Living small or living large?

I can’t tell you how much I long for you to enter this wide-open, spacious life. We didn’t fence you in. The smallness you feel comes from within you. Your lives aren’t small, but you’re living them in a small way. I’m speaking as plainly as I can and with great affection. Open up your lives. Live openly and expansively! (2 Corinthians 6:11-13)

Small spaces can be quite confining. I learned much about caves, caverns, and the formation of stalagmites and stalactites while on vacations and cave exploring. The magnificence and beauty of these spaces buried way underground is truly awe-inspiring. In those moments of taking in those beautiful displays of crystalline-like beauty, I just wanted to break out in hymns of praise! I am not an experiences spelunker. I did breathe in deeply and just sigh loudly at the amazing beauty of our heavenly Father's creative power - even when it is buried deep within the hidden spaces of this earth. Being some 200-250 feet below ground didn't even concern me. Some don't like being in those types of environments. Why? They cannot stand the thought of being in confined spaces. In those confined spaces, there was something I realized - we often feel very "confined" in our lives, but it is not the way God wants us to live. He wants us to experience the openness of what we experience when life is lived "above ground"! "Below ground" we find confined spaces, often providing pressure we don't necessarily see. Confined spaces are limited - there is a restriction in what "fits". When we are feeling "confined", we feel as though we are unable to leave the place we are in - it is as though it has a hold on us. Truth be told, we live much more "confined" lives than God would want us to live. We just don't bring into the "open" what he declares to be free! "Above ground" we enjoy the freedom of open spaces and fresh air. The pressure is different above ground, isn't it? There is still pressure, but it is not as "confining" because the walls don't seem to hold it in. Walls confine - remove the walls and what seems so limiting takes on a different light!

What do the caves all have in common? A lack of light. Until light is "brought into" the confining spaces of those caves, there is no light - the spaces are dark, dank, and overwhelmingly confining. As soon as light begins to be brought into those spaces, some of the most confining "feeling" spaces begin to open up into the widest expanses you might discover - but they are still "below ground". When the light is spent, the spaces return to darkness once again and the impression of impending confinement can return. Maybe this is why it is so important to God that we allow his light to bring into the open what has been confined "under pressure" deep within each of us. Wide-open, spacious life - what does that signify to you? Having lived in Alaska, I have experienced the "wide-open" and seen the majesty of God's handiwork in the night storms. The landscape seemingly changing overnight. I think God may just work this way in our lives once in a while - bringing a change of "landscape" into our lives in ways our minds cannot understand or fully take in at the speed it is happening.

Newness and freshness. This is what God does for us by bringing what is "under ground" in our lives out into the openness of his light. I appreciated the glimmer of sparkling crystalline-like formations, but when they were brought to the surface, exposed to the light of day - WOW! The many facets of their beauty were able to be admired in a new way. Confined, they had beauty - but exposed in the "above ground" view, they took on majesty and splendor not previously recognized! Some of us have a tendency to live life in a "small way" - not really aware of God's intention for us to live in a "grand way" as he sets us free from all that confines us. We need to allow lasting light to bring out the beauty of what he has been creating "under pressure" in the confines of our inner life. It is only when what has been created "under pressure" is allowed to surface and be exposed to the brilliance of his light that it shines as it should! Let God display all the beauty he has created - "above ground". Just sayin!

What did obedience cost Mary and Joseph?

As we have looked at the birth of Christ, we have considered the fact he was born of a virgin, with an earthly father so willing to honor God with his life that he married a woman who was already pregnant. In that day and time, a very taboo thing. We also saw how the mother of Christ was chosen by God and given the dramatic news that she would carry the Son of God. Imagine her awe, but also see her tremendous amount of fear as she would have received this announcement, knowing all she knew about the time in which she lived about how a woman out of wedlock showing up pregnant would be treated. We also explored the lowly birth of Jesus in a stable of sorts, surrounded by animals, visited by shepherds, and then honored by magi from afar. The announcement of his birth was by angels - start to finish. Mary heard from an angel (a messenger from God), while Joseph was set at ease by a messenger from God on another occasion - assuring him the thing he was about to do in marrying Mary wa

A brilliant display indeed

Love from the center of who you are ; don’t fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply ; practice playing second fiddle. Don’t burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant. Don’t quit in hard times; pray all the harder. (Romans 12:9-12) Integrity and Intensity don't seem to fit together all that well, but they are uniquely interwoven traits which actually complement each other. "Love from the center of who you are; don't fake it." God asks for us to have some intensity (fervor) in how we love (from the center of who we are), but he also expects us to have integrity in our love as he asks us to be real in our love (don't fake it). They are indeed integral to each other. At first, we may only think of integrity as honesty - some adherence to a moral code within. I believe there is a little more to integrity than meets the eye. In the most literal sense,

Do me a favor

If you’ve gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care—then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand. (Philippians 2:1-4) Has God's love made ANY difference in your life? What is that difference? Most of us will likely say that our lives were changed for the good, while others will say there was a dramatic change. Some left behind lifestyles marked by all manner of outward sin - like drug addiction, alcoholism, prostitution, or even thievery. There are many that will admit the things they left behind were just a bit subtler - what we can call inward sin - things like jealousy,

The Plumbline

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