like Baal.  We worship success, money and popularity.  We are not so different!  We all need to keep our eyes focused on YAWH!

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Let go, my friends!  God will be there to catch you and hold you in his loving arms!