The Plumbline

Lord, you made me understand this: You don’t really want sacrifices and grain offerings. You don’t want burnt offerings and sin offerings. So I said, “Here I am, ready to do what was written about me in the book. My God, I am happy to do whatever you want. I never stop thinking about your teachings.” (Psalm 40:6-8) At times, we might think God wants this or that from us, like an offering upon the altar of the Old Testament times. Things don't matter to God as much as our heart does. When he asked the people to bring a lamb or goat to offer in the Temple, it wasn't because he wanted the meat of the animal - he wanted to see the heart of the people - to see if they were willing to choose the best and dedicate it to God. All God asks of us is to choose him first - period. Nothing we 'bring' to him is of real or lasting value until he has our full heart! The words, "Here I am", these are what God wants most. When the heart is behind those words, the world we li...

It's easy to make a buck. It's a lot tougher to make a difference. (Tom Brokaw) My brothers and sisters, God chose you to be free. But don’t use your freedom as an excuse to do what pleases your sinful selves. Instead, serve each other with love. (Galatians 5:13) We can make a difference in BIG ways when we let God guide our steps, choose our interactions, and prepare us in advance of each day. What we choose to do with our lives will determine the outcome. Living for Jesus is more than living for oneself. When we choose to live for Jesus, we choose to live for all those he presents in our path! We might find it hard to please everyone, but God isn't asking us to be 'people-pleasers'. He is asking us to learn the acts of service that will touch those around us. In essence, he is telling us to turn outward and stop always looking inward. It is easy to ask how something will affect us - it is quite different to ask how something has or is affecting someone else. What ...

And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. (Romans 12:1-2) Back in the day when Paul penned these words under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the church goers would have understood all about 'sacrifices'. As was the established custom under the Law of Moses, Israelites would bring various sacrifices to the Temple as an act of worship - especially during certain seasons of the year. It was in addition to their 'tithe' of their harvest, flock or herd increase. The sacrifices were specific such as, for atonement (dealing with the sins of the nation), while others were for '...

Death and love are the two wings that bear the good man to heaven. (Michelangelo) Michelangelo may have a portion of this 'going to heaven' thing correct, but I know the only death that really mattered was Christ's. The only thing that draws us all into his arms is his intense love for each of us. So, it is indeed a death and some pretty amazing love that bears us to heaven...but...none of us are 'good men' or 'good women' without Christ. So, even the goodness of mankind is reliant upon the love of God! “This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again . Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the...

How can I stand up before God and show proper respect to the high God? Should I bring an armload of offerings topped off with yearling calves? Would God be impressed with thousands of rams, with buckets and barrels of olive oil? Would he be moved if I sacrificed my firstborn child, my precious baby, to cancel my sin? But he's already made it plain how to live, what to do, what God is looking for in men and women. It's quite simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbor, be compassionate and loyal in your love, and don't take yourself too seriously—take God seriously. (Micah 6:6-8) We are no longer under this system of worship which required the bringing of sheep, bulls, goats, oils and grains to the Temple for sacrifice. If we were, I wonder what our "offerings" would be today? Since most of us merely go to the supermarket to obtain these "products" of someone else's labor, we don't connect with them as a "sacrifice" at all. In ...

I don't know about you, but my hardest subject in school was math. I did well, but I had to work very, very hard at learning math. It just didn't come easy to me. Natural sciences, reading, writing,  language work, and all the rest just seemed to come easier. Math took effort and lots of study. It is the one class I actually didn't look forward to - all the others were a delight. When I finally 'got' the method of solving the problem, whether it was a formula I needed to follow, or some principle I needed to consistently apply, it made sense and I held onto that method. Put in another variable and that same method didn't always work! Sometimes you had to adjust the method to get to solution. I am so glad God gives us a little help in the 'problem-solving' department when it comes to sin (another subject I mastered well without much trying!). There is no 'method', nor any particular 'series of steps' we need to take, just trust him to be t...

So I beg you, brothers and sisters, because of the great mercy God has shown us, offer your lives as a living sacrifice to him—an offering that is only for God and pleasing to him. Considering what he has done, it is only right that you should worship him in this way. ( Romans 12:1   ERV ) How exactly does one offer their life as a living sacrifice to God? If we were to take this literally, one might think about needing to die as a martyr for God, as one might for a "good cause". If we were to merely think of this figuratively, one might reason it is some type of reference to the amount of time we spend at church, doing "work" for the church or community. While neither of these is bad, it isn't the intent of the passage. Paul is reminding the Roman church of how much God's grace has accomplished in their lives to deliver them from "religious pursuit" and from having to make all things right in their lives by their own effort. In other words, he ...

There aren't too many of us who haven't heard the teaching of "turning the other cheek" whenever someone wrongs you - like we needed to actually be hit twice!  Yet, in the breadth of this teaching, Jesus is really laying out the path he will walk during the next several years of his teaching ministry - continually allowing the criticism, forgiving the hateful words of others, and refusing to strike back when deliberately opposed by those who would seek to shut down his ministry on this earth.  Back in the Old Testament, there was a practice set up in the Law which allowed for this "eye for an eye" kind of thing to occur. For example, if a man killed your donkey he was to restore it and something extra in return. In making restoration of the one thing which was lost also to make some type of restitution for the lost item.  Steal from someone and you had to not only repay what you stole, but a portion more.  Maybe God was trying to help us see the connection...

If you have ever been asked to make a "sensible" decision, you probably knew that meant you were to give it a little extra thought, not just acting upon a whim or fancy.  You are "aware" of what is happening and then you are making actively engaged decisions based on this awareness.  There is something about serving God which is kind of sensible - because we actively engage in this relationship with him.  Yet, there are parts of serving God we cannot "over-think" - because then the relationship becomes kind of just a "religious pursuit" and not a relationship.  The idea of presenting our bodies to Christ as a living sacrifice is kind of something we cannot pour a whole lot of thought into or we will get kind of "weird" in our beliefs!  First of all, God doesn't actually want any of us "burning our bodies" on an altar in a literal sense.  What he does want is this idea of yielding something which we treat with so much atte...

Do you know what "because" means?  In the simplest of terms, it refers to a "direct reason" for something occurring.  In fact, if we were to look at the origin of the word, we would find it stems from the term "by cause".  When we are reading through scripture and come to the word "because", it is kind of like when we come to the word "therefore".  We need to stop and pay attention to these "little" words we may just gloss over at first.  "Because" sets out the reason for something occurring - some action happening.  "Therefore" refers to some set of facts already established acting as the reason we can move to the next thought or action.  These words are rich in meaning, as they give us a point of reference for the "reason" we can believe or act upon what it is we are reading.  As my kids were growing up, it was the hardest thing to not answer their questions with a "Because I said so, that...

Hesitation - a delay due to uncertainty of mind or fear; a state of doubt.  How many times do we simply avoid doing something just because of our fear?  If you and I are honest, it may be more than most would think.  We avoid saying something when we feel impressed to do so, or don't act on what we know simply because we are reluctant to take that first step.  Hesitation is the cousin to procrastination.  While procrastination is the delayed action, hesitation is the uncertainty which sometimes is the cause of the delay. This hesitation can keep us from some pretty awesome stuff, though.  Especially as it deals with coming into the fullness of what God has planned for those who are bold enough (not overtaken by fear or doubt) to walk straight into his presence and spend some time getting to know him! So, friends, we can now—without hesitation—walk right up to God, into “the Holy Place.” Jesus has cleared the way by the blood of his sacrifice, acting as...

I don't know what you are observing in your area, but as quickly as the Christmas decorations went on half-price sale the day after Christmas, the Valentine stuff was littering the shelves in my local stores!  If that wasn't bad enough, we actually were in a store where Easter stuff was in the very next aisle!  Now, this isn't "plan ahead" crafting stuff, but the candy to fill baskets with, those cheesy cards you give to classmates, and the like.  We used to make jokes about "Halo-Thanks-Mas" - that season when Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas stuff would all just "blend" on the shelves.  Now we have some competition with "Vale-Trick-Ster" for that season when Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, and Easter items just stack the shelves! Can anybody else but me see this as just a little too much?  I think in the scheme of things, we have lost touch with the opportunity to share these "special days" with special ...

Burial:  In the simplest terms, it is the act of placing a dead person in the ground.  The remains have no further use - so we bury them.  Oh, don't turn me off yet, thinking this is going to be some morbid and disgusting topic dealing with physical death.  I want us to look at burial in the sense of some of the "stuff" we actually might do well burying!  There were customs of burial dating back something like 130,000 years ago, so this idea of "burying" the dead has quite a long history.  One of the reasons some think burial came about was to attempt to bring "closure".  It was a way of bringing an end to something.  There is more to this burial thing than just the placing of someone's physical remains into a tomb or a grave.  In fact, we might just find something of value in considering just what gets buried and why! So don’t you see that we don’t owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent. There’s nothing in it for us, nothing at all....

Are you a "people-watcher"?  You know - - you enjoy just sitting in the mall, sipping a cup of coffee, watching all the people pass by.  You observe their attire, hair styles, the way they carry themselves, and the people they are with.  In some cases, you see "attitude", as when the young men are gathered together in group, one working to outdo the other with a story of some kind.  At other times, you might just see the "loner" gazing absent-mindedly in the windows, not really intent on the "shopping", just on the fact they are out of their homes and escaping life for a little while.  When you stop long enough to watch another, you might just see a thing or two which you'd have missed otherwise! Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extrav...

This past Sunday, my pastor spoke about faith.  Not just that we need it, or that without it we cannot possibly please God.  In fact, he was teaching against the argument that all we need is enough faith and then anything is possible.  In his teaching, he referred several times to the tendency we have to "doubt" - believing if we have ANY doubt at all, we must not have biblical faith!  Now, let this one sink in a little.  I had to consider it a couple of times before I really got it.  He said, "You cannot have faith without doubt."  His premise - faith isn't the absence of doubt - it is obeying God in the presence of doubt!!! 3-5  Time passed. Cain brought an offering to  God  from the produce of his farm. Abel also brought an offering, but from the firstborn animals of his herd, choice cuts of meat.  God  liked Abel and his offering, but Cain and his offering didn’t get his approval. Cain lost his temper and went into a su...

We are no longer under the Levitical system of worship which required the bringing of sheep, bulls, goats, oils and grains to the Temple for sacrifice.  If we were, I wonder what our "offerings" would be today?  Since most of us merely go to the supermarket to obtain these "products" of someone else's labor, we don't connect with them as a "sacrifice" at all.  In fact, we probably take it for granted they will be there in the display cases and the aisle shelves when we next venture into the luxury of the market.  I think this is where Judah might have been drifting when God spoke these words through the prophet Micah.  Perhaps they were just going to the "supermarkets" of their flocks and herds - picking out whatever one looked best and merely carting it to the priests to be offered.  If so, they had lost touch with the purpose behind the offering - atonement, forgiveness, thanksgiving. How can I stand up before God   and show proper re...

Every morning you'll hear me at it again.    Every morning I lay out the pieces of my life on your altar       and watch for fire to descend.  (Psalm 5:2-3) As I was waking up this morning, my radio was playing a song whose lyrics contained the words, "It feels like you are creating chaos in me".  The idea was that out of chaos, God brings good stuff.  The fact of the matter is that we all frequently feel this same way - like all that God is up to in us is chaos.  David was no exception.  He frequently conversed with God about the "stuff" that just seemed to surround him with all kinds of challenge, busy-work, and unknown outcomes.  This passage from the Psalms captures it best...Every morning you'll hear me at it again! I think we might think God gets tired hearing about our lives.  After all, how many times does he need to hear that we are frustrated with our pain, or disappointed with t...