The Plumbline

Noah found favor with the Lord. (Genesis 6:8)  The hope of every believer's heart is that they 'find favor with the Lord' in all they say, think, and do. At times, we aren't very wise in our choice of words, so we waver a bit there. We waver a bit in the area of our thinking as we don't always 'put our thinking caps on' before we speak or act. We definitely waver in the 'doing' part of life as our mind may desire to do one thing, but we end up doing what our emotions 'feel' rather than what we know to be right. Noah was righteous and blameless before God. Out of all the people on earth, he alone found favor before God. Compared to the rest of the world around him and you will see they were so evil that God got to the point he could not bear it anymore. His justice demanded that he punish them.  I can only imagine how difficult it would be to live a righteous life in this kind of evil and vile environment. There was absolutely no restraint aga...

And this is his commandment: We must believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he commanded us. Those who obey God’s commandments remain in fellowship with him, and he with them. And we know he lives in us because the Spirit he gave us lives in us. (I John 3:23-24) We must believe - there is no other way into a restored relationship with God the Father than through Jesus Christ, his Son. This truth sometimes gets a little tweaked in religious circles - wanting to add some manner of 'works' to the simple belief God requires of us. No amount of us 'doing' will ever measure up to what Christ has already done. Simply believe that Jesus is the Son of God, died on the cross to make us free from the guilt and shame of our sin, and stop adding to the simplicity of grace. Grace is given, never earned. It is based on a finished work - that of Jesus and not on what we will ever be able to do in 'addition' to what has already been done. L...

But I am a worm and not a man. I am scorned and despised by all! Everyone who sees me mocks me. They sneer and shake their heads, saying, “Is this the one who relies on the Lord? Then let the Lord save him! If the Lord loves him so much, let the Lord rescue him!” (Psalm 22:6-8) Have you ever been under attack so badly that you imagined you no longer mattered - that your existence was like that of a worm, crawling defenselessly along the ground, only to be trampled underfoot? That is a pretty low view of one's life, isn't it? Here was David, the anointed king of Israel, bemoaning his life, feeling like everyone and everything was working against him. If the king could feel this way, what makes any of us think we can escape similar feelings on occasion? There will always be times when we face such hardships with a bit of doubt, frustration, and even some whining! In these moments of deepest despair and depressing circumstances, we have one of two actions - eithe...

It was the American inventor, Thomas A. Edison, who reminded us that " just because something doesn't do what you planned it to do doesn't mean it's useless. " This is a good reminder for each of us who get down on ourselves because we didn't do what we were supposed to do. We aren't useless just because we failed. We are human! We are fallible. We are going to make unwise choices from time to time. It is what we choose to do IN those moments that makes all the difference. Do we get down on ourselves, labeling ourselves as 'useless', or do we take our failure to Jesus and ask him to help us find a way to take different steps the next time? You can’t whitewash your sins and get by with it; you find mercy by admitting and leaving them. (Proverbs 28:13) Edison also recounted that he had tried a lot of things, but in trying these 'new ways' he found lots of ways that don't work. We oftentimes find ways that just 'don't work...