The Plumbline

My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die. (Galatians 2:20-21 NLT) No longer I...  Those three words bring two very different 'worlds' into focus. It is either "I" that is in control, or it is Christ. There is no 'happy medium' between the two as so many of us try to formulate. The more of "I" Christ controls, the less of "I" takes the driver's seat. We want to be in control, so we do our best to create and live by some set of 'rules', but we don't do a very good job of it. We have the 'rules' or 'standards' as laid out by man, yet we violate at least some of them some of the time. Do you always drive the speed limit?...

You didn’t choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name. This is my command: Love each other. (John 15:16-17) Choice - to select from a number of possibilities - usually because you know something about what it is you are choosing. I choose one of a couple of brands of toilet tissue because I know the quality of those brands. I sometimes see other choices that may cost a little less, but I don't choose them because I have no clue as to their quality. I choose one brand of dish detergent because I have observed what it does when I make a sudsy water to wash my pots and pans. We make all kinds of choices each and every day, some of them pretty much a matter of 'routine' in our lives. There are choices we make consciously and others we make subconsciously, something we might not even realize we are doing. How is it we choose to serve Christ today? Is it a conscious or subconscious...

When we are no longer able to change a situation - we are challenged to change ourselves. (Viktor E. Frankl) I would challenge this thought a bit to remind each of us that change is not our job alone. We try a lot of things to change things about ourselves. We diet, wanting to look a certain way in our clothes - but then we bounce back to needing to wear that bigger size. We deep clean our homes, wanting that 'clean and fresh' look - but then we drift back into allowing the clutter to build and the dust bunnies to collect. WE try, but God asks us to allow him to transform us. You didn’t think, did you, that just by pointing your finger at others you would distract God from seeing all your misdoings and from coming down on you hard? Or did you think that because he’s such a nice God, he’d let you off the hook? Better think this one through from the beginning. God is kind, but he’s not soft. In kindness he takes us firmly by the hand and leads us into a radical life-change. (Roma...