The Plumbline

The altar of God is a place of healing, but many just see it as a place of judgment or punishment. They fear approaching a holy God, probably because they don't understand the intensity of his love, nor the extreme privilege of his grace. We need to see the altar as a place of encouragement, where we are filled with the presence of God, and celebrate his goodness, grace, and strength. Send out your light and your truth; let them guide me. Let them lead me to your holy mountain, to the place where you live. There I will go to the altar of God, to God—the source of all my joy. (Psalm 43:3-4) Discouragement abounds today, making it ever so important to understand where it is we go to find our encouragement. It isn't in the rise of the stock market, or even the momentary good times we enjoy at family celebrations. It is at the altar that we are renewed and regenerated. It is there we find a lasting peace and an enduring courage for the trials ahead. Whenever we only ...

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...

Our heart fire must be tended. What gets our attention gets tended - plain and simple. If we turn away from tending that spiritual fire, it is easy for it to begin to go out. Diligence must be maintained in ensuring we are consistent in tending it. Whenever we tend something, we are directing our attention toward the object we are tending - it means we narrow our focus to see just what we need to be paying attention to and then we do something about it. It is not enough to just look like we are tending our spiritual growth. We need to be actively engaged in taking care of our spiritual lives - not just passively going about life hoping God will help us to grow. The fire must never go out, so put wood on it each morning. After this, you are to lay an animal on the altar next to the fat that you sacrifice to ask my blessing. Then send it all up in smoke to me. The altar fire must always be kept burning—it must never go out. (Leviticus 6:12-13)   Our heart fire must burn hot. Th...

The fire must never go out, so put wood on it each morning. After this, you are to lay an animal on the altar next to the fat that you sacrifice to ask my blessing. Then send it all up in smoke to me. The altar fire must always be kept burning—it must never go out. (Leviticus 6:12-13)   The Old Testament can be a bit hard to read through, especially since it seems like there are a lot of blood wars, blood sacrifices, bad things happening, and a whole lot of sinning going on! I see regular people, struggling to make a way in a regular world, and meeting with regular issues we all have to encounter. So, instead of slugging through, I look for the hidden truths and things we might otherwise overlook if we were just reading these chapters as "historical content". In the Book of Leviticus, much instruction was given to the priests on how they were to conduct their daily business in the offering of sacrifices.  In the instructions given to Moses for the priests, various sacrifices,...

So don’t you see that we don’t owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent. There’s nothing in it for us, nothing at all . The best thing to do is give it a decent burial and get on with your new life. God’s Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go! (Romans 8:12-14) Burial is the act of placing something dead into the ground. The remains have no further use - so we bury them. We need to seriously consider some of the "stuff" we actually might do well burying! There are customs of burial dating back something like 130,000 years ago, so this idea of "burying" the dead has quite a long history. One of the reasons some think burial came about was to attempt to bring "closure". It was a way of bringing an end to something. There is more to this burial thing than just the placing of someone's physical remains into a tomb or a grave. In fact, we might just find something of value in considering just what gets buried and why! We bury a ...

My neighbor is getting ready to move. He has been busy cleaning out his garage and backyard shed - places where we know things 'gather', sometimes without us even noticing! He is getting it ready to be purchased - knowing the new 'owners' won't want all his excess stuff just hanging around when they take ownership. When we are bought with a price, there is an exchange of ownership. This exchange of ownership is to have an effect on us. The first thing we should notice is that there is a desire for cleansing. We want to have things in our life that are not honoring to God dealt with and removed so that we can move on.  God sacrificed Jesus on the altar of the world to clear that world of sin. Having faith in him sets us in the clear. God decided on this course of action in full view of the public—to set the world in the clear with himself through the sacrifice of Jesus, finally taking care of the sins he had so patiently endured. This is not only clear, but it's ...

In times long ago, God gave instruction to Moses to build a "traveling tabernacle", a sign of his presence with Israel as they journeyed through the wilderness and made their way into the Promised Land of Canaan.  The tabernacle was made in a particular manner, with specific instructions for its dimensions, materials for construction, and furnishings.  Each element of the instruction was with specific purpose and if you study this subject a little, you will see how each of the "things" which went into making up the tabernacle actually pointed to some aspect of God's character and/or what he would do through his Son's life given for many.  One such furnishing was the altar - a place of some pretty "gruesome" offerings.  I am kind of glad we don't offer the blood of bulls, turtle doves and the like today in our worship because this killing of the animals and consuming of their bodies on the altar is kind of gross at first glance.  It wouldn'...

Burial:  In the simplest terms, it is the act of placing a dead person in the ground.  The remains have no further use - so we bury them.  Oh, don't turn me off yet, thinking this is going to be some morbid and disgusting topic dealing with physical death.  I want us to look at burial in the sense of some of the "stuff" we actually might do well burying!  There were customs of burial dating back something like 130,000 years ago, so this idea of "burying" the dead has quite a long history.  One of the reasons some think burial came about was to attempt to bring "closure".  It was a way of bringing an end to something.  There is more to this burial thing than just the placing of someone's physical remains into a tomb or a grave.  In fact, we might just find something of value in considering just what gets buried and why! So don’t you see that we don’t owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent. There’s nothing in it for us, nothing at all....

1-2  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. (Romans 12:1-2 The Message) Consecration goes beyond the surface - in fact, it embraces all of our being when it is operational in our lives.  Consecration is simply the act of setting something apart for a specific use.  When we say that the chocolate chip cookies are just for daddy because they are his favorite cookies, we have the ...

25-26 God sacrificed Jesus on the altar of the world to clear that world of sin. Having faith in him sets us in the clear. God decided on this course of action in full view of the public—to set the world in the clear with himself through the sacrifice of Jesus, finally taking care of the sins he had so patiently endured. This is not only clear, but it's now—this is current history! God sets things right. He also makes it possible for us to live in his rightness. (Romans 3:25-26) When we are bought with a price, there is an exchange of ownership.  This exchange of ownership is to have an effect on us.  The first thing we should notice is that there is a desire for cleansing.  We want to have things in our life that are not honoring to God dealt with and removed so that we can move on.  The place of cleansing is often referred to as the altar in the scripture.  Let’s examine the work of the altar: ·          It requires th...

God  is always on the alert, constantly on the lookout for people who are totally committed to him. (2 Chronicles 16:9) Sometimes we slip back into our old way of operating in life even after revelation has come.  This is usually because we do not apply ourselves to what has been revealed to us.  We "void" the revelation by not trusting in it, not being obedient to it, or simply just not fully receiving it in the first place. God never really asks much of us when it comes to revealing himself to us.  He simply ask us to be willing to change.  This encompasses the idea of being willing to present ourselves to him, allowing him to point out where change is need, and then allowing him to ignite that change within.  Along the way, he gives us all we need to accomplish that change - we simply need to remain in the place of obedience. When we present ourselves to God - in total commitment - we are placing our "self" on the altar and then we back away from the ...