The Plumbline

I see the limits to everything human, but the horizons can’t contain your commands! (Psalm 119:96 MSG) In this world, as long as we humans inhabit this space and time, there will be limits to what we can do - although there are no limits to what we can dream. The horizons look like they have an end point - but to be truthful, east and west are limitless. There is no end to the horizon - it continues into infinity. Try to chase that rainbow, seeking the 'pot of gold' at the end of it, and you will soon find you cannot really tell where it begins nor where it ends. God is a big God, and he made a big creation - the finite mind might try to contain all he can do and will do, but it is impossible for the finite to fathom the infinite! WE all have limits - GOD does not. Knowing our limits is a good thing, but trusting God with what goes beyond our limits is an even better thing. We might see a situation as unbearable, but God says he will be with us when trouble comes our way, an...

Life Hack #4: Keep those boundaries - but you have to know them before you can keep them! Boundaries are really nothing more than a dividing line. We have all kinds of "dividing lines" in life, don't we? Some are quite real - like those drawn for the purposes of playing a sport on the field. Others are set up in our minds - not specifically clear to others, but definitely clear to us. The problem comes when someone wants to move one of those boundaries - stretching it or reducing it in some manner. We feel a little threatened, challenged, or overcome by this attempt to move the "markers", don't we?  Don’t stealthily move back the boundary lines staked out long ago by your ancestors. (Proverbs 22:28) In Old Testament times, they did not have surveyors with highly technical laser point imaging tools to assist in laying out boundary lines. They'd use landmarks or "markers" of sorts to indicate a boundary. They'd say the boundary limit w...

It is quite easy for us to get 'drug down into' the culture of our day. The catty comments from opposing candidates catch our attention on the airwaves. The promise of this remedy providing instant this or that lures us into the latest of fads that only rob us of our hard-earned money and deliver none of the desired results. Easily swayed, we become 'prey' to these influencing factors. Wouldn't it be much more rewarding to be influenced with the type of things that actually pick us up instead of dragging us down? God's desire has always been for us to be 'drawn up', not down! So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You...