The Plumbline

I don't know about you, but I have realized that we aren't always going to walk the right path, no matter how 'determined' we are. There will always be alternatives, and we will not always select the right one. The issue isn't that we will veer off-course from time to time, it is that we should never make those 'veers' a permanent life choice. We need to learn to recognize them quickly, come before God in humility, acknowledge our need to get back on-course, and then let him help us take the right steps forward. Godliness guards the path of the blameless, but the evil are misled by sin. (Proverbs 13:6) A guarded path is much harder to veer off of than an unguarded one. We may try, but there is always protection to get us back on course or keep us there in the first place. It has good defenses to ensure there is nothing that can act as a destructive force on that path. The evil heart actually chooses a non-guarded path because it is more 'appealing...

Forgiveness is the final form of love. (Reinhold Niebuhr) Love prospers when a fault is forgiven, but dwelling on it separates close friends. (Proverbs 17:9) While it might seem odd to begin a new year with the intention of focusing on 'faults', let me assure you there are probably more than a few who brought relationship hurts into this year, as they have in years past. It has become a weight around their necks, dragging them down, but from which they cannot figure out how to be free. The truth of the matter is that forgiveness might not begin in the 'other guy's court' as much as it needs to begin in ours! Love prospers when hurts can be quickly mended. Whenever we allow our hurts to become huge, gaping holes in our hearts, we will find it harder and harder to let go of that hurt. It festers long after the one who inflicted it has left the scene.  What may see counter intuitive to some is that forgiveness often begins with the one who is offended, not the one who ...

Do you think God wants to judge anyone 'guilty' as they stand before him? If you know anything about scripture, you will know it is quite the opposite - for God "did not send his Son into the world to judge the world guilty, but to save the world through him." (John 3:17) God's greatest joy is to receive us each into his great big family through the work of his Son, Jesus. If we desire to be free of guilt, we only need ask for that gift! The Light has come into the world, but they did not want light. They wanted darkness, because they were doing evil things. All who do evil hate the light and will not come to the light, because it will show all the evil things they do. But those who follow the true way come to the light, and it shows that the things they do were done through God.” (John 3:19-21) When we ask for light, we receive it and so much more. Grace comes in waves upon waves. Aren't you glad that grace is limitless? How is it that grace begins to do more...