The Plumbline

After a few days, Jesus returned to Capernaum, and word got around that he was back home. A crowd gathered, jamming the entrance so no one could get in or out. He was teaching the Word. (Mark 2:1-3 MSG) He was teaching the Word. We might read on to the best parts of this record, finding faithful friends who press through the crowd, tear back a section of the building's roof, lower the paraplegic man into the midst of the room where Jesus sat teaching, and find that he was totally healed. Today, I want us to stop short of that recorded story, though. I want us to see what drew the crowds in the first place - he was teaching the Word of God. It wasn't the miracles that drew them - he was teaching truth and they were crowded around to hear what he taught. I wonder if our hearts are that intent on finding out what he has to say to us today? Whenever we go to God's Word, we do so with some form of intent. Perhaps we are looking for answers, or maybe we want some form of spiritua...

Your love, God, fills the earth! Train me to live by your counsel. (Psalm 119:64 MSG) We will always live by some set of 'rules' or 'standards'. Some might be quite 'good', while others may be a little on the 'errant' side. For example, we follow the speed limit - good; we spend all we make and never save anything for unexpected expenses - errant. We can follow the 'rules' set by others or those we set ourselves. For example, we pay our taxes each year - others set these rules for us; we go to bed each night in sufficient time to afford us seven hours of sleep - a rule set by us because of how it makes us feel. What we choose to 'live by' makes all the difference - who we choose to follow also makes a huge difference, doesn't it? God's love fills the earth - it has nothing but the best in mind for us. Why do we resist following his 'rules' or 'standards' so much, then? We find ourselves trying to bend those rule...

"Anger is the wind that blows out the lamp of the mind." (Robert Green Ingersoll) Don’t hang out with angry people; don’t keep company with hotheads. Bad temper is contagious—don’t get infected. (Proverbs 22:24-25 MSG) If your mom was anything like mine, she cautioned you to find the right group of friends, being wary of hanging out with the 'wrong crowd'. We all knew who the 'wrong crowd' were, didn't we? Depending upon our generation, they could have been the rebellious teens of the 50's who thought it was cool to smoke and dress in slightly more 'provocative' clothing. If we grew up in the 60's, it was likely the hippies who wore multi-colored clothing, sported peace signs, and drove VW buses. There were the anti-war protestors, draft dodgers, potheads, and later the ones who were labeled as 'lose' or 'gang like'. Regardless of the ones our parents labeled as the 'wrong crowd', it was always their intent to ke...

Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn’t love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that. (Ephesians 5:1-2 MSG) What is God doing? There are times we all ask that question, not really sure that God is in control, but trusting that he is, we still find ourselves asking what he could possibly be doing with what is going on around us. Watch what he does - that is a pretty specific instruction. We are to observe what he does because we learn best when we have an example of an expected action. God loves us - repeatedly, unconditionally, without doubt or regret. In the same manner, we are to love others, but we need to see his example in order to respond to others with this type of love, don't we? So, observe how he love...

That’s plain enough, isn’t it? You’re no longer wandering exiles. This kingdom of faith is now your home country. You’re no longer strangers or outsiders. You belong here, with as much right to the name Christian as anyone. God is building a home. He’s using us all—irrespective of how we got here—in what he is building. He used the apostles and prophets for the foundation. Now he’s using you, fitting you in brick by brick, stone by stone, with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone that holds all the parts together. We see it taking shape day after day—a holy temple built by God, all of us built into it, a temple in which God is quite at home. (Ephesians 2:19-22 MSG) God is building a home - not just a residence, but a home. When most of us think of home, we think of a place where one is welcomed, settles in, and is able to really feel safe. Some may not have come from a very 'safe' or 'welcoming' home life, though, so their interpretation of Jesus 'building a home' m...

True wisdom and real power belong to God; from him we learn how to live, and also what to live for. (Job 12:13 MSG) How to live and what to live for - these are two frequently sought after things, aren't they? We want to know the ins and outs of living well - 'making it' as society would refer to it. We also want to know what to avoid - so we don't fall into mishaps. We seek advice from one source after another, often neglecting the source that is right there in front of us - God's Word. We neglect time in prayer because we think it is too hard to know what to pray or that there must be some 'secret formula' that gets God to listen to our prayers. All the while, God stands at the ready to show us both how to live and what to live for - we just haven't looked to the right source, or listened to his wisdom in what to choose when presented with various choices. Wherever did we get the idea that we could figure life out on our own? That is an out and out ...

Jesus said, “Sign on with the One that God has sent. That kind of a commitment gets you in on God’s works.” (John 6:29 MSG)  Believe in the one he has sent - be part of his family - this is the offer to us today. So many will still try to do it on their own, even though they have the best offer ever. If someone told you'd they 'pay the price', whatever that price entailed, for something you really needed, would you walk away from the offer? You need a new roof - someone says you can have all the work done at no charge to you, just become an advocate for their services - would you do it? Most likely, you'd accept the offer, becoming one of the very best advocates for their work. Why? You received something that you needed desperately, and the 'work' was all done for you. Well, Jesus offers a gift bigger than a new roof, more important than anything else you ever will stand in need of, and he does so at a 'price' that is already 'paid in full'. Do...

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. (Romanns 12:1-2 MSG) Many of us attempt to 'blend in' with the culture around us, forgetting that God actually calls us to 'stick out' - not like a sore thumb, but in such a way that our lives make an impact on the world around us. It is through the living of our 'ordinary lives' that we become witnesses of his grace and transfor...

In this way we are like the various parts of a human body. Each part gets its meaning from the body as a whole, not the other way around. The body we’re talking about is Christ’s body of chosen people. Each of us finds our meaning and function as a part of his body. (Romans 12:4-5 MSG) A chosen people with a chosen purpose. There is much to be unpacked behind that statement but let me tell you there are a lot of people within some church congregations working against their 'chosen purpose' than there are working with it. It is as though they know God has a purpose for them, but they are doing everything they can to never fulfill that purpose. Whenever we forsake our 'calling' (PURPOSE), we are leaving the Body of Christ with a gap that was meant to be filled by us. That gap can be quite wide when there are a whole bunch of people not willing to fulfill their purpose! We each have a function and meaning - no one is exempt from having a function, but not all will 'fu...

The people who love your instruction enjoy peace—and lots of it. There’s no stumbling for them! (Psalm 119:165 CEB) C.S. Lewis wrote: "God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing." When the peace of God invades our hearts, there is a sense of security that comes from being 'settled' inwardly even when things outwardly may still be in chaos. God's Word can bring peace into our minds and settle our troubled souls, but too often we don't even turn to his Word when we begin to see our peace being actively disturbed. We somehow forget how 'settling' his instructions can be. If we stumble around long enough, trying to do things on our own in order to 'restore peace within', we will eventually find that all that 'stumbling around' was totally unnecessary for peace was right there in his Word. God's Word is living and vital - it is meant to bring life, light, and transformati...

Up against it, I didn’t know which way to turn; then I called out to God for help: “Please, God!” I cried out. “Save my life!” God is gracious—it is he who makes things right, our most compassionate God. God takes the side of the helpless; when I was at the end of my rope, he saved me. (Psalm 116:4-6 MSG) If you don't know which way to turn, God is right there. If you need answers, God is ready to answer. If you are feeling powerless, God's strong right hand is there to defend you. If you are discouraged by life's hardships, God is there to comfort and bring hope. Up against it? Call out to God and your help is right there when and where you need it most. Does his help always come in the ways we imagined? I have learned that the answer to that one is, "Not always - perhaps not usually." God's answers come in varying forms, but they are always there! God is a gracious and loving Savior - he knows how to 'make things right' in our lives, beginning wit...

"Every tomorrow has two handles. We can take hold of it with the handle of anxiety or the handle of faith." (Henry Ward Beecher) When I said, “My foot is slipping,” your unfailing love, Lord, supported me. When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought me joy. (Psalm 94:18-19 NIV) Charles Spurgeon wrote: "Anxiety doesn't empty tomorrow of its sorrows, but only empties today of its strength." Spurgeon was right - the more we focus on the 'what if' of tomorrow, the more our minds and emotions will spin out of control. That spinning will lead to more and more angst about our imagined issues until we find ourselves crying out to God because our 'footing' is swept out from under us. Our footing is to be none other than Jesus Christ himself. When we give into the worries of tomorrow and the frustrations of today, we are likely doing it because we have allowed our steps to lead us to any other footing than him! When we see issues through ou...

If God didn’t hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn’t gladly and freely do for us? (Romans 8:32 MSG) God put everything on the line for us - what are we putting on the line for him? The more we ponder that question, the more we might just realize we are holding out on God. We are giving him small portions of our time, energy and talent, but when it is all said and done, we are still holding back from total obedience to whatever it is he asks of us. Why? It is too hard? We don't want to let go? We think we know better than God? Whatever the reason for holding back, we need to come to a place of surrender and let go of our justification for any form of disobedience! God embraces us just as we are, but that doesn't mean we should go through life 'as we are'. There is a change of heart that leads to a change in actions IF there has been a genuine welc...

When my soul is in the dumps, I rehearse everything I know of you, From Jordan depths to Hermon heights, including Mount Mizar. Chaos calls to chaos, to the tune of whitewater rapids. Your breaking surf, your thundering breakers crash and crush me. Then God promises to love me all day, sing songs all through the night! My life is God’s prayer. (Psalm 42:6-8 MSG) When my soul is in the dumps. Does that ever happen to you? Do you get in the 'mulligrubs' from time to time? I tend to find myself in those times when I don't even know what the cause of the 'discontent' or 'discouragement' is. It is like they can creep in unawares. I don't know about you, but when those times come, I find myself calling out to God because I know when I "rehearse everything I know" about who he is and what he has done in my life, my mood soon begins to change. God promises to love us ALL DAY LONG. Not just when our mood is the greatest or our circumstances seem to be g...

I keep my eyes always on the Lord. With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken. (Psalm 16:8 NIV) With him, we can do all things. You've heard that, right? Why do we question his faithfulness to us by taking control of the reins all the time? We don't realize how much we are leaning on our own strength or ability until our feet go out from under us! Then, after we have fallen flat, we look up and seek his help. He was right there all the time - we just didn't listen to him, didn't reach out to him, didn't trust him with whatever it was we were going through. Let's get real here - we get so 'shaken up' in life because we choose to live as our own boss! The leadership of our lives isn't really going to get better under our control. It only gets better when we yield the control. Eyes always on the Lord. This might seem like an easy thing, but let me ask you when the last time was that you got even a bit distracted and gave into some temptation or we...

Ask me and I will tell you remarkable secrets you do not know about things to come. (Jeremiah 33:3 NLT) What remarkable secrets is God just waiting to unfold for you if you'd only ask? The issue is not that we have a stingy, secretive God - it is that we don't ask him to reveal those 'hidden things'. The more we seek God's wisdom, the more he unfolds it. Scripture reminds us, "If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking." (James 1:5) He is indeed a generous God and delights in unveiling our eyes. Veiled eyes may see, but do they see as clearly as when the veil is removed? Absolutely not! The veil over our eyes may seem like it is 'permanent', so we just live with the uncertainties it creates. God's hope is that we will seek his help in removing it so we can see clearly all the things he delights in showing his children. Remarkable secrets - things we didn't even know were part of...

Through your faithful prayers and the generous response of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, everything he wants to do in and through me will be done. (Philippians 1:20 MSG) Our passage today comes after Paul was placed in prison, held for preaching the gospel message. He had such hope of his release, eventual continuation of his apostolic journeys, and the continued establishment of new churches throughout the then known world. He never got out of prison, though. His circumstances did not change, yet he continued to do what God called him to do, regardless of how his life seemed to be changing for what others may have seen as the worst possible thing. Even in his imprisoned state, whether in a jail cell or under some form of Roman house arrest, he continued to do what God put on his heart. It is indeed a good thing to fulfill what God beckons us to do - to have hope that the mission he has called us to perform will continue even when the circumstances seem to be pointing us in a different ...

Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand. (Isaiah 41:10 NLT) Fear is frequently based in either the past (what we have done or what has been done to us), or it is based in the future (what is about to happen to us or what has to still be done). We rarely remain in the present in our thinking. Whenever we go back to the past failures, we get down on ourselves and see ourselves as having no way of escape - it is like we believe what is about to happen is inevitable. Whenever we focus entirely on the future, we find ourselves being overcome with the anxiety of 'not knowing'. The 'what ifs' of the future can be as daunting as living with our past failures - either one of these scenarios will give us anxiety and might even hold us paralyzed by their overwhelming emotions. Remaining current is important - we should ask God what he wants from us TODAY. It...

Because we have these promises, dear friends, let us cleanse ourselves from everything that can defile our body or spirit. And let us work toward complete holiness because we fear God. (2 Corinthians 7:1 NLT) What promises? Look back one verse and you will read: "And I will be your Father, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty." Sons and daughters - living in us and walking among us - those are the promises referenced here. The more we understand just how much God wants us to enjoy his presence among us, the more we will desire to live in such a way that constantly welcomes him into our lives. There is much to be said about the presence of God, but none more important than the sense of awe and holiness we experience when we enter into it. There is no room for our 'sinful shenanigans in his presence. That is why we might feel a little conviction whenever we enter into his presence after making some form of sinful compromise in our lives. We are ...

It wasn’t so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin. You let the world, which doesn’t know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief and then exhaled disobedience. We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat. (Ephesians 2:1-2 MSG) Whatever came of our 'old man'? No, not your father, your old nature - the one that used to find it so easy to run toward sin. It wasn't hard for us to compromise and choose sin because we allowed the world and all its enticements to tell us how to live our lives. The loudest voice received our attention - the 'coolest' or 'newest' fad took us in. We chose to listen to the advice of worldly counselors instead of the voice of God. No wonder we fell so easily into the traps the enemy of our souls set to ensnare us! What we fill our minds with eventually becomes the very things that lead to a...