The Plumbline

Life Hack #15: Don’t for a minute envy careless rebels; soak yourself in the Fear-of-God—t hat’s where your future lies. Then you won’t be left with an armload of nothing. (Proverbs 23:17-18) That ugly, green-eyed monster often known as jealousy or better known as discontent can grab onto us so quickly. Discontent breeds all manner of other issues, so it is best nipped in the bud before it festers and multiplies! Envy enters in anytime we think someone else has any advantage we don't have in life. We might not know how frequently we actually evaluate ourselves in light of what we see another "have" - whether it is knowledge, privilege, or possession. When we sense this "discontent" with what the other person seems to have or get, it can lead to a lot of ugliness in our lives we really don't want to deal with later on! Discontent is really a sense of inequity. If you haven't already figured it out - all things are NOT equal in this life! We are all cr...

Do you ever have a problem with discontent - the desire for more, better, different? I think we all do at times because we are human. When the drive for 'more' or 'different' is the main focus of our lives, it may be a good thing when that desire is to see more of God's grace and love worked into our lives. When that drive is directed at what we can get for ourselves, how we can make ourselves stand out a little more, or what we can do to put others down so we stand out a little bit more, that drive may not be ideal. Don’t love the world’s ways. Don’t love the world’s goods. Love of the world squeezes out love for the Father. Practically everything that goes on in the world—wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself, wanting to appear important—has nothing to do with the Father. It just isolates you from him. The world and all its wanting, wanting, wanting is on the way out—but whoever does what God wants is set for eternity.  1 John 2:15-16 MSG Wa...

It is easy to get caught up in envy - that ugly, green-eyed monster often known as jealousy or better known as discontent.  Discontent breeds all manner of other issues, so it is best nipped in the bud than allowed to fester and multiply!  Really, in the simplest terms, envy enters in anytime we think someone else has any advantage we don't have in life.  Yep, ANY advantage! We often don't know how frequently we evaluate ourselves in the light of what we see another "have" - whether it is knowledge, privilege, or possession.  Some allow a little discontent to breed when they consider how easily someone can get into the scriptures, or launch in to a prayer for another in need.  Others allow it to fester when they see someone get cut slack where no slack would be rendered if it were them.  Regardless of how we sense this "discontent" with the what the other person seems to have or get, it can lead to a lot of ugliness in our lives we'd probably not like t...

This recovery from knee surgery has involved a little more daytime TV than I am used to, but I came across a show on cable yesterday which made me stop to take in a few back-to-back shows.  It is called "I Want That" and is a show featuring all these handy devices, kits, etc., which will make decorating, gardening, woodworking, crafting, etc., a little easier and less messy.  What amazing stuff there is out there if you want to do gardening indoors with only a hydrophonics kit, or perhaps use your reciprocating saw without having to vacuum up all the sawdust everywhere when you were done.  Something which became quite apparent to me after about one hour of the series is the fact most of us viewing the show had no idea we actually "needed" or "wanted" this stuff until we saw it!  Hence the name:  "I Want That"!  It is just like us humans to be content with what has worked for so long until we see the next amazing device and then our appetite is w...

  18  “At that time I gave this command to the tribes that would live east of the Jordan: ‘Although the L ord  your God has given you this land as your property, all your fighting men must cross the Jordan ahead of your Israelite relatives, armed and ready to assist them." (Deuteronomy 3:18) A huge battle has ensued as Israel prepares to enter the land promised to Abraham many years before.  Two Amorite kings of huge fame were killed - Og and Sihon.  King Og was known as the last survivor of the race of "giants" in the region.  Scripture records the size of his bed (made of iron rails) as 13 feet long and 6 feet wide.  Talk about "king size"!  The most interesting thing is that God was making the giants of their fears a thing of the past for them! That is how God works - he takes the giants of our past, present and future, making much show in their destruction.  It is completely like God to put down what we elevate to such a position of con...