The Plumbline

Your love, God, fills the earth! Train me to live by your counsel. (Psalm 119:64 MSG) We will always live by some set of 'rules' or 'standards'. Some might be quite 'good', while others may be a little on the 'errant' side. For example, we follow the speed limit - good; we spend all we make and never save anything for unexpected expenses - errant. We can follow the 'rules' set by others or those we set ourselves. For example, we pay our taxes each year - others set these rules for us; we go to bed each night in sufficient time to afford us seven hours of sleep - a rule set by us because of how it makes us feel. What we choose to 'live by' makes all the difference - who we choose to follow also makes a huge difference, doesn't it? God's love fills the earth - it has nothing but the best in mind for us. Why do we resist following his 'rules' or 'standards' so much, then? We find ourselves trying to bend those rule...

So we should stop judging each other. Let’s decide not to do anything that will cause a problem for a brother or sister or hurt their faith. I know that there is no food that is wrong to eat. The Lord Jesus is the one who convinced me of that. But if someone believes that something is wrong, then it is wrong for that person. (Romans 14:13-14) Van Gogh said that 'conscience was a man's compass'. Einstein reminded us, "Never do anything against conscience even if the state demands it." Aquinas told us, "Every judgement of conscience, be it right or wrong, be it about things evil in themselves or morally indifferent, is obligatory, in such wise that he who acts against his conscience always sins." If conscience is so important to us, why do so many 'violate' their own conscience time and time again? To believe something is wrong, then pursue it anyway is a clear-cut violation of one's own conscience - the very 'tool' God gave each of us ...

I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. (Ephesians 3:14-19) God's people will continue to struggle with the influence of those 'religious individuals' around them who seek to 'bind' them with rules and regulations. In Paul's epistle to the Galatian church, he recounted the purpose for the Law of Moses - to point out the need for a Savior - but he also reminded them how impossibl...

In considering events in the lives of those who have known fame and fortune, we also must consider just how fame and fortune has left them wanting so much more than it ever promised or provided. Fame and fortune are elusive - they keep those who pursue either of them running toward them as if under their spell. They are also disappointing - leaving those who finally "achieve" their end wanting more, but not really satisfied with what they have! Sound familiar to anyone other than me? Wanting more that what we have, chasing what seems to have us under some "spell" or external "control"? We may not be pursuing fame in the sense of the movie stars, but we may be pursuing something with as much tenacity - something which will not truly bring us any satisfaction once attained. A thick bankroll is no help when life falls apart, but a principled life can stand up to the worst. (Proverbs 11:4) Life WILL fall apart at some point. Whatever we place our trust in...

Life Hack #4: Keep those boundaries - but you have to know them before you can keep them! Boundaries are really nothing more than a dividing line. We have all kinds of "dividing lines" in life, don't we? Some are quite real - like those drawn for the purposes of playing a sport on the field. Others are set up in our minds - not specifically clear to others, but definitely clear to us. The problem comes when someone wants to move one of those boundaries - stretching it or reducing it in some manner. We feel a little threatened, challenged, or overcome by this attempt to move the "markers", don't we?  Don’t stealthily move back the boundary lines staked out long ago by your ancestors. (Proverbs 22:28) In Old Testament times, they did not have surveyors with highly technical laser point imaging tools to assist in laying out boundary lines. They'd use landmarks or "markers" of sorts to indicate a boundary. They'd say the boundary limit w...

Do not snatch your word of truth from me, for your regulations are my only hope. I will keep on obeying your instructions forever and ever. I will walk in freedom, for I have devoted myself to your commandments. I will speak to kings about your laws, and I will not be ashamed. How I delight in your commands! How I love them! I honor and love your commands. I meditate on your decrees. (Psalm 119:43-48) As I have mentioned on other occasions, it can be hard to keep 'rules' - some believing that God's commandments are merely a set of 'rules' that must be kept or else. It is the 'or else' that keeps them constantly striving to 'do' as the commandments require, but if we live our lives with an 'or else' kind of faith, we are always going to be looking over our shoulders or fearing the hammer is about to fall. Yes, God is a God of justice. Yes, he has laid out his commandments or 'spiritual rules' for each of us to clearly understand. He h...

Even today when the proclamations of that old, bankrupt government are read out, they can’t see through it. Only Christ can get rid of the veil so they can see for themselves that there’s nothing there.  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 3:15-18) Back in the day, I used to be quite a 'rule-follower'. As a matter of fact, my friends used to make a bit of fun with me because they knew I would not do some things they might feel ...

I have to admit - at times I keep score. Not so much in your life, but in mine. I keep score of the things I do that are right steps toward a healthier lifestyle. I keep score of the steps I take in a day by wearing a smart watch. These are pretty 'harmless' things to keep score of in our lives, but when we start to 'keep score' of times we fail to take the right steps, we are doing just the opposite of what Christ does on our behalf. God doesn't 'chalk one up' on our 'account of misdeeds' just because we make a bad choice. We don't earn merits and demerits in some 'heavenly accounting system'. Prayer, going to church, reading our Bible - good actions, but they don't 'even out' the score when we do dumb stuff! In fact, it isn't about evening out any score - it is about all the demerits going away because God only sees the side of us that reflects the 'merits' of Christ! Because of the sacrifice of the Messiah, his ...

I have been cleaning out small spaces lately, going through all of mom's belongings, sorting little things to give to family that will hold meaning to them. In the process, I came across a small trinket I have carried with me for years - a "Dope-Stopper" coin given to me by Art Linkletter when I was around 12 years of age. I was honored to hear him in person, having won a challenge at my local school to create a poster that spoke to remaining drug-free. In the height of the 60's, drugs were rampant and kids everywhere were beginning to experiment with the stuff. His goal was to speak truth and hope into the lives of pre-teens, on the cusp of making life-changing decisions as they entered their challenging teen years. My "Speed Kills" poster afforded me the opportunity to meet this great man, but most importantly, gave me the chance to hear his message of his daughter's addiction and her ultimate death. In the end, I walked away with his words echoing dee...

Do you know anyone who seems to constantly want to do things 'by the book'? There can be absolutely no variation for these individuals - they can never see anything beyond the book. Legalism is the tendency to keep to the letter of the law - it lacks the spirit behind it, though. There is little wavering from the laundry list of rules because there is great determination to do everything "by the book". What we often observe in these cases is a lack of true "spirit" behind the obedience - it is a sense of obligation, not desire - doing things by rote rather than out of a sense of true connection to the one who wrote the rules. It is truly a helpless state of living life to just do things "by the book" without the animation of the Spirit within. Legalism is helpless in bringing this about; it only gets in the way. Among those who belong to Christ, everything connected with getting our own way and mindlessly responding to what everyone else calls n...

I think we shall always be among those who don't approve of what we say, what we do, the way we dress, or what we take joy in discovering. The world is full of people who think they know best, not really knowing much more on the subject than we do, but they think they do. There also all of those in this world who find fault in what we do, but all the while they are secretly admitting they want to do the same thing, or probably are! One day, Jesus and his disciples are walking to their next destination. They find themselves in the midst of a field of grain. Hungry from their journey, they reach out to take some of the grain as a little snack to get them through. What they do is forbidden - not because this was not their field to harvest, but because it was the Sabbath. To the Jew, this was a day of rest - commanded by God many years prior to be kept holy; a day when men cease from work and pay attention to God. A day in which there was absolutely NO flexibility for these Jewish ...

142  Your justice is eternal for your laws are perfectly fair.  143  In my distress and anguish your commandments comfort me.  144  Your laws are always fair; help me to understand them, and I shall live. (Psalm 119:142-144 TLB) One thing we can learn from history is that God's laws (rules for living) are always "fair". The same cannot always be said about the laws of the land, or those some insist upon in their "own little world". Human beings have a very hard time "being fair" - we just have a bent toward showing someone a little more "favor" than another (sometimes because that "someone" is us). It is important to remember a law is nothing more than a "rule" that helps to define the way we are to conduct ourselves - it defines how it is we are to be living - oftentimes guiding the culture of a group, not just our own self. All laws set parameters - boundaries. Living within those boundaries is what is referred to as ...

2  Tell me this one thing: How did you receive the Spirit? Did you receive the Spirit by following the law? No, you received the Spirit because you heard the message about Jesus and believed it.  3  You began your life in Christ with the Spirit. Now do you try to complete it by your own power? That is foolish.   4  You have experienced many things. Were all those experiences wasted? I hope they were not wasted!   5  Does God give you the Spirit because you follow the law? Does God work miracles among you because you follow the law? No, God gives you his Spirit and works miracles among you because you heard the message about Jesus and believed it. (Galatians 3:2-5 ERV) Do you ever "complicate" things by adding just way too much to the time you take to do something, or by adding so many requirements that must be met before you will do it? I do on occasion and whenever I do, I find myself in a muddle that kind of bogs me down. I don't move at other tim...

"One's philosophy is not best expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices one makes... and the choices we make are ultimately our responsibility." (Eleanor Roosevelt) I had to take a philosophies class in college - the toughest thing for me to sit through that you could ever imagine. I think might just have enjoyed my root canals better than I enjoyed that class! Why? The purpose of philosophy class was to teach me to think in the absence of laws, medicine, theology, technical precepts, and/or practical arts. While I know not everything in this world can be defined as either black or white, with some gray area existing, it is just plain hard for me to exclude things like God's teachings, evidence based upon scientific experiment, etc., from my possible "solution" to life's problems! You are to fear Him and obey His rules and commands, just as I’m teaching them to you now. Do this your whole lives—you, your children and your grandchildren—and you’l...

Douglas MacArthur was quoted as saying, "You are remembered for the rules you break."  This has to be one of the most profound truths I have heard in quite some time. We go through life trying to "keep" all the rules, just about breaking our backs under the load of rules we think we must adhere to each and every day.  Then, in an instant, at the blink of an eye, we "violate" one of those rules and what is it people remember - the endless hours and hours of "keeping" the rules, or the moment we "break" one?  I daresay, it is more likely they remember our "variation" in performance than our consistency! Through this man we all receive gifts of grace beyond our imagination. You see, Moses gave us rules to live by, but Jesus the Anointed offered us gifts of grace and truth. God, unseen until now, is revealed in the Voice, God’s only Son, straight from the Father’s heart. (John 1:16-18 VOICE) I've tried to live by al...

Pure lives - those lives which are unhindered by things which contaminate - either from external force or internal pressure.  Most of us struggle with one or the other of these, but most likely it is both.  We recognize the pull of things external to our lives which easily get us muddled up and kind of leave us feeling a little "dirty" or "contaminated".  It might be the not so "clean" joke at the lunch table, or the flashes of inappropriate images and language which enter in through our eyes during the viewing of a TV show. The sources are many - the influence is greater than we might think. To this we add our own internal "pressures" to conform to this or that image of what we think we are meant to me - either because we imagine it is what we are supposed to be, or someone has somehow convinced us it is the right way for us to act.  Either one of these produces enough internal pressure to get us thinking and acting in ways which aren't alw...

One day Jesus was out with his followers, walking through the fields, probably on their way from one spot to another.  The issue this day - it was the Sabbath. In the eyes of the religious of the day, the Sabbath had very strict rules one had to follow if one was even remotely close to being called or acknowledged by God. One such rule was that of not "working" on that holy day - so all manner of normal "housework" or "house care" was to have been pre-planned on the day prior to the Sabbath.  This meant they prepared enough bread for two days instead of their normal one, laid aside a portion of the meat they had cooked on the day prior to the Sabbath for the partaking on the Sabbath, and ensured enough water was drawn from the well to make it through.  It was like work shut down for the day - because the Sabbath was dedicated to the Lord.  The only problem with this was that there was also a whole lot of other "rules" added as time went on and t...

I know there is a lot of commotion in the world right now about what religion one practices.  The issues are multi-faceted, for some have chosen to live as though there is no alternative but to be violent in the face of anyone or anything which opposes their view.  I cannot condone their "religious pursuit", but I can offer a peaceful practice on my part which encourages us to live as positive examples of God's love in this world.  I hear of hate crimes being committed in which people do things ranging from spray painting graffiti on the doors of the worship places, to protests which get heated and require police intervention to keep from being a full-fledged riot of sorts.  As strongly as I feel about the faith I have in Christ Jesus, I cannot see the need for this type of response to the beliefs of others.  It is indeed a tragedy for some to follow beliefs which encourage the destruction of property and life - it is safe to say I don't ever condone this type ...

Years ago, my mother was one of those "faithful" Publisher's Clearing House devotees.  Every week, she'd receive mailings touting the possibilities of her numbers being the winning numbers which could yield her a landfall of millions of dollars.  Her response is what makes the Publisher's Clearing House so successful - she bought and bought stuff just because she felt it increased her chances of winning!  Stuff we didn't even need - poor quality, cheaply made.  I will admit, there were a few "trinkets" she'd get which actually made a good gadget around the house, but in general, it was stuff we could have purchased for much less at the local dollar store!  After several years of this, we received a mailing indicating she would no longer be receiving these notices.  Why?  It seems the State Attorney Generals of multiple states had taken action against the Clearing House to stop their "marketing" to the elderly as they were "preying...

Have you ever felt "stifled"?  You know what I mean - the feeling like every step you want to take is just held back, like every dream is crushed, or there is some force just standing in the way of you moving forward.  The feeling might be one of the walls "closing in" around you - like you just can feel the very space you occupy on this earth as getting smaller and smaller!  In the most literal sense, being stifled means something similar to being choked out, much like we'd "choke out" a campfire.  You smother it with something like dirt long enough and in sufficient quantities until it just has no way of receiving the very thing it needs to continue on - oxygen!  As a result, it is "choked out" - smothered or stifled. For my part, I am going to boast about nothing but the Cross of our Master, Jesus Christ. Because of that Cross, I have been crucified in relation to the world, set free from the stifling atmosphere of pleasing others and fi...