The Plumbline

For the Lord your God is living among you. He is a mighty savior. He will take delight in you with gladness. With his love, he will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs. (Zephaniah 3:17 NLT) It is indeed a heartwarming thing to know God is living among us, isn't it? We don't have to do this life alone - we have his presence with us, never allowing us to be 'alone' in our struggles or our victories. It is also kind of amazing that God actually takes great delight in us as his creation - as his children, made holy and in right standing with him through the blood of Jesus. What might even be more amazing is how he comes right into the midst of our chaos and calms all our fears. What are we to fear on this earth? Nothing! Why? Jesus goes with us wherever we go. We are never alone. We have his strength always at our disposal - we just don't lean into that strength as often as we should. We try to do 'life' all on our own terms, then wh...

“Let me ask you something: What kind of action suits the Sabbath best? Doing good or doing evil? Helping people or leaving them helpless?” (Luke 6:9) If Jesus just came right out and said, "Let me ask you something...", we wouldn't have to ask if the little voice we hear "mulling things over" in our minds was just us or if it was his Spirit speaking with us. We might just take a few more steps forward in confidence, step back when danger is imminent, and be so in tune with God's next steps that we never are out of touch with what he is doing. We get so bogged down in 'is that God' because our minds have a hard time wrapping themselves around the idea of God talking with mortal man. Maybe we just don't quite "buy into" what he is saying and doing in our lives, so we stand there finding a way to "discount" it. Either way, we often miss out on the best he has for us because we don't act upon what we hear! There are times we ...