The Plumbline

You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. (Psalm 139:13-14) I have frequently perused this passage in the Psalms, but today my focus was on the extreme gratitude our psalmist acknowledging his Creator's work. All the delicate, inner workings of one's body - including our mind, will, emotions, and spirit - formed by God himself. All perfectly functioning together, in the complexity of all those 'moving parts', one supporting the other. His workmanship is indeed marvelous, but do we really believe that? I have heard way too many complaints from others, and I have spoken more than a few myself over the years, about something we 'don't exactly like' about ourselves. Yet, if we are to be truthful with ourselves, we don't always see what God sees. Those unique features we may complain about from time to time are r...

God made all things. And everything continues through him and for him.  (Romans 11:36) God made all things - from the sand at the seashore to the hair on your head. Nothing exists without him. His breathe gave us life and his breathe sustains that life. His blood brings us into his family and his blood ensures we are cleansed of all manner of sin. His word puts all things into motion and sustains all things in perfect order. All things are in his care and under his careful watch - including you! Everything continues - telling words that indicate we don't just "come to Christ" and stagnate! We continue to grow in grace. Can we become something greater than what he calls us to be in his kingdom? Nope, but some will still try to remake their own lives even when the God who made and sustains all things provided all they need to grow in grace. The grace is a gift, but the growth must be intentional. We must press into his grace each day in order to grow in it. It isn't tha...

You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit them together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! It is amazing to think about. Your workmanship is marvelous—and how well I know it. (Psalm 139:13-14) How we come to realize the complexity of our body's structures and systems differs for everyone. Some may discover the uniqueness of their body, how it works, and why each 'part' is so important for the other parts because of illness, while others just discover it through the normal aging process. Bones that moved silently at one time are now creaky and crackle like a bowl of rice cereal. Muscles that once existed on the top of your arms are now like bat wings, jiggling about as you motion with your arms. A heart that once beat without notice may now pound out of your chest with each stair you climb. God made all the 'parts', but the most important part of our body is really our spirit - for it is the place he communes with us...

Because of this decision we don’t evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don’t look at him that way anymore. Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it! All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other. God put the world square with himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins. God has given us the task of telling everyone what he is doing. We’re Christ’s representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God’s work of making things right between them. We’re speaking for Christ himself now: Become friends with God; he’s already a friend with you. (2 Corinthians 5:17) I like the hope procl...