Basic HTML Version
Rooted in Christ, November 21
The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow like a
cedar in Lebanon.
Psalm 92:12
.
The Christian is likened to the cedar of Lebanon. I have read that this
tree does more than send down a few short roots into the yielding loam. It
sends strong roots deep down into the earth, and strikes down farther and
still farther in search of a still stronger hold. And in the fierce blast of the
tempest, it stands firm, held by its network of cables beneath.
So the Christian strikes root deep into Christ. He has faith in his
Redeemer. He knows in whom he believes. He is fully persuaded that
Jesus is the Son of God and the Saviour of sinners.... The roots of faith
strike deep down. Genuine Christians, like the cedar of Lebanon, do not
grow in the soft surface soil, but are rooted in God, riveted in the clefts of
the mountain rocks.
If the Christian thrives and progresses at all, he must do so amid
strangers to God, amid scoffing, subject to ridicule. He must stand upright
like the palm tree in the desert. The sky may be as brass, the desert sand
may beat about the palm tree’s roots, and pile itself in heaps about its
trunk. Yet the tree lives as an evergreen, fresh and vigorous amid the
burning desert sands. Remove the sand till you reach the rootlets of the
palm tree, and you discover the secret of its life; it strikes down deep
beneath the surface, to the secret waters hidden in the earth.
As the palm tree, drawing nourishment from fountains of living water,
is green and flourishing in the midst of the desert, so the Christian may
draw rich supplies of grace from the fountain of God’s love, and may
guide weary souls, that are full of unrest and ready to perish in the desert
of sin, to those waters of which they may drink, and live. The Christian is
ever pointing his fellow men to Jesus, who invites, “If any man thirst, let
him come unto me, and drink.”
John 7:37
. This fountain never fails us;
we may draw, and draw again.
[332]
344