The Plumbline

It was an Iranian poet by the name of Saadi who said, "I fear God and next to God, I mostly fear them that fear him not." Ponder that one for just a moment and it might ring true in your ears today. Those who don't fear God are all around us, oftentimes creating such upheaval and havoc that the world has no chance to be at rest for any length of time. Ray Comfort once said, "When men don't fear God, they give themselves to evil." There were no truer words spoken.  Taste and see that the Lord is good. Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in him! Fear the Lord, you his godly people, for those who fear him will have all they need. Even strong young lions sometimes go hungry, but those who trust in the Lord will lack no good thing. (Psalm 34:8-10) The lack of reverence some show toward our holy God is sometimes hard for me to understand. How can they look around at all that he created and not see his profound goodness? How can they strive for some 'goodness...

Life Hack #18: Dear child, I want your full attention; please do what I show you. A whore is a bottomless pit; a loose woman can get you in deep trouble fast. She’ll take you for all you’ve got; she’s worse than a pack of thieves. (Proverbs 23:26-28) Marriage - what was designed to be the pledge of one life to another for the entirety of their lifetimes is under attack in society today. We even have issues with figuring out how to define marriage anymore - with everyone trying to "redefine" it to fit their desire. Who believes they will deal with adultery when they enter into marriage, any more than they think they will have to deal with the issues of prostitution or pornography. Yet, today's culture puts the sanctity of this union we refer to as "marriage" to the test with all kinds of issues, doesn't it? What many don't realize is the damage done when they give their hearts (and bodies) to someone outside of the sanctity of marriage - whether it is ...

The greatest day in your life and mine is when we take total responsibility for our attitudes. That's the day we truly grow up. (John C. Maxwell) Romans 8:5-8 reminds us that, " Those who think they can do it on their own end up obsessed with measuring their own moral muscle but never get around to exercising it in real life. Those who trust God’s action in them find that God’s Spirit is in them—living and breathing God! Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life. Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God, ends up thinking more about self than God. That person ignores who God is and what he is doing. And God isn’t pleased at being ignored. " What 'moral muscle' have you been attempting to exercise lately? When it comes down to examining the outcome of that 'exercise', do you find that 'moral muscle' had a c...

What I’m trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with  getting,  so you can respond to God’s  giving . People who don’t know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.  (Matthew 5:32-33)   I saw something on Facebook some time back that simply read:  "Make God your first priority...not your last resort". Short and sweet, but quite accurate.  "Seek first the kingdom of God..."  It is easy to get caught up in the busy-ness of seeking all kinds of bargains in life, but are they really 'bargains' at all?  I use this passage this morning because it really captures well what I feel in my heart right now.  Sometimes we think the gift WE give or the talent WE bring is meant to fulfill the desires of the hearts of someone ot...

Throughout life there have been times all the "rules" just seemed to do little more than aggravate me or make me envious of those who could blatantly ignore them. I wanted so desperately to just ignore all those rules and have a little "fun" in life! If you were totally honest, you would say that sometimes you wonder what value the rules play. Well, even when we don't fully understand the rules, they play an important part in our safety. For example, driving down an open highway at a straight stretch allows speeds of 75 miles per hour. Why? The road is straight, you can see oncoming traffic, and you have less chances of losing control of your vehicle when you are going in a straight line! Get that same vehicle onto a winding road, tall trees all around, with the road barely built into the side of the mountain and you may WANT to drive at 75 miles per hour so you'd get to your destination faster, but there are all kinds of barriers in your way. There is...