The Plumbline

I am the path, the truth, and the energy of life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. If you know Me, you know the Father. Rest assured now ; you know Him and have seen Him. (John 14:6-7) Pathways don't just 'become pathways' out of the blue. The first set of footprints across that path leaves small impressions where your foot came to rest with each step. The more the same steps are followed - either by your own movement or that of others - the more a "path" begins to be worn. The original footprints are still there, but they are underneath all the others which have passed over the same spot. This a path - the route which has become the place of movement and passage. I want us to begin to think of what Christ did on our behalf as he took the first steps into an eternity of grace on our behalf. Eternity's "grace" path began with one set of footprints, and down through the ages, by others following in those footprints, eternity's ...

Ordinary riches can be stolen; real riches cannot. In your soul are infinitely precious things that cannot be taken from you. (Oscar Wilde) I enjoy following your rules as much as others enjoy great riches. (Psalm 119:14) Some will follow every scheme known to man, or create a new one, in order to obtain some form of 'riches', but they seldom last, nor do they bring the ultimate pleasure one believed possible. We can measure 'wealth' in various ways, but if we seek 'wealth' in forms that take us away from following God with all our hearts, then the 'wealth' we seek is flawed. God's riches oftentimes cannot be measured in terms society really understands. "There is nothing wrong with men possessing riches. The wrong comes when riches possess men." (Billy Graham) While I agree with Graham, I would add that there are riches that can 'possess a man' that are really not wrong for mankind. Those riches are measured in how well the Word of...

Is it possible to disagree on things and still be at peace with each other? If we are serving Christ, I believe it is possible, but unfortunately the majority of the world doesn't serve Christ! Therefore, there are all manner of disagreements, arguments, hostility, and even wars. If we want peace, we need the God of all Peace to invade our lives once and for all, changing hearts and minds to see there is much more to be 'gained' in giving one's life to Christ than there is in all this endless striving and strife we pursue. God says, “Stop fighting and know that I am God! I am the one who defeats the nations; I am the one who controls the world.” (Psalm 46:10) He is indeed the one who controls the world, right down to the day-to-day operations of hundreds of 'heads of state', 'supreme commanders', 'world leaders', and 'elected officials'. Do they all serve God? Absolutely not, but "To the Lord, a king’s mind is like a ditch used t...

A good character is the best tombstone. Those who loved you and were helped by you will remember you when forget-me-nots have withered. Carve your name on hearts, not on marble. (Charles Spurgeon) Let everyone see that you are gentle and kind. The Lord is coming soon. Don’t worry about anything, but pray and ask God for everything you need, always giving thanks for what you have. And because you belong to Christ Jesus, God’s peace will stand guard over all your thoughts and feelings. His peace can do this far better than our human minds. Brothers and sisters, continue to think about what is good and worthy of praise. Think about what is true and honorable and right and pure and beautiful and respected. (Philippians 4:5-8) While society pushes for this thing or the other, believers are to be focused on one thing above all - allowing God to develop his character within us through the actions of the Holy Spirit teaching, reminding, and reinforcing the true character of Christ in our live...

When a train goes through a tunnel and it gets dark, you don't throw away the ticket and jump off. You sit still and trust the engineer. (Corrie Ten Boom) Even if I walk through a valley as dark as the grave, I will not be afraid of any danger, because you are with me. (Psalm 23:4) In the midst of some of your darkest moments, how hard is it to just sit still and trust? Do you find yourself trying to figure out a way to somehow change the circumstances, so you don't have to be in the darkness any longer? Do you chafe in the waiting? If you find yourself in a dark place right now, take heart because God is likely moving you from one place to another and you just don't know the destination yet! The dark place may actually be a tunnel - the train needs the tunnel to go through 'immovable' objects in its path, doesn't it? There are lots of 'immovable' objects in our path that seem to only create challenges we don't know how to overcome. Did you stop to c...

It is easy to steal from the poor, but don’t do it. And don’t take advantage of them in court.   The  Lord  is on their side. He supports the poor, and he will take from those who take from them. (Proverbs 22:22-23) W.C. Fields once quipped, "A rich man is nothing but a poor man with money." A poor man with money - imagine if you will the scenario of being 'rich' in all the ways a man can imagine, but poor in all the ways God sees. The richest of men can have the poorest of spirits and most burdened of souls!  We are not living to impress God - we are not earning his approval by our actions. We are 'approved' through the gift of his Son's blood at Calvary, but if we don't turn over the 'possession' of our life to Jesus Christ, we are poorer than the one with no funds, no property, and no means of obtaining either except to beg.  Why do you think Solomon started with this one instruction in his list of thirty instructions? Perhaps it is because ...

If you would test the character of anything, you only need to enquire whether that thing leads you to God or away from God. (Watchman Nee) Whenever I bring enemy soldiers to fight against a country, the people choose someone to be a watchman. If this guard sees enemy soldiers coming, he blows the trumpet and warns the people. If people hear the warning but ignore it, the enemy will capture them and take them away as prisoners. They will be responsible for their own death. They heard the trumpet, but they ignored the warning. So they are responsible for their own deaths. If they had paid attention to the warning, they could have saved their own lives. (Ezekial 33:2-5) Most believers wouldn't think of themselves as 'watchmen' in the sense of being chosen to guard against enemy intrusion, but nothing could be further from the truth. We are all called to be 'watchers' - eyes attentive to what is happening around us, minds open to hearing from God, and hearts willing to ...

As people understand your word, it brings light to their lives. Your word makes even simple people wise. (Psalm 119:130) Wisdom is the right use of knowledge. To know is not to be wise. Many men know a great deal, and are all the greater fools for it. There is no fool so great a fool as a knowing fool. But to know how to use knowledge is to have wisdom. (Charles Spurgeon) I need light, especially when it is the darkest. In the middle of the day, I even need light in some of those 'recessed places' in my life. Not everything is evident to light until light comes into the place where it has been excluded from exploring. Some of us need a little 'exploring' by Light, don't we? I have often heard believers say they don't know what the Bible has to say - that it is a bit too hard to understand. In answer, I often ask what 'translation' they are using. It could just be that the 'understanding' of the Word is a little 'blunted' because we choose...

Let your hearts fall under the rule of the Anointed’s peace (the peace you were called to as one body), and be thankful. (Colossians 3:15) "When you enter his presence with praise, he enters your circumstances with power." (Author Unknown) We see stuff with our eyes, hear it with our ears, and even get it into our minds okay, but getting it to actually affect our hearts takes some doing. When we enter - we bring all manner of worry and heartache with our precursor of praise, don't we? When we enter - we bring all manner of emotional upheaval and depth of need, don't we? All we are called to do is enter - with praise on our lips - and then he does the rest! It may seem hard at times to really praise God, especially when the circumstances are beyond our understanding, or the weight of our burdens has become too great for us to bear up under. Scripture reminds us to enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise (Psalm 100:4), but honestly, it is prett...

But the Lord said to Samuel, “Eliab is tall and handsome, but don’t judge by things like that. God doesn’t look at what people see. People judge by what is on the outside, but the Lord looks at the heart. Eliab is not the right man.” (I Samuel 16:7) When you judge another, you do not define them, you define yourself. (Wayne Dyer) We can make some pretty false claims about others simply because we only see the 'message' they deliver on the outside. We can lift a man higher than he should be just because he 'plays the part' we expect based upon the 'role' he plays in life. Case in point - I observed almost every male nurse who wore a white coat over his work scrubs into a patient's room was asked if he was the doctor. The 'impression' of the white coat made the patient think the 'role' the male nurse was actually that of their physician. We can never judge someone by their appearance - there is always something much deeper that we must see - th...

Do what God’s teaching says; don’t just listen and do nothing. When you only sit and listen, you are fooling yourselves. Hearing God’s teaching and doing nothing is like looking at your face in the mirror and doing nothing about what you saw. You go away and immediately forget how bad you looked. But when you look into God’s perfect law that sets people free, pay attention to it. If you do what it says, you will have God’s blessing. Never just listen to his teaching and forget what you heard. (James 1:22-25) I share often about 'hearing', but 'doing' nothing with what we 'hear'. Why? The importance of being a 'doer of the Word' cannot be outlived, outsourced, or outdone! We need to incorporate the Word of God into our daily lives - making the teachings therein the source of our instructions on how to live with one another. Ever look at yourself in the mirror and be so dissatisfied with what you are seeing that you just turned away and tried to forget wha...

While you are proclaiming peace with your lips, be careful to have it even more fully in your heart. (Francis of Assisi) People who work for evil make trouble, but those who plan for peace bring happiness. (Proverbs 12:20) What is your 'plan' moving forward? It doesn't really matter that you have made a mess of the plan up to this point - it matters what you will do moving forward. Our planning is important - God's plans are more so. What God plans can change the heart of a man - our plans merely change 'things' around us that may affect our heart, but rarely does it change our heart for good. We need God's plans worked out - especially when we have made a mess of the plans we imagined! Plan for peace - get your heart right with God - them move on. The more we turn our plans over to God, the more we may find those plans have been affecting our heart (our inner man) in some ways that have actually kept us from realizing all God has for us. Sometimes we need t...

But you are a chosen people, set aside to be a royal order of priests, a holy nation, God’s own; so that you may proclaim the wondrous acts of the One who called you out of inky darkness into shimmering light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received it. (I Peter 2:9-10) Chosen - selected from several, sometimes for the uniqueness of the object, but always because the one choosing wants to make that which is chosen their own. We are the object of his desire - selected specifically because there is something in each of us which he uniquely desires and has "use for" in his Kingdom. The specific purpose God has in mind for you may differ from what he has in mind for me, but as long as we understand clearly that he has selected us BECAUSE he has a purpose for each of, then we are on the same path! Our purpose? One purpose that is NOT unique to each of us is that of loving him with all our hearts, soul...

Know how to listen, and you will profit even from those who talk badly. (Plutarch) You might think you are a very religious person. But if your tongue is out of control, you are fooling yourself. Your careless talk makes your offerings to God worthless. (James 1:26) I cannot help but think of the times I have droned on and on with someone about a topic I have such interest in, only to realize they have not been listening because I am the only one interested in the topic! I have had to learn to 'read the crowd', so to speak, and listen more than I speak. It was not an easy lesson to learn, but a necessary one, especially as it pertains to sharing the truth of the gospel message. I used to think I needed to preach a sermon, but then realized my life was speaking louder than my words. Know how to listen - this is our instruction today. The tongue can wag on and on, making it hard to really 'hear' what is being said. The more 'words' we use, the more we think others...

Most people would say that God's commands are a set of rules we need to keep in mind as we go throughout our lives. They are a set of 'guidelines' we are to 'adhere to' the best we can in order to somehow 'make our way to God'. There is 'no making one's way to God' - he already made his way to us! We 'keep' the commands of God not because we 'have to', but because they are what actually gives us a new way of living. I will never forget your commands, because through them you gave me new life. (Proverbs 119:93) Let's look at it this way - BC (Before Christ) we likely 'colored outside the lines' a bit with our lives. Then AC (After Christ) was given control of our lives, we have likely observed some change in our priorities, actions, and even our attitude. Yes, his presence begins this work, but it is more than we just keep his commands. We actually delight in keeping them - we see them as a way of making better choices....

I don’t mean that I am exactly what God wants me to be. I have not yet reached that goal. But I continue trying to reach it and make it mine. That’s what Christ Jesus wants me to do. It is the reason he made me his. Brothers and sisters, I know that I still have a long way to go. But there is one thing I do: I forget what is in the past and try as hard as I can to reach the goal before me. I keep running hard toward the finish line to get the prize that is mine because God has called me through Christ Jesus to life up there in heaven. (Philippians 3:12-14) All of us can truthfully say that we ae not exactly what God wants us to be - we haven't fully reached that point where we have done all we should do, developed all the character traits God wants us to develop, or completely been the person he wants us to be to reach others for him. The best we can admit to being is one that is 'continuing on' - doing what we are asked to do, learning from the instruction we receive, and ...

We have all these great people around us as examples. Their lives tell us what faith means. So we, too, should run the race that is before us and never quit. We should remove from our lives anything that would slow us down and the sin that so often makes us fall. (Hebrews 12:1) If you stop very long to consider some of the examples you have patterned your life after, you might just decide you fashion sense didn't improve, your financial situation really hasn't done much for you, and your relationship isn't any stronger than it was before. Why? They are 'faulty' patterns at best. We need to understand the importance of the 'pattern' before we just 'willy-nilly' follow it. I used to sew by pattern all of the time, but when I got confident enough, I often set out with the pattern and didn't follow the order of the instructions. That usually resulted in some seam ripping in the end! The importance of having both the pattern and the instructions canno...

Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for. (Epicurus) While we don't always hope for the best things in life, we all have some form of hope that occupies our minds and somehow motivates our internal man just a bit. Hope for the 'right stuff' and you are praised; hope for the 'wrong stuff' and you are criticized. What is the 'right stuff' in life? Is it really 'stuff'? Or is the 'right stuff' really what another delights in providing in our lives? Who is that 'another' I speak of? You already suspected it - Christ! We cannot hope for anything greater than his presence within us, his purpose being worked out through our lives, and his provision sustaining us as we fulfill that purpose. Faith is what makes real the things we hope for. It is proof of what we cannot see. (Hebrews 11:1) If faith is what 'makes real' the things we hope for, w...

There are times when I have to 'hurry' and others when I can just linger, doddle, or sit still. Most of the times when I have to 'hurry' it involves me not planning well, so I find myself trying to 'catch up' or 'get something done' so I can move on like I am supposed to. Hurrying is not the best way to live, though. Unfortunately, it is riddled with all manner of 'oops' moments. The best 'plan' for our day may actually be to stop wasting time in the unimportant stuff and direct our attention fully on the important stuff God has for us right now. I thought very carefully about my life, and I decided to follow your rules. Without wasting any time, I hurried back to obey your commands. (Psalm 119:59-60) Without wasting time, I hurried back... This suggests it is possible for us to have been where we should not have been, been attentive to the wrong stuff, or been too laissez-faire about where we were headed to see how far we drifted fro...

Those who learn from the lessons of life will join the others who are wise. Those who disregard discipline sabotage themselves, but those who are open to correction gain understanding. Reverence for the Eternal is the first lesson of wisdom, and humility always precedes honor. (Proverbs 15:31-33) "You were given this life because you were strong enough to live it." (Author Unknown) We don't receive lessons in this life through osmosis, but because we walk through them and learn from them. Someone might think they were given the life they were given because only THEY could live up to the challenge. The challenge wasn't given to you because you had the strength, it was given to you to reveal the strength the Almighty would give you to walk through it. We call it life and it comes at us at extraordinary speeds on occasion. The lessons of life will lure us in like a slow, lazy river gives us the sense all will be peaceful as we launch out only to find it takes us strai...

Man finds it hard to get what he wants, because he does not want the best; God finds it hard to give, because He would give the best, and man will not take it. (George MacDonald) Trust the Lord completely, and don’t depend on your own knowledge. With every step you take, think about what he wants, and he will help you go the right way. (Proverbs 3:5-6) Mankind wants so much and finds only part of what they seek when they seek to fulfill their wants and needs on their own. Mankind seldom wants the 'best', but God has prepared the 'best' for all who will seek his truth. His truth is resident in his Son - his 'best' is Jesus. Our 'best' falls somewhere below God's all of the time, so why do we seek it with all our effort when there is so much more awaiting us when we say 'yes' to Jesus? Perhaps it is because we find it hard to trust completely what God offers - we find it hard to believe God could give exactly what we need. Our own knowledge wil...

Desmund Tutu said, "Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all the darkness." We can see all manner of darkness, but we don't see clearly in that darkness, do we? We are enveloped by its heavy shadow, but we can push back that shadow when we bring light into that dark place. Someone once said we can either be a candle or the mirror that reflects the candle - either way, we are pushing back darkness. We may not feel like it, but our very presence on this earth brings light into some very dark places. Lord, you provide the flame for my lamp. You, God, turn the darkness around me into light. (Psalm 18:28) God provides our 'flame' - we reflect his light. There is much to be said about having the 'right fuel' for our fire. You could start a fire with a gallon of gasoline, but it isn't all that safe because it has an explosive power. You could start a fire with a mirror, but it isn't reliable unless you have the brighter light of the s...

I need to know your commands. Don’t keep them hidden from me. I constantly feel a hunger to understand your laws. (Psalm 119:19-20) The psalmist has just said he feels a bit like a stranger on this earth - something we might have felt ourselves from time to time. When things get a little too wonky for our taste, or the tides of change are just more than we can endure, we might actually tell God things are a 'little foreign' to us. The very thing our psalmist does is what we likely should do, as well - he asks God to help him understand - to really 'know' his commands. Why? There is a hunger for truth that God 'plants' within each of us that drives this 'urge to know' truth. This hunger doesn't come naturally - it is God 'planted' within our spirits. Our mind might seek to understand truth, but the hunger for it comes from deep within our spirit. It is within our spirit that we commune with God - where his presence dwells. We might not real...

God is very powerful, but he does not hate people. He is very powerful, but he is also very wise. He will not let evil people live. He brings justice to the poor. He watches over those who live right. He lets them rule in high places. (Job 36:5-7) There are times when we stand back in wonder, pondering how it is that evil can get such an advantage in this world. We might not see God's forces at work because the evil just seems to 'outdo' what we see God doing, but we can rest assured what we don't see is the legions God has moving to overtake evil! God is wise and we need to trust his timing. Sometimes evil abounds, but he still protects those who serve him and love him with their whole hearts. God doesn't hate people, but people respond to evil's pull and influence sometimes more rapidly than they do God's beckoning call to abandon sin. It is easy to get caught up with the movement of the crowds and neglect to see there are some faithful servants of ...

Don’t worry—I am with you. Don’t be afraid—I am your God. I will make you strong and help you. I will support you with my right hand that brings victory. (Isaiah 41:10) If most of us started each new day with this promise in mind, I wonder just how differently we'd face the issues of the day? I imagine we might just not be as haggard at the end of the day, exhibiting just a bit more wisdom with the actions of the day, and perhaps with a bit more accomplished than we'd see without his help. The instructions: 1) stop your worrying, 2) let your fear go, 3) trust your God, 4) lean into his strength, and 5) you will feel his support. Stop worrying - because God isn't deserting us, but going with us, having prepared a way before us. If we'd just get this simple instruction worked into our brains, reminding our emotions that they aren't in control, God is, then maybe we'd find it a bit easier to turn away those worries when they start to creep in. Let go of your fears....

Do you ever feel 'ashamed' about your understanding of the Word of God? There are indeed times when someone will come out with some 'deep' insight into what God has said, then we simply sit there in a state of 'awe' because we had never seen that truth before in that particular passage. We shouldn't ever feel 'ashamed' that we didn't see the truth like they did - we should revel in the fact God surrounds us with people who can see things we might have missed and that they are willing to share them with us! It is one of the means God uses to actually help us learn his truths. Lord, you gave us your instructions and told us to always obey them. How I wish I could be more faithful in obeying your laws! Then I would never feel ashamed when I look closely at your commands. The more I understand how fair your laws are, the more sincerely I will praise you. (Psalm 119:4-7) God gave us his instructions, not so they could sit on a shelf or in a bookca...

The Lord will keep good people safe, but evil people will have many troubles. (Proverbs 12:21) Josh Billings said, "Life consists not in holding good cards, but in playing those you hold well." We might not always be dealt the 'best hand' in life, but we can 'play the cards' we are dealt to the best of our ability, all the while trusting God with the outcome. We 'hold' certain cards in life, some good while others are not as good. I learned a long time ago it didn't do much good to complain about the hand one receives. It is best to take those 'cards' to Jesus, ask him for the wisdom to 'play them well' and then trust him with the rest. The Lord will keep good people safe - these words ring true time and time again in our days, even when we don't realize how much 'safety' he has provided along our path. We want a 'clear path', but we don't see what goes into clearing it because God has done all that work ahea...

Faith is the bird that feels the light when the dawn is still dark. (Rabindranath Tagore) I say this because all of God lives in Christ fully, even in his life on earth. And because you belong to Christ you are complete, having everything you need. Christ is ruler over every other power and authority. (Colossians 2:9-10) If Christ lives in you, all of God lives in you - you are complete, lacking in nothing you ever need, full of power and might. Now, how many of us are actually living like we believe that? Most of us would cop to a plea of living somewhere below that mark, believing instead in the things that give us worry and stress as a bit more powerful right now. As Tagore said, 'faith is the bird that feels the light' even when the darkness around you hasn't been pushed away entirely by the light. We might just need to ask God to reveal himself in the darkness so it can be pushed back entirely! If Christ rules over every power and authority that exists, why do we worry...

My dear brothers and sisters, always be more willing to listen than to speak. Keep control of your anger. Anger does not help you live the way God wants. So get rid of everything evil in your lives—every kind of wrong you do. Be humble and accept God’s teaching that is planted in your hearts. This teaching can save you. (James 1:19-21) How good are you at listening? I don't mean just letting someone speak on and on, but truly listening to what is being said. We can all tune out someone who is droning on about some subject. It takes some effort to reconnect and pay attention, doesn't it? Listen more than you speak - those are words to live by - if we'd just listen to them! Why is it we have relationship issues? It usually began with something said that was misinterpreted, or a failing to say anything at all when the moment came and went. Truth be told, the 'relationship issues' we have with our heavenly Father are no different. We come and talk, talk, talk with him i...

People who live following their sinful selves think only about what they want. But those who live following the Spirit are thinking about what the Spirit wants them to do. If your thinking is controlled by your sinful self, there is spiritual death. But if your thinking is controlled by the Spirit, there is life and peace. (Romans 8:5-6) Thinking or not thinking - both can present problems we might not want to deal with. If we think upon things that are not honorable or will bring dishonorable actions into our lives, we get the resulting problems associated with those sinful thoughts. If we fail to think before we act, relying only upon what feels good to us at the moment, we will reap the results that will not always be very rewarding or wonderful. Thinking must be controlled - it cannot just be willy-nilly. If we are to live upright lives, we need a 'thinking partner' in this walk. That is why Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to live within us. We need his presence to help us fil...

But don’t let sin control your life here on earth. You must not be ruled by the things your sinful self makes you want to do. Don’t offer the parts of your body to serve sin. Don’t use your bodies to do evil, but offer yourselves to God, as people who have died and now live. Offer the parts of your body to God to be used for doing good. Sin will not be your master, because you are not under law. You now live under God’s grace. (Romans 6:12-14) I know sin doesn't seem to just leave us alone - there are opportunities to compromise at every turn in the road and more than we might seem to recognize. When we welcomed Christ into our lives, we actually 'died' to sin - meaning that sin has no control over us any longer. We all know that temptation is real. We all realize the appeal of certain 'habits' don't just disappear. We have to put forth some effort to resist - to 'repel' sin's pull. What we might not recognize is that by offering our bodies to God da...