The Plumbline

If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else? Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one—for God himself has given us right standing with himself. Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us. (Romans 8:31-34 NLT) There are moments in a person's life when they come to realize they have been listening to the 'wrong voices'. Either they are listening to the voices of negative self-talk, or they have chosen to listen to naysayers around them who do little to encourage. At some point, 'who' we listen to determines 'what' it is we will believe about ourselves. Listen to all that negativity and you will soon begin to doubt your choices, think you don't have the potential to change, or you are just a genuine loser i...

Whom have I in heaven but you? I desire you more than anything on earth. My health may fail, and my spirit may grow weak, but God remains the strength of my heart; he is mine forever. (Psalm 73:25-26) How's your health? If you are anything like me, you answer that one with 'fair to midland' - you aren't ailing really, but you have a few aches and pains that get you down from time to time. Physical health may fail, our bodies may grow weary, and our minds fatigue with age, but God's gift to us is that our 'spiritual heart' will never grow weak or weary. When the desire of our heart is God first and everything else after that, our hearts are going to be pretty 'healthy'. God's spiritual strength can abide with us even when our physical strength wanes. We might not be up to winning any hundred-yard dashes at our age, but one thing is for certain - we aren't going to succumb to the pressures of our enemy, either! We have God on our side and that ...

It’s urgent that you listen carefully to this: Anyone here who believes what I am saying right now and aligns himself with the Father, who has in fact put me in charge , has at this very moment the real, lasting life and is no longer condemned to be an outsider. This person has taken a giant step from the world of the dead to the world of the living. (John 5:24) We all question authority in our lives at times. We have all the "necessary" characteristics that lead to challenging authority. We have free will, so the matter of choice is ours. We have independent thought, so the ability to think and reason often presents the challenge to authority. Regardless of the "means" by which we challenge it, our desires are pretty much the same - we want to "stand alone", having no one tell us what to do, and to be "free" of the "rules" of another.   Jesus sought to establish the truth of his "leadership". He was a man "under au...