The Plumbline

Whoever said we could walk through this life without worries, difficulties, or unresolved issues was probably not a well person!  Choosing to serve Christ does not elevate an individual above the ebbs and flows of life.  In fact, it almost guarantees a few more hurdles!  If we really are living for Christ, we will face challenging people, circumstances, and moments of potential compromise which we may not have encountered otherwise. 5-6 You paid careful attention to the way we lived among you, and determined to live that way yourselves. In imitating us, you imitated the Master. Although great trouble accompanied the Word, you were able to take great joy from the Holy Spirit!—taking the trouble with the joy, the joy with the trouble.   (I Thessalonians 1:5-6) As Paul commends the Thessalonian church, he points out the fact of their increased troubles since entering into relationship with Christ.  The reader may balk a little at this revelation, but the import...

  7-8 "Listen now, you who know right from wrong, you who hold my teaching inside you:  Pay no attention to insults, and when mocked don't let it get you down.  Those insults and mockeries are moth-eaten, from brains that are termite-ridden, but my setting-things-right lasts, my salvation goes on and on and on." (Isaiah 51:7-8 The Message) There are times when we just feel like the world is against us - like all we live for and stand for is just ridiculed and considered to be silliness in the eyes of those around us.  These are the times when we need to re-read these words and take heart.  The unbeliever has no revelation of God beyond our testimony of a life "squared up" by living the principles God teaches.  It is the testimony of one that can affect the lives of millions! Do you realize that mockery is really the highest form of honor we can receive?  Think about it - someone sees our the testimony of Jesus in us and finds it s...