The Plumbline

Romans 12:1-2 remind us, "So I beg you, brothers and sisters, because of the great mercy God has shown us, offer your lives as a living sacrifice to him—an offering that is only for God and pleasing to him. Considering what he has done, it is only right that you should worship him in this way. Don’t change yourselves to be like the people of this world , but let God change you inside with a new way of thinking. Then you will be able to understand and accept what God wants for you. You will be able to know what is good and pleasing to him and what is perfect." Noah was righteous and blameless before God. Out of all the huge multitude of people on earth at the time, he found favor with God. Others were noted to be so evil, to the point God could not tolerate their evil and corrupt hearts any longer. We can only imagine how difficult it would have been to remain righteous and obedient to God when all those around you were so totally corrupt. Sin was rampant and everyone else was...

Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds.  (George Eliot) It was Eliot who reminded us, "Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together." Small things add up, don't they? We may not see the effect of one small action today, but in the far off 'tomorrows' that one action may mushroom into a far greater outcome than we ever thought possible. So let’s not allow ourselves to get fatigued doing good. At the right time we will harvest a good crop if we don’t give up, or quit. Right now, therefore, every time we get the chance, let us work for the benefit of all, starting with the people closest to us in the community of faith. (Galatians 6:9-10) We can grow weary in doing good at times. We plug along, taking all the right steps, doing all the right things, being as 'right' as we are able to be each and every day. Fatigue in 'doing' is natural - we get tired when we are active. Yet, contrary to what...

Are you a 'radical' when it comes to change? Radical: of or going to the root or origin of something. If you haven't really thought about what "radical change" is, you might be a little surprised to find out it is change which goes after the "root" or "origin" of something in order to so totally change what has become "traditional" or "normal" in one's life. If a business wants to "re-invent" themselves because they have been losing customers to some other big-name chain with a newer look, what do they do? They go through some "radical change" to make us believe this is the store we want to be shopping at instead of the other guys. J.C. Penney did just that - they changed up the lines they carried, took out a whole bunch of their stock, remodeled the interiors of the stores to be more "hip", but they lost business! Most of us who shopped at Penney's did so for a reason - the consist...

"Don’t suppose for a moment, though, that God’s Word has malfunctioned in some way or other." (Romans9:6) Most of the time we are the ones who "malfunction" - not God, not his Word, not his promises, not his commands. When something is "functioning" as it was designed to function, it follows a particular order - all the pieces fit together as they should, producing the intended outcome. Truthfully, only God can do this 100% of the time! Try as we might, we are going to "malfunction" on occasion. Trusting in our ability is always going to leave us with "less than" whatever it is we could attain, obtain, or maintain with God doing the work! How can we sum this up? All those people who didn’t seem interested in what God was doing actually embraced what God was doing as he straightened out their lives. And Israel, who seemed so interested in reading and talking about what God was doing, missed it. How could they miss it? Because inste...

Charles Swindoll posed the idea that "life is 10% of what happens to you and 90% how you react to it", because he proposes reaction can be controlled or 'governed'. I imagine God sits around sometimes just watching some of our reactions to some of the things in life that shouldn't have thrown us into a tizzy, but there we are - in a pickle and sour as all get out because of what is going on in our lives. Life doesn't have to elicit reactions from us - we offer them quite freely, don't we? We are moved by the oddest things, shut down by others, and completely oblivious at times to things that should have cause us some sort of reaction. In my day to day work, I plan the action so we don't have to be so 'reactive'. It is called being 'proactive' - knowing how we will 'act' before there is ever a need for a reaction. Learn well how to wait so you will be strong and complete and in need of nothing. If you do not have wisdom, ask God ...

Ever run the other way when you know the right way to be going is exactly the opposite from the one you have chosen? You see or hear something, then without a moment's hesitation, you turn and run, hoping to avoid the confrontation, escape the demand, or just plain ignore the situation? I think we could all answer in the affirmative to this one on at least one occasion in our lives, but probably more frequently that we'd truly like to admit. It is sometimes more "convenient" to pretend we did not hear what was asked - but what is the cost of hearing and then not doing? It is probably less "costly" to just ignore the need someone has at that moment - but who will meet the need if we were the ones designed to do it? I imagine it is less of a "relational intensity demand" to avoid the confrontation - but what walls will be built by avoiding the difficult discussions? Most of the time, running the other way means we are running away from what God ...