The Plumbline

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...