Bitter Roots

Hebrews 12:14-16 (Holman Christian Standard Bible)
14 Pursue peace with everyone, and holiness —without it no one will see the Lord. 15 See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no root of bitterness springs up, causing trouble and by it, defiling many.

Hebreos 12:14-16 (La Biblia de las Américas)
14Buscad la paz con todos y la santidad, sin la cual nadie verá al Señor.
15Mirad bien de que nadie deje de alcanzar la gracia de Dios; de que ninguna raíz de amargura, brotando, cause dificultades y por ella muchos sean contaminados;

Swahili New Testament (SNT)
14Tafuteni kwa bidii kuwa na amani na watu wote, na utaka tifu, ambao bila kuwa nao, hakuna mtu atakayemwona Bwana. 15Angalieni sana mtu ye yote asishindwe kupata neema ya Mungu, na muwe waangalifu pasizuke chuki ambayo, kama mmea wenye sumu, inaweza kukua ikaleta matatizo na kuwachafua wengi.

Hébreux 12:14-16 (Louis Segond)
14Recherchez la paix avec tous, et la sanctification, sans laquelle personne ne verra le Seigneur.
15Veillez à ce que nul ne se prive de la grâce de Dieu; à ce qu'aucune racine d'amertume, poussant des rejetons, ne produise du trouble, et que plusieurs n'en soient infectés;

It may seem odd to you that I placed a scripture verse at the beginning of the blog, and in different languages. I wanted to make sure that more people got this thought besides english speaking folks.
A few years back, I was in my lovely home in Ohio (go Buckeyes) when all of a sudden, my basement sprung a leak. Well, not a leak, per-se, more like a waterfall! When I located the source, it happened to be my main water line coming in from the well that fed from the underground spring. (can someone say....free water?) My guys and I sat out to repair the problem which required the three of us to remove a large shrub, and dig half the day down six or so feet to the entrance point of the home. It was hard work, but we finally made it. To our surprise, the cause of the problem was that a large root from the shrub that we removed had wrapped itself around the fresh water line, and cracked it in two, causing the damage. The root prevented us from having fresh water.

A root of bitterness, and unforgiveness works the same way. It will cut off the fresh wellspring of life preventing a flow of newness to come in to your house. My challenge for us today is to not allow bitter things to take root in our lives. If we do, it will just get worse. The longer you allow it to grow, the harder it will be to dig down in to the ground and get rid of it. Let the fresh water flow again in your life. Jory