The Plumbline

Surely you know that you become the slaves of whatever you give yourselves to. Anything or anyone you follow will be your master. You can follow sin, or you can obey God. Following sin brings spiritual death, but obeying God makes you right with him. (Romans 6:16) If we were honest here, we might just cop to the plea of being just a little too close to some things in our lives that are actually taking our eyes off of Jesus at times. We aren't unique in that struggle, my friends. We find ourselves 'opening' ourselves to all manner of distraction when all God asks for is our attention. It is as though we have an 'attention deficit disorder' when it comes to him! We find ourselves tilting this way or that, all at the mere suggestion of ease, enjoyment, or even encouragement. We wonder why we are not hearing God's voice, but could it be we have just allowed it to be drowned out by all those distractions? The thing we focus on the most is our master. There are so man...

I’ve kept my feet on the ground, I’ve cultivated a quiet heart . Like a baby content in its mother’s arms, my soul is a baby content. (Psalm 131:2) Quietness of heart comes as a bit of a hard thing because we are so used to "noise" in our lives. We are a little bit too inundated with all kinds of things adding background and foreground noise. Background noise is there, almost unnoticed, until it is gone. Foreground noise is evident, with it even getting our attention in the here and now. Yet noise is just that - noise everywhere. Noise is really something which just confuses the clarity of that which is really trying to come through! Think about the things that are "just there", but intently creating confusion in our lives - things when removed might just give us a little more clarity on what it is God may be trying to show us. Quietness is the opposite of noise - it is not the total absence of it, but it is the clarifying and eliminating of all which lends c...