The Plumbline

I once heard that we must not allow how another sees us to define us - why - because their perception of us is very limited - they don't have the full picture. What do we make when we don't have the full picture? An opinion - good or bad - but it isn't always based on the full facts of a matter. I have an opinion as to the best tasting Italian dressing to put on your salad - but you could have a totally different one from mine because you haven't yet tasted mine. Experience my favorite dressing and you may change your mind. Were you wrong in your original opinion? No, but you just had a limited perspective or perception of what an Italian dressing should taste. At best, you can guess about my life, but the only one who truly knows the inner workings of my mind, the beat of my heart's passion, and the hope of my emotion's trust is God himself. No one’s ever seen or heard anything like this, never so much as imagined anything quite like it— what God has arranged f...

Vision - most of us think of this as the ability to see.  When it is not there, such as when we have been plunged into darkness by someone covering our eyes with a blindfold, we grope our way through life, don't we?  It is as though we have to rely upon our other senses or else we will stumble.  How well do you move in this state?  Are your movements as fluid as normal?  Not likely.  In fact, you probably take shorter steps, feeling your way to make sure your footing is solid before you even take the next one.  I think we sometimes approach our spiritual life this same way - with a "blindfold" of sorts making us "stumble along" with uncertainty and a lack of vision. Where there is no revelation, people cast off restraint;   but blessed is the one who heeds wisdom’s instruction. (Psalm 29:18 NIV) Two words come to mind when I think of vision: Perception and Discernment.  It is the combined form of actually "seeing" and "knowing".  If ...

12-13  Even though a person sins and gets by with it hundreds of times throughout a long life, I'm still convinced that the good life is reserved for the person who fears God, who lives reverently in his presence, and that the evil person will not experience a "good" life. No matter how many days he lives, they'll all be as flat and colorless as a shadow—because he doesn't fear God. (Ecclesiastes 8:12-13 The Message) The Good Life - how many times have we said it or heard it said by another - "Aah...this is the GOOD life!"  We are kicking back on the beach, enjoying the rays, listening to the palms fronds rattling in the wind, and then we utter these words of absolute contentment!  The next thing you know, a gust of wind blows away your umbrella, a happy-go-lucky child throws sand on you, and the sun drifts behind the clouds!  What happened to your "contentment" in that moment?  Ummm....honestly....it was no longer the "good life"! ...