The Plumbline

Be sincere in your love for others. Hate everything that is evil and hold tight to everything that is good. Love each other as brothers and sisters and honor others more than you do yourself. (Romans 12:9-10) God desires a way of living that is "outside" or beyond our selfishness - the tendency we had before we said "yes" to Christ which kept us totally self-directed in our focus. Be sincere in your love for others. Sincerity is the idea of being free of hypocrisy. If you have ever caught yourself saying one thing, but thinking another, you might be dealing with this thing called hypocrisy - the tendency to be ingenuine or unreal. Neither of these traits are what God wants for us in relationships - first with him, then with others. He strives for us to be genuine or real. We are to be genuine in our love for each other, by hating evil, holding tight to what is good, treating one another as brothers and sisters, and giving honor to each other more than we focus on s...

You have been my teacher, and I won’t reject your instructions. Your teachings are sweeter than honey. They give me understanding and make me hate all lies. (Psalm 119:102-104) Have you ever considered honeybees? Did you know they are raised to be harvested for the commercial market of honey distribution? There are more than the 'wild' forms of bees, but I didn't know that until I saw a show describing the process of how they are 'raised' for the sole purpose of the 'honey harvest'.  They are 'raised' as members of a 'colony of workers', each with a task our own, but with the undivided purpose of laying up stores and stores of sweet stuff for those who would come behind. The bees each have a function - whether they be the "queen bee" who lays nearly 2,000 eggs a day, the "gathering bees" who go out day after day to the fields to gather in the pollen, or the "worker bees" who work endlessly creating the hive and s...

Finally, all of you should be of one mind. Sympathize with each other. Love each other as brothers and sisters. Be tenderhearted, and keep a humble attitude.(I Peter 3:8) One mind is hard to get your mind wrapped around, isn't it? We all have an opinion, and some may come close to what yours is, but does it match perfectly? Not always. In fact, there are more opinions in this world than there is truth! What does it mean to sympathize with each other? I believe we need to see things through each other's eyes in order for us to 'come into one mind'. It is never going to happen that we see things perfectly as the other person does, but we can come into a place where we don't compromise truth and that is when we become of one mind. The outcome of being united in truth is that love flows freely - there is an outpouring of the grace and goodness God has given us. I have one brother and sister, but I have 'many' in the family of God that are my brothers and sister...

I don't know of anyone who starts out in family life having figured out how to make a relationship work, let alone how to raise kiddos that are emotionally healthy and well-adjusted. Somehow, we bumble through this 'family life', making the best of the relationship woes we are challenged with and doing the best we can with what we have right in front of us. The knowledge about how to build a solid family is something that God gives as we 'walk through' the various challenges we face.  It takes wisdom to have a good family, and it takes understanding to make it strong. It takes knowledge to fill a home with rare and beautiful treasures. Wise people have great power, and those with knowledge have great strength. (Proverbs 24:3-5) Those with knowledge - isn't that what we are lacking? We face a bump in the road within the relationship and then all of a sudden, we realize just how 'inept' we are at handling it. We wonder how we got where we are, not realizi...

    He will receive what is good from the Lord, and what is right and good from the God Who saves him.  Such is the family of those who look for Him, who look for Your face, O God of Jacob. (Psalm 24:5-6) Family - the complex intertwining of individual personalities, traits, and talents into one big conglomerate. Did I mention 'complex'? In the business industry, a conglomerate is often used to describe multiple 'divisions' of a corporation or multiple corporations who do 'business' together. Don't miss that part - the 'divisions' that come together to do 'business' with each other. Families are a bit like that at times - 'divisions' of the 'same blooded' members coming together to 'do business', but when they part again - they are still divided! In the family of God there is no room for 'divisions'. In our earthly families there is also no room for 'divisions'. We don't 'come together' to j...

God wasn’t attracted to you and didn’t choose you because you were big and important—the fact is, there was almost nothing to you. He did it out of sheer love... Know this: God, your God, is God indeed, a God you can depend upon. He keeps his covenant of loyal love with those who love him... (Deuteronomy 7:9) It is a foolish thing to believe we come to Christ all on our own - as though we were on some quest to "find God" and came upon him all of a sudden. We are chosen - he seeks us out. Certainly this 'seeking' on his part has nothing to do with our goodness, nor does it have anything to do with how 'hard' we are seeking for him at that moment. Even the desire to seek is all his doing. Sometimes we get too 'big' of an impression of ourselves - as important as a positive self-image may be, it doesn't mean a thing in God's economy. We don't 'get chosen' because of our 'goodness' or 'seeking' - we are chosen because h...

But when the time arrived that was set by God the Father, God sent his Son, born among us of a woman, born under the conditions of the law so that he might redeem those of us who have been kidnapped by the law. Thus we have been set free to experience our rightful heritage. You can tell for sure that you are now fully adopted as his own children because God sent the Spirit of his Son into our lives crying out, “Papa! Father!” Doesn’t that privilege of intimate conversation with God make it plain that you are not a slave, but a child? And if you are a child, you’re also an heir, with complete access to the inheritance. (Galatians 4:4-5) Set free to experience our rightful heritage - did you catch those words in this passage? It is your 'rightful heritage' to experience all that God has prepared for you from now into all of eternity - wouldn't it be silly to walk away from such an inheritance? How can we be sure we will experience ALL that God has for us? If you have said ...

Good friend, follow your father's good advice; don't wander off from your mother's teachings. Wrap yourself in them from head to foot; wear them like a scarf around your neck. Wherever you walk, they'll guide you; whenever you rest, they'll guard you; when you wake up, they'll tell you what's next. For sound advice is a beacon, good teaching is a light, moral discipline is a life path. (Proverbs 6:20-23 MSG) There are certainly those in society today that lack the good advice of a father (or a father who actually listens to any good advice) and the wise teachings of a mother (or a mother too caught up in herself to actually listen to others). Perhaps father or mother is actually absent from the scene - or simply totally not involved in the life of their children. Worse yet is that the parent was present to teach, but what was taught was continual abuse, absolute neglect, or total mistrust. Society today has not done a good job of representing the ro...

God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing. (C.S. Lewis)   He is the one who has helped us tell others about his new agreement to save them. We do not tell them that they must obey every law of God or die; but we tell them there is life for them from the Holy Spirit. The old way, trying to be saved by keeping the Ten Commandments, ends in death; in the new way, the Holy Spirit gives them life. ( 2 Corinthians 3:6   TLB ) As a child, mom or dad would instruct me to do something, perhaps a chore to be completed prior to going out to play. Whenever I was given this task, although the task was "reasonable", the effort it took to get it done so I could pursue what "I wanted" always seemed so huge. I wanted to ride bikes with the other neighborhood kids. I wanted to get out the Monopoly game and launch into an all day marathon to see who would amass millions. The things I "wanted" mattered t...

For in the same way that one body has so many different parts, each with different functions; we, too—the many—are different parts that form one body in the Anointed One. Each one of us is joined with one another , and we become together what we could not be alone.  (Romans 12:4-5 VOICE) I have shared before that I actually enjoy the challenge of assembling one of those "kits" of furniture you can buy these days to have a quick piece for your room.  They usually come with tons and tons of screws, little connecting devices, glue, nails, an occasional "special part" you have to figure out how to use, and instructions with varying degrees of actual "descriptors" to help you complete the project as it was designed.  On occasion, I have had to take apart something midway through because I didn't really follow the instructions all that closely.  I find a whole lot of effort screwing in of long screws in the "pre-drilled" holes goes completely ...

There are times you just read over stuff in the scriptures and totally miss what is being said.  You can do this year after year, without even "getting" something. I kind of think this may be on purpose because God has a season and a specific time for certain things to catch our attention.  In those moments, he pours something into our lives by sometimes even the shortest of passages. What we do with what God gives us is ours to determine - he can provide the feeding, but he cannot force feed us.  He can spoon feed us, but he doesn't cram it down our throats!  One thing is for sure - remain open to what he provides and you will have your "fill" of good things and "stuff" you can actually use in your own life!  Did you ever stop to consider for just a moment how much "scripture" is declared in the things around you, not just in the written words between those leather bindings you call a Bible?  It is true, for even the heavens tell of his glo...

I have written about ants before, but this morning, I'd like to write about the carpenter ant. These are small creatures, but they have such skill at constructing their homes that they have been labeled as "carpenters" simply because of this skill.  Actually, these are some of the larger ants we find in the world, not at all like the wee ones which might invade our cupboards in search of a sugar trail.  These "little guys" are hard to miss!   Their call to fame is that of building their homes not in the dirt, but out of wood.  Most scientists will tell you they are referred to as "excavator" ants because of how much they do to "excavate" old fallen trees and such at the base of the forest floor.  In reality, these little guys can do as significant damage to your home as they can to the fallen tree.  They aren't all that particular about the wood they choose to "excavate"!  Scripture tells us to "learn by watching the ants...

Okay, today's lesson may seem a little bit like a biology lesson, or a study into insects, but bear with me as we take this journey.  Ants are social creatures - living in colonies and not out there all alone.  In this respect, they are kind of like us humans - doing much better in a "colony" of sorts than trying to make it through this life all alone.  I marvel at how these tiny creatures figured this out when they only have about 250,000 brain cells and we humans cannot figure this out with our greater than 10,000,000 brain cells!  Deep within the colonies of ants, the worker ants spend all day moving the unborn larvae closer to the surface so they can get the heat of the day, but then faithfully move those same larvae deeper into the nest so they can be warmer.  It is a repeated process until the tiny larvae hatch.  Other ants will work all day gathering food for the colony - carrying weights twenty times their own body weight back to the colony to ensu...

There are times when the time it takes to engage in what you might see as "necessary" confrontation is sometimes just not worth it, or it seems to come back to reflect badly on you somehow.  These are usually the times when you are attempting to say something to someone just not willing to hear anything which might be shared - especially if it is against whatever they are thinking at the moment.  In those times, it is almost better to hold your peace than to attempt to engage in any kind of "confrontation" with them.  Why?  They aren't going to hear you!  Their mind is set - their attitude is determined - their choices have been made.  No amount of "help" from us is going to change the one who just cannot accept they need "help" in the first place! The cynic sees all "outside" help as really being offered from some kind of selfish motivation - believing no one could be interested in the outcome of another's life unless there wa...

If you have ever traveled abroad, you know how awesome it feels to just "come home".  The differences you experience when you are in an unfamiliar country range from what you use for transportation, what you eat, to how you communicate.  There are also the differences in dress, living conditions, and weather, just to name a few.  By the end of your "trip", you find yourself settling down into the security and safety of "being home".  When we come to Christ, entering into his family, we find ourselves assuming a new home, much in the way Ruth assumed a new home when she chose to stay with Naomi many years ago (Ruth 1:16-17).  Yet, this "new home country" is not a burden to us because we have pledged our lives to the one whose home it is!    This kingdom of faith is now your home country. You’re no longer strangers or outsiders. You  belong  here, with as much right to the name Christian as anyone. God is building a home. He’s using us all...

If you haven't figured out by now, God's plan is for us to get into family relationship and learn to grow there.  Now, we have all kinds of family relationships, don't we?  For some, their own biologic family may be a little bit of a challenge because it is somewhat dysfunctional.  For others, their main "family" is that of the extended kind - those who are closest to them in kindred spirit, but not necessarily in a biologic sense.  God has one more "family" he focuses on a whole lot and this is the family he places us in to grow spiritually - the fellowship of others believers in Christ.  For some, this is found in their local church, while others may find this closeness in a small group or at a local support meeting.  Regardless of where we "find" this family relationship, it is important for our health and well-being as children of God. My response is to get down on my knees before the Father, this magnificent Father who parcels out all he...

Did you ever stop to think about what it means to be "spirit-begotten"?  I have taken a couple of opportunities to focus on this idea of being "begotten" and just what "family line" has to do with the type of person we are declared to be.  Notice I said "declared to be".  If we are to be the type of people we are declared to be, we have to stop walking in the old patterns and start walking in the new.  For example, if a prisoner is to be set free from a jail cell after 20 years in confinement, he must learn what it like to have freedoms of his own.  He doesn't have the same degree of restrictions his bondage kept him in.  He has new freedoms which he may pursue - not just think about. Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run  with perseverance  the race marked out for us,   2  fixing our eyes on Jesus,  the p...