The Plumbline

Ralph Waldo Emerson reminds us, "All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen." Proverbs 3:5-6 tells us, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take." We sometimes trust in things and individuals that really aren't all that trustworthy. Where do you place your trust today? Is it in your financial well-being or career pathway? Is it in your ability to figure almost anything out without much effort? Or is your trust in something some may refer to as a little more 'divine' like a guardian angel? There is but one reliable place to put your trust - the cross. At the cross, all we needed was provided. All we never knew we needed was provided! Are we guilty of depending on our own understanding to figure out what is going on in our lives? If so, we likely have a very limited perspective and could actually be trusting in something...

Answer me when I call to you,   O God who declares me innocent. F ree me from my troubles.   Have mercy on me and hear my prayer. (Psalm 4:1) One of the greatest fears men have could just be thinking God doesn't hear them when they call out for God's help. The issue isn't that God doesn't hear, it could be that we don't listen! God has been listening to us all along - we might not have returned the favor! Some think prayer is simply us talking to God about what is the matter in our lives and expecting him to 'fix' it somehow. It is a shocker when God shows us there are things we could fix that would make things a whole lot better. We don't realize that prayer is a two-way conversation. We might speak to God, but he is earnestly trying to speak to us in the midst of the 'unloading' we are doing on him. It isn't that God doesn't want us to bring our cares and concerns to him. It is that when we do, it is for more than an immediate 'fix...

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...

Has anyone or anything been disturbing your peace lately? If you watch the evening news, there are reports of mass shootings, angry confrontations between this group or that, natural disasters sweeping away those in their path, homes destroyed by fires, and families torn apart by things way beyond their control. Indeed, there are a plethora of things that can disturb our peace in a matter of seconds, but we don't have to allow our peace to be destroyed by any of these things or people. God's peace is capable of surpassing whatever seeks to disturb it. The way peace is maintained is also the way it is attained - we place our trust in the One True God. You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you! Trust in the Lord always, for the Lord God is the eternal Rock. (Isaiah 26:3-4) What are 'fixed thoughts'? If you are like me, your mind can ramble right along from one thought to the next without taking a breather at all. We can get ...

Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life. (Philippians 4:6-7) When we are presented with alternatives, we are being given a choice. If you have ever gone into a restaurant with pages and pages of menu items, bound together in a spiral bound book of sorts, you probably have been so frustrated by all the choices you just chose your old "stand by" because you couldn't read through them all before the waitress returned! When the choices are many, the anxiety associated with making the "right" choice is significantly higher than when the choices are simply this or that. At least we stand a 50/50 chance of getting our choice right with the latter example, but with the spiral-...

Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer's day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time. (John Lubbock) Lubbock also reminds us that a day of worry is worse than a week of work! We spend a great deal of time 'working on things', only to rework them a little later. We clean today, but by next week this time, the cleaning must be repeated. Why? Life happened and dirt came. As with our living environment, life happens and dirt comes into our lives in the areas of our emotions, thoughts, and even our relationships. We must constantly be aware that life will 'happen', but when we have prepared for it, we are able to face the challenge of the 'dirt' as it arises. I have extra cleaning products in the house - not just enough to keep it clean today. One way we are always ready to deal with 'life's dirt' as it comes is to be 'rested', f...