The Plumbline

The parents of the right-living will celebrate; yes, parents of children who make wise choices are happy. (Proverbs 23:24 VOICE) If you have ever looked at one of your children, grandchildren, or friends, noticing some of the 'not so wise' choices they have been making, you may have wondered how they got things 'so wrong' in their decisions. They were 'raised better than that', after all. weren't they? Why did they choose to ignore all their upbringing with that decision? When our kiddos and acquaintances make right choices, we celebrate don't we? When they make unwise ones, what is our response? Is it to condemn them, bail them out, or do we continue to pray for them, be a positive example, and be there when they need us? It is quite possible that we feel the one who has made unwise choices may feel a little 'let down' or 'exasperated' by those choices themselves, but they don't know what to do about it. That doesn't mean we can...

The question is posed:  "If God is on our side, can anyone be against us?"  I'd have to answer, "Sure, just because we have God on our side doesn't mean we will never be opposed by anyone or anything else for the rest of our lives!"  It DOES mean that nothing which opposes us will ever win the upper hand! Whether it is an enemy of our own "doing" such as addiction to some substance or habit, or some enemy we have absolutely no control over such as the senseless tragedy of someone taking the life of another just because they are in school or the theater that day - we have enemies around us.  They work to create as much "mess" in our lives as possible - sometimes because the mess of their own lives just is too much for them to handle themselves! In everything we have won more than a victory because of Christ who loves us. (Romans 8:37 CEV) I have often pondered this idea of why bad things happen to good people.  In the recent weeks...

19-23 Even though I am free of the demands and expectations of everyone, I have voluntarily become a servant to any and all in order to reach a wide range of people: religious, nonreligious, meticulous moralists, loose-living immoralists, the defeated, the demoralized—whoever. I didn't take on their way of life. I kept my bearings in Christ—but I entered their world and tried to experience things from their point of view. I've become just about every sort of servant there is in my attempts to lead those I meet into a God-saved life. I did all this because of the Message. I didn't just want to talk about it; I wanted to be in on it! (I Corinthians 9:21-23) This past week has been a week filled with what some may call "selfish" prayers.  You know the kind of prayers I mean - the ones that start with, "Lord, it is me again..."  Those prayers we all pray are the very ones that God enjoys so much hearing!   We sometimes don't want to lift our needs befor...