The Plumbline

Personally I'm always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught. (Winston Churchill) How many of us are like Churchill - liking it when we actually learn something new, but really dreading the whole bit about being taught that lesson? It is nice to discover something new, but it is a little more difficult for us to accept when that discovery comes with a bit of hard work, isn't it? I used to ace tests, but recently had the opportunity to sit with my eldest grandson who is struggling with Algebra II in high school. I did pretty well in this subject back about 50 years ago! Today, it is like I am having to relearn all the principles again in order to remember how to solve those equations and it is HARD work! I don't know about you, but when something is that 'hard' in life, I tend to resist it a little. When life lessons are 'hard', it is not uncommon for us to want to just bury our heads in the sand, or run from them completely. The 'pro...

There are definitely times when we listen, but we just don’t “heed” what we are hearing, right?  We know we are hearing a clear cut warning to avoid some “event” or happening, but we go into it anyway – almost as a challenge to our common sense!  Listening and heeding are two entirely different things – one is a process, the other is an action.  We get pretty good at the process, but neglect the action.  Or the other way around – we forget about the process, launching into action.  The problem – process helps to define action, actions speak to the soundness of the process. Now listen and give heed, O Israel, to the statutes and ordinances which I teach you, and do them, that you may live and go in and possess the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, gives you. (Deuteronomy 4:1 Amplified Bible) As part of my job, one of the things I do is analyze processes to ensure they are working well.  When they don’t get followed, we usually have error....

  5-9 So don't lose a minute in building on what you've been given, complementing your basic faith with good character, spiritual understanding, alert discipline, passionate patience, reverent wonder, warm friendliness, and generous love, each dimension fitting into and developing the others. With these qualities active and growing in your lives, no grass will grow under your feet, no day will pass without its reward as you mature in your experience of our Master Jesus. Without these qualities you can't see what's right before you, oblivious that your old sinful life has been wiped off the books. (2 Peter 1:5-8) To our good character (moral choices), spiritual understanding (discernment), alert discipline (spiritual development), and passionate patience (endurance and stability), we are to add reverent wonder.  Reverent wonder really comes down to one key word: Obedience.  We are to incorporate into our live the moment-by-moment "habit" of obedience.  Obedien...