The Plumbline

Have some of you noticed that we are not yet perfect? (No great surprise, right?) And are you ready to make the accusation that since people like me, who go through Christ in order to get things right with God, aren’t perfectly virtuous, Christ must therefore be an accessory to sin? The accusation is frivolous. If I was “trying to be good,” I would be rebuilding the same old barn that I tore down. I would be acting as a pretender. (Galatians 2:17-18 MSG) We are not yet perfect. Man, that is certainly true on my account! I do a decent job at 'doing the right thing' most of the time, but ALL of the time - nope. I slip up on occasion - say things I shouldn't, think things I know better than to be thinking, make judgments based on what I see or think I know, and the list could go on. The point is that we ALL are not yet perfect - none of us has it all together or is without sin. Even those religious leaders who wanted to stone the woman caught in adultery couldn't throw th...

  The fear of human opinion disables; trusting in  God  protects you from that. (Proverbs 29:25) How many of us are subject to human opinion? If you don't think you are, ask yourself if you go to the 4 or 5 star items on that online store, reading the reviews of the products you are considering. If you do, you are subject to human opinion - reviews are actually a form of offering one's opinion of a product, service, or place. We all rely upon human opinion just a little bit - even if it is to swerve right as we are going down the road as we have seen the three drivers in front of us do already. We don't know why we are swerving, but based upon what we have seen, we respond similarly. That is the bad thing about human opinion - we respond similarly based upon what another thinks or feels. If you have ever read mixed reviews of a product, you know how conflicted you can be in reading them. You know some absolutely love the product, while it totally disappointed others or si...

Going through the motions doesn’t please you, a flawless performance is nothing to you. I learned God-worship when my pride was shattered. Heart-shattered lives ready for love don’t for a moment escape God’s notice. (Psalm 51:17 MSG) I will be the first to admit there are days when I am merely going through the motions. Something deep inside of me just isn't all that excited about doing whatever it is I am doing. I don't quite see the thing ahead of me with any real sense of passion. While these days are not frequent, they can really bog me down when I allow them to influence me for very long. Going through the motions is nothing more than putting on a performance. You feel one way, but are doing something entirely contrary to the way you truthfully feel. Why do we do this? I think it may be it is easier to just go along for the ride than it is to step up, take ownership for how we feel, and allow ourselves to really face the day without masks. A flawless performance - many o...