The Plumbline

Then he said to the crowd, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it." (Luke 9:23-24 NLT) A follower isn't prone to lead, are they? The leader determines the course, sets the pace, and directs the ones following what to look out for along the way. To follow, one must give up their 'own way'. The course is established for them - they actively choose to leave their path and follow a different one. Hanging onto our old way of doing things in life may prove to be a bit more foolish than we first want to admit, but it didn't get us where we wanted to be in the first place! Why would we hold onto it when all that path has provided is guilt, shame, discomfort, or mistrust? Somehow, like it or not, we must give up the 'right' to do our own thing and follow Christ as HE determines we s...

The Lord spoke to Jonah son of Amittai: "Nineveh is a big city. I have heard about the many evil things the people are doing there. So go there and tell them to stop doing such evil things.” But Jonah tried to run away from the Lord. He went to Joppa and found a boat that was going to the faraway city of Tarshish. Jonah paid money for the trip and went on the boat. He wanted to travel with the people on this boat to Tarshish and run away from the Lord. (Jonah 1:1-3) Have you ever tried to run away from God? If you are anything like Jonah, chances are there have been times when God has asked you to do something you didn't agree with, nor did you actually 'want' to do. It comes as no surprise to God that we would actually 'resist' when things aren't exactly as we thought they should be, or that he has a different plan than what we may have laid out for ourselves. It should also not surprise us that God knows when we will resist because our 'opinion' o...