The Plumbline

People with integrity walk safely, but those who follow crooked paths will be exposed. (Proverbs 10:9) Most of us really desire to have a walk of integrity - consistent, upright, and firmly grounded. What happens between desire and action is a mystery to many of us. We start so well, with all the right intentions in mind, but then somewhere in the middle, we just make wrong turns and get off-course. How do we become 'people with integrity'? When we ask this question, we are really asking how do we become 'whole'. We become 'whole' in the presence of Jesus - we remain 'whole' because we keep Jesus central in all our decisions. As I did a bit of a deep dive into how we become people of integrity, I was amazed at how many self-help gurus have outlined the 'steps toward integrity'. All of these gurus completely leave Jesus out of the 'steps'. For example, in one article it tells us to 'try to keep our promises even if we need to make sac...

Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. (Romans 8:35, 37) There are lots of things and people working overtime to separate us from the pursuit of our first love - Christ. What? You say he isn't your 'first love'? Well, if he isn't, he needs to be! We will never experience any love so loyal, any grace so deep, or any peace so settling as what we enjoy in putting him first in our lives. Could it be we are so easily overcome or overwhelmed by life's hard things because we haven't given him 'first place' in our lives?  And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powe...

Those who listen to instruction will prosper; those who trust the Lord will be joyful. (Proverbs 16:20) Norman Vincent Peale told us, "It is always too early to quit." Most of us want to 'prosper' - not just have prosperity. We want to have things 'go well' in our lives, without too much resistance involved. People who want to 'prosper' are not quitters. They find a way, maybe one that was not even considered in the beginning, but one they come to see as opening up before them. We might want to open a few doors ourselves, but until we learn to listen to God about which ones we are to open, we might just find ourselves opening a few that should have remained tightly closed. We have already said some consider 'prospering' as coming into a patch of good fortune - amassing something of 'value' that one thinks of as 'prosperity'. I think God has a different type of 'prosperity' in mind for us than amassing things or finances...

When people’s lives please the Lord, even their enemies are at peace with them. (Proverbs 16:7) Wouldn't it be great if we all lived together in perfect harmony, never again raising fists to fight, or sending missiles high into the air to wipe out entire communities? We don't always do a very good job at living 'at peace' with others - much less with our enemies! Living at peace with each other doesn't come naturally to us. It is a direct result of us aligning our lives with Jesus and then allowing him to live through us. This doesn't mean we will never have enemies - it just means God will allow our enemies to see godly character in us. They will still be our enemies, but they won't 'war against us'. We should live in such a way that others desire the things they see in our character. Maybe our enemies will still be our enemies, but they will admire what they see in us, even when they don't know exactly why it is we are the way we are. I have ha...

“Let me ask you something: What kind of action suits the Sabbath best? Doing good or doing evil? Helping people or leaving them helpless?” (Luke 6:9) If Jesus just came right out and said, "Let me ask you something...", we wouldn't have to ask if the little voice we hear "mulling things over" in our minds was just us or if it was his Spirit speaking with us. We might just take a few more steps forward in confidence, step back when danger is imminent, and be so in tune with God's next steps that we never are out of touch with what he is doing. We get so bogged down in 'is that God' because our minds have a hard time wrapping themselves around the idea of God talking with mortal man. Maybe we just don't quite "buy into" what he is saying and doing in our lives, so we stand there finding a way to "discount" it. Either way, we often miss out on the best he has for us because we don't act upon what we hear! There are times we ...

Have you ever just looked at something and thought what was ahead of you was absolutely impossible? We all probably face that overwhelming feeling on occasion. What we don't want is to not move forward just because we think something is impossible. Arthur C. Clarke reminds us, "The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to go beyond them into the impossible." When we do what we know to do, God takes us beyond the 'possible' into the 'impossible'. “What is impossible for people is possible with God.” (Luke 18:27) As we move right along in our new year, we may have faced a few things we have already labeled as "impossible" - not because we haven't 'tried' to make a go of them, but because we faced many a roadblock when we did. Roadblocks aren't always there to stop us - sometimes they just slow us down and get us to take a different route we didn't already consider. When God is at the helm of our lives, we can be ass...

The skeptic swore, “There is no God! No God! I can do anything I want! I’m more animal than human; so-called human intelligence escapes me. The believer replied, “Every promise of God proves true; he protects everyone who runs to him for help. So don’t second-guess him; he might take you to task and show up your lies.” (Proverbs 30:1-2, 5-6) The only reason we don't fully accept truth is because we have believed a lie. Deceived people are often the most skeptical! The skeptic treads on pretty thin ice because he claims there is no God - mostly because no one can understand or comprehend God with his mind alone. It is our spirit that comprehends the Spirit of God. Our spirit is the "communion" point for each of us to enter into deep, inter-dependent relationship with God. If we depend on our minds, rational thought, or reasoning ability to get us to the point of trusting what God says as true and worth believing, we will fall very, very short of the depth of relationsh...

Treasure your relationships, not your possessions. (Anthony J. D'Angelo) D'Angelo also reminds us that 'without a sense of caring, there can be no sense of community'. As important as our lives may seem at the moment, we must always include quality time for others. I have heard that term 'quality time' bantered around a bit in the 'counseling community', but to be entirely truthful with you, 'time' isn't the issue - 'investment of self' is the focus of any amount of time we spend together. This is especially true when it comes to our time with God - make him first in your 'time expenditures' each day and you will notice a huge difference in how you face the daily grind. Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the proph...

How blessed is God! And what a blessing he is! He’s the Father of our Master, Jesus Christ, and takes us to the high places of blessing in him. Long before he laid down earth’s foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love. Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!) He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son. (Ephesians 1:3-6) We all probably have a place of blessing - a place where we set our minds to rest and just breathe a bit. Some of us would describe an actual "place" - like a cabin in the woods, a quiet corner in the house with a comfortable chair, or maybe even our local church building. Others would describe a place of relationship, such as their spouse, kids, or even a dear friend. Maybe even a few will say it is a place of rest - where they can just shut off all the...

Are you being an irritant or surrounded by irritants? A telling question indeed, for many of the things that actually irritate us about others are things that irritate us about ourselves! Mom always used to say, "It takes one to know one" and she was pretty 'spot-on' with that observation. If you are able to see such things as kindness, goodness, and graciousness in others FIRST, above all their other traits, you are likely doing pretty well allowing God to develop those traits deep within your heart, as well. Never let loyalty and kindness leave you! Tie them around your neck as a reminder. Write them deep within your heart. Then you will find favor with both God and people, and you will earn a good reputation. (Proverbs 3:3-4) Irritants are burdens none of us want to carry - much less emulate in our lives. I found it amazing that one tiny 'burr' under the saddle blanket could cause a horse to act up so much. They become downright 'agitated' by that t...

Those of us who are strong and able in the faith need to step in and lend a hand to those who falter, and not just do what is most convenient for us. Strength is for service, not status. Each one of us needs to look after the good of the people around us, asking ourselves, “How can I help?” ...God wants the combination of his steady, constant calling and warm, personal counsel in Scripture to come to characterize us, keeping us alert for whatever he will do next. May our dependably steady and warmly personal God develop maturity in you so that you get along with each other as well as Jesus gets along with us all. (Romans 15:1-6)  We are to live strong - robust, able to stand up to the tests of life. Strength can be mental power, physical ability, and even moral firmness. It is something developed over time - not something which comes as a matter of inheritance. You can desire to be strong, but what brings strength is the exercise of the strength you possess until you begin to ...

By entering through faith into what God has always wanted to do for us—set us right with him, make us fit for him— we have it all together with God because of our Master Jesus. And that’s not all: We throw open our doors to God and discover at the same moment that he has already thrown open his door to us. We find ourselves standing where we always hoped we might stand—out in the wide open spaces of God’s grace and glory, standing tall and shouting our praise. (Romans 5:1-2) God wants to do so much for us. We are to enter into what he is doing in and through our lives. Back in the day, we didn't lock doors when we left our homes - now we secure them with multiple locks and security screen doors. There are also doors within us, too. The doors we keep securely "latched" in our lives so as to keep others out, limiting our "exposure" to others. These doors act to keep others out and to keep our "messy lives" under wraps! God's plan is to have tho...

Modern-day cell phones have those built-in 'public safety alerts'. Why? We want to avoid the harm associated with the warning or be on the look-out to help someone who is in danger themselves. The purpose of a warning is to give us sufficient notice to prepare or be 'alert'. Even when I take my car into the local auto shop to have them fill my tires with air and rotate them every 5000 miles or so, they check the tread and general condition of the tires. This simple practice is designed to alert me to the potential of uneven wear, possible sidewall damage from road hazards I did not recognize, or wearing tread that may result in the need for new tires. They are concerned about safety. They know I will come back when I recognize the need for new tires - sometimes even before I truthfully need them. I take their warnings seriously - because they are the experts! Why is it we don't take other warnings in our lives just as seriously? It isn't because they are...

  For the word of the  Lord  holds true, and we can trust everything he does. He loves whatever is just and good; the unfailing love of the  Lord  fills the earth. (Psalm 33:4-5) Notice - we can trust everything he DOES. Our passage doesn't just point to everything he SAYS - it focuses on both his Word (what he says) and his actions (what he does). He backs what he SAYS by what he DOES. Why do we think God would expect anything less of us? We SAY a lot (promising to do this or that), but we actually DO a lot less than what we say.  As my pastor pointed out this weekend, we do what we do because of how we see ourselves. We see ourselves as failures, and we fail. We see ourselves as victors, and we come closer to total victory than we would have if we saw ourselves as failures in all we do. We TELL ourselves a whole bunch of stuff about ourselves that actually LIMITS our behavior (either in a good way or in a bad way). God doesn't tell us to focus on the bad ...

Are you given to the habit of procrastination? The thing about 'putting off today what you plan to do tomorrow' can actually wreak havoc in one's life. Ben Franklin told us, "You may delay, but time will not." How sad to let time go by when things of importance need to be addressed. I am not just speaking of our 'chores' like vacuuming, dusting, and that oil change. I am also referencing those words that need to be shared, letting go of the grudge that has been held way bast its expiration date, and spending time with a loved one who so desperately craves a bit of your attention. These are the things that cannot be guaranteed to be 'done tomorrow' because none of us are guaranteed that time will not change our circumstances. Look here, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.” How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the mor...

Wisdom is oftentimes nearer when we stoop than when we soar. (William Wordsworth) Hear me as I pray, O Lord. Be merciful and answer me! My heart has heard you say, “Come and talk with me.” And my heart responds, “Lord, I am coming.” (Psalm 27:7-8) Come and talk with me - these are God's words to each of us. Somehow, we think prayer is some art form we must master through recited phrases, but it is nothing more than talking with God. He calls, we respond. That is prayer - just talking plainly with him. We might not think he needs to hear everything in our heart, but when we speak those truths to him, he is assured we know what is in our heart! I hope your heart's response to God's beckoning call is "Lord, I am coming."  We always want to 'soar', but before we soar, we must 'stoop'. Why do you think we kneel or bow our heads when we pray? Most will say it is an action that reflects us humbling ourselves before him. I would submit that it just gets us...

Give us help for the hard task; human help is worthless. In God we’ll do our very best; he’ll flatten the opposition for good. (Psalm 60:11-12) Winston Churchill reminded us, "Kites rise highest against the wind - not with it." No matter how we live, or where we live, or who we live with - opposition is all around us. The blood might move freely toward your toes, but it faces gravity as an opposing force in order to return to your heart. Your arteries have no valves - allowing free flow outward. They have valves on the 'return visit' through the veins because gravity would pull it all back down again if there weren't some 'chambers' to catch it and move it along with each heartbeat. If God made our bodies with the ability to 'face opposing forces', what makes us think he would make our spirits any differently? We 'rise' because of opposition - we don't rise going in the same direction as the opposition. We might not think about it, but ...

Advice is like snow - the softer it falls, the longer it dwells upon, and the deeper it sinks into the mind. (Samuel Taylor Coleridge) Dear friend, take my advice; it will add years to your life. I’m writing out clear directions to Wisdom Way, I’m drawing a map to Righteous Road. I don’t want you ending up in blind alleys, or wasting time making wrong turns. Hold tight to good advice; don’t relax your grip. Guard it well—your life is at stake! Don’t take Wicked Bypass; don’t so much as set foot on that road. Stay clear of it; give it a wide berth. Make a detour and be on your way. (Proverbs 4:10-15) Is it possible wisdom could add years to our lives? If we believe what God says, then it quite possibly could! When someone tells you something in such a way that it 'lingers' for a while in your thoughts, it might just be the thing they have shared has some significant meaning. It could be a warning to not proceed based on something they have already figured out, or it could be the...

Most of the time, we consider someone a "loner" when we see them isolate or insulate themselves from relationship with others, but scripture might just shed a little light on some other characteristics of these individuals. The primary characteristic is that of "doing our own thing". This might just describe us a little more than we'd like to admit at first, but if we were honest, we all have times when we are more concerned with "our own thing" than the good of the "group"! Let the peace of Christ keep you in tune with each other, in step with each other. None of this going off and doing your own thing. And cultivate thankfulness. Let the Word of Christ—the Message—have the run of the house. Give it plenty of room in your lives. Instruct and direct one another using good common sense. And sing, sing your hearts out to God! Let every detail in your lives—words, actions, whatever—be done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God the Fat...

  In light of all this, here’s what I want you to do. While I’m locked up here, a prisoner for the Master, I want you to get out there and walk—better yet, run!—on the road God called you to travel. I don’t want any of you sitting around on your hands. I don’t want anyone strolling off, down some path that goes nowhere. And mark that you do this with humility and discipline—not in fits and starts, but steadily, pouring yourselves out for each other in acts of love, alert at noticing differences and quick at mending fences. (Ephesians 4:2) Have you seen the movie, "Forrest Gump"? One line from that movie, "Run, Forrest, run", really depicts a heart of 'steadfast commitment'. One of the most amazing things he says is, "You have to do the best with what God gave you". God tells us to 'run', not walk, because idle hands make for way too much opportunity for compromise. Our 'walk' is to be steady - consistent and disciplined. We can bare...

When we are no longer able to change a situation - we are challenged to change ourselves. (Viktor E. Frankl) I would challenge this thought a bit to remind each of us that change is not our job alone. We try a lot of things to change things about ourselves. We diet, wanting to look a certain way in our clothes - but then we bounce back to needing to wear that bigger size. We deep clean our homes, wanting that 'clean and fresh' look - but then we drift back into allowing the clutter to build and the dust bunnies to collect. WE try, but God asks us to allow him to transform us. You didn’t think, did you, that just by pointing your finger at others you would distract God from seeing all your misdoings and from coming down on you hard? Or did you think that because he’s such a nice God, he’d let you off the hook? Better think this one through from the beginning. God is kind, but he’s not soft. In kindness he takes us firmly by the hand and leads us into a radical life-change. (Roma...

Quiet minds cannot be perplexed or frightened but go on in fortune or misfortune at their own private pace, like a clock during a thunderstorm. (Robert Louis Stevenson) I want you woven into a tapestry of love, in touch with everything there is to know of God. Then you will have minds confident and at rest, focused on Christ, God’s great mystery. All the richest treasures of wisdom and knowledge are embedded in that mystery and nowhere else. And we’ve been shown the mystery! (Colossians 2:2-4) Woven into a tapestry of love - not through human effort, but because God binds us together as 'interwoven members'. This should give us a sense of 'belonging' even when we don't feel like we 'belong' anywhere else. This should also give us a sense of being created for a purpose, not just to sit idly by as life passes us by. We are called to work together - not just the physical work some might think of, but that 'spiritual' and 'emotional' work of bei...

All our words and acts are passing in review before God. (Ellen G. White) Talk and act like a person expecting to be judged by the Rule that sets us free. For if you refuse to act kindly, you can hardly expect to be treated kindly. Kind mercy wins over harsh judgment every time. (James 2:12-13) Expectation is a mindset that creates a sense of anticipation, is it not? When you invest your money in a fund, you anticipate a return. When you tell your teen to be home by curfew, you expect a timely return by that curfew end. What do we expect from each other? Those expectations create a mindset within that actually builds anticipation of some 'return'. We expect someone to be kind - revealed through kind words and deeds. This mindset is based on a form of hope. We could expect someone to act harshly, based on a set of expectations we have created about that person created from some character traits they exhibit. We have created a mindset based upon what we have observed. Because our...

Eve Arnold was a photo-journalist. She asked one question that really prompted me to 'look around' a bit in my own life. The question? "What do you hang on the walls of your mind?" A pretty 'probing' question if you ask me. The mind is a bit like a photo gallery - with all kinds of 'scenes' on display - we call them memories. We 'hang' them up so we can revisit them from time to time. I have some hanging in my mind that I somehow revisit, but I don't like what I see. I have others hanging that really bring me peace, hope, and great joy. Could it be possible that we might have a few things 'hanging' in our mind's gallery that we might not even know we have 'put up' for display within those 'walls'? Proverbs 14:30 tells us, "A sound mind makes for a robust body, but runaway emotions corrode the bones." How many of us have 'runaway emotions'? It could be possible that the things we 'put on disp...

If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable. (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don’t try to figure out everything on your own. Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; he’s the one who will keep you on track. Don’t assume that you know it all. Run to God! Run from evil! Your body will glow with health, your very bones will vibrate with life! Honor God with everything you own; give him the first and the best. Your barns will burst, your wine vats will brim over. But don’t, dear friend, resent God’s discipline; don’t sulk under his loving correction. It’s the child he loves that God corrects; a father’s delight is behind all this. (Proverbs 3:5-12) I have been guilty of 'setting out' before considering the 'destination' - how about you? We might do this more often than we think. It may not be us setting out for a physical destination as much as going places in our minds we should not be goin...

Well-spoken words bring satisfaction; well-done work has its own reward. (Proverbs 12:14) Words and work - both can be done well, or both can be done without thinking. Think your words before you speak them and you are likely to reap a harvest closer to what you desired, not a reactionary and hostile response in return. Think through your work, planning carefully each step you must take, and you will likely end up with the results you desire. Be lazy with either your words or your work and the outcome will be less than desirable. John F. Kennedy reminded us that gratitude is good, but "we must never forget the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them." We are to live by our words - so we must be very, very careful what words we utter! John C. Maxwell tells us that people "hear our words but feel our attitude". What are your words revealing about your inner attitude right now? Remember, you can attempt to conceal with 'just the right words...

If you don’t know what you’re doing, pray to the Father. He loves to help. You’ll get his help, and won’t be condescended to when you ask for it. Ask boldly, believingly, without a second thought. People who “worry their prayers” are like wind-whipped waves. Don’t think you’re going to get anything from the Master that way, adrift at sea, keeping all your options open. (James 1:5) How many times do we launch into life's daily activities, then come up against something that kind of bewilders us? It is likely at least once in a while for all of us, but sometimes this happens quite frequently - especially when life seems to be throwing you curve ball after curve ball. Sadly, I think a great many of us attempt to muddle through in our own effort, only stopping to ask for help from God when we get things so messed up that we cannot figure our own way out! We reveal a lot about ourselves by doing so - a lot about our pridefulness, stubbornness, and self-focus! If we don't know what ...

“Don’t bargain with God. Be direct. Ask for what you need. This isn’t a cat-and-mouse, hide-and-seek game we’re in. If your child asks for bread, do you trick him with sawdust? If he asks for fish, do you scare him with a live snake on his plate? As bad as you are, you wouldn’t think of such a thing. You’re at least decent to your own children. So don’t you think the God who conceived you in love will be even better?" (Matthew 7:7-8) There is this tendency to be a little 'indirect' with God - we 'skirt around' what it is we actually want to say to him and what we need so desperately to ask from him. To 'be direct' just isn't how some of us are built - we sort of share what we want to share, but we never really get down to the 'brass tax', so to speak. We don't get to the core of what we really desire - the issue remaining unexplained, unexplored, and unmet. Ask for what you need. Seems pretty easy, right? Yet, we know how 'intentional...