The Plumbline

OUR strength is often what we call willpower or the desire to act one way when the other is the choice we make most often. The truth be told, our ability or talent is way too over-estimated, and our strength is way too small. Proverbs 24:10 reminds us, "If you fail under pressure, your strength is too small." Have you never heard? Have you never understood? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of all the earth. He never grows weak or weary. No one can measure the depths of his understanding. He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless. Even youths will become weak and tired, and young men will fall in exhaustion. But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:28-31) God's strength is for the weary and the weak. Not sure if I should admit this or not, but that is me! It is not for those who hav...

Do you think God sometimes asks us stuff to see how we will answer? He already knows our response, but I believe he puts it out there because there is something to be learned by us hearing our response. Five loaves and a few fish - will that feed a crowd of over 5,000 men? Not if we only see the loaves and fish for what they are - we need to see them through God's eyes. We see the limits in our answers, but God sees the immense possibilities when we place the 'answers' into his hands.  Jesus soon saw a huge crowd of people coming to look for him. Turning to Philip, he asked, “Where can we buy bread to feed all these people?” He was testing Philip, for he already knew what he was going to do. Philip replied, “Even if we worked for months, we wouldn’t have enough money to feed them!” Then Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up. “There’s a young boy here with five barley loaves and two fish. But what good is that with this huge crowd?” “Tell everyone to sit down,” Jesus said...

I know I distressed you greatly with my letter. Although I felt awful at the time, I don’t feel at all bad now that I see how it turned out. The letter upset you, but only for a while. Now I’m glad—not that you were upset, but that you were jarred into turning things around. You let the distress bring you to God, not drive you from him. The result was all gain, no loss. Distress that drives us to God does that. It turns us around. It gets us back in the way of salvation. We never regret that kind of pain. But those who let distress drive them away from God are full of regrets, end up on a deathbed of regrets. (2 Corinthians 7:8-10) Any great pain or sorrow that weighs us down and almost keeps us from moving is not meant to keep us down, it is meant to drive us to God. Elements of physical suffering, or some mental anguish might have us under its control right now. Some call this "trouble", while others use a more sophisticated term like "affliction" or "trib...

Be assured that from the first day we heard of you, we haven’t stopped praying for you, asking God to give you wise minds and spirits attuned to his will, and so acquire a thorough understanding of the ways in which God works. We pray that you’ll live well for the Master, making him proud of you as you work hard in his orchard. As you learn more and more how God works, you will learn how to do your work. We pray that you’ll have the strength to stick it out over the long haul—not the grim strength of gritting your teeth but the glory-strength God gives. It is strength that endures the unendurable and spills over into joy, thanking the Father who makes us strong enough to take part in everything bright and beautiful that he has for us. (Colossians 1:9) Be honest here - do you ever feel like the 'power' you are operating under is really not 'power', but more like a 'putt-putt' kind of existence? If you are there, don't fret because we all find ourselves there...

The Apostle Paul seemed like quite a well-educated, very capable guy when you looked at him from the outside - on the surface, we can appear just about anyway we like, but it is what is at the center of a man that really makes the man.  Paul took honest moments like this in the letter to the church at Ephesus to explain his own personal struggle with feeling "ill-prepared" for what God had called him to do.  He tells us what he recognizes as his calling on his life - to help people understand and respond to the message of salvation - something he felt very ill-prepared to do, but which he knew with a certainty was what he was to go about doing.  It was this message that he spent the remainder of his years attempting to get out to as many people as possible, establishing them in the truth that God had made a way for all people to have access to the atoning sacrifice of his dear Son, Jesus. Sometimes the thing we feel the least equipped to do is the very thing we should go ...

Do you know the purpose of the word "but" in your sentence? Whenever you insert "but" into the sentence, you are saying the prior stuff is "negated" by the next stuff you are about to say.  For example, when you say, "The caramel truffle was delightful, but I think it went right to my hips," you are saying although it tasted delightful and there was that moment of pure ecstasy when you indulged, you will regret having to workout a little longer on the treadmill tomorrow! "But" makes null and void what has just been said, or puts some type of condition on it.  Another example, "You were supposed to do that yesterday, but I understand you had an emergency..."  In this example, the person is willing to overlook the failure to do whatever it was that should have been complete by now, all because there was the "condition" of an emergency arising in your life.  So, the "but" is significant to set up what is goin...

I remember doing guard duty while in basic training and I almost felt like I had stretched my body to the limits.  If I thought guarding those green vehicles was all that significant, my attitude didn't manifest that!  I made my rounds - walking back and forth, carrying the M-16 over my shoulder, and freezing my fingers to the bone.  If someone had come to steal one of them, I would have given it to them by the end of the night!  I was so tired, to the point of exhaustion, that rational thought had escaped me.  When I finally got to go to bed, do you think I could sleep?  Nope!  I was so "over-tired" and my body just had a hard time shutting off.  After the experience was all over, I recognized something of deeper significance, though.  While I may not have seen the value in what I was being asked to do in guarding those vehicles from would-be intruders and rascally thieves, the base commander had a purpose in my being on-guard that night. ...

Got any plans for your day?  As you read this blog today, I am on vacation, enjoying another week of respite from the daily grind and constant demands of the "busy-ness" of life.  One nice thing about vacation - the lack of plans! We find ourselves very spontaneous, making plans only if it involves being at an established location at a certain time (such as to catch a bus for a tour). Other than that, we kind of just like to take it one day at a time!  Not a bad way to live, but how many of us can actually live like this?  Unless we are retired, it is not likely!  I love the Proverbs because they are kind of like "mini truths" just rolled up for our enjoyment.  You don't have to read an entire story, but get the nougat of truth which you can sink your teeth into.  Then when you read on a little more, the other nougats add to the first.  Here's the starting point for our study today: We plan the way we want to live,   but only  God ...