The Plumbline

Nine-tenths of wisdom is being wise in time. (Theodore Roosevelt) For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven. ...Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end. (Ecclesiastes 3:1, 11) How do we use our time? Is it wisely, or a little too frivolously? Colossians 4:5 reminds us to make 'wise use of our time' - influencing all those who are 'outsiders' to the faith. Grace isn't something this world is accustomed to receiving, so when we reveal grace in and through our lives, we are being a positive influence on this hurting world. James reminds us we don't know what tomorrow will bring, so we had best be doing what God asks of us today, for none of us is assured a tomorrow. For everything there is a season. What season is upon you right now? I think God wants us to learn to take every activity, submit...

Temporary residents - this doesn't exactly indicate we will be staying very long, does it? I use a timeshare from time to time, getting away from the busy city life and getting a little closer to nature. I pack up all I will need for the week and then off we go. We settle into the place as though it were our own, but we know we are there for just the one week. We are 'temporary residents' in a very comfortable place, but it never really becomes our own. The furnishings are not as comfortable as those we have at home. The kitchen has most of the necessities, but we might not have all the things we would like to nosh on because we brought very specific things. It is 'home away from home' for us, but it isn't quite our long-term dwelling. I wonder if we treat this earth a little bit too much like our long-term dwelling, forgetting that we are just 'temporary residents' in this world - our long-term residency is with Christ! And remember that the heavenly Fa...

"Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever."  (Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi)  I may not have originated these words, but they are something which really reflects my heart. I live for today - because God never assures me I will have tomorrow here on this earth. I learn for an eternity - because God has assured me I will learn at his feet for all of eternity. There are certain things worth learning - such things make us stronger, giving us depth and breadth which would otherwise be undiscovered in our lives. Have you ever looked at an individual, considered what they "appear" to be like on the outside, and then made an "estimate" of their strength? If I see a guy who is muscular, with a great set of biceps bulging and firm six-pack, I think he must have spent a lot of time developing his strength. If I see a busy man in a business suit stop to help a small child explore the wonder of a snail crossing the sidewalk, I see a tot...

If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. (C.S. Lewis) Did you ever stop to consider where you find your greatest discontent may also reveal to you where it is you will find your greatest contentment? If we are so disillusioned with our present world, I wonder if it is because we are desiring another world more? Is that a bad thing? Only if that 'other world' is one that leads us down a pathway away from God! If it is a pathway that draws us nearer to him, then it is not a bad thing at all! In fact, God's hope is that we will keep our attention clearly fixed on the hope of a future with him, while living effectively in this world by living in the present with him at the helm of our lives. Belief begins in the heart and leads to a life that’s right with God; confession departs from our lips and brings eternal salvation. Because what Isaiah said was true: “The one who...

When we were utterly helpless, with no way of escape, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners who had no use for him. Even if we were good, we really wouldn’t expect anyone to die for us, though, of course, that might be barely possible. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. ( Romans 5:6-8 TLB ) What would you do for someone who 'under-valued' you, having little to no use for you? Most of us would be honest here and say we'd do very little, if anything at all! Why? We live in a world that expects reciprocity! We look for the 'what's in it for me' situations and that is what we go after more than those 'even if it means nothing for me, I will do it anyway' moments. Honestly, we want to 'get' a little out of whatever we 'put into' something, don't we? This is only natural. It is something quite supernatural to give without any expectation of getting! ...

Have you ever been the first one to blaze a trail through freshly fallen snow?  The pristine, unblemished look of that mounded whiteness just beckons us to cut a path through it, fall down into it, and mound it up into a creation of magical delight.  The first set of footprints leaves only small impressions where your foot came to rest with each step, doesn't it?  The more the same steps are followed - either by your own movement or that of others - the more a "path" begins to be worn.  The original footprints are still there, but they are underneath all the others which have passed over the same spot.  In time, we come to call this a path - the route which has become the place of movement and passage.  I want us to begin to think of what Christ did on our behalf as he took the first steps into an eternity of grace on our behalf.  Eternity's "grace" path began with one set of footprints, and down through the ages, by others following in those footprin...

12  Of the land that we possessed at that time, I gave the Reubenites and the Gadites the territory north of Aroer along the Brook Arnon and half the hill country of Gilead with its towns.   13  I gave the half-tribe of Manasseh the rest of Gilead and all of Bashan, Og's kingdom—all the region of Argob, which takes in all of Bashan. This used to be known as the Land of the Rephaites. (Deuteronomy 3:12-13) Two and a half tribes belonging to the nation of Israel decided that they wanted to stay on the "wilderness-side" of the territory when the rest of Israel was forging ahead into the promised land.  Isn't that so like us sometimes - good things are right there in front of us, but we choose our place of familiarity over the unfamiliar!  We want what we have come to understand instead of what we might have to work a little harder to really "get".   We often stop just "short" of what God designs for us.  Instead of being willing to take that extra...