The Plumbline

Noah found favor with the Lord. (Genesis 6:8)  The hope of every believer's heart is that they 'find favor with the Lord' in all they say, think, and do. At times, we aren't very wise in our choice of words, so we waver a bit there. We waver a bit in the area of our thinking as we don't always 'put our thinking caps on' before we speak or act. We definitely waver in the 'doing' part of life as our mind may desire to do one thing, but we end up doing what our emotions 'feel' rather than what we know to be right. Noah was righteous and blameless before God. Out of all the people on earth, he alone found favor before God. Compared to the rest of the world around him and you will see they were so evil that God got to the point he could not bear it anymore. His justice demanded that he punish them.  I can only imagine how difficult it would be to live a righteous life in this kind of evil and vile environment. There was absolutely no restraint aga...

Have you ever stopped to consider what a trademark is?  It distinguishes something from all the other "somethings" which are in our midst, right?  You think of the red soda can with the white little swirl and what immediately comes to mind?  Coca-Cola, right?  If I were to have you picture a red sign with a huge yellow "M" on it, you'd immediately recognize it as McDonald's restaurant.  We distinguish something by its trademark - it sets it apart from the rest.  What happens when someone changes their packaging of their product?  People go nuts trying to find it!  They don't recognize it even though it is right on the shelf in front of them because the "remembered" symbol is no longer there!  This is why most manufacturers don't mess with a good thing!  Have you ever stopped to consider what God's trademarks are?  What is it which sets him out from the rest of the "gods" we could serve in life?  What is it which makes him ...

  34 Jesus said to her, "Daughter, you took a risk of faith, and now you're healed and whole. Live well, live blessed! Be healed of your plague." (Mark 5:34) Jesus was passing through town one day on his way to accomplish a totally different thing when someone touches him and his healing power is released.  For those of you familiar with the story, you recognize this individual as the woman with an issue of blood (hemorrhage) for nearly twelve years.  I imagine she had sought every healer in the region (and perhaps beyond) in hopes of finding the cure for her condition.  She has obviously found no relief, no remedy, in these twelve years of dealing with this life-debilitating hemorrhagic condition.   For those of you who don't know the impact of such a disease process, let me lay out a picture of what this woman was dealing with.  She would be severely anemic - probably constantly bordering on being in a state of health that would have prevented her from ...