The Plumbline

Don’t let anyone under pressure to give in to evil say, “God is trying to trip me up.” God is impervious to evil, and puts evil in no one’s way. The temptation to give in to evil comes from us and only us. We have no one to blame but the leering, seducing flare-up of our own lust. Lust gets pregnant, and has a baby: sin! Sin grows up to adulthood, and becomes a real killer. (James 1:13-15) Did you realize that sin actually grows in the dark? That is why it is so wrong for us to hide our sin - in the dark it has a greater chance of growing. We lust and that leads to looking - looking leads to action - trying to stop leads to us thinking about that sin time and time again. It is a cyclical thing. Shame makes us want to hide our sin - but that is the worst thing we can do when we sin. Don't conceal your sin - confess it. Sin needs to be brought into the light in order to be free from it. "You can’t whitewash your sins and get by with it; you find mercy by admitting and leaving th...

Have you ever hidden so well in that old time game of hide & seek so that you were absolutely unable to be discovered? That which is hidden is not visible - it isn't easily perceived, or has little to no evidence it even exists. If we are playing a kid's game, being hidden in such a manner ensures that you will be declared the 'winner' of the game. In real life, always hiding so well isn't going to ensure you 'win', is it? It just means you remain undiscovered! When our hiding place is in God himself, it isn't that we aren't able to be discovered - it is just that his barrier of protection over our lives is so impenetrable that nothing can get at us!  You are my hiding place and my battle-covering. I put my hope in Your Word. (Psalm 119:114) When times challenge us a little, do we turn to God as our covering, or do we simple hunker down a little in some 'place' we have designed for ourselves as a means of escape? I daresay there are a lot...

Are you a 'runner'? You know - that one who finds something just too hard, or totally unimaginable for the asking - so instead of embracing what is right there in front of you to do, you turn tail and run the other way. The worst form of 'running' is when it is away from God - away from obedience. Running away from God is seldom the answer to our problems. In fact, the harder and farther we run, the worse the problems seem to be magnified in our lives. Try as we might, God really cannot be escaped! There is just no hiding place from God! That said, why do so many of us try to get away from what he asks of us? It may be stubbornness (AKA pride), fear (AKA mistrust), or apathy (AKA not really caring). The worst part about 'running' from God is that others usually get wrapped up in the results of our 'running'. We may not have intended it to happen, but they are affected by our actions - even when they result in inaction! Then they grilled him: "Con...

Do you remember playing that simple game of "hide and seek", running wildly around the house or yard, trying to find just the right hiding place?  Back in the day, we had a great neighborhood for hiding. We had 13 citrus trees in our yard, not to mention a huge mulberry tree, and two pretty impressive sized junipers just as you turned into the driveway to our house. All provided ample hiding space for one who could scurry up the trunk and into the cover of the leaves, or scooch way down inside the juniper's ample cover fast enough. In addition to this, we had all kinds of hiding places behind the pigeon coop, around the pool area, behind the garage, and even behind a row of shiny silver trash cans. Yet, as I recall all the places I hid, none was as safe as the place I run to now when I just need a little 'hiding out' from life's challenges! God is a safe place to hide, ready to help when we need him.  We stand fearless at the cliff-edge of doom,  courageous ...