The Plumbline

The Scriptures say, ‘I don’t want animal sacrifices; I want you to show kindness to people.’ You don’t really know what that means. If you understood it, you would not judge those who have done nothing wrong. (Matthew 12:7) Picture Jesus out with his followers, walking through the fields, probably on their way from one spot to another. It was the Sabbath - a day which carried very strict rules the religious of the day had to follow if they were to be even remotely close to being acknowledged by God. One such rule was that of not "working" on that holy day - so all manner of normal "housework" or "house care" was to have been pre-planned on the day prior to the Sabbath. This meant they prepared enough bread for two days instead of their normal one, laid aside a portion of the meat they had cooked on the day prior to the Sabbath for the partaking on the Sabbath, and ensured enough water was drawn from the well to make it through. It was like work shut do...

Don’t be concerned about the outward beauty of fancy hairstyles, expensive jewelry, or beautiful clothes. You should clothe yourselves instead with the beauty that comes from within, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is so precious to God. This is how the holy women of old made themselves beautiful. They put their trust in God.... (I Peter 3:3-5) I might just burst your bubble today - that new hairstyle is nice, but your real beauty comes from within. The more 'beauty' your heart develops, the greater the true beauty within your life will begin to shine forth. This type of 'beauty' is only possible for those who have said a resounding 'yes' to Jesus' authority in their lives - not a casual acquaintance with him, but a deeply committed relationship with him. Some have used this passage to say we should not wear make-up, dye our hair, or adorn ourselves with jewelry, but this was not the meaning. The goal of these verses is summed up in ...

Love from the center of who you are ; don’t fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply ; practice playing second fiddle. Don’t burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant. Don’t quit in hard times; pray all the harder. (Romans 12:9-12) Integrity and Intensity don't seem to fit together all that well, but they are uniquely interwoven traits which actually complement each other. "Love from the center of who you are; don't fake it." God asks for us to have some intensity (fervor) in how we love (from the center of who we are), but he also expects us to have integrity in our love as he asks us to be real in our love (don't fake it). They are indeed integral to each other. At first, we may only think of integrity as honesty - some adherence to a moral code within. I believe there is a little more to integrity than meets the eye. In the most literal sense,...

Just think—you don’t need a thing, you’ve got it all! All God’s gifts are right in front of you as you wait expectantly for our Master Jesus to arrive on the scene for the Finale. And not only that, but God himself is right alongside to keep you steady and on track until things are all wrapped up by Jesus. God, who got you started in this spiritual adventure, shares with us the life of his Son and our Master Jesus. He will never give up on you. Never forget that. (I Corinthians 1:7-9) Wouldn't it be nice to "not need a thing"? To be so "set" in life, nothing we could buy or be given is really needed any longer. If you were to ask a child what they "needed", their list of "needs" would perhaps include the latest super-hero characters, a new building set, or an electric scooter/moped - they might include books, clothes of the latest fashions, or more. If you ask an adult, their "needs" would be a little loftier - like a new set of...

A word is not a crystal, transparent and unchanged; it is the skin of a living thought and may vary greatly in color and content according to the circumstances and time in which it is used. ( Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. ) True confessions here today - I don't always say the right things! Words escape my lips that would have best been left unsaid. What's worse is that I know there are times when I should just stay silent and someone goads me into speaking and then I let it all out! The truth of the matter is that whenever there is less thought behind the words and more emotion, they don't always come out in the best manner or with the most gracious of intent! Don’t let even one rotten word seep out of your mouths. Instead, offer only fresh words that build others up when they need it most. That way your good words will communicate grace to those who hear them. (Ephesians 4:29) Do you always say words that build others up? I have been around individuals that seem...

Is there really an real time in our lives when we are too young, immature, or obstinate to be important to God? Sometimes I think we discount our potential based on our chronological age, accomplishments, or obedient responses! God doesn't! He sees potential in the words of a child just learning to speak and the aged who share from a vast wealth of accumulated knowledge. He sees only the best in the one who seems to struggle with obedience repeatedly because he knows how badly we don't want to do the stuff we do. The potential one has in his eyes is really determined by the way we choose to yield our hearts and spirit to him - even when we do it less than perfectly. I'm too young to be important, but I don't forget what you tell me. Your righteousness is eternally right, your revelation is the only truth. Even though troubles came down on me hard, your commands always gave me delight. The way you tell me to live is always right; help me understand it so I can live to ...

In watching one of those shows set back in the 'old country' of Scottish history, I observed as these homeowners kept their sheep 'penned in' within stone walls they'd erect from stones found right there in their own fields. It didn't have to be high - just about the same height at the sheep. They'd graze along until they came to this stone enclosure, then they'd almost turn around and graze in another direction. These small, but quite effective boundaries actually kept the sheep from wandering willy-nilly off into pastures not theirs to graze upon, or into areas where harm would await them. The Word of God presents a wide variety of "boundaries" that actually act quite similarly. Those boundaries actually serve to give us a sense of safety - we stay within them and we are safe - we step outside of them and no telling what will happen. One of those 'boundary areas' should be in our thought life. Our thoughts are not really all that ...

Lots of time is spent pouring out our heart and then hearing from God as to what has been transpiring around us that seems to give us concern, fear, or a lack of peace. It is impossible to live without faith, as scripture plainly reminds us that the just shall live by faith. Faith must be growing, continually developing. There are times when all we want is for God to do what he had done at times past in our lives - in other words, be awesome in every way, delivering us from whatever is just about to come in around us, and keep us from any type of mind or heart captivity. It might have been a while since we really experienced God in the 'earth-shattering' way we did in previous times - almost failing to sense his presence and longing for things to 'be good again' where is applies to our 'closeness' with God. We could even say we have allowed our 'souls' to get a little bit on the 'empty' side - we just seem to lack what we need. "Look at th...

"These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundational words, words to build a life on. If you work these words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who built his house on solid rock. Rain poured down, the river flooded, a tornado hit—but nothing moved that house. It was fixed to the rock.   "But if you just use my words in Bible studies and don't work them into your life, you are like a stupid carpenter who built his house on the sandy beach. When a storm rolled in and the waves came up, it collapsed like a house of cards." (Matthew 7:24-27) Jesus wants us to remember that the words he speak are not just to be "incidental" in our lives, but a living part of who we are.  If we really get the meaning of this passage, it can be life-transforming. Jesus tells us that we have to "work these words INTO our life" - not just roll them over a time or two...

We justify our actions by appearances; God examines our motives. (Pr. 21:2) I can honestly way that we sometimes spend far more time working to show ourselves as good, or as justified in what we do, than in trying to change what it is we are doing. We want to be free from blame or guilt that might be associated with our actions or thoughts, but really don't rise above the wrong ones as much as we'd like to. What is worse is that we look at the actions of another and we begin to form judgments about that individual based solely upon their actions. The problem: we are making evaluation of that individual by what we see on the outside. We evaluate the activities of man, thinking we know the motives based on the actions that we see revealed - but I think we can also be totally truthful here - it is almost impossible for us to know the motives of another. It is pretty clear to me that actions do not always align with motives. This is why God looks closer at the motives of our h...

12  Be glad for all God is planning for you. Be patient in trouble, and prayerful always.  13  When God’s children are in need, you be the one to help them out. (Romans 12:12-13 TLB) Some of our plans don't always work out as we had hoped they would, do they? The best laid plans, so to speak, are pretty unreliable at times. I can remember when my kids were little and they'd get sick right around the major holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas. One or both would have an earache, runny nose, croupy cough, or some sort of thing hit them full-on. My plans were for a "normal" holiday, without the additional expense or worry of a sick child. Their plans were probably just to have fun. The reality was that some bug would catch up with them and they'd be sick! Plans don't always work out, but when we do our best to listen to God about what he plans for us, we have a much better chance of seeing the "right stuff" come out of those plans. God makes pla...

" Love dies only when growth stops ." Pearl S. Buck (American Novelist) 13  Look at what God has made. You cannot change a thing, even if you think it is wrong.   14  When life is good, enjoy it. But when life is hard, remember that God gives us good times and hard times. And no one knows what will happen in the future. (Ecclesiastes 7:13-14 ERV) Buck also reminds us, " You cannot make yourself feel something you do not feel, but you can make yourself do right in spite of your feelings ." We cannot underestimate the power of our feelings, for they often become either the catalyst behind our actions, or the anchor behind our inaction. There are days when we look at what comes our way and "feel" like we can handle each challenge, while at other times we simply have different "feelings" that tell us we won't handle another thing. Most of us engage in this insurmountable task of "changing things" because some "feeling" te...

If the heart of man is made up of mind, will, and emotions - the place where we make choices, decide which "voice" sounds the most "credible" at the moment, and what it is we will hold onto when times get a little challenging - then we had better figure out pretty quickly what is IN our heart and what CONTROLS it.  If the right stuff is IN there and the right ONE is controlling our heart, then we stand a better chance to have consistency in our lives which is reflected in our correct choices and wise responses. We may think we are doing the right thing, but the Lord always knows what is in our hearts. (Proverbs 21:2 CEV) I enjoy pleasing you. Your Law is in my heart. (Psalm 40:8 CEV) God knows how many times we set out to "do" the right thing, but then somewhere along the way we get distracted by something which influences our thoughts, will, or emotions just enough to get us pursuing something else entirely.  It may not have been our ori...

Have you ever read a portion of scripture so many times, you just gloss over it because you think you are already "familiar" with it?  What happens is we tell our brains we already know the "story".  It is like when we asked mom or dad to read us the bedtime story for the 2,000th time!  We didn't need them to read it out loud because we could have just looked at the pictures and told THEM the story!  It wasn't that we memorized it - we remembered enough of the details to "tell the story".  I like to go back to some of my favorite portions of scripture frequently because they have challenged me, given me hope, set my thinking straight, etc.  I count on what happened before to give me something "new" this time around.  The most amazing thing about scripture - it almost always does this when we come with an open mind and a seeking heart! God knew what he was doing from the very beginning. He decided from the outset to shape the lives of ...

Two words come to mind when I think of our "I" List of character traits God would like for us to possess:  Integrity and Intensity.  At first, these two seem to stand alone, but I think you will come to see how they are uniquely interwoven traits which actually compliment each other.  As you can see from our passage below, Paul begins with "Love from the center of who you are; don't fake it."  Now, consider our two traits - he asks for us to have some intensity (fervor) in how we love (from the center of who we are), but he also expects us to have integrity in our love as he asks us to be real in our love (don't fake it).  They are indeed integral to each other.   Love from the center of who you are; don’t fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle.    Don’t burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant. ...

Going through the motions?  If you have ever found yourself on "auto-pilot", you probably have been "going through the motions".  On auto-pilot, the deed is getting done, but it is without conscious effort and often without intention. It is rote.  It is not the best way to go through life, but we often find ourselves involved in lots of things we just do because we have to - making no real effort to be intentional in the thing we are doing.  There are two things missing when we do:  interest and involvement. Going through the motions doesn’t please you,   a flawless performance is nothing to you.   I learned God-worship   when my pride was shattered. Heart-shattered lives ready for love   don’t for a moment escape God’s notice. (Psalm 51:16-17 MSG) Our passage today deals with living both with interest and involvement - two things God requires of us if we are to really get the most from our relationship with him.  In the theater, act...