Roots
The short excerpt is by Ron Hutchcraft, and the Scripture is in the excerpt.
One day I went on a nature hike. There was the river bed; the desert section, and so on, and the guide showed us two kinds of trees: First, there were these beautiful White Alder trees. They grow lushly by the river bed, and he said they can evaporate up to 400 gallons of water a day!
Now, the roots of the White Alder are very shallow. They get plenty of water and therefore they have shallow roots. But when the floods come, we have got a problem. He showed us the desert zone trees, and the ones in the desert survive on 40 gallons of water a year sometimes. How come? They use everything they get, and their roots are deep. Guess which one is still standing after a violent storm? Yeah, the one with the roots.
Colossians 2:6-7 So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in Him rooted and built up in Him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.
In many ways, we American Christians, are the White Alder tree that I described earlier—the one that has all that nourishment that evaporates up to 400 gallons of water a day, lives by the river bed, saturated but with weak roots. We are saturated with Christian resources. We have got Christian radio, websites, books, TV, Bible studies, seminars, and conferences. But we are depending on meetings and feelings, and events, and miracles, and experiences. We have got weak roots, and we are vulnerable to the storm.
Now, you talk to Christians in the desert places like China, for example, and they know where their roots are: consistent, personal Bible study every day; fervent prayer; deep roots in the church; always learning...always growing. But we get lazy here in our spiritual rain forest. It takes a heavy hit to show us that what we have is broad but not very deep, and maybe then it is too late.
You know, maybe it is time now for us to see that our roots need to be growing, not just our leaves. You could be saturated but not strong. You have to build your roots; so that when the storm or the drought comes, you will stand tall through it all.
Champions, have a great week!-David Vining
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