The Plumbline

What’s the price of two or three pet canaries? Some loose change, right? But God never overlooks a single one. And he pays even greater attention to you, down to the last detail—even numbering the hairs on your head! So don’t be intimidated by all this bully talk. You’re worth more than a million canaries. (Luke 12:6-7 MSG) We have a bully for an enemy and he employs 'bullies' right here on this earth to attempt to dissuade us from following Jesus with our whole heart, mind, body, and soul. He uses people - you heard me right - he uses other people to discourage you, get you distracted, and hopefully pull you off-course. What is worse is when we allow our own self-talk to 'bully' us into believing lies about ourselves! God cares more about us than any other creature roaming this earth. Yet, he takes special care and maintains a watchful eye over all creatures, big and small. If he is watchful of their needs, how they find their way in life, what makes us so willing to ...

Whenever, though, they turn to face God as Moses did, God removes the veil and there they are—face-to-face! They suddenly recognize that God is a living, personal presence, not a piece of chiseled stone. And when God is personally present, a living Spirit, that old, constricting legislation is recognized as obsolete. We're free of it! All of us! Nothing between us and God, our faces shining with the brightness of his face. And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him . (2 Corinthians 3:16-18) Face-to-face conversation seems to be a thing we just don't engage in as much as we did in times long gone by. I come from the era when mom's stood at the back fence or mailbox, passing the time of day while watching wee ones engage in play. Today's electronic age has helped us to "connect" with each other via all kinds of social media. We text, IM, post, tweet, ...