The Plumbline

Give thanks to the Lord and proclaim his greatness. Let the whole world know what he has done. Sing to him; yes, sing his praises. Tell everyone about his wonderful deeds. Exult in his holy name; rejoice, you who worship the Lord. Search for the Lord and for his strength; continually seek him. (I Chronicles 16:8-11) Let the whole world know what he has done. Those words struck me today as I was doing my morning reading. When we 'proclaim' the greatness of our God, we do it with a 'filled heart'. In Hebrew, 'qara' holds the meaning to call out or summon; in Greek, 'kerusso' holds the meaning to announce or preach. Either way, we are instructed to both call out and announce the greatness of our God. There is a sense of urgency in either term - so when we call out or proclaim the greatness of our God, it is to be done with a heart eager to bring forth the message. Exult in his holy name. The term 'exult' means we will do so with a sense of extrem...

Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end. (Seneca) “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland." (Isaiah 43:18-19) When we 'begin' we seldom think of the ending. We imagine it will go one way, but when all is said and done, we really had no idea what we'd encounter along the way. When a beginning must come to an end, it is because something new is about to begin. To some, the idea of 'beginning again' is kind of frightening. The imagination plays out all kinds of scenarios, some grand and others worse than what just ended. God's words to us: "Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past." The past is gone - we cannot get it back, nor can we recover any of the moments that are already past. We can look forward, seeing that God is about to do a 'new thing' and trust that...

  "Faith is not belief without proof, but trust without reservation." (D. Elton Trueblood)  Trust without reservation - those words really hit home with me today because I have moments when I kind of 'reserve the right' to be fearful of things. How about you? Do you ever have 'reservations' about what God will do, what he is doing, or that he is even concerned about whatever it is you need right now? I think we all have those little 'battles' with faith on occasion, not really doubting God's love or kindness toward us, but seeing the issue before us and being overwhelmed by it rather than the presence of God in the moment. Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see. Through their faith, the people in days of old earned a good reputation. By faith we understand that the entire universe was formed at God’s command, that what we now see did not come from anything that can be seen. (Hebrews 11:1-3) The reali...

If your enemies are hungry, give them food to eat. If they are thirsty, give them water to drink. You will heap burning coals of shame on their heads, and the Lord will reward you. (Proverbs 25:21-22) We know Jesus told us to turn the other cheek, but what does this 'heaping burning coals on their head' thing have to do with forgiveness? As we almost assuredly know, when wrong is done to someone, revenge is the usual response, not forgiveness. When we show compassion and kindness to those who have offended us, refusing to 'retaliate' for the wrongdoing, it might just confuse our enemies! If we are fortunate, it will cause them to examine their own heart in the matter and perhaps even come to the conclusion that a different behavior on their part would have been better. Back in the times this passage was penned, coals were shared with each other as a means of starting and maintaining a fire for warmth and cooking. To 'heap them upon their head' didn't mean...

At moments when all seems to be going well, we don't value our strength. When things don't go as well as they should, we suddenly feel very weak, unable to handle the pressure, and even unwilling to go on. The pressure moments frequently reveal 'whose' strength we are reliant upon, don't they? If it is our own, we 'feel' the pressure in ways that can actually bring harm to our bodies, and even more so, to our spirit. As scripture says, "If you fail under pressure, your strength is too small." (Proverbs 24:10) It isn't our strength that we should be reliant upon, although this seems to be a very hard lesson to learn! If you fail under pressure - it isn't if 'God fails you under pressure', but if YOU fail under it. I have come across people who got themselves so deep into stuff they are weighed down under, hearing them complain that God 'hasn't come through'. Could it be that God didn't want them to get into the mes...

Commit yourself to instruction; listen carefully to words of knowledge. My child, listen and be wise: Keep your heart on the right course. (Proverbs 23:12, 19) Commit yourself to instruction. The word 'commit' carries the meaning of 'binding yourself' to a specific course of action. The course of action God asks for us to 'bind ourselves' to is the study of his Word. Why? It will keep our heart on the right course! There we find wisdom in our daily choices, but we also see what it means to choose unwisely. As I began to get into God's Word as a teenager, I was surprised that God put the stories about 'wrong choices' people made right along with the ones about those who made better ones. It kind of took me by surprise to see some of the 'wrong choices' I was making already having been made by others! Truly, as God's Word reminds us, there is nothing new under the sun. Listen and be wise. Our heart is 'kept' when we listen an...

A prudent person foresees danger and takes precautions. The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences. (Proverbs 22:3) Prudent - one who takes the time and makes the effort toward future outcomes. Frances of Assisi reminded us: "We must not be wise and prudent according to the flesh. Rather, we must be simple, humble and pure." The future outcomes will be much different when we aren't making choices that merely please our fleshly desires. A humble heart, one that desires purity, will seek God's direction in daily choices - not just the big ones. The Greek historian Thucydides said, "Few things are brought to a successful issue by impetuous desire, but most by calm and prudent forethought." The 'issue' of our day is defined by the forethought we have put into it, isn't it? Plan well, with God's direction guiding us, and our day's 'issue' will be much more fruitful than it would if we just 'flew by the seat of our p...

Ears to hear and eyes to see— both are gifts from the Lord. The Lord directs our steps, so why try to understand everything along the way? (Proverbs 20:12, 24) The more we try to understand things sometimes, the more they can become kind of 'muddled' in our minds, especially when we don't know the motives behind the actions or events. They don't make sense on the surface, so we look deeper, hoping to find something that will give us an awareness that we didn't possess before. Ears to hear, eyes to see, direction from God - all are good gifts, but do we always hear, see with clarity, or know for certain we are headed in the right direction? God's promise is that he WILL direct our steps. The more time we spend walking with Jesus, the more confident we become in knowing we don't ever walk alone. Our steps are 'ordered' - they are arranged, there is a 'method to the madness' that surrounds us at times even when we don't understand what is...

Enthusiasm without knowledge is no good; haste makes mistakes. (Proverbs 19:2) Have you ever jumped into some commitment and then had what some refer to as 'buyer's remorse'? I know I have done that on more than one occasion, regretting my impulsivity. Impulse is good to a certain extent, such as when we sense danger coming our way and dodge to get out of the way. We heard or saw something that made us take notice and we avoided injury as a result of our quick action. Those types of 'quick actions' are warranted. There are other 'quick actions' that actually bring us more trouble or harm than they do good! Haste makes mistakes. Those three words really tell us a great deal. Haste - excessive speed or urgency - isn't always warranted. There are times when we need to stop to consider. I don't buy automobiles impulsively. I take my time, researching my options, looking at the details of what is offered at each price, and then I don't even act on th...

Wise sayings often fall on barren ground, but a kind word is never thrown away. (Arthur Helps) Fools’ words get them into constant quarrels; they are asking for a beating. The mouths of fools are their ruin; they trap themselves with their lips. Rumors are dainty morsels that sink deep into one’s heart. (Proverbs 18:6-8) A fool's words often create the ripe environment for gossip and untruths. The fool focuses on the volume of his words, not the wisdom of them. He rushes toward the 'juicy tidbits' he can glean from anyone that he may use to make himself look important. Unfortunately, the fool doesn't 'fact check' his words before repeating them. He launches into the retelling and the 'reinventing' of those words all too quickly. I am a strong proponent of 'fact checking' whatever is being put forward as truth. This culture is too quick to spread malicious gossip, things that aren't entirely true, but that put someone in a bad light as much a...

Fools have no interest in understanding; they only want to air their own opinions. (Proverbs 18:2) If you have ever been around some individuals who seem to only care about their own opinion, or how they see the situation at the exclusion of how anyone else sees it, you are likely listening to someone who has no real interest in understanding. As you can see from our passage, scripture calls them fools. It is indeed foolish to not listen to anyone else's opinion or advice, for a great many things can be learned when we stop to see things from another's perspective. God doesn't want us to be the fool, nor does he want us to submit to the foolish way of thinking that some may have adopted. He does want us to consult him in all matters and to consider his wisdom as found in the Word of God when we don't have a clear understanding of a situation. Lest we be 'played the fool', we need to see things as he sees them. Our own perspective may not always be from a place o...

Now I’m returning to you. I’m saying these things in the world’s hearing so my people can experience my joy completed in them. I gave them your word; the godless world hated them because of it, because they didn’t join the world’s ways, just as I didn’t join the world’s ways. I’m not asking that you take them out of the world but that you guard them from the Evil One. They are no more defined by the world than I am defined by the world. Make them holy—consecrated—with the truth; Your word is consecrating truth. In the same way that you gave me a mission in the world, I give them a mission in the world. I’m consecrating myself for their sakes, so they’ll be truth-consecrated in their mission. (John 17:13-19) Make them holy - consecrated - with the truth. If you want to know what Jesus asked his Father on our behalf, there it is. His greatest hope was that each of his followers would be guarded in this world from all the evils of this world. How are we guarded? By truth! The truth he gi...

Those who only praise God because he DOES them good should rise to a higher note and give thanks to him because he IS good. (Charles Spurgeon) Thank God because he’s good, because his love never quits. (Psalm 118:1) God's love never quits. His lovingkindness toward us never fails. What is lovingkindness anyway? Most would say it is tenderness and consideration toward another. The Hebrew term is CHECED, and it means God's covenant loyalty. In most places in scripture, the term 'lovingkindness' describes God's character. It actually is used to describe God's heart toward those he calls his own. We are told to see and consider his kindness and the steadfastness of his love toward his children. Then we are to give him praise because that kindness and steadfast love never quit! The most important thing we can remember is that his lovingkindness toward us never quits. It never fails. It never gets outdone by anything we do. It will always reach out for us when we fail...

You may think everything you do is right, but the Lord judges your motives. Ask the Lord to bless your plans, and you will be successful in carrying them out. (Proverbs 16:2-3) I have made plans, only to have them fall flat at the last moment. You have likely planned something, then been a little disappointed with the outcome, as well. The more we 'plan', the more we need to run those plans through the Holy Ghost filter. The Lord doesn't always want us to go in the direction we are headed, even when those plans seem pretty 'legit' on the surface. Sometimes he has something better for us, or safer. We need to trust him to expose any impure motives that might be directing us toward something, especially when our spiritual, emotional, or physical safety may be concerned! It isn't enough to just ask God to bless our plans, though. This passage makes it sound a bit like we can just throw them out there, ask God to put his stamp of approval on them, and then trudge on...