The Plumbline

Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. Stand firm against him, and be strong in your faith. Remember that your family of believers all over the world is going through the same kind of suffering you are. In his kindness God called you to share in his eternal glory by means of Christ Jesus. So after you have suffered a little while, he will restore, support, and strengthen you, and he will place you on a firm foundation. All power to him forever! Amen. (I Peter 5:8-11) At times, we believe we are the only ones under attack. It as though all the world goes on around us, busy with their business, and there we are right in the midst of the worst kind of attack. We feel alone, like nobody knows we are there, much less that we are struggling to just keep our heads above water. What is one of the greatest tactics in our enemy's arsenal? The feeling that we are alone - that we cannot share the burden we are

I will freely admit that I don't have my life all put together, packaged up in a neat little 'perfect' package. In fact, there are frayed edges, places where the seams are coming apart, and some pretty messy 'junk drawers' in my life! How about you? Do you have a 'perfect' package going on? Or are you probably a little like me - still not quite as 'put together' as you'd like, but well on your way? I’m not saying that I have this all together, that I have it made. But I am well on my way, reaching out for Christ, who has so wondrously reached out for me. Friends, don’t get me wrong: By no means do I count myself an expert in all of this, but I’ve got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward—to Jesus. I’m off and running, and I’m not turning back. (Philippians 3:14) The real crux of it all is that we are 'well underway'. We aren't turning back and we aren't going to get off on tangents, going who knows where. The more

I like the social media site known as "Pinterest" because it gives me tons of ideas of things I can do to not only save money around the house, but plant my garden, organize my drawers, and even take better pictures with my camera.  It has such a wide variety of stuff posted there and I just love taking an hour here and there to peruse the content which has been uploaded.  Now, I don't take advantage of the full site, because I don't have little kids around anymore, so those crafts and "hacks" are not as helpful to me.  They are good, but they don't touch my life where it is I live life everyday.  I think this is why the Word of God is sometimes so rich for us in some respects and there are portions which just don't seem to touch us as deeply on occasion.  We find those portions which are very helpful for wherever it is we are living life at the moment and these become the tools by which we "do life".  Just as we have examples of good gard

How good are you at covering up your sins?  Yep, you read that one correctly - I asked how good you were are "covering up" your sins - sweeping them under the rug, cleverly diverting attention away from them, hoping and praying with the passage of time no one will notice.  It is that "passage of time" we count on to keep us from being discovered - believing if enough time passes, there might just be a chance we won't have our flaw discovered.  In retrospect how has that worked out for you so far?  Maybe there are a few things (skeletons in your closet) you have managed to keep hidden, but eventually all things get uncovered - no matter how well we bury them! The sins of some people are blatant and march them right into court. The sins of others don’t show up until much later. The same with good deeds. Some you see right off, but none are hidden forever. (I Timothy 5:24-25 MSG) Most of the time, my sins are of the blatant type - those things I just cann

Commitment has a way of drawing attention at times, doesn't it?  Get "into" something with all your heart and you will find there are others who will find fault in your pursuit!  If you haven't figure it out by now, God is interested in how we will respond when we are criticized, put down, or when others try to "undo" something we are in the process of doing.  Most of their interference and resistance is really without cause, so a response of telling them they don't know what THEY are doing, or THEY are being unfair seems pretty logical to me.  God's desire is for us to respond differently.  In fact, scripture tells us we are to "put up with" being treated badly, even when there is no good reason for the way we are being treated (I Peter 2).  Our response matters. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,   for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  (Matthew 5:10 NIV) You’re blessed when your commitment to God provokes p