The Plumbline

The one who plants few seeds will have a small harvest. But the one who plants a lot will have a big harvest. Each one of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give. You should not give if it makes you unhappy or if you feel forced to give. God loves those who are happy to give. And God can give you more blessings than you need, and you will always have plenty of everything. You will have enough to give to every good work. (2 Corinthians 9:6-8) How many 'seeds' have you been given? Does each seed only bear one other seed? Not hardly! Seeds have a way of multiplying when they are planted. God doesn't expect us to keep the seed of faith we have been given, but he asks us to 'plant it' deep within the hearts of those around us. Why? It will grow and be able to produce more seeds of faith that can be passed on to others! There are many types of 'seeds' God gives us, faith being only one of those seeds. The seed faith that gives from a heart of ...

I know, dear God, that you care nothing for the surface—you want us, our true selves—and so I have given from the heart, honestly and happily. And now see all these people doing the same, giving freely, willingly—what a joy! O God, God of our fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, keep this generous spirit alive forever in these people always, keep their hearts set firmly in you. (I Chronicles 29:17-18) There is a saying that goes something like, "You cannot put lipstick on a pig" - meaning that it is pretty much impossible to improve anything that is bad and stinky. There are lots of times I think we try to 'put lipstick on the pig', trying to make ourselves look kind of good on the outside, but forgetting that the character on the inside is what God is really after. Some may even dress up really nice for church and live like the devil the rest of the week. While God doesn't want us going around all dirty and stinky, he also isn't as concerned about what the out...

My frequent and ongoing struggle to keep weight off my body has me investigating how to keep my metabolism moving right along so I can burn the calories I put in. I have discovered fasting from a meal or two a day on occasion actually helps me to keep weight off. It isn't that I am starving myself, as I have reserves! I am just asking my body to use what it already has and not to demand what it doesn't actually need! The term "fast" has a couple of meanings, but when we use it to describe a condition of heart, mind, and soul which abstains from something in order to focus on another, we call it "fasting". There are all kinds of fasts - some from food, others from input of various forms of media, or perhaps from a special treat we enjoy. The season just before Easter is called Lent and is considered by some churches to be a season of temporary "fasting" - giving up something in order to get a little closer to God during that season. I wonder if w...

I have always marveled at King David's absolute trust in God's love and his repeated faithfulness to turn to God when he was in a place of trial or trouble. David is attributed the "compliment" in Scripture of being a man after God's own heart. I daresay that there is no higher "compliment" or "attribute of acclaim" that carries such importance as that one! David sums up his trust for God in this one statement of truth - God delivers...he makes good. These two key understandings on David's part are what hold him together in tough times - times of trouble and trial. He has come to experience the generosity of a God that gives out of a heart without "strings attached". David is aware that God has both a "readiness" to his giving and a "liberality" in that giving. God delivers generous love, he makes good on his word. (Psalm 57:3) He is ready to give - even before the words are spoken from our lips that acknow...

24  Some people give freely and gain more; others refuse to give and end up with less.  25  Give freely, and you will profit. Help others, and you will gain more for yourself. (Proverbs 11:24-25 ERV) I watched a movie over vacation that was about a man wrongly imprisoned for a crime he did not commit. He spent about a quarter of a century behind bars serving time for a violent crime he had been wrongly accused of all those years earlier. Yet, in the midst of all the harshness of prison, living a life he neither bargained for, nor "lived up to", he did not grow bitter. He longed for the day he'd be able to be free again. That day came when they discovered the "real" criminal because of new evidence. His release was bittersweet, though, for his main desire was to reunite with his father and have his father know of his innocence. It was almost too late, for his father was in the final stages of Alzheimer's disease and didn't recognize his own son. Isn...

" Behold I do not give lectures or a little charity, When I give I give myself ." (Walt Whitman)  There are a whole lot of things and way we can give.  Many of us have "given" blood and would "give" more blood when called upon to do so.  Some have given of their time in the military forces, protecting our freedom as a nation.  Others give to charities in the form of foodstuffs for food banks, clothing for the homeless, or used goods to local thrift stores who employ men and women down on their luck.  A lot of church-goers "give" regularly into collection plates passed during service.  Some will give of their time, others of their belongings, some even give of their excess, while others give "till it hurts".  Despite all the ways of giving, none rises quite as close to the top of the list as when one gives themselves to another in service. But I will say this to encourage your generosity: the one who plants little harvests little, an...

There is a reward which comes from doing something because you know it is right and you know there just isn't anyone who needs to know what you have done.  It is a deep-down sense of satisfaction with doing "right" or "good" without having to "account" for your actions to anyone other than yourself. The fact is - God sees those actions and he takes note of them, even when others don't see them.  In the practice of the religious zealots of the day when Jesus was delivering this sermon, there was this custom of making a "big deal" of doing the "right thing".  The gifts were brought to the temple and a "show" was made of the significant "offering" someone gave who was "very religious".  Their actions on behalf of the widow or the poor were done in a noticeable fashion, so as others might be able to see them and give them praise for having "taken such favorable actions".  As Jesus put it, the...

I am not much of a gardener myself, but I try. I had to chuckle when my daughter shared a story about how my youngest grandson and his daddy planted some seeds in their garden the other day.  In examining the packages of seeds, there were some with larger seeds in them, taking up much space in the package.  These impressed him because he could see and touch each one. Then there were the radishes.  The wee seeds in the bottom of the package just did not impress him as much.  In fact, he told her to look at the meagerness of the contents and announced that this was a waste of her money! All he could see was the seeming emptiness of the package, not the volume of tiny seeds he was planting.  If he had taken the time to spread them out one by one on the table, he'd have seen there were probably a hundred or more seeds in there - they were just tiny!  It made me chuckle because he saw it as a waste of his momma's money - like she had been ripped off by receivin...

My fair share - isn't that something we have wanted since we came into this world?  Give me a little attention, or I will cry!  Feed me, or I will wail until you realize my hunger!  That toy you have, I want one just like it!  Dear Santa, please bring me...  You get the idea.  Since we came into this world, we have had not had to tell ourselves to demand or seek out the things we want, but rather we have had to learn how to deal with all the things we want to figure out if it is really stuff we have need of.  In this perplexing discovery, we might have come face-to-face with the reality that food was a necessity, but the black patent leather shoes weren't; the school clothes were, but the frilly dresses and designer jeans weren't; the reliable means of transportation was a necessity, but the shiny new car every other year was not.  We will often struggle with trying to decipher the difference between need and want all throughout life - simply bec...

Give:  to present voluntarily and without expecting compensation; to place in someone's care; provide or contribute.  There are various ways we are called to "give" of ourselves everyday - from out time to our talent, from our money to our mentoring, from our treasure to our trust.  The scripture is plain about the attitude which should be behind our giving.  The attitude we exhibit may not be the genuine one we feel, though.  If you don't believe me, remember when you put the last "gift" in the offering plate at church or wrote out the last donation check to the local charity you supported.  Now, honestly, was your heart "moved" in that moment of giving, or was it kind of just because you felt a little tug on the emotions?  Most of the time, we give because we are "moved upon" by our emotions - so we need to make sure our emotions are in line with what God has in mind, right?  Why do you think there are so many commercials with sad looki...

MORE:  greater quantity, measure, amount, degree or number.  We all struggle with a desire for "more" in some sense of the word.  More love in our relationships, more hope in our future, more money in our account, more square footage in our home - the list could go on.  Suffice it to say, we often find it hard to be "content" with the hear and now - we are always looking for what lies in the future, aren't we?  I came across a little quote I'd like to share:  "All the art of living lies in a fine mingling of letting go and holding on." (Havelock Ellis - British Psychologist)  You know what always wanting more does to us?  It burdens us down with "more"!  We have to let go of something to embrace something more.  Nothing "more" can be added where there is no room.  We make "room" by letting go, taking on the new, and saying good-bye to the old.  If we don't, they might just see us on some reality segment of the ...

I have heard many a person hopelessly announce, "I don't have anything to contribute."  In considering what they "have" in the light of how they may compare to another, they see their own talents or treasures as "deficient".  This is totally not true!  I believe scripture plainly addresses the issue.  Each of us is given a measure of talent - NEEDED talent.  It has a purpose - even if it is a small one.  Look at the widow with the one tiny mite (not even a penny).  She gave it all - nothing compared to the "sizable" offering of the others who came to the temple that day, but it was EVERYTHING to her.   Faithful hands and a yielded heart is all God ever wants.   8-11  God can pour on the blessings in astonishing ways so that you're ready for anything and everything, more than just ready to do what needs to be done. As one psalmist puts it, " He throws caution to the winds,  giving to the needy in reckless abandon.  His ri...

Be generous: Invest in acts of charity. Charity yields high returns.   Don't hoard your goods; spread them around.    Be a blessing to others. (Ecclesiastes 11:1-2 The Message) In the United States, this is the week of Thanksgiving.  We will gather around tables across our nation with friends and family this Thursday to celebrate the season of harvest that our forefathers began so many years ago in Plymouth.  The celebration of harvest was something to relish, as the hard work of the year was drawing to a close, and the land would soon lay at rest for while prior to the planting of the next crops.  We've lost that sense of celebrating harvest over the years as our country has become far more of a manufacturing country and a lot less of an agricultural country.  Yet, we continue the celebration without any real connection to its original meaning. In many ways, Thanksgiving marks the beginning of the season we call our "holiday" season.  Between ...