Trees of righteousness Posted on October 14, 2021 0 By Pastor Bill Williamson Community Christian Center Coupled with Luke chapter 4, Isaiah 61:3 declares that Jesus came to set us free, that we might be called, “trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He might be glorified.” With that in mind, I’d like to tell you what we should all be like, at least in part. Have you ever seen the sequoia redwood trees in California? Those amazing trees are some of the biggest trees in the world. The one called General Sherman is known to be the largest at 275 feet in height with a 25-foot diameter, and it’s 2,500 years old. One might assume that trees like that would have to have an extremely deep root system, just to hold them up. However, those trees have no tap root, and their roots only go down from 6 to 12 feet deep. Even so, they rarely ever fall and they have withstood extremely high winds, earthquakes, fires, storms and prolonged flooding. Well then, what keeps those massive trees from falling over? Well, the secret to their success is found their relationship with each other. Although their roots aren’t very deep, a massive sequoia’s roots can occupy nearly an acre of land, and their roots are intertwined with all the other redwood trees around them, and only with them, by the way. So, they’re literally holding each other up beneath the surface. Well, the message here for me is that we need to stick together, and hold each other up in prayer, as each of us is growing in the faith, for the glory of our God. However, especially since the start of this pandemic, many well-meaning Christians have chosen to isolate themselves from the rest of their church family. They’ve gotten used to listening or watching the service from the comfort of their homes, but that’s not the way it should be. Hebrews 10:25 clearly states, “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another — and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” So, if you’re not sick or have a health risk and you’re still MIA, it’s time to come back home to your local church family. If you don’t have a home church, I encourage you to find one that believes the Word of God, as found within the pages of the Bible. Trust me, they need you as well you need them. P.S. There’s more that we can learn from the sequoias, but I leave that study up to you.
