The Plumbline

I am going to ask a tough question today, but if we are truthful on this one, we may just realize a healing at the end. How long are we willing to live WITH our troubles before we ask God to get us out of those troubles? For some of us, it has taken us a long, long time to come to our knees, admitting we have been dealing with this 'trouble' longer than we ever should have. Trouble in the form of bitterness, anger issues, hurt feelings, or attitudes of deep regret and shame. While we are living WITH these 'troubles' we are 'hoping' for something to be different, but we don't really come out and aggressively seek our deliverance from them! It is time to admit we have been living 'with' them for way too long and we need God's help to finally move us from our 'placement' INSIDE those troubles. Inside the city, near the Sheep Gate, was the pool of Bethesda, with five covered porches. Crowds of sick people—blind, lame, or paralyzed—lay on the ...

Life Hack #28: Ever trip up or stumble over something you thought would give you 'no trouble' in life? I have! God keeps a special eye on his people - not letting them stay down too long if they trip up or stumble. This should give most of us (if not all of us) a whole lot of encouragement each time we find ourselves with skinned knees and a wounded bit of pride! We might find ourselves "tripped up" because of things of our own doing - like willful disobedience, compromise, and outright wrong choices. At other times, we find there has been someone in our path who purposefully sticks their foot out in hopes we will stumble and fall. I think there are those who relish the idea of creating a little bit of havoc in the lives of others. A word of warning to these folks - God won't let us stay down long - his hand is already outstretched even before the foot crosses our path to trip us up! Don’t interfere with good people’s lives; don’t try to get the best of them. ...

We sometimes can be guilty of trading our eternal freedom for a temporary freedom here on this earth. We get to die on our own terms - think on that one a bit and you may just understand why the Apostle Paul reminds you and I that some things are not all that beneficial to us. We might not be 'sinful' in our actions, but are our actions always that beneficial to us? Comfort is not always the end result of following Jesus. The life of Christ within us means we aren't going to experience comfort when we try to slip back into our old ways of living. In fact, we will begin to experience our 'comfort' is quite 'disturbing' to us because God has so much better planned for us! Could it be any clearer? Our old way of life was nailed to the cross with Christ, a decisive end to that sin-miserable life—no longer captive to sin’s demands! ...When Jesus died, he took sin down with him, but alive he brings God down to us. From now on, think of it this way: Sin speaks a de...

The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.  (Ralph Waldo Emerson) Back in the day, Hasbro toy company introduced a simple little toy in the shape similar to an egg referred to as a "Weeble". There were firemen and doctor Weebles - dogs, cats, kids, and other barn animals - families and townsfolk alike. Small villages of these things could keep young children amused for hours. The whole 'draw' for these things was their marketing jingle - Weebles Wobble, but they don't fall down. Sure it would tilt from side to side, but it would 'right' itself rather quickly, making it quite easy for little hands to set up those townsfolk and barn critters. They were created with a very specific way of maintaining equilibrium - gravity causing it to return to an upright position without any real effort. Wouldn't it be wonderful to have such a center of equilibrium that we always came out 'righted' every tim...