The Plumbline

There is so very much for which we should be grateful - most of us have no idea of the many things God actually does "behind the scenes" to keep us safe, bring us into places of blessing, and to intervene in our lives.  We just know God is there and that he is in control.  We don't "know" all the details of what that control looks like, but we trust it!  There are always moments in time when God "re-centers" my life a little so I take time to slow down and realize the many ways he protects and cares for my family.  If you have children, you "worry over" their lives even after they are gone from your home.  If you raise animals as pets or as your livelihood, you "worry over" every change in their behavior which suggests they are just not "feeling their oats".  If you care for elderly parents, you "worry over" every changing faculty and ability because you know each and every "decline" is moving them clo...

We all probably know people who live pretty well - making good choices and just not living too far from moral excellence.  What might amaze us is how many of these "good" individuals don't have a personal relationship with Jesus.  They simply live "right" and adhere to this strong moral code of excellence for some reason other than wanting to follow what scripture teaches.  In fact, many don't even know what the scripture says, much less seek to adhere to it!  So, how can they live so "well" and not know these truths?  I think scripture points us to the power of the conscience - it can be trained to respond in a variety of ways. Given the right input, the conscience can be trained to produce the right output. For example, if a parent teaches their child to respect their elders, adhere to the laws of the land, and to always treat others as they want to be treated themselves, they might grow up to be pretty solid citizens.  Their conscience has been...

Do you ever engage in "self-talk"?  You know what I mean - those moments when you just have to look yourself in the mirror and give yourself a stern talking to in order to bring correction to your attitude, behavior, or direction you are taking in life.  I think we all must do this from time to time, but we may be shy about admitting we actually talk to ourselves!  Especially if we could be labeled as a little "touched in the head" for that type of activity! Nonetheless, the things we tell ourselves in those moments of self-talk can be very "corrective" to our behavior.  I think God often lets us talk things out so we can become aware of the answer he wants to bring forth from us.  In a matter of minutes, we find ourselves coming to conclusions which bring clarity, give us hope, and move us in a new direction.  Why?  God helped us remember we might be "finished" with something which frustrates us or gives us too much worry, but he isn't! ...

I don't know about you, but we are ready to begin our planting season here in Arizona.  If we don't get the seeds in soon, the weather will turn so hot so quick that any new growth will just be scorched under the hot sun.  So, this weekend I began cleaning up the garden, trimming away any frosted leaves and turning the soil.  All the raised beds are ready to receive the early summer crops and some fresh plantings of budding flowers.  I still have one or two beds out front to finish, but in general, I am ready for the "growing season".  True to form, I made my little venture to the local nursery and found some flowering plants I wanted, a few packets of seeds to get me started and a little extra soil for another project I am working on.  The place was packed!  Others had the same idea obviously - it was the beginning of planting season.  One thing I noted though was how the sales clerk announced they had nearly sold out of weed killer.  What?...

As Israel is delivered from slavery in Egypt, realizing a dramatic release from their captivity through the display of the plagues and the parting of the Red Sea, they stand in the place between deliverance and the realization of the full promise of their goal - the Promised Land (Canaan).  They have witnessed great plagues from which they were left unaffected.  Their journey out of Egypt left them with great wealth - slaves set free, given crops, herds, and jewelry galore by their masters of so many years.  The impossible has happened - the Sea parted and they passed on dry ground - while it swallowed up the pursuing armies of Pharaoh.  Then they find themselves in the place "between" here and there.  Isn't this the place we often "forget our heads" and just find ourselves pursuing our "hearts" at times?  You know what I mean - the place where we just forget all God has already been faithful to perform in our lives and focus on the delay as meaning ...

When I was going to Bible College in the early 80's no one really wanted to enter into a "debate" with me about my beliefs.  I was a stalwart when it came to some of my "views" on what Christ allowed, didn't allow, loved, hated, etc. I actually did pretty good in apologetics - that class where we have to be able to "argue" our point based on scripture.  What I probably did a little poorly in was the "non-classroom" work of actually being loving in my responses to others as I shared this truth.  I guess the hardest lesson for me to learn came long after I actually finished school - when I actually saw life through the eyes of the one I serve.  You see, I "judged" when all I did was preach my point - I didn't begin to actually live out Christ's teaching until I put down my preaching!  As I have grown up in Christ, one of the things I have appreciated about his truth is that it doesn't change - it remains the same.  MY...

Love the Lord and hate evil.  Seems like a pretty easy command - straightforward and easy to grasp.  Yet, in all our struggling to do as this says, we find ourselves challenged with prejudices galore, fears of things which don't exactly "fit" our definition of "normal", and just plain silly misconceptions. There was a day not so long ago when healthcare workers wouldn't even touch the things which a patient with AIDS had touched, let alone be in their presence without a full garb of protective gown, mask, gloves, and the like.  I remember it well, as I was in nursing school in the 80's when the AIDS epidemic hit our nation.  I recall taking care of my first patient with AIDS - complying with the rules and regulations of the hospital and donning all that "protective garb" to keep not only me safe in my contact with this patient, but to keep others safe who might be contaminated if I brought something out of the room!  Man, did I ever feel like ...

One wise person can defeat a city full of soldiers - one kind person can realize the blessing of being kind.  Some of us will immediately see all the possibilities in this passage - while others will gravitate toward just one set of "do" or "don't" points.  Why is that?  I think it is because scripture hits us where we are at the moment.  If we are struggling with how we use our resources such as our time and energy, we probably feel like we are constantly out of reserves - we don't have enough when it comes to "crunch time". We focus on the part about not wasting our resources like a fool.  Some of us will focus on the advice to be careful with our words because a failure to do so can open up many an issue we would probably rather not have to deal with in the first place - the reminder to "watch what we say" places a muzzle over our lips.  Many will focus on the part about one wise person - up against a city of trained soldiers - captur...

Here in the states, we just finished up the football season with the two "greatest" games of the year for these teams - the Pro Bowl and the Super Bowl. Even the names of these two games suggest they are something to be considered an honor - only for the "pros" and those with "super" skill.  People paid thousands and thousands of dollars for tickets to the game, even more for room and board while they were here for upwards of a week or more, and still more for the fun and games they participated in while awaiting the games. According to an article I read on Forbes, a ticket was running over $11,000 just six hours prior to the Super Bowl!  One ticket!  That is enough for a down payment on a home!  That same ticket ran around $2,500 if it had been purchased earlier in January, but at that point prior to the game it had skyrocketed to this astronomical "value".  They even had a partitioned off section outside of the stadium in Glendale where people...

If you have ever laid awake at night just ruminating over the state of something which really bugged you that day, or made you a little concerned, you know what it is like to be robbed of a good night's sleep!  It might be the steady little drip you hear up in the attic, not really sure where it is coming from, but you know you have some type of problem with the roof.  You could be rehearsing recent conversations with a peer which really didn't go as planned, dreading the next time you encounter them because you know it will have caused a little bit of a wrinkle in your relationship.  Or maybe you are just adding up the bills and trying hard to figure out how to make ends meet in a really "tight" month.  It doesn't make any difference what robs us of our sleep, it is the fact we are robbed in the first place which we need to focus on.  You see, when we allow those things we cannot control to ruin our peace, we are being robbed.  We are being "violated" ...

There are definitely times when we need to just tell someone how "boxed in" we are feeling at the moment.  It could be pressures from work piling up uncontrollably around us, or the bills of a few unexpected expenses which are now coming due, but regardless of the cause of the "boxed in" feelings, there is not much joy in them.  In fact, they are probably eliciting some fear, that little bit of anxiety mixed with frustration, and can even be creating undue physical pressures within our bodies which we now have to "manage", as well.  The scriptures are filled with examples of people feeling "boxed in", ranging from an entire nation of Israelites standing before the Red Sea with a vast amount of enemy forces closing in on them in hot pursuit, to the feelings of being alone and abandoned in a foreign country as a couple of widowed foreigners. Regardless of the cause, our sense of being "boxed in" can be overwhelming to us on occasion - el...

You've heard the old adage, "The best laid plans of mice and men..." - but do you know the rest of the adage?  It actually says, "The best laid plans of mice and men go awry."  No matter how carefully we plan, something can always go wrong with our plans.  This is human nature.  Yet, we are planners, aren't we? When we go to bed at night, we are thinking about what the new day will hold, complete with our mental "lists" of all we need to accomplish. Some of us are actual "list makers", having all manner of post-its and agendas at our disposal to organize the vast number of planned things we must accomplish.  It took me some time to realize the real reason for my list making was just so I wouldn't forget to accomplish something!  I thought making lists was just part of life - as I had seen other successful people do it for ages.  Yet, I didn't really know why I was making all those lists until one day I discovered it was just beca...

This morning, I was re-reading the account of Elkanah and his two wives - Hannah and Penninah.  The story starts with an account of Elkanah's lineage, but quickly gives us the state of his potential legacy - Penninah had born him children, but Hannah was barren.  In the time this was written, being unable to bear children was a huge issue - for children ensured not only the continuation of a line, but the "substance" of a man's wealth, at times.  Children meant the fields could be worked, and the trade could be taught to a future generation who would provide for their families.  So, being without children was not only a big deal - it was also a thing which would cause unrest in the home.  Hannah knows she is loved very much by Elkanah - but she still longs for the privilege of bearing him a child. Hannah finds herself praying repeatedly for a child.  She longs for the honor of being a mother and to this end, she lays her heart out before God in t...

We all have times when we feel like our prayers are just bouncing around somewhere up in the atmosphere, just not hitting the mark of God's listening ear.  It isn't uncommon to interpret God's delay in "answering" our prayer as him not listening.  In fact, if we were honest, we probably could admit to our having just gone ahead in our own plans simply because we thought the heavens were "brass" and we were left all on our own to figure things out.  We don't realize a delay in answering is also God's way of answering!  In the delay, there is something of trust built - something most of us don't want to learn because we have to step out of our comfort zone a little when we have to wait upon God's timing.  When his timing isn't ours, or the answer isn't even remotely close to what we "want", we often think God just plain is not there to help us in the matter.  David has much to teach us about prayer - his heart continually...

When I was growing up, I tried to learn and learn and learn.  I had a ravenous appetite for learning new things.  I actually was one of those kids in school who looked forward to weekdays, dreaded the weekend, and even longed for school to restart even before summer vacation had begun.  I would read books to explore new worlds, peruse the encyclopedias to uncover new truths about people and places, and gaze upon photos in National Geographic with wonder at the majesty of far off lands and native tribes making a way in jungle regions. I'd study ants coming and going as they diligently cared for their large family. Bird nests became a place of the discovery of patient waiting - longing to discover what tiny life might emerge from those speckled eggs nestled there so carefully. I would watch people in the hallways, on the playground, and even as we walked home after school.  I didn't say much, because I was a shy kid.  Yet, I took it all in.  My imagination w...