The Plumbline

When I was a child, we had this yellowed and well-aged Tupperware container which was filled with all manner of buttons.  As clothing were worn out, the buttons would be severed from the worn garment and they would be added to the button box.  Buttons ranged from big, bulky ones which probably adorned coats and outerwear in days gone by, to smaller, rather plain ones which likely held shirts together.  That old button box was pulled out on more occasions than I can count to mend a shirt cuff with a missing button, or add a finishing touch to some outfit.  From rich brown to bright white, the colors were sure to match something somewhere down the line.  We'd dump them out, finding just the right one to match the one we'd carelessly lost somewhere along the way.  One thing I always remembered about that box - no button was too insignificant to add to it.  If the garment was no longer able to fulfill the purpose for which it had been created because of tattered cuffs, worn out kn

Have you ever felt "stifled"?  You know what I mean - the feeling like every step you want to take is just held back, like every dream is crushed, or there is some force just standing in the way of you moving forward.  The feeling might be one of the walls "closing in" around you - like you just can feel the very space you occupy on this earth as getting smaller and smaller!  In the most literal sense, being stifled means something similar to being choked out, much like we'd "choke out" a campfire.  You smother it with something like dirt long enough and in sufficient quantities until it just has no way of receiving the very thing it needs to continue on - oxygen!  As a result, it is "choked out" - smothered or stifled. For my part, I am going to boast about nothing but the Cross of our Master, Jesus Christ. Because of that Cross, I have been crucified in relation to the world, set free from the stifling atmosphere of pleasing others and fi

Let the fast-talking tricksters be exposed as frauds;  they tried to sell me a bill of goods,  but I kept my mind fixed on your counsel.     Let those who fear you turn to me  for evidence of your wise guidance.     And let me live whole and holy, soul and body,  so I can always walk with my head held high. (Psalm 119:78-80 The Message) David is setting out a prayer to God in our passage this morning.  It is composed of three parts:  1) How he wants God to deal with those who stand against him; 2) How he hopes God will use him in the lives of others; and 3) How he expects to live with God's help.   First, let's look at David's prayer about his enemies - - fast-talking tricksters who tried to sell him a bill of goods.  When we are encountered by someone "selling a bill of goods" we usually see that we have two choices: accept what they say at face- value, or reject it at face-value.  We really have a third choice: investigate it for truth rather than