The Plumbline

You can trust what your friend says, even when it hurts. But your enemies want to hurt you, even when they act nice. (Proverbs 27:6) What does your closest friend say about you? It may not always be what you want to hear, but if they know Jesus, we can trust him to use their words on occasion. Those words may build us up at one time, but they can bring necessary conviction at others! Do all the words we hear always bring us joy and great peace? Not hardly, as sometimes we need to hear the ones that sting just a bit. Why? We may not have been seeing things in the right light and need to have a bit more light shed on the matter. We may have been refusing to hear and just need someone to prod us to listen closer. Our enemies, on the other hand, may sugar coat every word they say, happy to mislead us wherever they can. Whenever we choose to listen to their lies, we almost feel a little undone by those words. They eat at us and give us concerns we didn't know otherwise. We must be caref...

People who do not have God’s Spirit do not accept the things that come from his Spirit. They think these things are foolish. They cannot understand them, because they can only be understood with the Spirit’s help. (I Corinthians 2:14) If you have ever wondered why some people just don't seem to understand what God is doing in your life, it could just be that they haven't met Jesus yet and therefore, they don't understand what you are sharing with them. The Spirit of God is necessary to 'interpret' the things God is doing - to really connect with these things, one needs his Spirit. It is easy for them to understand the things of this world, for that is where their minds are connected. Once there is a connection established between them and God by the power of God's Spirit, they will soon come to understand the things God is doing in and around them, as well. We sometimes try to communicate the things God is doing in our lives in a way that those without God'...