The Plumbline

Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear. For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him. (Philippians 2:12-13) Whoever told you that this Christian lifestyle was going to be a cakewalk was pulling the wool over your eyes! It is easier at first, but at some point, it actually gets a bit harder to continue in our growth. It is not always easy following the instructions laid out for us in God's Word, maybe because we see so many others just observing those words when it feels good to them and ignoring them at other times. Obedience is definitely not situational, and it is not a thing we 'show off' when others are watching and ignore when they are not.  Work hard to show the results of your salvation. That very statement suggests there may be more than a bit of work involved in making different choices in life. Lifestyle changes are hard, but when they begin with a proper respect for God...

Some try to live like saints - others know just how much of an impossibility sainthood really is! The good news is that God can make somebodies out of nobodies - he can actually make saints out of sinners! We all bear many names such as son, daughter, mother, father, worker, foreman, leader, and even child. None of these names really defines us as God would have us defined, though. We are each individually defined by the 'new name' he writes upon our hearts the moment we say "yes" to Jesus. That new name doesn't make us who we are in Christ Jesus - it is given because of what God has done in us. We call Abraham “father” not because he got God’s attention by living like a saint, but because God made something out of Abraham when he was a nobody. Isn’t that what we’ve always read in Scripture, God saying to Abraham, “I set you up as father of many peoples”? Abraham was first named “father” and then  became  a father because he dared to trust God to do what only Go...

There are times when it helps us to have a list of "do" and "don't" actions and attitudes. Lists help us to organize thought and see things which "fit together" in a certain way.  Yet if we just have "lists" of the "do this" and "don't do this" actions and attitudes in life, we sometimes miss the reason behind those things - they become nothing more than rote to us and we just act one way or refrain from acting another because it is "on the list".  If we approach God's practical instructions about how we are to live our lives in this same manner, we will find the scriptures impractical, hard to understand, and even harder to "live out".  One of the most practical things I find outlined in scripture is how much this "list making" and "rule keeping" can steer us wrong.  You see, we love ourselves way too much to actually enjoy being told to deny ourselves.  We honor ourselves ...

If you have ever played that little game known as "telephone", you know how convoluted the message given by the first person can become by the time it reaches the last person in the line.  The first person whispers the message into the ear of the one right next to them, then that one passes it along in similar fashion to the next, and so on.  By the end, sound alike words get all mixed up and are often replaced, such as banana become bandanna, or rogue become road.  Those tiny differences change the entire message and we usually have a hoot about the final message as it is repeated.  In essence, you might say the person at the end (and those in between) did not receive the complete message.  Really, they did, it just got mixed up because what one person "thought" they heard was not what was said.  This is why it is important for us to take the messages we hear "about" God right to the scripture ourselves to figure out if this is really something he wo...

We've all probably heard a saying about it taking a special person to make a house a home, or lots of love to make a house into a  home, right?  This is quite true, as houses are nothing without those who live within them.  Those who dwell within actually create the "culture" of the home - they give a unique atmosphere to the home environment.  The one who dwells within the walls of the house has a special way of making that house their own - by decorating it as they like, opening it to visitors, and often creating a family within those walls.  Now, think about that a little differently - your body as a house of sorts. Your body houses the Spirit of God and as such, the atmosphere of your life changes, does it not?  The one who "dwells within" the house makes a difference in the "culture" or atmosphere of the "house".   A house is built by wisdom  and becomes strong through good sense. Through knowledge its rooms are filled  with all sor...

Who do you see when you look in the mirror?  Most of us would say we see a reflection of ourselves.  Looking back at us is the man or woman we have become, complete with all the wrinkles, gray hairs, blemishes, cellulite, and the like.  Rarely does anyone answer, "I see Christ".  Why?  I am not sure we actually see Christ because we only see the "dullness" of this earthen vessel and his brightness is just beneath the surface, struggling to get out!  Paul puts it this way: If you only look at  us , you might well miss the brightness. We carry this precious Message around in the unadorned clay pots of our ordinary lives. That’s to prevent anyone from confusing God’s incomparable power with us. As it is, there’s not much chance of that. You know for yourselves that we’re not much to look at. We’ve been surrounded and battered by troubles, but we’re not demoralized; we’re not sure what to do, but we know that God knows what to do; we’ve been spiritually ...

Be good to your servant,  God ;  be as good as your Word.  Train me in good common sense;  I'm thoroughly committed to living your way.  Before I learned to answer you, I wandered all over the place,  but now I'm in step with your Word.     You are good, and the source of good;  train me in your goodness.  (Psalm 119:65-68 The Message) Have you ever known someone with all the book learning in the world, but they simply lacked good common sense?  Doesn't it amaze you sometimes how much we can amass in "knowledge" and still lack the "skill" to do some of the stuff we need to do?  Simply put, common sense is the "sound" practical judgment that is independent of any of the specialized knowledge we might amass through training.  In some fields of human psychology, they might say this is the "native" intelligence that someone possesses. Our psalmist reminds us that getting the Word "into" us is great!  We cannot liv...

3-4 You didn't think, did you, that just by pointing your finger at others you would distract God from seeing all your misdoings and from coming down on you hard? Or did you think that because he's such a nice God, he'd let you off the hook? Better think this one through from the beginning. God is kind, but he's not soft. In kindness he takes us firmly by the hand and leads us into a radical life-change. (Romans 2:3-4) An amazing truth about God is how immensely patient he is with his children.  He gives us space - to make our own choices.  He gives us time - to come to our own conclusions.  He gives us these things because he knows that in order to have our heart, he must have it yielded willingly.  God is infinitely patient in his waiting for us to turn from our sin - but he will not wait forever.  Sometimes, he gives us gentle nudges to cause us to see our sin.  When he does, remember that it is out of his immense love for us that he has done so. We of...