The Plumbline

Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither. (C.S. Lewis) Better to have little, with fear for the Lord, than to have great treasure and inner turmoil. (Proverbs 15:16) Back in the day, we watched wholesome programming depicting the 'ideal family'. Leave It to Beaver, My Three Sons, and Happy Days seemed to depict people all getting along, easily resolving any kind of conflict that might arise, and working together on projects to see the best of life emerge. How many of us realize that 'real life' isn't all that smooth, people don't always work together well, and conflict is almost inevitable? Inner turmoil is the outcome of striving for what we don't have, probably don't need, and almost certainly don't have the best of motivation in seeking in the first place. Aim is important - without proper aim, we could hit almost anything, but 'anything' may not be what we really want! God's plan is to put him f...

Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives. (Galatians 5:24-25) Hey, does your cross have a bunch of holes where the nails have been driven time and time again? I know I have a seen God drive a nail home when he convicts me of something he wants to change in my life, then after a while, there I am with the hammer trying to remove that nail! Nail and hammer in hand, I go about doing the very thing God asked me to allow him to nail to the cross! It is likely we all struggle with that from time to time, all because we want to control the course of our lives just a bit too much. The 'control thing' is really a combo of our pride and our lusts getting the best of us. We want what God says we should not have, then we struggle with the desire to possess it, before long giving into that desire instead o...

Faith is the bird that feels the light when the dawn is still dark. (Rabindranath Tagore) I say this because all of God lives in Christ fully, even in his life on earth. And because you belong to Christ you are complete, having everything you need. Christ is ruler over every other power and authority. (Colossians 2:9-10) If Christ lives in you, all of God lives in you - you are complete, lacking in nothing you ever need, full of power and might. Now, how many of us are actually living like we believe that? Most of us would cop to a plea of living somewhere below that mark, believing instead in the things that give us worry and stress as a bit more powerful right now. As Tagore said, 'faith is the bird that feels the light' even when the darkness around you hasn't been pushed away entirely by the light. We might just need to ask God to reveal himself in the darkness so it can be pushed back entirely! If Christ rules over every power and authority that exists, why do we worry...

So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death. The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. (Romans 8:1-3) If you have ever stopped to wonder why Jesus had to take on the form of a man, there's your answer. He came to this earth in a body 'like the body we sinners have', so that he could be the sacrifice for our sins. In all he did in that one action, he provided an END to sin's control in our lives - so we are no longer controlled by our sin nature - we have been given a new one - Christ's. Paul has just explained that he desires to do what is right - what the commandments...

Calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said, “Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You’re not in the driver’s seat; I am. Don’t run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I’ll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to saving yourself, your true self. What good would it do to get everything you want and lose you, the real you? What could you ever trade your soul for? (Mark 8:32-37) Are you a follower of Christ? If so, your life is marked by some very unique things, such as embracing suffering, not being so intent on yourself that you cannot see the needs of others and being willing to allow Christ to take the lead in your life. How many times do we ask Jesus to take the lead in our lives, intending to live a holy, upright, and circumspect life, only to take the lead right back from him whenever the urge hits us? If you are anything like me, it has been like a game of musical chairs! Followers LET Jesus lead - that means w...

Life Hack #31:  Your life is not your own - it is merely on loan. Life choices may be made in haste, but the consequences will be around a long time to come.  In the movie, "Rebel Without a Cause", a bunch of emotionally confused and morally rebellious youth reveal absolute defiance against all authority and repeated "bad choices". The truth portrayed in the death of a best friend is really a reminder to all that without warning life can turn upside down. Today's choices will affect more than today's outcomes. Rebel a little here and there, repeat the behavior, and before long, you are living a life that is really not close to God at all. Fear God, dear child—respect your leaders; don’t be defiant or mutinous. Without warning your life can turn upside down, and who knows how or when it might happen? (Proverbs 24:21-22) Most of us would not classify our 'rebellion' as outright defiance - that open discontent with someone or something, or outright da...

God is in charge of human life, watching and examining us inside and out. We justify our actions by appearances; God examines our motives. Clean living before God and justice with our neighbors mean far more to God than religious performance.  (Proverbs 20:27; 21:2-3) Has the thought ever occurred to you to consider carefully who might just be "in charge" of your life? Most of us would say we believe God is in charge of our lives - and we'd be correct in this assumption - yet most of us live as though WE were in charge of our lives! We don't consult God with our daily decisions - we make them and then look to him to "back us up". We get ourselves into "binds" and expect him to bail us out. At those moments when we are struggling to hold our head above water, we even get to thinking God may have just abandoned us. Our reality isn't that he abandoned us, but that we totally missed out on the fact of his watchful protection over our lives ev...

  If you haven't figured this out yourself by now, we live in a world where people just don't seem to fight fair. There are events that happen that reveal just how some will pick apart others, while some stand idly by allowing it all to occur. Truth be told, it is a dog-eat-dog world out there! Dogs eating dogs is not a very pleasant thought to me - but it definitely paints a graphic picture, does it not? The world just doesn't fight fair. But...as a believer in Christ, we have a different way of fighting our battles! The world is unprincipled. It’s dog-eat-dog out there! The world doesn’t fight fair. But we don’t live or fight our battles that way—never have and never will. The tools of our trade aren’t for marketing or manipulation, but they are for demolishing that entire massively corrupt culture. We use our powerful God-tools for smashing warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God, fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse int...

I am learning to build stuff from wood, but trust me on this one, the design may be good, but the execution of the measurements may not always be. Hence the little saying in woodworking: "Measure twice, cut once." I have made some stuff that looked great, but when we went to use it as it was designed, it was too narrow, too wide, too long, or too wobbly. All the work that went into it was grand. I took great care to sand, stain, and finish the piece, only to find it didn't 'measure up'. I wonder how many times we think we are building "good stuff" into our lives, only to look back and see how little we actually "built" that was all that 'good'. We always seem to think the endeavors of our lives are totally worthwhile - but in retrospect, how many of them really produced what we originally believed possible? The most amazing thing happens though when we set out on an endeavor with God - usually MORE than we believed possible happens! I...

I wonder how many times we try to go it alone in life, kind of like some of us are doing right now, only to find ourselves in a worse muddle at the end? If you are like me (and I kind of think some of you might just be), you may try things on "your own" for a period of time, simply because you think you've "got everything under control". Then when the edges begin to fray a bit and life becomes a little more challenging than you expected, you begin to get a little worried, but you still hold onto control just a little longer. Why? The "fraying" is just a little annoyance at this point - you will deal with it. You don't feel the impact of a total "unraveling" quite yet - so you plunge ahead on your own. When do we finally take notice of how much "unraveling" has occurred in your life because you have been trying to do it alone? When the full-size blanket is the size of a washcloth? Love God, all you saints; God takes care...

There are times when we feel like no one is "in charge" - not even us - when the moments just seem to tick on and all the chaos of the moment have us bumping into all kinds of obstacles. We all face these times - the times when life deals us a hand we just would rather not play, not even a little bit! When "dealt our hand", we can either throw it in, ante up and play, or bluff our way through. Which way are you facing what life deals you today? If you are bluffing your way through, you are likely frustrated, seeing things as very difficult to deal with, but imagining you will get through somehow. If today's plans don't work, you will try something different tomorrow. The problem with living 'out of control' is that we soon get weary trying to maintain balance with the skill and power we possess. Our attitude begins to falter and we all know the attitude soon begins to impact the altitude to which we will ever be able to climb! The day my enemies...

Wouldn't it be great to have someone just tell us everything was going to be all right in our life? There are moments in time when things just seem to spin out of control and all we want to hear is that it is going to be well with us - we are going to make it through, survive, and rise above this current unease or unrest. We are loved by God and kept by Jesus Christ - therefore, what spins today is still in his control. Some of us just need to hear, "Relax, everything's going to be all right; rest, everything's coming together; open your hearts, love is on the way!" But you, dear friends, carefully build yourselves up in this most holy faith by praying in the Holy Spirit, staying right at the center of God's love, keeping your arms open and outstretched, ready for the mercy of our Master, Jesus Christ. This is the unending life, the real life! Go easy on those who hesitate in the faith. Go after those who take the wrong way. Be tender with sinners, but not s...

I always thought I'd enjoy learning how to ballroom dance. I like to watch the gracefulness of two people being so totally in sync with each other that they can just glide across the floor. If you have ever watched my try to dance, you will know I have absolutely no understanding of the concept of being led in the dance. I struggle with not getting ahead of the one who is leading! I don't know why that is, but maybe it is because I have never really had a dance partner that knew how to ballroom dance themselves! I have never been led by one who knows how to lead. Having the right lead in our lives goes way beyond the ballroom. Then Jesus went to work on his disciples. "Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You're not in the driver's seat; I am. Don't run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I'll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self. What kind of deal is it to ...

Memory requires some effort on our part, does it not? Try learning your mathematical 'times tables' for the first time and you will likely have to 'memorize' the fact that 3 times 3 equals 9. Eventually, in the course of 'rehearsing' that which you have memorized, you will form long-term memory of that fact. It is a fact, not fiction, for three rows of three oranges a piece will yield you nine oranges. There are parts of our memories though that are a little more fiction than fact. We all 'add to' memories, not the stuff we memorize, but the memories made in the moments of life. Most of what we remember will be true, but there are parts of our memories we 'make up' to fill in some gap in those memories. It just could be because we didn't 'take notice' of those things 'in the moment', but now we are recounting something from those moments and realizing there was more we never even saw while we were living in that moment! O Lor...

Kissinger once quipped, "There cannot be a crisis next week. My schedule is already full." Many of us would share his sentiments. Our schedules could not manage a crisis of any nature - much less a little 'hiccup' along the way. The more busy our schedule, the more we can count on something to disturb it, though! The moment we are too busy for any type of 'crisis', that is the moment we are too busy for life! Life isn't going to stand still so we can manage through some crisis - it keeps coming at us at whatever pace we had 'scheduled' and the crisis will loom until we pay it some mind. 12 Dear friends, don’t be bewildered or surprised when you go through the fiery trials ahead, for this is no strange, unusual thing that is going to happen to you. 13 Instead, be really glad—because these trials will make you partners with Christ in his suffering, and afterwards you will have the wonderful joy of sharing his glory in that coming day when it will b...

12 Do not let sin control the way you live; do not give in to sinful desires. 13 Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God. 14 Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God’s grace. (Romans 6:12-14 NLT) Something always exerts control - it is the nature of how things work. The "control" or force of gravity exerts the pull that keeps us from flying away from the surface of the earth into the oblivion of outer space. Oxygen controls the ability for human life to continue to exist on this planet, for without the availability of oxygen we'd all die. Weaker are consumed by stronger, simply because they can have a greater "control" over the outcome of the chase. If control is t...

The great architect Frank Lloyd Wright once said, "Less is more when more is no good." Let that sink in a while and you might just agree with Mr. Wright. When what we desire is no good, it doesn't really matter if the desire is a little one or a huge one - it is still not good for us to pursue! One of the Roman philosophers of the first century, Publilius Syrus wrote, "If you wish to reach the highest, begin at the lowest." In other words, what we don't think might matter is what usually will give us the greatest difficulty. We take for granted the washer in the faucet until the drip begins to keep us awake at night! 13 So get yourselves ready, prepare your minds to act, control yourselves, and look forward in hope as you focus on the grace that comes when Jesus the Anointed returns and is completely revealed to you. 14 Be like obedient children as you put aside the desires you used to pursue when you didn’t know better. 15 Since the One who called you is ...

Walt Kelly is quoted as saying, "Every burden is a blessing."  Walt is probably best known as the cartoonist who created the little character strip known as "Pogo".  He began as a cartoonist for Walt Disney, bringing characters to life in Pinocchio, Fantasia, and Dumbo. In one of his simple strips in the Pogo series, Pogo is walking along with Porkypine and is struggling to make it across the forest floor because of the prickly pine needles. As the two sit to nurse those wounds inflicted by the thick undergrowth and ponder the dilemma, Pogo simply says, "We have met the enemy, and he is us."  The enemy is us - what a somber thought, huh?  I once heard it said there are three people in the driver's seat of our lives - the person we are at this very moment, the one we could be if we gave into every whim or fancy of evil which presents itself to us, and the one we most certainly want to be by letting Christ do the driving.  The struggle comes in deciding ...

Wars, quarrels, wanting our own way, lusting for what we don't have, but probably also don't need - sound like society today?  If you said "yes", you are probably observing some of the same things I am.  The problem, as James explains it so aptly, is the "war within" each of us - wanting things we really don't need or things which will eventually be our undoing.  Life deals us all kinds of options - learning how to sort through those options is imperative to living well.  James also warns us with getting so close to the things this world has to offer that we stray dangerously close to the line of compromise all the time.  A couple of weeks ago, I commented about how my pastor spoke about being in the world, but not of it.  His illustration was that of a thermometer and a thermostat.  As Christians, we are to be thermostats - controlling the temperature of the culture around us, not being thermometers who just "adjust" to the temperature the cu...

In charge - has the thought ever occurred to you to consider carefully who might just be "in charge" of your life?  Most of us would say we believe God is in charge of our lives - and we'd be correct in this assumption.  Yet, most of us live as though WE were in charge of our lives!  We don't consult God with our decisions - we make them and then look to him to "back us up" with those decisions.  We get ourselves into "binds" and expect him to bail us out.  At those moments when we are struggling to hold our head above water, we even get to thinking God may have just abandoned us.  Maybe the better perspective for us to have is not that he abandoned us, but that we totally missed out on the fact of his watchful protection over our lives even when WE insisted on being "in charge".  After wallowing for a while in our self-pity because we recognize our "plans" were not all that good, we find ourselves a little "exposed" b...