The Plumbline

With God’s power working in us, he can do much, much more than anything we can ask or think of. To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus for all time, forever and ever. Amen. (Ephesians 3:20-21) Do you ask God for big things? Or do you play it safe and ask only for the things you are pretty confident he will provide? Don't be afraid to ask for the big things because we serve a BIG God who delights in revealing his love toward us. What we don't want to do is limit God in any way. We want to remain open to the 'power working in us' that will 'do much' if we allow him access, are obedient to what he asks, and trust him with our whole heart. In my youth I was a big dreamer. In fact, I was a bit of a daydreamer growing up. I'd drift off into thought about things way bigger than I could achieve right then, finding myself carried away in a world of imagined plans. It wasn't until I began to realize God has dreams for me that were being limited by the

Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us. (I John 4:11-12) We all desire to 'see' God in some form, don't we? Since the beginning of time, mankind has tried to 'see' God, going to the extremes of making 'images' of him so they could have a 'thing' to look upon that reminded them of God. The 'images' didn't even come close to really represent the character, power, or majesty of God. The truth is that God is 'evident' in each of us - his love being brought to full expression in us through the power of the Holy Spirit within. We don't need 'images', we just need to observe how God manifests himself through those around us.  God's grace has a unique expression in each of our lives. We are not the same - so what makes us think God's 'image' would be exp

Abraham Lincoln had perhaps one of the most 'grounded' perspectives on how he was to live:  "...my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right." To be 'on God's side' is maybe one of the most significant steps a man or woman can take in their lifetime. There are many who 'report' they are on his side - but when you examine their actions, the testimony of their words doesn't match the evidence of their life! The two always much match up. We debate more about if God is on our side, forgetting entirely that we need to place ourselves squarely on his side with each decision we make in life. If God is for us, who can be against us? He that did not hesitate to spare his own Son but gave him up for us all—can we not trust such a God to give us, with him, everything else that we can need? (Romans 8:31-32) When we are not clearly on his side, we are actually standing against hi