Divinely  Designed
Being changed into the image of Jesus
Chapter 3
Remove All The Bad Roots

It Is Possible
(taken from the book "I Will Give You Rest" by Edward Kurath)


Just because you have a "bad root" inside that expresses itself
in angry outbursts does not mean that you are
all bad, or that
there is no hope, or that you aren't saved.

The Honeycomb Versus the
Honey Jar










         Honeycomb                        Honey Jar





A subtle but profound misunderstanding of what we are like
inside has made it difficult for many Christians to see how there
can be sin inside us, and yet still be saved.

There is a prevalent view that implies that inside we are like a jar,
a container with a single compartment.  According to this view,
therefore, when we give our life to Jesus, He forgives all our sins
and the jar is now clean.  Now that we are pure on the inside, we
should be able to act pure on the outside
.


This Is Not The Way We Are Inside
The reason this view is erroneous is that, unfortunately, this is
never the way it works.  I know of no one, including myself, for
whom life has been this way.  And it was not that way for Paul
when he wrote the book of Romans (specifically Chapter 7) for
us.


The Way It Is
The truth is that inside we are more like a honeycomb than a
honey jar.  

We have many compartments inside, not just one.  Some of the
compartments contain Jesus, and those are like the "good
roots" referred to in Scripture, and which I referred to in the prior
chapter.  These good roots produce good fruit.

    But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering,
    kindness, goodness (Galatians 5:22-23).

    "Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree
    bears bad fruit.  A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a
    bad tree bear good fruit.  A good tree cannot bear bad fruit,
    nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. . . Therefore by their
    fruits you will know them." Matthew 7:17-18, 20.

Presence Of Bad Roots
However, some of the compartments still contain bad roots.  
These bad roots produce bad fruit, as I have previously
mentioned, and they are still present and  continue to produce
bad fruit even after we become a Christian.  These bad roots are
shown as dark spots in the honeycomb diagram above.


Cleaning The "Honeycomb"
We need to bring Jesus into each compartment of the
"Honeycomb" that has darkness in it.  This transformation is a
process, not a one-time event.

This is the sanctification process which is addressed in so many
places in the Bible.  Bringing Jesus into each compartment is
the process of being changed into His image.

Once Jesus has taken up residence in that particular place in
our "Honeycomb," He produces the good fruit automatically,
because Jesus can do nothing but produce good fruit.  It is His
nature.  As He takes over that part of our heart,
His nature
actually becomes ours in that area
.  This good root that
now resides in that part of our "Honeycomb" then produces
good fruit.

You have probably found that trying hard not to have angry
outbursts hasn't worked (trying implies use of your willpower).  
You find yourself still having the angry outbursts.  Therefore, to
be set free you need to find the "bad root."  Perhaps you realize
that your father had a problem with anger, and you judged him
for it (you sinned by judging him).  
This "bad root" is causing the "bad fruit" (the angry outbursts).  
When you remove the "bad root" and replace it with the life of
Jesus, you will find that you just don’t have the angry outbursts
anymore.   

There is now good fruit, which is evidence of Jesus in that place
in us.  It is now so natural not to have the angry outbursts that
you may not even be aware that we are different, because it is a
new “you."

Chapters 4 will explain how the judging planted a
"bad root," and Chapter 5 will explain how to
remove the "bad root" and have Jesus replace it
with a "good root," so keep reading.


This Profound Change Is Possible
Does this sound too good to be true?  Believe me, it is true.  
Better yet,
believe Jesus when He said,

    "Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father
    in heaven is perfect"  (Matthew 5:48, I added the red)"


This Change Is A Process
When Jesus cleanses one compartment of the Honeycomb, it
does not mean that all the compartments are clean.  Other bad
roots will undoubtedly remain, and they will be causing other
bad fruit.  We need to continue being transformed as God shows
us areas in our heart that need healing.  This is what Paul meant
when he said,

    work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it
    is God who works in you both to will and to do for His
    good pleasure (Philippians 2:12-13).

We will look more fully at the necessity to keep working on this
process in Chapter 17, “It Is A Journey."


There Are Reasons Why It Takes
Time
There are many possible reasons for any delay.  If He is going
slowly, you can be assured He is acting slowly for a good
reason.  For instance, if the bad root relates to a very traumatic
event, the memory of the event may be deeply buried.  Your
defenses buried it specifically so you wouldn't have to relive it.  
To see it again before you are prepared might cause you to be re-
traumatized.  Because God loves you, He wants you healed, not
wounded further.  Before revealing such a root to you, He
spends time preparing you.  He will not let you see it until you
will be able to see it without again being wounded.  God's
process will have made you ripe to deal with this root.


His Timing Is The Best For You
"Ripeness" is like picking apples.  If you try to pick an apple
before it is ripe, it is difficult to pull off the tree, and you are likely
to damage the branch.  However, ripe apples fall off easily in
your hand.  So the Lord ripens you so that when you pray (when
you apply the blood of Jesus), it is easy.  Then the process
brings
healing.  But you can't rush your healing any more than you can
speed the ripening of the apples on a tree.


We Can't Make It happen!
    "If you love Me, keep My commandments" (John 14:15).

When we read a scripture like this,
we tend to strive to keep His
commandments, because we want to please God.  We want Him
to know that we love Him, and it seems as though this scripture
is telling us that the way we can prove our love for him is to keep
His commandments.  How can one reconcile this with what we
have been discovering about our inability to keep His
commandments in our own strength (that is, with our willpower)?

Fortunately, Jesus clearly explains what He meant in the context
surrounding the above scripture.  The explanation is in John 15:
5, which is sandwiched between two scriptures that talk about
keeping His commandments.


    "He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he
    who loves Me.  And he who loves Me will be loved by My
    Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him" (
    John 14:21).

    " I am the vine, you are the branches.  He who abides in
    Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you
    can do nothing" (John 15:5, I added the underlining).  

    "If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My
    love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and
    abide in His love" (John 15:10).

What could be clearer than "without Me you can do
nothing
?"


Inside-Out!
Keeping this in mind, then John 15:10 is saying something like,
"If you keep My commandments
this is evidence that you
have been changed into My image, because on your own you
could not do it.  When you have My nature, you love the Father
in exactly the same way that I do."  Jesus loves the Father
because that is His nature.


Behavior Is The Evidence, Not
The Goal
The reason that we can be thrown into striving to keep God's
commandments is that we are confused about how we go about
pleasing God.  We focus on our behavior (keeping the
commandments) rather than the cause of the behavior (our heart
condition).  We try to keep the commandments in order to prove
that we love God.

That is backwards.

We can only please God by first being changed into the image of
Jesus, and then we will keep the commandments because that
is now our new nature.    The heart has to change first, and then
the behavior will change.

Changing our behavior does not change our heart.  1 John 4:19
says,

    We love him because He first loved us.  


Changed From The Inside Out
This is the direction of the flow, from God to us, not the other
way around.  If you are not clear on this, you can misread many
scriptures.   I would suggest that you read John 14:15 through
15:17 in your Bible to get the full flow of what Jesus is saying.

Let me illustrate this with a parallel.  Imagine that I break my leg.  
It hurts, so I take a painkiller, and it hurts less (I manipulate the
symptom).  But the leg is still broken (the cause).  If I neglect the
painkiller, it hurts a lot.  If the doctor said that a healthy leg
shouldn't hurt, I would agree.  If mine weren't broken, it wouldn't
hurt.  But saying my broken leg shouldn't hurt doesn't keep it
from hurting. The only way for my leg pain to go away (the
symptom, or bad fruit) is for my broken leg (the cause, or bad
root) to heal (be changed to a good root).


Similarly, when I sin, there is a wound in my heart.  It causes
emotional pain and I have bad fruit, so I try to act differently (I
manipulate the symptom).  But it doesn't work very well,
because there is a bad root inside me (the cause).  When Jesus
says that I should keep His commandments, I would agree.  If I
didn't have the bad root in my heart, the bad things wouldn't
happen.  But saying I should keep His commandments does not
make it possible as long as Jesus isn’t abiding in that particular
area of my heart (my heart is wounded).  The only way I can keep
the commandments (the symptom) is for my wounded heart (the
cause, or bad root) to be healed and for Jesus to take up
residence there (the bad root to be changed to a good root).

The symptom is not the cause.  We have had it backwards, and
have focused on the symptom (the fruit outside) and not the
cause (the root inside).


Keeping God's Commandments
When Jesus says that we should keep His commandments He is
simply saying
that is how we can tell whether there is a
bad root inside us
.  Be careful not to be confused about this.  
The emphasis is never on the fruit, but is always upon the root.  
Focusing on the bad fruit can set us to striving to keep the
commandments with our willpower - and thus doom us to
failure.  It is a subtle but deadly trap,  and we so easily stumble
on this stumbling stone.


Confusing Scriptures
There are many scriptures that can be misunderstood if we
confuse the fruit with the root.  The book of James has some
significant examples of these kinds of  scriptures, such as:  

    •        Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is
    dead (James 2:17).

    •        You see then that a man is justified by works, and not
    by faith only (James 2:24).

These scriptures are simply saying that if there are no "works"
(no good fruit) this is evidence that there is no "faith" (no good
root).  They are not mandating "trying" with our willpower.  Good
fruit is all about outward evidence (our behavior), whereas good
roots are all about the cause (conditions hidden inside us).


How To Obey His Commands
When we find it difficult to obey a commandment of the Lord, we
have
three choices:

1.        We can ignore the command.
2.        We can try to obey the command in our own strength (our
willpower), which is the
Destructive  Path below.
3.        We can have the Lord deal with the Bad Root through the
blood of Jesus, which is the
Healing  Path below.


    A.       The Destructive Path
  • Perceived wound
  • We sin
  • Bad Root planted
  • Bad Fruit results from the Bad Root.

    OR

    B.        The Healing Path
  • Perceived wound
  • We sin
  • We repent
  • We receive forgiveness (Bad Root uprooted)
  • Good Root planted (infilling of Jesus)
  • Good Fruit results effortlessly from the Good Root.


We Plant New Bad Roots
The healing path is to bring Jesus into each bad root in our
"Honeycomb."  Unfortunately we also frequently plant new bad
roots inside.

There are many ways that we all sin and thus plant more bad
roots in our "Honeycomb."  However, the sin that produces
most of the damage and destruction in our lives is the sin of
judging.  Jesus singled out this sin when He said,

    "Judge not, that you be not judged.  For with what judgment
    you judge, you will be judged; and with the same measure
    you use, it will be measured back to you" (Matthew 7:1-2).

When we judge another, we will surely reap bad
consequences.   When we plant a bad root in our "Honeycomb"
by judging, we can call the bad root a "bitter root" and the action
of judging a "Bitter Root Judgment."    I will frequently use these
terms in the rest of the book.  In the next chapter it will become
more clear why this particular sin of judging is so serious and so
destructive.


Not Just For A Sick Few
Now that you understand the truth about bad fruit and bad
roots, it should be clear that this process is not something for
only a few Christians who are really sick emotionally.  We all sin
and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23), and Jesus died
to set all of us free from this bondage.  This process of being
changed into the image of Jesus, which is also called "Inner
Healing" by some people, and referred to as "sanctification" in
the Bible.

    It is the normal walk for all Christians.

Those who claim not to need this process are in a pitiful state,
because they are blind.  As long as they remain blind, there is no
hope for them in this life.


In the Chapter 6, "God Is On Your Side" I will explore in detail
how very important this process is to God.  It is His gift to us.


Chapter Summary
We all have a tendency to sin often.  When we do, we plant dark
places in our "Honeycomb," and these prevent us from
following God's laws in those particular areas of our life.  These
bad roots produce bad fruit.  When we repent and bring Jesus
into those dark areas of our "Honeycomb," one area at a time,
we are changed into His image, step by step.  As He takes up
residence in those particular areas, the cursing side of the law
stops.  The good root of Jesus produces good fruit.

God's commandments are a way of measuring whether we have
a bad root inside.  If we misunderstand and thus try to keep
them with our willpower,
we will fail.

Even though we have the tendency to sin often, we have the
living presence of Jesus, and He provides His blood to wash us
clean every time.  There is no shortage of the blood of Jesus.  
Through this provision, He has provided the way for us to be set
free from the sins that beset us,
by changing us into His
image
.


Jesus' Promise Is True!
Now perhaps you can better understand why Matthew 11:28-30
and the title of this book so clearly describe your struggle.

    "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I
    will give you rest.  Take My yoke upon you and learn from
    Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest
    for your souls.  For My yoke is easy and My burden is
    light." (Matthew 11:28-30)

How This Relates To Your Anger
When there is "bad fruit" (outbursts of anger), then there is a
"bad root."

What sort of experience would cause such a "bad root" to be
planted?

There are many possibilities, but they generally fall into two
categories.

    1.  As a child, the person experienced a lot of anger
    from at least one important person in their life, most
    commonly a parent.  They were frightened and hurt by this,
    and grew to hate it.  They judged that person, and they
    decided that they never want to be like that.  This can be a
    very deep root, because these sort of events probably
    happened many times.

    2.  As a child, anger was never expressed in the
    family.  This gave them the message that anger is a bad
    thing, and should not be expressed.  When the child did
    express it, they were given a clear message that was not
    acceptable.  The child then judged their own anger, and
    this became the bitter root.

    This was my personal experience.  Then as an adult,
    whenever I would get angry, I would feel ashamed for
    "losing it."  I tied down the valve on the pressure cooker,
    until it would eventually explode.

The common thread for both of these childhood experiences is
judging, or "bitter root judgments."  In the first case the
judgment was against another person, and in the second case
the judgment was against themselves.  The next chapter
(Chapter 4) will explain why "judging" plants "bad roots" that
produce irresistible "bad fruit" -such as angry outbursts that
you can not control.


Keep reading and you will learn more
about how the "bad roots" get planted,
and then HOW to remove them with the
blood of Jesus.

Click here to learn how the
"bad roots" get planted
(Chaper 4).

Complete your journey


You should get the book to get the rest of the
story.

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Email us at: edkurath@divinelydesigned.com.




















































Copyright 2003 Edward Kurath.

This change is a
miracle!

There is no other way.

Without Jesus being
set free is impossible.

We all judge daily.

Therefore we need to forgive
and be forgiven many times a
day

Click here to see how this
actually works in real life.

There is no other way that
works.