The Plumbline

Noah found favor with the Lord. (Genesis 6:8)  The hope of every believer's heart is that they 'find favor with the Lord' in all they say, think, and do. At times, we aren't very wise in our choice of words, so we waver a bit there. We waver a bit in the area of our thinking as we don't always 'put our thinking caps on' before we speak or act. We definitely waver in the 'doing' part of life as our mind may desire to do one thing, but we end up doing what our emotions 'feel' rather than what we know to be right. Noah was righteous and blameless before God. Out of all the people on earth, he alone found favor before God. Compared to the rest of the world around him and you will see they were so evil that God got to the point he could not bear it anymore. His justice demanded that he punish them.  I can only imagine how difficult it would be to live a righteous life in this kind of evil and vile environment. There was absolutely no restraint aga...

Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. And because they love me, my Father will love them. And I will love them and reveal myself to each of them. (John 14:21) Before obedience comes acceptance - we have to accept the commandments of God and then apply ourselves to obeying them. Do we have to understand all the commandments of God before we can apply them to our lives? We can acknowledge that there are some we may not fully 'understand' but we are intent on keeping because God tells us to live within their boundaries. We have to welcome his commandments, though. The more we find ways to twist or resist them, the harder it will be for us to draw near to him. Why? The twisting and resisting reveals we are really not intent on developing the relationship! When we accept the commandments of God, we are really showing that we are willing to undertake the responsibility to live within those commandments. Did you really hear that? The element of resp...