The Plumbline

  5-6 Jesus said, "You're not listening. Let me say it again. Unless a person submits to this original creation—the 'wind-hovering-over-the-water' creation, the invisible moving the visible, a baptism into a new life—it's not possible to enter God's kingdom. When you look at a baby, it's just that: a body you can look at and touch. But the person who takes shape within is formed by something you can't see and touch—the Spirit—and becomes a living spirit." (John 3:5-6) Yesterday we began to look at the question, "Is a person saved once and then always eternally secure?" (better known as Once Saved, Always Saved).  Today, we will develop a better understanding of what happens once you have accepted the Lord as your personal Savior.  We have a whole lot of terms for this action - inviting Jesus into your heart, making him Lord of your life, being saved, etc.  We looked at the fact that our "salvation experience" is a one-time expe

  9-10   God 's a safe-house for the battered,       a sanctuary during bad times.    The moment you arrive, you relax;       you're never sorry you knocked.  (Psalm 9:9-10) There are many walking this earth today that feel that they are persistently beaten down - worn out by hard or unnecessary abuse.  They have suffered repeated blows to their ego, emotions, or physical well-being.  The repeated blows have made damage that seems to do nothing more than place on display the defects of our lives.  David probably was feeling a little of this with all the things he was dealing with as King of Israel, the anointed of God.   What?  The anointed of God, the one hand-chosen by God, felt beaten down, abused, emotionally spent, like his life mattered for little in the scheme of things?  Yep!  Nowhere in scripture is it recorded that David was any less of a "human being" than the rest of us!  He experienced emotional disappointment at the hand of friends.  His life was in