The Plumbline

The fear of human opinion disables; trusting in God protects you from that. (Proverbs 29:25 MSG) Human opinion can be crippling at times - especially when we care deeply about something and then encounter very boisterous opinions to the contrary. God isn't concerned about what 'opinion' someone holds - he cares about what one's heart holds. We can have all the world's opinions about a topic put out there on the table and find that some are very close to others, but there will be a wide variety of opinion even for those who say they hold similar opinions! God's commandments aren't opinions - so they don't change and they don't vary from day to day or circumstance to circumstance. If we always keep that in mind, we will look to his commands to formulate our plan for living rather than human opinion. If you have ever been 'put down' for a choice you have made or an 'opinion' you held, you know how emotionally debilitating that has the...

Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm. (Abraham Lincoln) Take your stand with God’s loyal community and live, or chase after phantoms of evil and die. (Proverbs 11:19 MSG) We all stand for something or someone. We choose who or what we will 'stand for' each day. We either choose God, self, or others - our opinion, the opinion of others, or the wisdom of God. The choice is really quite simple to me, but I can struggle with listening too much to either the opinion of others or my own just a bit too frequently. How about you? Do you really choose God's wisdom over human emotion, opinion, or 'trending fad' as frequently as you'd like? Do you sometimes get swayed by media, popular opinion of your acquaintances, or other external source? I have learned to read the reviews for online products because the honesty of some will sway me away from making the purchase, or it will convince me that the product meets the highest standards I desire. When ...

My child, pay attention to what I say. Listen carefully to my words. Don’t lose sight of them. Let them penetrate deep into your heart, for they bring life to those who find them, and healing to their whole body. Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life. (Proverbs 4:20-23) Pay attention - listen carefully - never lose focus. These are pretty specific directions, meant to keep us safe, establishing us on a clear course for life. The more the Word of God penetrates our heart, the more we will see that course established - it gives us foundation and protection. Nothing outlives a good foundation. If you have ever observed an old building site, the walls may have been torn down, but the solid foundation still remains. It was meant to endure!  The Word of God penetrates our heart, but it affects our mind, emotions, and even the health of our whole body. If you have ever felt just a bit 'out of sorts' and not been able to put your finger on what it i...

Building upon a strong foundation is important. The materials we acquire for the building must be put to use. I have a home improvement store (one of those huge ones) about one mile from the house. I love to take time to go up and down the aisles exploring the various things they have there. If I could have my "run of the store" without worrying about paying for the stuff, it would be like "heaven on earth"! From the little fasteners which seemingly disappear as they are put into the wood, or the drill bit adapter which creates that perfect angle by which you get that screw in at a perfect 45-degree angle, I could create and create and create! As long as those tools and materials remain at the local home improvement store, they are just materials. Unless we actually take into our possession what God gives us for building up our lives and put them to use in our lives, they are simply dreams we hold. We have been given great resources, but if we don't put into pra...

Everybody who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise builder who built a house on bedrock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the wind blew and beat against that house. It didn’t fall because it was firmly set on bedrock. But everybody who hears these words of mine and doesn’t put them into practice will be like a fool who built a house on sand. The rain fell, the floods came, and the wind blew and beat against that house. It fell and was completely destroyed. (Matthew 7:24-27) We hear of natural disasters all the time with nature's full force overwhelming the land. In those places where such devastation occurs, we often see structures that appear okay on the outside but are totally destroyed by the floods or the winds that blew with gale force. What gave the appearance of being "built well" may not have been "planned" well, nor "maintained" well! There is a difference between erecting a structure and then erecting ...

Why would you ever complain, O Jacob, or whine, Israel, saying, “God has lost track of me. He doesn’t care what happens to me”? Don’t you know anything? Haven’t you been listening? God doesn’t come and go. God lasts. He’s Creator of all you can see or imagine. He doesn’t get tired out, doesn’t pause to catch his breath. And he knows everything, inside and out. He energizes those who get tired, gives fresh strength to dropouts. For even young people tire and drop out, young folk in their prime stumble and fall. But those who wait upon God get fresh strength. They spread their wings and soar like eagles, they run and don’t get tired, they walk and don’t lag behind. (Isaiah 40:27-31) Complaining that God seems to be looking the other way when you need his attention right now? Do you think he has abandoned you to some state of misery or woe that you won't be able to overcome? We all have been there at least once, and if we were honest, we'd admit we come to this place a little too ...

Your love, God, is my song, and I’ll sing it! I’m forever telling everyone how faithful you are. I’ll never quit telling the story of your love— how you built the cosmos and guaranteed everything in it. Your love has always been our lives’ foundation, your fidelity has been the roof over our world. (Psalm 89:1-3) We can count on God - he is faithful. We can count on him because he has been, is now, and will always be faithful. We can remember his faithfulness in our lives - the times and seasons when he has been right there with us through it all. God is trustworthy - we can count on him. He is 'foundation' for our lives. We aren't trusting in a shaky foundation - we are trusting on the one who brings grace upon grace into our lives. Grace in the past, grace in the present, and grace that will ever be needed in our lives.  We forget that God has prepared both our present and our future. We forget he has been faithful yesterday and we begin to worry about what it is we will ...

God gives out Wisdom free, is plainspoken in Knowledge and Understanding. He’s a rich mine of Common Sense for those who live well, a personal bodyguard to the candid and sincere. He keeps his eye on all who live honestly, and pays special attention to his loyally committed ones. (Proverbs 2:6-8) Let's look at two traits described in this passage - being sincere and steadfast. To be sincere, one must be free of hypocrisy, deceit, or falseness; totally earnest in their pursuits; genuine or real in their living. To be steadfast, one must be fixed in one's direction - what we may refer to as being steadily directed. This also calls for us to be firm in our purpose, resolute; firmly established in our path. For the one whose life is tapped into the wisdom, knowledge and understanding which only comes from being intimately connected with Christ, these traits are assured, but we must work to see them incorporated into each and every area of our lives. Most of us desire to live fre...

Take a stand - what do those words really mean? To take a stand, one must have some form of footing upon which they will plant their feet - in the most literal sense. To take a stand may also infer we have 'grounds' for that which we are placing our trust in - such as having insurance on our savings account. We take a lot of stands in life - some very official and important, while others are more casual and kind of just spur-of-the-moment. In the most important category comes this heart determination to be on the Lord's side in all matters within our lives. There are certain lifestyle characteristics of one who has determined to stand with the Lord - unyielding in their commitment or allegiance. It has been said that if we don't stand for something, we will stand for nothing - pointing us to the important fact that what we "stand for" both determines our course and leaves a legacy for those that follow. My feet stand on level ground; in the great congregation ...

From time to time I like to share a quote I come across that speaks to me. Today, I will share one that we all need to learn well: "The past always looks better than it was. It's only pleasant because it isn't here." (Finley Peter Dunne) It was Henry Ford who reminded us that failure was just an opportunity to begin again, wasn't it? The past looks so good because we are probably busy finding ways to fail anew right now! As long as we are still on this earth, we are going to know times of failure - of unpleasant endings to what we hoped would end a little better. We didn't count the cost well - we didn't consider the outcome before we took the leap. The past looks good only to those who don't remember the pain of the failure! Test yourselves to make sure you are solid in the faith. Don’t drift along taking everything for granted. Give yourselves regular checkups. You need firsthand evidence, not mere hearsay, that Jesus Christ is in you. Test it out. ...

So don’t lose a minute in building on what you’ve been given, complementing your basic faith with good character, spiritual understanding, alert discipline, passionate patience, reverent wonder, warm friendliness, and generous love, each dimension fitting into and developing the others. With these qualities active and growing in your lives, no grass will grow under your feet, no day will pass without its reward as you mature in your experience of our Master Jesus. Without these qualities you can’t see what’s right before you, oblivious that your old sinful life has been wiped off the books. ( 2 Peter 1:5-8   MSG ) I have often referred to this daily and continual work of "growing up" in Jesus, but how many of us actually consider "growing up" work? For some, it is the ultimate goal in life - but that is probably when you are ten! For those of us "grown up" already, we long for the 'good old days' when life was simpler and our main issue for the ...

Thought for the day: "Start with what is right rather than what is acceptable." (Franz Kafka) I also like what Franz said about obstacles: "The thorn bush is the old obstacle in the road. It must catch fire if you want to go further." So many times today we allow others to define for us what is acceptable and that is what we seem to move towards in life. We sometimes even allow what we know to be acceptable to God to take backseat in deference to what society finds acceptable. I honestly have to say I know what I want in a President, Senator, and Sheriff, but often find the candidates just don't measure up to what I believe and find acceptable. Honestly, this is one of the toughest election years for me because I don't see one candidate as rising above the other at all and it is hard for me to "defer" to what one group says over the other. I think a whole lot of others are in the same boat as me, just in a whirlwind of unease over this election b...

In most Bibles today, there are little sub-section titles which give you some idea what the chapter or section you are reading will be about.  These section or chapter titles help to focus us and get us "set" for the passage we are about to take in.  There are time when I just ignore them entirely because I find they might "sway" my opinion of what I will find in that section, though.  For example, if I think the section deals with the feeding of the five thousand, I just see this as a miracle of the fish and loaves being multiplied and a bunch of hungry people being fed.  I miss some of the detail within - like the fact that the only one in the group of five thousand who had any food being a little boy! The five thousand were just the men - you mean all the women in the group left home without packing even "snacks" for the day?  Or how about the fact that the disciples have all these empty baskets to put the food in - what does this say about empty ...

I don't think we can become wise overnight, but in the development of our lives, we learn to embrace truths and live well.  In turn, we bring honor to our parents - if not our earthly father or mother, then our heavenly Father is honored immensely!  We are "parented" by more than just our earthly parents in this life, so if you did not have the best of parents on this earth, you still have a pretty awesome chance of turning out pretty well when you come under the tutelage of the Holy Spirit.  Parenting is a pretty scary thing - I know, because I am one!  You get this new life, all squiggly and warm, looking to you to do the best job possible (whatever that is), and then you embark on this lifelong journey of trying to figure out how to raise this blessed bundle of joy.  Some parents aren't ready for their "mission" on this life, doing a pretty poor job with it from the get-go.  Others embrace it head on and seemingly get along pretty well in those first fo...

Sincere:   free of hypocrisy, deceit, or falseness; earnest; genuine, real. Steadfast:   fixed in direction, steadily directed; firm in purpose, resolution; firmly established. Wow!  Today's traits are pretty overwhelming when you read those definitions, but they are quite possible for the one whose life is tapped into the wisdom, knowledge and understanding which only comes from being intimately connected with Christ.  Most of us desire to live free of hypocrisy, yet when it comes to being totally "real", it is quite a different story, isn't it?  We somehow perceive we will be "judged" if we are who we are, so we "play act" a little to kind of "cover up" what we think others don't want to know about us.  The truth be told, the other person is probably doing the same.  This is why so many newly married couples have a rude awakening when they actually are married and not just dating.  We put our best foot forward in dating, don...

If you had just one sentence to describe the instructions you'd leave in someone's life which would rock their world, what would it be?  Some might offer "Trust God and take him as your Savior", while others might offer "Be open to change and live like every day matters".  You probably could offer a couple other examples here, but regardless of the example you offer, I don't think you could do as good of a job as Paul did in writing to the Corinthians.  He gave five key actions in the course of one sentence which will either make us or break us.  Let's examine them this morning: Keep your eyes open, hold tight to your convictions, give it all you’ve got, be resolute, and love without stopping.  (I Corinthians 16:13-14 MSG) 1. Keep your eyes open.  I have spoken many times about the eyes as the window to the soul - they give insight into the condition of the man in what they reveal.  Today's advice from Paul is to keep them open.  Now, this ma...

Ears that hear and eyes that see— we get our basic equipment from  God !  (Proverbs 20:12 MSG) If you have ever looked into buying some new appliance, a new car, or even a new home built to your specifications, you probably have had to consider just how many "bells and whistles" you wanted (or could afford).  The basic model comes with just the minimums - the more you add, the more the costs add up.  Soon, the $299 "deal" you saw advertised becomes $599 because you just could not imagine life without the extra spin cycles, and the automatic sensor for this or that!  Sometimes we find the "extra" stuff we just "had to have" gives us more headaches than they are worth in the end!   Our passage today speaks to us of the "basic equipment" given to us by God. Ears that hear and eyes that see - basic equipment.  I wonder just how many times we take the "basics" for granted, focusing more on the "bells and whistles" we...

To get a handle on our passage today, let me give you just a little background.  Israel had allowed the unthinkable to happen - they had compromised their stand with God by taking on the worship of idols and the practices of the lands around them.  This was something God had warned them not to do.  As a result, they lost something of great value to them - the help of God in the midst of their battles - to them this was the Ark of the Covenant.  Now, they are surrounded by some pretty fierce attackers - the Philistines.  The armies of the Philistines were known for their superior weaponry, often causing great fear or panic in all those they faced in battle.  The Israelites are facing this huge army of Philistines - not having done so well without God's presence, they hope the return of the ark might have "changed their fortunes".  Samuel is addressing them in this chapter - seeking to see if the Israelite's jubilation over the return of the ark was just...

Much earlier in this psalm, we find the words, " For   God ’s Word is solid to the core;  everything he makes is sound inside and out."  Those words may not seem like much at first, but when you re-read them a few times, maybe they will begin to sink in.  God's Word is solid!  Nothing can rock its truth.  Most importantly, when his Word is embraced - spoken, heard and acted upon - it has an effect beyond our imagining.  Not to be missed - EVERYTHING God makes is SOUND - inside and out!  Now, if that doesn't rock your world - I don't know what will.  Most of the struggle we face in life is the struggle between knowing right and doing it - we get defeated with the "disconnect" between knowing and doing.  Look at the passage - EVERYTHING (and that also means EVERYONE) is sound - because God's Word brings order, peace and hope!  Watch this: God’s eye is on those who respect him,   the ones who are looking for his love.   He’...