The Plumbline

So let us stop going over the basic teachings about Christ again and again. Let us go on instead and become mature in our understanding. Surely we don’t need to start again with the fundamental importance of repenting from evil deeds and placing our faith in God. Hebrews 6:1 NLT Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end . (Seneca) Stop for a moment to think about the last time you chose to begin something new. Did you simply add to the stuff you had already been doing or did you actually find your new beginning required you to put something else away? In a physical sense, I cannot mow and weed eat at the same time. I cannot stir the stew and chop the vegetables at the same time...one leads to the other, but both aren't done at the same time. Why do we then think we can just go on and on in the same learning we have been taught without ever beginning anew to explore what God has for us? Yes, we maintain a great foundation of fundamental truth, but t...

Ever start stuff and then somewhere along the way it never quite makes it to "finished"?  I have lots of these projects!  I wanted to learn to crochet - well that isn't gonna happen since I live in Arizona and would never wear one thing I could make!  I wanted to learn to paint with water colors - another wayside project abandoned somewhere between learning to sketch and outline and actually having the talent to do it!  I wanted to learn how to take care of a car's engine - I got about ten percent into this one when I discovered these things are way too complicated anymore for me to do more than drive it to the local Jiffy Lube for an oil change!  I guess we all have those "start" and "stop" moments in life - when we realize we bit off more than we could chew, or just plain didn't know what we were getting into.  What isn't up to us "getting through" is this thing called "salvation".  You see, God began that work, so we...

While I am not an avid baker, I do enjoy undertaking winter baking projects from time to time.  In the summer's of Arizona, we do as little to heat up the house as possible, so all morning baking projects are just not in the mix during those hot months!  I have never made a loaf of bread though, although I have watched others make it, observed cooking shows in which the technique is taught, etc.  I just haven't had the urge to undertake the project.  Maybe it is because I know I would like the warm, rich taste of that loaf freshly baked with just a little too much butter!  One thing I learned while watching those bread makers out there - a little "leaven" or "yeast" in the mix sure does a lot of work to make a pretty "benign" lump of dough rise to fluffy goodness!  It is a good illustration to us of how one right action can set off a chain reaction of "right actions"! If the first and best of the dough you offer is sacred, the entire...

To be strong implies we are robust, able to stand up to the test.  Strength can be viewed as mental power, physical ability, and even moral firmness.  It is something developed over time - not something which comes as a matter of inheritance.  In other words, you can desire to be strong, but what brings strength is the exercise of the strength you possess until you begin to reveal you possess an even greater strength.  Strength is sometimes not used the way God would intend for it to be used.  If you have ever been hit by another car, you know the reality of the collision.  The power behind the car which struck yours does damage to yours because of that "strength" behind the force of impact.  The weight of the car, the speed at which it is traveling, and the location at which it strikes your car all determine the "strength" by which your car (and your body) will receive the impact.  The collision's force leaves you stranded - if not because your ...

Have you ever stopped to consider how many times you actually make new beginnings in this life?  At the beginning of almost every new year, we make some type of new beginnings, only to see them fizzle out shortly after we make them.  At the beginning of each new day, we commit to something which we will struggle with remaining faithful to throughout the course of that day.  At the beginning of the new month, we resolve to stay on budget and not spend more than we plan on taking in this month in our paychecks.  We are constantly making new beginnings, aren't we?  Sometimes we make these new beginnings with stuff like finances, our weight, or the maintenance we will perform around the house.  At others, it is much deeper, like the time we will plan to spend with a significant other, or the discovery of what God has for us in his Word by daily study and meditation.  Regardless of the new beginnings, there is something in common among them all - US.  ...