{"id":15777,"date":"2021-05-13T21:17:26","date_gmt":"2021-05-14T04:17:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/gospel-express\/2021-intimate-copy\/"},"modified":"2021-05-13T21:32:11","modified_gmt":"2021-05-14T04:32:11","slug":"2021-rooted","status":"publish","type":"portfolio","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/gospel-express\/2021-rooted\/","title":{"rendered":"Rooted"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"flex_column av_one_full  flex_column_div av-zero-column-padding first  avia-builder-el-0  avia-builder-el-no-sibling  \" style='border-radius:0px; '><section class=\"av_textblock_section \"  itemscope=\"itemscope\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/CreativeWork\" ><div class='avia_textblock  '   itemprop=\"text\" ><p style=\"text-align: right;\">By Julia Prins Vanderveen<\/p>\n<p><strong>Colossians 2:6-7<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> Therefore, as you have received\u00a0Christ Jesus the Lord,\u00a0sowalk in Him, having been firmly\u00a0rooted and\u00a0now being built up in Him and established\u00a0in your faith, just as you\u00a0were instructed,\u00a0and overflowing with gratitude.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-15779 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/rooted.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/rooted.jpg 600w, https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/rooted-300x150.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Just as you have received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him. . . .<\/p>\n<p>When I professed my faith in Christ and committed my life to him nearly three decades ago, I used this passage as I talked about what Christ\u2019s love meant to me personally. Though Paul doesn\u2019t refer specifically to trees as he writes to the Colossians, he does borrow the image of being rooted in Christ\u2014and that leads to living a life that is built up, strong, and overflowing with the fruit of gratitude.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-15780 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/rooted-1-e1620966339236.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"292\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The word for \u201crooted\u201d in this verse is the Greek word\u00a0<em>rhizoo<\/em>, and this is the root word for our English word \u201crhizome\u201d\u2014a continuously growing horizontal underground stem that sends up shoots to grow above ground. But the verb in Greek is written in a passive tense, which means that rather than putting the emphasis on the believer to be rooted, the emphasis is on how we are\u00a0<em>being\u00a0<\/em>rooted by Christ and in him because of his work in us. When we receive Christ, he will render us firm, fixed, and established. And he will cause us to be thoroughly grounded in him.<\/p>\n<p>It changes everything to know that Christ will do this in us and for us as we trust in him. We\u2019re invited to continue to receive him and to allow his work in us to continually build us up. This is the mutual and deeply personal communion that we enjoy with Christ: we abide in him, and he abides in us.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-15781 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/abide.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"540\" height=\"347\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/abide.jpg 540w, https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/abide-300x193.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 540px) 100vw, 540px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>Thank you, Lord, for giving us your love, for inviting us to dwell in you and to receive your love so that we may be rooted and built up in you, strengthened in faith and overflowing with thankfulness. Amen.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":15780,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","tags":[],"portfolio_entries":[35],"class_list":["post-15777","portfolio","type-portfolio","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","portfolio_entries-english-writer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/15777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/portfolio"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15777"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/15777\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15778,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/15777\/revisions\/15778"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15777"},{"taxonomy":"portfolio_entries","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio_entries?post=15777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}