The Plumbline

Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn’t love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that. (Ephesians 5:1-2 MSG) What is God doing? There are times we all ask that question, not really sure that God is in control, but trusting that he is, we still find ourselves asking what he could possibly be doing with what is going on around us. Watch what he does - that is a pretty specific instruction. We are to observe what he does because we learn best when we have an example of an expected action. God loves us - repeatedly, unconditionally, without doubt or regret. In the same manner, we are to love others, but we need to see his example in order to respond to others with this type of love, don't we? So, observe how he love...

How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in your life you will have been all of these. (George Washington Carver) ...may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. (Ephesians 3:18-19) We cannot know the full depth or breadth of God's love. It is something that transcends human imagination. We can learn of his love, appreciate how it works, and then seek to participate in that love more and more each day. We cannot neglect it, for God's love has done great things on our behalf already. We shall not escape it, for God's love is a seeking and tenacious force. We can enter into it - becoming more...

 Love cures people - both the ones who give it and the ones who receive it. (Karl A. Menninger) I give you a new command: Love each other. You must love each other just as I loved you. All people will know that you are my followers if you love each other. (John 13:34-35) Some in this world crave love because they really haven't seen much love modeled in their lives - rejected, alone in most of their actions, drifting kind of aimlessly from one relationship to another, just hoping they will find 'whatever' it is they crave. Love isn't learned from the textbooks - it is modeled behavior. We can absolutely KNOW God loves us because he sent his son to 'model' the behaviors of love. His love has been in action since he created heaven and earth, but if we ever doubted his love, we only need to look to the actions of Jesus on our behalf, the actions of his Father in sending him to earth, and then the actions of the Father pronouncing sin's penalty has been paid onc...

Who can measure the wealth and wisdom and knowledge of God? Who can understand his decisions or explain what he does? “Has anyone known the thoughts of the Lord or given him advice? Has anyone loaned something to the Lord that must be repaid?” Everything comes from the Lord. All things were made because of him and will return to him. Praise the Lord forever! Amen.  (Romans 11:33-36)   If we are used to measuring things, such as the length of something, or the content within a particular container, after a while we all can pretty much eyeball something and tell just about how much is in that container or how long the object is.  Why?  We become so accustomed to the container or the object we are measuring we just know when we see it. It has to do with how frequently we observe that object. There are things I "know" because I have observed them over and over again until I developed an awareness.  I wonder if we can get to know God's ways of dealing in our lives in...

God remembered us when we were down. His love never quits. Rescued us from the trampling boot. His love never quits. Takes care of everyone in time of need. His love never quits. Thank God, who did it all. His love never quits. (Psalm 136:23-26) We are reminded over and over again that God's love never quits - not less than twenty-six times in as many verses within this psalm. His - there is no other basis for our trust, nor our focus - it is him and him alone. Love - evident in nothing more revealing than his grace. NEVER - not just when the urge strikes him, but each and every time we need to see, feel, or experience it in some manner. Quits - as impossible as it is for God to lie, it is equally impossible for him to withhold his love from us. It is good to be reminded of things we have a tendency to forget, isn't it? Our mind wanders and finds distraction in the most unlikely places, all the while setting us up to forget who it is we have placed our trust in and to begin to...

But the Lord has always loved his followers, and he will continue to love them forever and ever! He will be good to all their descendants, to those who are faithful to his agreement and who remember to obey his commands. (Psalm 103:17-18) God's part - love us. Our part - obey him. Seems pretty easy, but it has presented more challenges for God's people down through the ages that we can shake a stick at! Why is obedience so hard? If we really want to be obedient to ALL that God asks of us, not just the 'easy stuff', then we need to understand obedience is a struggle of the will. Pride gets all balled up in the mess, as well. We want things to go the easiest way possible, don't we? Whenever something doesn't quite go as we hoped, do we bail? Do we double-down and put extra effort into it? Most of us find ourselves facing the difficulties of obedience with a bit of prideful will - we want it our way, but our way isn't always God's way. I am so glad God'...

For love is as strong as death, its jealousy as enduring as the grave. Love flashes like fire, the brightest kind of flame. Many waters cannot quench love, nor can rivers drown it. (Song of Solomon 8:6-7) "Love has no age, no limit; and no death." (John Galsworthy) When I was in Bible College, one of the professors asked us to take time to write down some ideas about what we believed love to be - actions of love, thoughts it evoked, and even the emotions it evoked. It was a pretty interesting lesson as all of us 'scholarly' students put forth our best effort to come up with the 'best' definition of love. As we shared our ideas in the classroom that day, I recall how each of us came up with some of the same 'pat answers', while others had gone much deeper, their answers revealing just how much they understood the depth and breadth of love. Love is a very 'strong' emotion that evokes even stronger actions. It was apparent to me that I had only to...

So, friends, we can now— without hesitation —walk right up to God, into “the Holy Place.” Jesus has cleared the way by the blood of his sacrifice, acting as our priest before God. The “curtain” into God’s presence is his body. So let’s do it —full of belief, confident that we’re presentable inside and out. Let’s keep a firm grip on the promises that keep us going. He always keeps his word. Let’s see how inventive we can be in encouraging love and helping out, not avoiding worshiping together as some do but spurring each other on, especially as we see the big Day approaching. (Hebrews 10:19-25) Any delay due to uncertainty of mind or fear - that state of doubt - will keep us from fully embracing all that God has for us. How many times do we simply avoid doing something just because of our fear or apprehension? If we were honest, it may be more than we would admit. We avoid saying something when we feel impressed to do so, or don't act on what we know simply because we are reluct...

So, what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose? If God didn’t hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn’t gladly and freely do for us? And who would dare tangle with God by messing with one of God’s chosen? Who would dare even to point a finger? The One who died for us—who was raised to life for us!—is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us. Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ’s love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture: They kill us in cold blood because they hate you. We’re sitting ducks; they pick us off one by one. None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us. I’m absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or de...

Death and love are the two wings that bear the good man to heaven. (Michelangelo) Michelangelo may have a portion of this 'going to heaven' thing correct, but I know the only death that really mattered was Christ's. The only thing that draws us all into his arms is his intense love for each of us. So, it is indeed a death and some pretty amazing love that bears us to heaven...but...none of us are 'good men' or 'good women' without Christ. So, even the goodness of mankind is reliant upon the love of God! “This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again . Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the...

Is there a difference between the God you serve today and the one you served in your youth? Some might be quick to admit they 'feel' as though there is a difference, but he is the same God! It is our relationship with him that has changed - our perspective has changed. We see him differently because of all that we have been through with him over the years, but he remains consistently the same. I think we interpret his love differently, appreciate his presence deeper, and relish his comfort more. Our 'age' has placed us in a different 'frame of mind' as it comes to seeing, appreciating, and enjoying the work of God in our lives. Even when you are old I will be the same. And even when your hair turns white, I will help you. I will take care of what I have made. I will carry you, and will save you. (Isaiah 46:4) Even when you are old... I guess it goes without saying that with each new day dawning on the horizon, we are getting just a little bit older. We aren...

"Only the broken-hearted know the truth about love." (Mason Cooley)  They say to have loved and lost is far better than to have never even attempted to understand or participate in love at all.  Love is a "messy" kind of thing - sometimes quite a pleasant "mess" and at others kind of devastating to the heart.  I don't think most of us humans actually understand the love of God, though.  We make a pretty feeble attempt to actually understand the breadth, width, and depth of that unfathomable love, but in essence the closest we ever come to understanding his love is to receive it in the first place.  The most profound thing about God's love is not that he is interested in loving those who have "perfect love", but those who are already pretty "broken" in their ability or willingness to love themselves, others, and him! Some people became fools infected by their rebellious ways, and sickness followed because of their sins.  Affli...

So many times we focus on the "do not" phrases in scripture as the means by which we should live our lives - the boundaries we are supposed to live within. I am not saying that is necessarily the worst way to look at things, but there is a different take on the matter - we could just live by the one "do" statement which really summarizes all those "do not" ones! I think the "do not" ones are there because we need "concrete" evidence of what is "allowable" versus "disallowed" in this Christian walk.  It isn't as though the "do not" instructions don't matter - they do make it pretty clear for us to know when we are crossing the line.  Yet, if we hear what Jesus taught, it is the one "do" statement which really captures all the others in their entirety.  The do statement?  "Love the Eternal One your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind. Love your neighbor as you...

There is a song which has been running through my head all night.  I often awake with a tune of some sorts just running over and over in my mind.  It isn't that I am all that musically inclined, but I think it is my desire to praise God with my life which gives me this song deep within.  As I rehearsed the lines over and over, something began to speak to me from those few words of the song.  Let me share the words of the song are from an album entitled "Love Ran Red" by Chris Tomlin.  The song is "Waterfall" and the words which kept "tumbling" in my head:  "Your love is like a waterfall, waterfall..."  The second remembered set of words from the song probably speak the loudest to me: "It's coming like a flood; I'm dancing in the rain.  Everything I've done is covered in rivers of grace...Amazing".  Those who have followed me for a while know I truly think there is nothing more amazing in this life than grace!  Grace is ...

There are lots of metaphors in scripture, oftentimes not appreciated because we don't stop long enough to take time to actually let them sink in.  A metaphor is something used to describe something else.  When we say God is our fortress, we aren't saying he is a stone building erected with stone, mortar, and protective walls.  We are simply giving a word picture of his strength, security, and place of safe-keeping.  Whenever we refer to God as our shield, we are giving a word picture of one who wards off the blows from our enemies and protects our most vulnerable parts.  To many, word pictures speak much - to others, they are simply glossed over as some nice, frilly way to describe something, but they need something much more "concrete" because their brains don't stop to delight in word pictures.  Perhaps this is why God uses both in scripture - the word picture and the direct, to point out the truth. As we explore scripture, getting to know our God as the...