The Plumbline

But the wisdom from above is first of all pure. It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others. It is full of mercy and the fruit of good deeds. It shows no favoritism and is always sincere. And those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of righteousness. (James 3:17-18) Plant seeds of peace - reap righteousness. Heaven certainly knows the difficulties we face on this earth all because seeds of peace are not sown as often as those of discord! Relationships are just hard work. Living within communities of any sort can be challenging, to say the least, but it is the way we live on this earth - all mixed up together, with all our hurts and hangups, muddled up in one big mess. I have come to realize we are responsible to create the environment of peace that we so desperately desire. It might be a bit of a challenge to 'sow peace', but we are called to continually work at creating harmony within relationships because it refle...

If anyone boasts, “I love God,” and goes right on hating his brother or sister, thinking nothing of it, he is a liar. If he won’t love the person he can see, how can he love the God he can’t see? The command we have from Christ is blunt: Loving God includes loving people. You’ve got to love both. (I John 4:20-21) Dwight L. Moody reminds us, "Faith makes all things possible... love makes all things easy." Faith and love are intricately related - interwoven aspects of our walk with Jesus. Love for God necessitates love for people - even those we find it hard to relate to, don't actually agree with, or just plain find offensive. Does it mean we have to have a deep relationship with these individuals? No, but it does mean we will treat them with kindness even when they don't deserve it! Faith makes all things possible - even getting alone with the 'prickly relative', 'bothersome workmate', or 'pesky neighbor'. It even helps us get along with that ...

When others are happy, you should be happy with them. And when others are sad, you should be sad too. Live together in peace with each other. Don’t be proud, but be willing to be friends with people who are not important to others. Don’t think of yourself as smarter than everyone else. (Romans 12:15-16) Live together in peace. Good idea, but tough to actually execute. We might set out to live at peace with others, finding our attempts at 'peaceful living' are met with resistance from all sides. Try as we might, living 'at peace' with each other is just not possible unless Christ is brought into the center of the 'living'. When Christ is central in the relationship, there will still be difficulties, but there is a power beyond our human reasoning or fickle emotions that helps us to bring resolution to the issues. We need to be willing to listen to one another, but dare I say we also need to be able to hear one another. This is where Christ does his work - he help...