The Plumbline

My dear children, I write this letter to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone sins, we have Jesus Christ to help us. He always did what was right, so he is able to defend us before God the Father. Jesus is the way our sins are taken away. And he is the way all people can have their sins taken away too. If we obey what God has told us to do, then we are sure that we know him. If we say we know God but do not obey his commands, we are lying. The truth is not in us. But when we obey God’s teaching, his love is truly working in us. This is how we know that we are living in him. (I John 2:1-5) A long time ago, I had a pastor who told us it was okay to substitute our own names into scripture. For example, I could read this passage as, "My dear Lauretta, I write this letter to you...", making it come alive to me personally. When I began to realize scripture was written for ME, I began to find it both comforting and a little convicting. At times, it opened up doors for my hea...

The more we experience light, the harder it becomes to tolerate darkness. This is true in every area of our lives. Get up in the middle of the night, when darkness abounds, then try to avoid hitting your toe on the furniture if there is not even one hint of light to guide your way. You stumble around, hands held outward groping for something to guide the way. Then there comes a bit of light - it settles our anxiety, helps us make out what has been hidden, and helps us 'navigate' with safety. Light is perhaps not essential, but the more we experience it, the more essential it becomes! God is light, and in him there is no darkness. So if we say that we share in life with God, but we continue living in darkness, we are liars, who don’t follow the truth. We should live in the light, where God is. If we live in the light, we have fellowship with each other, and the blood sacrifice of Jesus, God’s Son, washes away every sin and makes us clean. If we say that we have no sin, we are fo...

To the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years is like a day. The Lord is not being slow in doing what he promised—the way some people understand slowness. But God is being patient with you. He doesn’t want anyone to be lost. He wants everyone to change their ways and stop sinning. (2 Peter 3:8-9) To the Lord - we sometimes forget we are supposed to be looking at things through his eyes. We see things 'our way' so much of the time, forgetting entirely that God could see things just a bit differently than we do. We want this to happen, that to occur, things to be fixed this way or that, but we forget God may have a different plan. He may use whatever happened that we want to change in order to produce something quite grand in the end. We just have to be patient, listen intently to what he will say in the moment, and be obedient to whatever he shows us. We see things today for what we think they will be tomorrow, while God sees things in the light of eternity. H...

...the Lord God knows how to save those who are devoted to him. He will save them when troubles come. (2 Peter 2:9) We may not realize just how much God has his watchful eye upon us, or that he is hard at work protecting us from evil all around us, but he is right there, and he is 'at work'! God knows how to save us from ourselves, and he knows how to save us from all manner of evil that comes into our lives! When troubles come, look up. When anxiety reaches deep within your soul, praise God. When heartache seems to overwhelm every emotion, fall on your knees and pour your heart out to him. He is your Savior! Several examples are given to us in the previous verses - examples of good men who served the Lord in very difficult circumstances. Noah served God with an unwavering heart, even in the face of evil people all around him. He lived a lifestyle that "told people about living right." Lot lived among vile and unholy people, who engaged in terrible acts of evil, all t...

In the past there were false prophets among God’s people. It is the same now. You will have some false teachers in your group. They will teach things that are wrong—ideas that will cause people to be lost. And they will teach in a way that will be hard for you to see that they are wrong. They will even refuse to follow the Master who bought their freedom. And so they will quickly destroy themselves. Many people will follow them in the morally wrong things they do. And because of them, others will say bad things about the way of truth we follow. These false teachers only want your money. So they will use you by telling you things that are not true. But the judgment against these false teachers has been ready for a long time. And they will not escape God who will destroy them. (2 Peter 2:1-3) We are living in a time when believers are bombarded on all sides by one teaching after another - in media of all forms, in personal contact, and even from our public 'pulpits'. We must kno...

God called you and chose you to be his. Do your best to live in a way that shows you really are God’s called and chosen people. If you do all this, you will never fall. And you will be given a very great welcome into the kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, a kingdom that never ends. (2 Peter 1:10-11) Called, not just chosen. Sometimes we forget we have more to do in this walk with Jesus than just attest to our Christianity. We are called to work alongside Jesus in being witnesses in this very harsh world. We are called to be bold in our faith, standing strong in the midst of things we don't understand fully. In being examples of his grace and love, we can change a very harsh world into a much kinder one. We can make a difference, but only when we are willing to be used by God wherever he places us.  We must never forget that Christ is in control of our comings and goings, but we must also remember that he calls us to action. Witnesses do more than just show up. They get in...

I think there are times in life when we perceive it to be one time but may not realize it is later than we think! The message today is to consider the time, for it may be later than we think. We may perceive time to be endless, especially in our youth, but as we age a little, we see just how quickly it passes. I dreaded summer vacation off of school as a kid because I liked the mental stimulation of school. A couple weeks of break and I was ready to go back! Time seemed to stand still as those three months passed! Now, a week can be gone in the blink of an eye! What once seemed unending now appears quite limited. For everything there is a season, a time to every activity under heaven. A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to harvest. (Ecclesiastical 3:1-2) In life, we have opportunities that come our way at a particular time in our life. They may not come our way again because they are more or less "time sensitive". I would have to say relationships ...

So don’t lose a minute in building on what you’ve been given, complementing your basic faith with good character, spiritual understanding, alert discipline, passionate patience, reverent wonder, warm friendliness, and generous love, each dimension fitting into and developing the others. (2 Peter 1:5-7) Jesus has the power of God - so, if he indwells your spirit, don't lose one minute in allowing him to put that power to use within your life. Faith is good, but we need renewed thoughts, changed behavior, and a whole lot of 'umph' to get through the testing of that faith! We need his power - we have his power - but most of us still feel 'powerless' to live as we should. It is because we think we have to do all this 'changing' in our own power, not HIS. Good character comes as we begin to allow his indwelling power and his word to bring conviction to any area of our 'character' that isn't upright. That conviction should turn us away from those thin...

Jesus is the one who saves us. He is the God that we serve. I pray that God will help you and give you peace in your minds more and more. You will grow as believers because you know God and you know Jesus, our Lord. God is very powerful because he is God. He has used that power to help us. He has given us everything that we need to live in a good way. We can do things that make God happy. This is possible because now we know him. God has chosen us to be his people because he is very great and very good. Because of this, God has promised that he will do very great and valuable things for us. As a result, you can do what is right, like God does. The people who belong to this world want to do bad things. Those bad things make them become worse and worse. But God gives you the power to be free from all that. (2 Peter 1:2-4) The power to be free from all that - those words speak volumes, don't they? We lived as slaves to sin, but now we live as free men and women, in submissive ser...

Lord, you give me all that I need. You support me. You give me my share. My share is wonderful. My inheritance is very beautiful. I praise the Lord because he taught me well. Even at night he put his instructions deep inside my mind. I always remember that the Lord is with me. He is here, close by my side, so nothing can defeat me. (Psalm 16:5-8) It is good for us to remember who is right there with us, even when the hardest of things come to pass and we see no way out. God hasn't ever abandoned his children, and he isn't about to start now! We have ALL that we need to overcome whatever we face - we may not always see it immediately, but we have MORE than we need! As this psalm draws to a close, the words of our psalmist really reveal his heart: "You will teach me the right way to live. Just being with you will bring complete happiness." He desires God to teach him the right way to live - to help him with his choices. He wants his 'happine...

We speak often about compromise - making subtle 'adjustments' in the way we see things in order to either justify what we are doing or to convince ourselves that the rules God has laid out for us are old fashioned and outdated. The concessions we make in life may eventually be our undoing. We may not see that now, but at the end of every concession is another one. Compromise doesn't take us from 100% loyal to God's 'rules' to being 100% disloyal to them in one step. It is a build-up of steps, tiny ones at first, leading to bigger ones the further we move away from the 'rule'. “In the last times there will be people who laugh at God and do only what they want to do—things that are against God.” These are the people who divide you. They are not spiritual, because they don’t have the Spirit. But you, dear friends, use your most holy faith to build yourselves up even stronger. Pray with the help of the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves safe in God’s love, as you ...

 "Give light and the darkness will disappear of itself." (Desiderius Erasmus) You have not seen Christ, but still you love him. You can’t see him now, but you believe in him. You are filled with a wonderful and heavenly joy that cannot be explained. Your faith has a goal, and you are reaching that goal—your salvation. (I Peter 1:8-9) We have not seen Christ, yet we trust his coming was genuine, his undeserved grace beyond wonderful, and the hope he gives of a future spent with him throughout eternity magnificent. He walked among believers many, many years ago, and he still 'walks among us' through the power of his Spirit within us. Our faith does indeed have a goal - our ultimate salvation - eternity in his holy presence. Without goals, we kind of drift, more or less just choosing whatever feels like it might be good for the moment. Scripture puts it this way, "Where there is no vision, the people perish; but happy is he who keeps the teaching." (Proverbs 19...

T. S. Eliot asked, "Where is all the knowledge we lost with information?" If you are observant, you may have noticed we are 'knowledge rich', but 'wisdom poor' in many ways within our world today. The more 'knowledge' we obtain, the less we use our 'God-given reasoning' and 'conscience' to help guide our decisions. We seem to be lulled into just going along with the flow, whatever current it may be taking us down. We are never without 'resources' to know what is wise and what should be rejected, though. We have God's word - we just need to get into it and allow it to get into us! God’s word is alive and working. It is sharper than the sharpest sword and cuts all the way into us. It cuts deep to the place where the soul and the spirit are joined. God’s word cuts to the center of our joints and our bones. It judges the thoughts and feelings in our hearts. (Hebrews 4:12) Truth isn't subjective - it is objective - the object...

All Scripture is given by God. And all Scripture is useful for teaching and for showing people what is wrong in their lives. It is useful for correcting faults and teaching the right way to live. Using the Scriptures, those who serve God will be prepared and will have everything they need to do every good work. (2 Timothy 3:15-17) There have been times when I have used scripture to beat someone over the head - oh, not physically, but metaphorically. I have picked the most inopportune times, used the harshest scripture I could find that applied to the issue, and whammo! Yes, I am guilty of causing a 'scripture hit and run'! I was young, not really aware of how God could intervene without 'all my help', and kind of stubborn myself at times. I have mellowed a lot since then and have even been the 'victim' of a few 'scripture hit and runs' from others. Perhaps those helped me to realize the folly of spewing scripture 'at' someone. Scripture is all p...

If we are to move forward with Christ, we must realize if we are actually moving, standing still, or falling behind. Until we realize where we are at, there is not much effort we will put into any forward movement. If we are lucky enough to find ourselves moving forward, it could be that Christ wants to put a little more 'pep in our step', so to speak, in getting us to move at a different pace. The sad truth is that many are 'standing still' - allowing movement all around them, but not even realizing how much damage is being done when 'standing still' is our present condition. A flood may come, but the things that survive the flood are the things that can move away from it! 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 Je...

 Out of difficulties grow miracles. (Jean de la Bruyere) We don’t want people to find anything wrong with our work. So, we do nothing that will be a problem to others. But in every way, we show that we are servants of God. We never give up, even though we face troubles, difficulties, and problems of every kind. We are beaten and thrown into prison. People get upset at us and fight against us. We work hard, and sometimes we get no sleep or food. We show that we are God’s servants by our pure lives, by our understanding, by our patience, and by our kindness. We show it by the Holy Spirit, by genuine love, by speaking the truth, and by depending on God’s power. This right way of living has prepared us to defend ourselves against every kind of attack. (2 Corinthians 6:3-7) The followers of Christ are never guaranteed an 'easy path' - they are just guaranteed the presence of God with them on that path! We will face difficulties in life, but we have to choose how we will allow those ...

Brothers and sisters, someone in your group might do something wrong. You who are following the Spirit should go to the one who is sinning. Help make that person right again, and do it in a gentle way. But be careful, because you might be tempted to sin too. Help each other with your troubles. When you do this, you are obeying the law of Christ. If you think you are too important to do this, you are only fooling yourself. Don’t compare yourself with others. Just look at your own work to see if you have done anything to be proud of. You must each accept the responsibilities that are yours. (Galatians 6:1-5) Have you ever tried to 'nag' someone into obedience? It doesn't work well, does it? In the long run, one or both of you will come to have ill feelings toward the other. Nagging doesn't change behavior - it might even intensify it as the other seeks to magnify the 'annoyance' the disobedience brings you! We all do things we shouldn't do from time to time -...

Have you ever said the wrong thing at the wrong time? Maybe you actually said the right thing, but at the wrong time. Either way, the 'thing' you said was not taken well, or it was completely ignored. Why? The 'wisdom' it takes to say only what needs to be said, in the right timing is an 'art'. It might not come easily to some, but it can be learned at the feet of Jesus. We just need to spend enough time with him to see how what he notices, when he chooses to speak, and the words he chooses when he speaks. Everyone enjoys a fitting reply; it is wonderful to say the right thing at the right time! (Proverbs 15:23) While I am not an expert on this subject by any means, I have learned there are just times when someone will not hear what you are saying no matter how many different ways you attempt to say it. The heart just isn't in 'receiver' mode. They aren't open to hearing, so even if the timing might be right and the word you bring is pretty spot ...

Lord, you made me understand this: You don’t really want sacrifices and grain offerings. You don’t want burnt offerings and sin offerings. So I said, “Here I am, ready to do what was written about me in the book. My God, I am happy to do whatever you want. I never stop thinking about your teachings.” (Psalm 40:6-8) At times, we might think God wants this or that from us, like an offering upon the altar of the Old Testament times. Things don't matter to God as much as our heart does. When he asked the people to bring a lamb or goat to offer in the Temple, it wasn't because he wanted the meat of the animal - he wanted to see the heart of the people - to see if they were willing to choose the best and dedicate it to God. All God asks of us is to choose him first - period. Nothing we 'bring' to him is of real or lasting value until he has our full heart! The words, "Here I am", these are what God wants most. When the heart is behind those words, the world we li...

The moment we begin to justify sin in our lives is the moment we need most to turn back to what God says about each of us. We were born to do wrong - sinners even before we left our mother's womb. Born with the 'birthright' to sin. We aren't born without a will, but rather with a will that is oftentimes opposed to the will of our Creator. As we begin to develop, we use that 'will' to get what we want. As I have said in the past, we don't need to be told to be selfish, self-centered, or self-directed. It comes quite naturally to want all the toys, attention, and permission to do whatever we want! I was born to do wrong, a sinner before I left my mother’s womb. You want me to be completely loyal, so put true wisdom deep inside of me. Remove my sin and make me pure. Wash me until I am whiter than snow! (Psalm 51:5-7) If we have this 'birthright' of being born sinners, how do we overcome sin? There has to be an exchange of nature - our nature for...

Don’t get upset about evil people. Don’t be jealous of those who do wrong. They are like grass and other green plants that dry up quickly and then die. So trust in the Lord and do good. Live on your land and be dependable. Enjoy serving the Lord, and he will give you whatever you ask for. (Psalm 37:1-4) It is easy to get rattled by what we see and hear these days, isn't it? Did you ever stop for a moment to consider the great 'filters' God has given us so that we aren't easily swayed by what we see and hear? His Word, Holy Spirit, and our own conscience can do a 'bang up job' of interfering with those things so we don't become swayed, giving into fear, or much worse - believing and following what we see or hear. Trust God, live uprightly, and give into the joy that comes from doing so. God isn't swayed, nor is he caught off-guard by the political climate, the threats of war, or even the rumblings of this earth along quake lines once silent. He is stil...

I’m sure now I’ll see God’s goodness in the exuberant earth. Stay with God! Take heart. Don’t quit. I’ll say it again: Stay with God. (Psalm 27:14) Whenever things are repeated in scripture, it is so we will know God wants us to pay particular attention to the details he is expressing. Just some stats here:      35 times we are told to draw near to God     32 times we are told to be watchful because there might be something we'd miss or be duped by     25 times we are told not to quit, but to keep pressing forward If God cares enough to remind us of the importance of drawing near, being ever vigilant in our attentiveness, and not to get tired of pressing on, we had better pay attention! God's goodness will be seen, even when we don't see any evidence of it right now. There can be all manner of turmoil or chaos around us, but God tells us to take heart - he will reveal his goodness all around us if we are watchful and never stop seeking him. Don't quit...

If I keep my eyes on God, I won’t trip over my own feet. (Psalm 24:15) I don't know about you, but my 'feet' get in the way a lot! I seem to 'trip up' over some things others see coming a mile away. Sin is just like that for most of us - others can see it coming, while we are standing there totally oblivious to its soon coming attack! Why do we get our eyes off of God so easily and find ourselves looking in places for our help? I think it is because we have so many 'influential voices' in our world today - we just lose focus and don't even know we are allowing it to happen. It is as though our society has created the perfect environment for 'passivity'. God never wanted 'passive followers' - he wants followers who will keep paying attention, regardless of the circumstances. If I keep my eyes on God... That pretty much says it all right there. We must maintain our focus - God doesn't do that for us. We must train our eyes to 'retai...

A person’s body that does not have a spirit is dead. It is the same with faith—faith that does nothing is dead! (James 2:26) Faith is meant to produce something - it isn't just an ethereal thing that we 'have' but never put to use. Faith is meant to have feet and hands - it is meant to be put into action. Democritus once said, "Our sins are more easily remembered than our good deeds." Wouldn't it be wonderful if our good deeds were the things others remembered instead of our sinful actions. It takes only one bad deed to damage a reputation, and it can take thousands of good ones to restore it! Faith and deeds are interrelated. You cannot separate one from the other. Ephesians reminds us that we are saved by faith in Jesus Christ, not our 'good deeds', but that living for and in Christ Jesus means that we will produce good deeds. In other words, our life is lived for others, not just ourselves. Prior to welcoming Christ into our lives, we did 'good ...

Do any of you need wisdom? Ask God for it. He is generous and enjoys giving to everyone. So he will give you wisdom. But when you ask God, you must believe. Don’t doubt him. Whoever doubts is like a wave in the sea that is blown up and down by the wind. People like that are thinking two different things at the same time. They can never decide what to do. So they should not think they will receive anything from the Lord. (James 1:5-8) "The absence of alternatives clears the mind marvelously." (Henry Kissinger) Wouldn't it be nice to have absolutely NO alternatives to obedience? In such a world, all our choices would be to submit to the will of God the Father without any argument, reluctance, or confusion. We'd just know the right thing to do, and we'd do it. Indeed, when there are no alternatives, the mind is already made up, isn't it? We don't live in a world without 'alternatives' to our choices, though. We live in a world riddled with not only on...

Yesterday we began to look at embracing change before it becomes a requirement to change. While we all know we resist change in various ways, we ALL resist it sometimes. The more comfortable we become with some choice we are making, the easier it is for us to make that choice time and time again. The more we desire to change that choice, the harder it can become. Hence, we need Jesus and the Holy Spirit to help us embrace change. Good change is encouraged - change that still leaves us somewhere short of the 'bullseye' in a spiritual sense just isn't cutting it. Change to be like Jesus - don't change to be like the world around you! Don’t change yourselves to be like the people of this world, but let God change you inside with a new way of thinking. Then you will be able to understand and accept what God wants for you. You will be able to know what is good and pleasing to him and what is perfect. (Romans 12:2) Knowing what is good is probably easier than we might think ...

Someone once said the best time to change is before you actually have to. I would say that is usually the best way to embrace change - when you desire it rather than when it is forced upon you as the only option. Scripture reminds us to allow God to examine us from time to time, knowing full-well that he will observe something within our character that doesn't quite match what he expects to see of one who draws near to him. He will then set out to work on it, but that work goes much easier when we have asked God to begin it rather than waiting for him to point it out once we have already headed down some road of compromise! "God, examine me and know my mind. Test me and know all my worries. Make sure that I am not going the wrong way. Lead me on the path that has always been right. (Psalm 139:23-24) We all know there are things within our character that don't quite 'measure up' when we hold them up to the example Christ set for us, or what we see modeled by others ...

The finest steel has to go through the hottest fire. (Richard M. Nixon) My brothers and sisters, you will have many kinds of trouble. But this gives you a reason to be very happy. You know that when your faith is tested, you learn to be patient in suffering. If you let that patience work in you, the end result will be good. You will be mature and complete. You will be all that God wants you to be. (James 1:2-4) While none of us actually wants to embrace the 'furnace' of trials and troubles of all kinds, it is actually how we realize the greatest growth in our faith and inner character. Be that what it may be, we don't usually run right into the face of trials and get all up in their grill, so to speak. We actually might just want to turn tail and run when we see them coming - especially when they are coming so rapid fire that we just don't seem to have any breathing room in between them. God's plan isn't to leave us devastated by allowing these trials - though t...

I must calm down and turn to God;   only he can rescue me.  He is my Rock, the only one who can save me.  He is my high place of safety, where no army can defeat me. (Psalm 62:1-2) We have talked many times about the protection of God, but I would like us to focus today on what our psalmist reminds us here: WE must calm down and WE must turn to God. When all is spinning like what seems to be 'out of control', we can never forget that God controls what we cannot see, hear, or even imagine with our finite minds. It is our responsibility to trust - plain and simple. Sometimes we need to be reminded to just settle down, refocus, and listen. To calm oneself down is an art form, especially when turmoil of all manner keeps coming your way. You might 'want' to calm down, but the things that keep happening just seem to take their toll on your emotions. You find yourself spiraling out of control faster than you thought you would, all because your emotions were perceived quicker t...

Listen to advice and accept discipline; then you, too, will become wise. People might make many plans, but what the Lord says is what will happen. (Proverbs 19:20-21) One of the most difficult things for some of us is this idea of actually listening when God speaks. We go through life thinking we aren't hearing anything from God, but in actuality, we are just not heading what we hear. Many times this is because God is trying to get us back on track as we have allowed some amount of compromise to creep into our lives. The message isn't easy to hear, so we wonder if it is his voice. God never shamed us, that is the voice of Satan. He never runs us down. He will give us clear warning not to proceed with a certain course of action, or to lay down one we have been engaging in that hasn't been the wisest choice for us.  What happens when we don't listen when God speaks? We might find that his voice seems to get harder to hear, but in truth, we have just drawn further away. Ou...