The Plumbline

Pride rises up, making self the main focus - blocking our ability, or even our desire, to see how our behavior impacts the other person. Lies get told because pride cannot accept that truth could produce a positive outcome for one's own self. In time, relationships become brittle and break under the pressure of both. Today, we consider the issue of hands that murder the innocent. Most of us would say, "That doesn't apply to me, so you can skip that part", but let's take a look for just a moment anyway. You may be surprised to find that our English language has nine different definitions for murder - including the ones we commonly think of as the ending of a life either intentionally or accidentally.   What caused me to think more about this term was the synonyms associated with  murder . They are very descriptive of other ways we actually can "murder" an individual without actually taking their physical life. One of the ideas conveyed in the definition ...

Have you ever been so frustrated with someone, boiling over with all kinds of not so nice kinds of thoughts about them?  At some point, you may have even thought someone would just be "better off" dead because they are a total loss according to the standards of our society, or in some other world, just as long as it was not YOURS!  Most of us would never consider murder as an option for dealing with someone we'd rather eliminate from our lives, though!  So, why does God feel it is so important to tell us not to murder someone? 13  “You must not murder."  (Exodus 20:13 New Living Translation) Society classifies murder into two buckets - premeditated (deliberate and planned) and without premeditation (more of an accidental thing in the commission of another crime such as speeding).  Without getting too deep here, God really does not approve of the loss of life at the hand of another when it is deliberate.   I believe God is aiming at the ...