The Plumbline

How eager are you for the warm weather of summer? How much do you look forward to a special event like vacation or seeing friends you haven't visited with in a long while? What level of excitement does a promotion at work create within your heart? Does the birth of a newborn thrill your heart and make your day special? I wonder if we have the same 'eagerness' and 'excitement' about Christ's return to this earth a second time? We all know there were mixed emotions over his first coming, ranging from curiosity to unbelief. Will his second return be met with mixed emotions on our part, or anticipation of better things to come? Christ also died only once as a sacrifice. In this way, he took God's punishment for the sins of many people. Christ will return to earth a second time, but that will not be as a sacrifice for sins. That time, he will come to save those people who are waiting patiently for him.  (Hebrews 9:28) The purpose of his first coming - to offer hi

Now, who will want to harm you if you are eager to do good? But even if you suffer for doing what is right, God will reward you for it. So don’t worry or be afraid of their threats. Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if someone asks about your hope as a believer, always be ready to explain it. But do this in a gentle and respectful way. Keep your conscience clear. Then if people speak against you, they will be ashamed when they see what a good life you live because you belong to Christ. Remember, it is better to suffer for doing good, if that is what God wants, than to suffer for doing wrong! (I Peter 3:13-17) Have you ever done the 'right thing' only to have others criticize your efforts, or worse yet, not even notice that you did it? We can 'do right' and have all the 'wrong' motives for doing it. We can 'do right' with the 'right motives' and still be misunderstood by others, or not have our efforts acknowledged or appr

People with integrity walk safely, but those who follow crooked paths will be exposed. (Proverbs 10:9) Most of us really desire to have a walk of integrity - consistent, upright, and firmly grounded. What happens between desire and action is a mystery to many of us. We start so well, with all the right intentions in mind, but then somewhere in the middle, we just make wrong turns and get off-course. How do we become 'people with integrity'? When we ask this question, we are really asking how do we become 'whole'. We become 'whole' in the presence of Jesus - we remain 'whole' because we keep Jesus central in all our decisions. As I did a bit of a deep dive into how we become people of integrity, I was amazed at how many self-help gurus have outlined the 'steps toward integrity'. All of these gurus completely leave Jesus out of the 'steps'. For example, in one article it tells us to 'try to keep our promises even if we need to make sac

Getting wisdom is the wisest thing you can do! And whatever else you do, develop good judgment. (Proverbs 4:7) "Choose your friends with caution; plan your future with purpose and frame your life with faith." (Thomas S. Monson) No truer words have been spoken - all these choices matter so greatly, don't they? Wisdom eludes many of our decisions throughout our lifetime, leaving us a bit more disappointed in the outcome than we'd have hoped. Choose wisely and the outcome brings us cheer. Make an unwise choice in friendships, or our future plans, and the end result will surely leave us wanting. Choose to put God first in our lives and the choices we make in the other two area are sure to be better than if we'd made them on our own! How do we consistently make wise choices? The answer is really quite simple - we choose Christ first above all else. Why does this ensure consistently wise choices? Christ IS wisdom - he embodies all wisdom, so choosing him means we actual