The Plumbline

When we were controlled by our old nature, sinful desires were at work within us, and the law aroused these evil desires that produced a harvest of sinful deeds, resulting in death. But now we have been released from the law, for we died to it and are no longer captive to its power. Now we can serve God, not in the old way of obeying the letter of the law, but in the new way of living in the Spirit. (Romans 7:5-6) When we were controlled by our old nature... We cannot deny the fact that the 'old man' needed a change that wasn't forthcoming until Christ took over our lives. ...sinful desires were at work within us... While we might have done some 'good things' while the old man was in control, we also made a habit of being just a little too self-focused, selfish on more than one occasion, and likely just a bit too prideful about doing 'good things'. We might even have bragged or called attention to ourselves for being 'good' people. ...and the Law aro...

Now the gates of Jericho were tightly shut because the people were afraid of the Israelites. No one was allowed to go out or in. But the Lord said to Joshua, “I have given you Jericho, its king, and all its strong warriors. You and your fighting men should march around the town once a day for six days. Seven priests will walk ahead of the Ark, each carrying a ram’s horn. On the seventh day you are to march around the town seven times, with the priests blowing the horns. When you hear the priests give one long blast on the rams’ horns, have all the people shout as loud as they can. Then the walls of the town will collapse, and the people can charge straight into the town.” (Joshua 6:1-5) It is time we come to realize the more we look for God to work in conventional ways in our lives, the more he will surprise us by using unconventional means to accomplish his plans and purposes. The walls may be tightly shut, but you can rest assured that God is no match for those walls. The enemy may ...

I will hurry, without delay, to obey your commands. (Psalm 119:60) To make haste to keep God's commands requires some challenges at times, doesn't it? We find ourselves waffling just a bit on occasion, all because the moment presents so many options that appeal to our senses or emotions. Some call this 'temptation' - it could very well be, but there will always be opportunities to compromise, even just a little bit, that aren't always 'temptations'. They are just choices to move in the right direction, but just a wee bit off the mark God intended for us. Compromise isn't always 'huge'. Most of the time, it is the simplest choices where we compromise just 'a wee bit'. It isn't like we eat the whole box of chocolates!  It might take us a while to develop the type of obedience that 'makes haste', without delay, to obey God's commands. It isn't that we don't want to be obedient - it is that we are still just a little b...

Don’t think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us. (Romans 12:3) How many times do we evaluate ourselves against other people? It may come as no surprise to you that psychologists have actually studied how people either "Compare Upward" or "Compare Downward" when evaluating their own behaviors. When we go the upward direction, we perceive someone to actually be better than us at something, so we judge ourselves against their behavior or actions. When we choose the downward comparison, we perceive ourselves as better, so we are judging them against our behavior. Unfortunately, God says that either way is wrong!  When we use others as our comparison, we find we either justify our behavior as 'okay' or we think we are so much worse than we should be. The first actually boosts what some refer to as 'self-esteem', while the latter merely pushes us further into a h...

The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings.  (Eric Hoffer) Lord, you are mine! I promise to obey your words! With all my heart I want your blessings. Be merciful as you promised. I pondered the direction of my life, and I turned to follow your laws. (Psalm 119:57-59) Perhaps one of the most difficult lessons to learn is that we don't 'earn' God's blessings. The more we spend time with Jesus, the more we will realize his blessings are vast and unlimited. The blessings of God are not linked to what we 'do' in this relationship, but their very presence within our lives might just prompt us toward obedience more and more each day. We aren't 'obedient' to obtain the blessings - the obedience actually flows from our lives because we realize how great grace is! Ponder the direction of your life every so often - it isn't always going the right direction. We need to take time to allow God to point out to us where ...

For we don’t live for ourselves or die for ourselves. If we live, it’s to honor the Lord. And if we die, it’s to honor the Lord. So whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. (Romans 14:7-8) Too many people think they live to do what they want, when they want, with whatever they want, all the while neglecting to see how their actions will affect others. God's words to us are to be continually aware of how our behavior affects those around us - they might not understand our 'liberty' in Christ, or they might fall into some temptation because of some weakness in their own character that is 'spurred on' by our behavior. Either way, we owe it to each other to be aware of how our actions will always affect others. Paul was speaking to the church at Rome in this passage, but these words come after a long discussion as to what foods were 'okay' to eat, which 'holy day' was the 'right one', and similar types of issues. You see, the early church ...

Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted; the indifference of those who should have known better; the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most; that has made it possible for evil to triumph. (Haile Selassie)  Don’t let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good. (Romans 12:21) I cannot say for sure, but there are times when I believe we ALL let evil get the upper hand in our lives, wishing for the best outcome possible, but then allowing our thoughts to turn where they shouldn't, our eyes taking in what they probably didn't want to really see. The moment we give any inroad to evil in our lives, the influence of that moment can create a 'highway' for evil influence to continue to travel until we allow God to shut it down once and for all. We may not see the harm in not shutting it down with immediacy ourselves, but God knows the harm that will come when even the slightest path is allowed to remain. To put this plainly,...

Better remain silent, better not even think, if you are not prepared to act. (Annie Besant) “What is more pleasing to the Lord: your burnt offerings and sacrifices or your obedience to his voice? Listen! Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission is better than offering the fat of rams. Rebellion is as sinful as witchcraft, and stubbornness as bad as worshiping idols." (I Samuel 15:22-23) We can remain silent, refusing to take action when we know it is necessary, but what does that gain us? If you haven't figured that one out yet, let me just let you in on a little secret - it will get you another 'go round' in the same muddy mire until you do act! Inaction may not be out and out rebellion, but it certainly isn't obedience, is it? If we want to live lives that please God, we will act when he asks us to act, if not with immediacy, at least in rather short order. Sometimes inaction is just outright rebellion, though. We know how to act, see the need to act, a...

I don't know about you, but I have realized that we aren't always going to walk the right path, no matter how 'determined' we are. There will always be alternatives, and we will not always select the right one. The issue isn't that we will veer off-course from time to time, it is that we should never make those 'veers' a permanent life choice. We need to learn to recognize them quickly, come before God in humility, acknowledge our need to get back on-course, and then let him help us take the right steps forward. Godliness guards the path of the blameless, but the evil are misled by sin. (Proverbs 13:6) A guarded path is much harder to veer off of than an unguarded one. We may try, but there is always protection to get us back on course or keep us there in the first place. It has good defenses to ensure there is nothing that can act as a destructive force on that path. The evil heart actually chooses a non-guarded path because it is more 'appealing...

Do you remember the story of Jonah? He tried desperately to run from God's plan for his life. I wonder how many of us have tried that same action. If you are anything like me, you have probably done it once or twice. We don't always want to be 'disobedient', but when we delay in any form of 'obedience', we are actually running from God's expectations. So, if you are 'runner' too, let me assure you of this - you cannot escape God any more than I can! I can never escape from your Spirit! I can never get away from your presence! (Psalm 138:7) Jonah tried to run from God's plan for his life. He rejected God's plan more than once. He complained a whole lot when God asked him to do certain things that were 'contrary' to the way he thought things should be. He did what most of us have done - he put his own desires above those of God. Oh, don't be so pious - you have done it, too! To compound it, we pout because we aren't getting ...

So I decided there is nothing better than to enjoy food and drink and to find satisfaction in work. Then I realized that these pleasures are from the hand of God. For who can eat or enjoy anything apart from him? God gives wisdom, knowledge, and joy to those who please him. (Ecclesiastes 2:24-26) So, I decided...these three words can get us into so much trouble at times, can't they? When we lean into our own wisdom or selfish inner drive, we often 'decide' upon things that aren't all that great for us. We pursue things or 'objectives' that are bound to cause us difficulties, but we just don't know it yet. When we lean into God's wisdom, we find our 'deciding' takes us down a different path. We don't always know what it is we are 'deciding' to pursue when we set out on this course of obedience with God, but we can rest assured that the path isn't going to lead us into stuff that will bring us harm or destruction. The pleasures we...

When obedience ceases to be an irritant and becomes our quest, in that moment God will endow us with power. (Ezra Taft Benson) We cannot expect to ignore God's instruction forever and not see some form of chaos in our world. God gives grace, time to turn to him, but he won't be mocked. We cannot live like we want, then expect all of God's blessings to be in our lives. Theodore Roosevelt reminded us, "Obedience of the law is demanded; not asked as a favor."  Take hold of my instructions; don’t let them go. Guard them, for they are the key to life. (Proverbs 4:13) We lack so much power in our lives all because we seek to do things our own way. We find our greatest strength and power when we apply God's instructions to our lives. If we ignore those instructions for way too long, the path we have committed ourselves to will be filled with chaos, angst, and quite unfulfilling endeavors.  Take hold of his instructions - this doesn't imply that someone else i...

Ronald Reagan reminded us, "We are never defeated unless we give up on God." So many times, we announce that we are 'defeated' in one sense or another, not realizing that our real problem is that we 'gave up' on something God told us to hold onto. We actually give up on him because the road got a bit too bumpy, or the issues got a little tougher to handle than we wanted to deal with. The real issue is that we aren't the ones dealing with those issues - he is - we just couldn't wait to see how he'd handle them! Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take. (Proverbs 3:5-6) Whenever we seek to understand things through what our own mind interprets, we are missing what only our spirit can understand. The ways of God are very often beyond what our mind can comprehend - we need the Spirit of God, working on our spirit, to help us understand fully what...

Success is the sum of small efforts - repeated day in and day out. (Robert Collier) Look straight ahead, and fix your eyes on what lies before you. Mark out a straight path for your feet; stay on the safe path. Don’t get sidetracked; keep your feet from following evil. (Proverbs 4:25-27) I don't know about you, but my greatest 'downfalls' in life come whenever I get my eyes off of the path Jesus has laid out for me to follow. A 'fixed focus' is not as easy as some may seem, is it? There are lots and lots of distractions that can take our eyes off of that path and get us all twitterpated in the process. Whenever we get 'sidetracked', our attention has been purposefully directed away from the subject we are supposed to focus upon and toward another. It isn't accidental, as some may imagine, because there is a 'force' behind that distraction that is designed to attract our attention! Purposeful 'redirection' of our path is one of Satan...

Then God said, “Let the land sprout with vegetation—every sort of seed-bearing plant, and trees that grow seed-bearing fruit. These seeds will then produce the kinds of plants and trees from which they came.” And that is what happened. The land produced vegetation—all sorts of seed-bearing plants, and trees with seed-bearing fruit. Their seeds produced plants and trees of the same kind. And God saw that it was good. (Genesis 1:11-12) Ever stop to think why God created seed-bearing plants and trees? Why a seed? Why not just have them grow some other way? It is a principle of 'creation' and one of 'reproduction'. The seed plant or tree was originally created, but the plan for reproduction was meant to show that the life 'created' was to be sustained and multiplied. It wasn't supposed to be a one-time deal - plant born, tree born, then they die off never to be seen again. There is a great deal of potential in the seed - growth from the seed represents the poss...

Bad things do happen; how I respond to them defines my character and the quality of my life. I can choose to sit in perpetual sadness, immobilized by the gravity of my loss, or I can choose to rise from the pain and treasure the most precious gift I have - life itself. (Walter Anderson) We continue to shout our praise even when we’re hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next. In alert expectancy such as this, we’re never left feeling shortchanged. Quite the contrary—we can’t round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit! (Romans 5:3-5) What comes our way in life is a combination of what is sought, provided, and allowed. We seek things such as a good car, bargains at the grocery store, or the most cost-effective way to get that vacation we desire. Other things are p...

Zig Zigler said, "If you aim at nothing, you'll hit it every time", and I cannot agree more. The 'aim' we take in life determines the course we will follow. If we aim to please people, we will find ourselves constantly changing what we do, how we do it, when it is done, and so on. If we aim to please ourselves all the time, we will find the more we try to please ourselves, the less likely we are to be pleased - we will always want more. The more we aim at pleasing God, the less we will seek the approval of others and the more we will seek his will to be done in our lives. How is it we 'seek God' above all other ambitions, desires, or impressions this world gives us? I think it begins when we determine we want his will over the will of others, and especially over our own will. Sinful behaviors manifest when we 'dabble' with sin's tug even a little bit. The more we resist the 'tiny tugs' of sin, the more we will resist the bigger ones tha...

Do everything readily and cheerfully—no bickering, no second-guessing allowed! Go out into the world uncorrupted, a breath of fresh air in this squalid and polluted society. Provide people with a glimpse of good living and of the living God. Carry the light-giving Message into the night so I’ll have good cause to be proud of you on the day that Christ returns. You’ll be living proof that I didn’t go to all this work for nothing. (Philippians 2:14-16) Do everything readily - just how well are we doing on that one today? I know that I drag my feet when it comes to things around the house that really could use my attention, like the high-low dusting. As long as the surfaces look reasonably 'clean', I can let it go until the dust bunnies start creeping out as you walk past their hiding places! My BFF quips that we are 'dust bunny friendly', but every now and again, we have to eliminate the 'herd' of bunnies, but somehow our inattentiveness to getting all of them al...

My counsel is this: Live freely, animated and motivated by God’s Spirit. Then you won’t feed the compulsions of selfishness. For there is a root of sinful self-interest in us that is at odds with a free spirit, just as the free spirit is incompatible with selfishness. These two ways of life are contrary to each other, so that you cannot live at times one way and at times another way according to how you feel on any given day. Why don’t you choose to be led by the Spirit and so escape the erratic compulsions of a law-dominated existence? (Galatians 5:16) Choose to be led - those four words are quite informative, aren't they? We 'choose' 'to be' 'led'. Choice is always part of our walk with Jesus. Some may look at Christians as a bunch of people who are given no choice other than to never smoke, never chew, and never run with those who do. I am certain there are a few other 'don't do this or that' items we could add to that list, but you get the ...

If the highest aim of a captain were to preserve his ship, he would keep it in port forever.  (Thomas Aquinas) So roll up your sleeves, get your head in the game, be totally ready to receive the gift that’s coming when Jesus arrives. Don’t lazily slip back into those old grooves of evil, doing just what you feel like doing. You didn’t know any better then; you do now. As obedient children, let yourselves be pulled into a way of life shaped by God’s life, a life energetic and blazing with holiness. God said, “I am holy; you be holy.” (I Peter 1:15-16) Seafaring men would tell you a storm is no time to launch out on a journey, but when a storm erupts right smack dab in the middle of the journey, you have no choice but to navigate through! The ship has left port and it there is no time to debate what to do next - the captain urges his crew onward. In just the same manner, Jesus urges us onward in spite of the storms, rough conditions, or 'unease' we may feel with the progress we a...