The Plumbline

Each one of us has one body, and that body has many parts. These parts don’t all do the same thing. In the same way, we are many people, but in Christ we are all one body. We are the parts of that body, and each part belongs to all the others. (Romans 12:4-5) "A deep sense of love and belonging is an irreducible need of all people. We are biologically, cognitively, physically, and spiritually wired to love, to be loved, and to belong. When those needs are not met, we don't function as we were meant to. We break. We fall apart. We numb. We ache. We hurt others. We get sick." (Brene Brown) What is your 'part' in the Body of Christ? If you cannot answer that right now, then it is time to ask God to show you where you 'fit' and what your 'role' is. We 'belong' to the Body of Christ, and as such, we belong to each other. To neglect relationship with anyone in the Body of Christ is like neglecting a particular part of your physical body. Whenever...

You are coming to Christ, who is the living cornerstone of God’s temple. He was rejected by people, but he was chosen by God for great honor. And you are living stones that God is building into his spiritual temple. What’s more, you are his holy priests. Through the mediation of Jesus Christ, you offer spiritual sacrifices that please God. (I Peter 2:4-5) We all experience some form of rejection on occasion, so lest we think we are enduring the worst rejection possible, let us not forget the extreme rejection Jesus endured. A life lived well will be subject to some form of criticism and even rejection - the ones doing the criticizing just cannot live with their own choices in the face of the ones we have made, so they ridicule and reject us. It isn't a bad thing when they reject us because it actually shows we are living in such a way that they are convicted just by the example we set. Rejected by people but chosen by God. We might admit that being rejected by others is kind of ha...

Just as there are many parts to our bodies, so it is with Christ’s body. We are all parts of it, and it takes every one of us to make it complete, for we each have different work to do. So we belong to each other, and each needs all the others. (Romans 12:4-5) What 'part' do you play in your varied relationships? If you are a mom, you likely fulfill roles such as chief cook & bottle washer, laundress, personal hygiene aide, and even thrift-minded shopper. If you are employed as a mechanic, you not only diagnose every squeak, plink, and plunk an automobile makes, but you are adept at figuring out how to set those things right again. We all have 'parts' to play in our daily work and home lives, but we also have a very unique 'part' to play in the Body of Christ - the church. Don't be deceived by those four walls you label as a church - the place where you 'go' on Sundays to worship for a couple hours. Complete with pews, chairs, choir loft, podium,...

For who do you know that really knows you, knows your heart? And even if they did, is there anything they would discover in you that you could take credit for? Isn’t everything you have and everything you are sheer gifts from God? So what’s the point of all this comparing and competing? You already have all you need. You already have more access to God than you can handle. (I Cor. 4:7-8 MSG) Who really knows your heart - not mine, not the next guy's, but yours? At first, you might think of someone very close to you and say they come pretty close to really “knowing” us, but do they really? Do they know the intimate workings of our mind (that could be scary), see the inner challenges of daily decisions that we make (uhm...that would be meddling), or understand the pull of our self-nature in every opportunity for compromise that presents itself to us? To be truthful here, no one really has that kind of knowledge of us - but some come "close". There are those who we confide...

14  Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth.   15  Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church.  16  He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.  (Ephesians 4:14-16 NLT) As this passage opens, it is a summation of Paul's comments of being "equipped for every good work" as a result of God having given us those who will teach, exhort, ensure a good foundation for building our lives together, and creating unity within the diversity of those called The Body of Christ or the Church. It is the result of this "building work" that helps us to no longer be immature li...

14  Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth.   15  Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. 16  He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.  (Ephesians 4:14-16 NLT) What is your "part" in the family of God? So many times we are simply content to allow others to serve around us, while we just observe their service. There is a direct correlation between our service and our growth. One does not occur without the other. Now, don't get me wrong - service is not a way to "earn" anything in God's kingdom, but it is a means by which we put into practice the thin...

If you find any comfort from being in the Anointed, if His love brings you some encouragement, if you experience true companionship with the Spirit, if His tenderness and mercy fill your heart;  then, brothers and sisters,   here is one thing that would  complete my joy—come together as one in mind and spirit and purpose, sharing in the same love.  (Philippians 1:1-2 VOICE) Comfort - encouragement - companionship - tenderness - mercy... What fills your heart? What encourages your spirit? What energizes your thoughts? What gives "lift" to your step and forward motion to your actions? What gives balance to your emotions? If you can answer "Christ" to all of these, then you are probably pretty saturated in the peace of Christ!  Your comfort isn't found in things you own or the stuff you might be able to "see", but rather it comes from being embraced by his grace, tenderly touched by his mercy, and wrapped up squarely in relationship with him! The ver...

I have two grandsons, about five years apart in age.  I have two children, about two years apart in age.  One lives in Chandler, the other in Mesa. My brother is eleven years older, my sister ten years older than I am.  One lives in Phoenix, the other in Sedona.  We each have "distance" between us, if not because of physical location, at least in age, gender, and levels of maturity, don't we?  In the family of God, the "distance" we maintain from each other is also quite "palpable", is it not?  Some enter into this family relationship with great eagerness, just because they want to belong, finally feeling part of something worthwhile.  Others barely edge in, afraid to get too close for fear they might be "found out" for their short-comings.  Still others "enter in", but never really get beyond sharing "surface stuff" about themselves.  Depending upon the "distance" we maintain between God and others, our growth ...

We have been exploring the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives through the various "gifts" he gives as we walk along with him.  As we have already established, there are a variety of "fruits" and "gifts" of the Spirit, but all come from exactly the same source.  Fruits are a result of growth IN our inner man as we walk with the Spirit, gifts are a result of the Spirit's working within us given to help each of us grow a little deeper in Christ.  The gifts of the Spirit are for the benefit of the entire Body of Christ - his church - your fellow believers.  The fruits of the Spirit actually impact you first, then they begin to reveal the nature of God's heart to the world around you.  We need both - one without the other is like bread without butter, potatoes without gravy, or cake without frosting.  I can eat bread plain, but there is something about the combination of butter slathered on the surface of a good bread which gives it just that much mo...

"Any and every Israelite—this also goes for the foreigners—who hunts down an animal or bird that is edible, must bleed it and cover the blood with dirt, because the life of every animal is its blood—the blood is its life." (Leviticus 17:13-15 The Message) The life is in the blood - the blood is its life.  These words speak volumes to those that suffer from incurable diseases of the blood.  The inability of the body to produce the right quantities of blood cells, the response of the body to produce too many of one type of cell over another, all create such "imbalance" and leave a person fighting for life.  The truth is that the very life of each and every man and woman is nothing without the blood! This week, my dearest friend will go through the process known as hematopoietic stem cell phoresis for the purpose of donating those life-giving cells to her brother who is fighting for his life with leukemia.  The process involves injections that will increase her whit...