The Plumbline

There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, 'All right, then, have it your way.' (C.S. Lewis) When people do not accept divine guidance, they run wild. But whoever obeys the law is joyful. (Proverbs 29:18 NLT) Are you an 'all right, have it your way' kind of person? I have been at times, yielding results that I never intended to receive and making more than my fair share of 'do-overs'. To put it mildly, I am a sinner. To put it even clearer, I am more than a bit stubborn, fairly 'decent' in my actions, but kind of prideful at times. As such, I have been noted to be on a collision course with some outcomes that I never wanted, nor did I realize were coming my way. If you have ever found yourself on a similar course, you might just be one of those people God has said, "Have it your own way", allowing your misguided actions to run their course, as well. I am so glad he gives us more ...

Voltaire said, "It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere." Isaiah reminds us, "The Eternal One’s reach is not so short that He cannot save you. His ear is not so deaf that He cannot hear you. Your persistent wrongdoing has come between you and your God; since you constantly reject and push God away..." (Isaiah 59:1-2 VOICE) There is a constancy to sin, isn't there? We are pulling against it, but it is pulling us into it repeatedly. The fool is never free from the bonds of those chains - from the repeated pulling toward the unwise choice. The wise will call out, realizing they are pulled beyond their strength to resist. Their call will be heard - not by human ears, but by the ears of a God who delights in setting the captive free! Their bondage will be broken. Their freedom is assured! One must realize the need for freedom, though. We have to recognize the bondage of sin - the pull that is beyond our ability to resist with mere willpower. The ...

Could it be any clearer? Our old way of life was nailed to the cross with Christ, a decisive end to that sin-miserable life—no longer captive to sin’s demands! What we believe is this: If we get included in Christ’s sin-conquering death, we also get included in his life-saving resurrection. We know that when Jesus was raised from the dead it was a signal of the end of death-as-the-end. Never again will death have the last word. When Jesus died, he took sin down with him, but alive he brings God down to us. From now on, think of it this way: Sin speaks a dead language that means nothing to you; God speaks your mother tongue, and you hang on every word. You are dead to sin and alive to God. That’s what Jesus did. (Romans 6:6-11 MSG) Sin speaks a dead language - that caught my eye this morning in my reading time. There are a lot of other 'dead languages' around, aren't there? Latin, Ancient Greek, and Sanskrit are just a few. Oh sure, there are Latin roots to some of our medi...

So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions. But when you are directed by the Spirit, you are not under obligation to the law of Moses. (Galatians 5:16-18 NLT) When we allow someone to guide us, aren't we actually placing trust in where they will lead us, what they will allow us to do, and who it is they will have us interacting with along the way? This is the work of the Holy Spirit in a believer's life - acting as both guide and teacher along our path. Our sinful nature can get us 'lost' if we follow it and ignore the leading of the Holy Spirit. It cannot be trusted to have what is truly in our best interest in store for us. The...

He personally carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. By his wounds you are healed. Once you were like sheep who wandered away. But now you have turned to your Shepherd, the Guardian of your souls. (I Peter 2:24-25 NLT) To think that Jesus 'personally carried' your sins and my sins in his body shouldn't just amaze us, it should also humble us. The reason he 'personally carried' our sins in his body wasn't just because there was no other sacrifice that could atone for our sins - it was motivated out of his intense love for his creation. Where did he carry those sins? In his body and right up onto that cross. He died, once for all, so that we may be dead to our sin. Without the cross, sin's influence would never have been broken. It took a perfect sacrifice to deal sin its final blow! Now we live for what is right. As we have been discussing for a few days now, we make different choices. We no longer ...

And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation. For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son. So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God. (Romans 5:9-11 NLT) The blood of Christ was shed, not just because he angered the Jewish leaders, but because our restoration into right relationship with our heavenly Father required a holy and pure sacrifice. What could never be accomplished by any other means was provided, once for all in his Son, Jesus Christ. Now, through faith, and not our own works, we are restored into right relationship with God. We might want to describe it as a 'friendship' with God, but we must never take this relationship for granted. The very thing that stood in the way of us enjoying a relationsh...

If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. (I John 1:8-9 NLT) You might be acquainted with the story recorded for us in the book of John where Jesus is teaching a crowd of people when the Pharisee leaders bring a woman to him who was caught in adultery. They expect him to back them up in their desire to stone the woman to death. Jesus' simple statement really puts grace on display for us, "let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone..." Before too much time passed, all her accusers turned around and silently left the scene. His next words are even more telling as it comes to seeing the impact of grace, "Didn’t even one of them condemn you...neither do I. Go and sin no more.” The truth is that we have ALL sinned - we ALL need grace. We ALL need to embrace the words, "Go and sin no more....

But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all. (Isaiah 53:5-6 NLT) Our rebellion - our sins. Jesus didn't come to do 'good works' or present 'signs and wonders' just for show. He came because our rebellious, sinful nature required a completely pure and holy sacrifice in order to rightly restore all who would call upon Christ. Our rebellion - it made us less than perfect. Our sin - it created places of brokenness and hurts within us that nothing else can ever 'fix'. We left God's paths in order to follow our own. That is the heart of rebellion. It wasn't that the path was 'vague' or without wayfinding signs along it. We just chose a different path. It was that pathway into rebellion and sin that required a Savior and it was that...

 Arthur C. Clark reminds us, "The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to go beyond them into the impossible." Scripture reminds us: “Then who in the world can be saved?” they asked. Jesus looked at them intently and said, “Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But with God everything is possible.” (Matthew 19:25-26 NLT) Everything seems impossible until God intervenes, especially when it comes to dealing with our sin nature. The truth of the matter is that the harder we try to resist sin with little more than our willpower, the harder it will be to actually break the cycle of sin and compromise in our lives. We need the Spirit of God if we are to ever break free of sin's downward cycle in our lives. Discovering the limits of our own ability to 'resist' is the beginning of our journey toward what is 'possible' ONLY through the help of God. We might think we are doing a pretty good job of resisting sin in our lives, then we realize we are just ...

O Lord, you are so good, so ready to forgive, so full of unfailing love for all who ask for your help. (Psalm 86:5 NLT) Did you ever stop to think that the struggle you keep engaging in is because you really haven't asked God for help? Oh, sure, you ask in a casual sense, "God, help me get over this issue," then you don't stop to listen to what he says might be at the root of it. Later, as the issue arises time and time again, you get rather defeated because you don't know why it is still an issue. Perhaps it is because the issue is not the problem - it is us not really wanting to engage with God long enough and often enough to really fix whatever it is within us that makes the issue no longer an issue. He stands ready to forgive. We often ask for forgiveness and deliver our half-hearted plea to 'never do it again' and 'I just wanna be free of this', but then when the temptation arises again, there we go down that rabbit hole once more. Forgivenes...

So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. (Galatians 5:16 NLT) While none of us is immune to 'cravings', we can do a great deal to 'curb' them. Do a simple Google search and you will find all kinds of ways to 'curb' cravings depending on which type of craving you have. People share their insights into food, substance, or habit cravings in order to help others eliminate their own. It is always wise to learn from others who have gone through and come out the other side of some form of craving, isn't it? Then why would we neglect the guidance of the Holy Spirit in helping to curb the cravings of our sinful nature? It is futile to think we can just 'ignore' sinful cravings. Our sin nature makes those desires known over and over again. We don't know how to curb them on our own, so we need the assistance and wisdom of the one who knows not only what will 'curb' them, but what will a...

I love God’s law with all my heart. But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 7:22-25 NLT) We've likely all been there - wanting to do good, promising to change, then we revert back into some old pattern of sin that we knew better than to pursue. It is as though there is a power within that seems to draw us back time and time again. There is - it is called our sin nature! Our mind has what is called 'muscle memory'. A very helpful tool when it comes to things like tying our shoes without really thinking about it or driving to work the same way each day without much thought as to how to drive that automobile. When it comes to the sins we indulge in repeatedly, that 'muscle memory' thing is a real challenge! I doubt Paul h...

Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.  (William Arthur Ward) But giving thanks is a sacrifice that truly honors me. If you keep to my path, I will reveal to you the salvation of God. (Psalm 50:23) Keeping to God's path may seem a little fraught with potholes and tripping points at times. We set out well but soon encounter 'stuff' that gets in our way. We wonder where all that 'stuff' came from - why it is blocking our way on God's path. It is likely that we have gathered all that 'stuff' at some point in our lives, tucking it away ever so carefully, and now we must deal with it. The 'stuff' I am speaking of is not physical stuff tucked away in garage cabinets and storage sheds. It is the 'stuff' that we have tucked away in other 'cabinets' like our emotions, memories, and spirit.  When those things get in the way of us traveling the straight path with God, it is hard for us to give t...

Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. (James 5:16) The power of confession is often untapped by Christians today. We have become a society that would rather 'cover-up' something than admit it, seek forgiveness for it, and learn to live above it in our lives. While I am definitely not a proponent of 'confessional type' practices where an individual goes to the man in the black suit to confess their sins, I am a strong proponent of sharing your struggles with a trusted believer. Why? It helps to create an undergirding of prayer and counsel in our lives. I believe this is what God wants for his church - followers who will take each other to the throne of grace and who will continue to undergird each other in prayer, wise counsel, and emotional support when our own is weak or lacking in some way. Confession is uncomfortable to most of us. We...

The folly of mistaking a paradox for a discovery, a metaphor for a proof, a torrent of verbiage for a spring of capital truths, and oneself for an oracle, is inborn in us. (Paul Valery) The woman named Folly is brash. She is ignorant and doesn’t know it. She sits in her doorway on the heights overlooking the city. She calls out to men going by who are minding their own business. “Come in with me,” she urges the simple. To those who lack good judgment, she says, “Stolen water is refreshing; food eaten in secret tastes the best!” But little do they know that the dead are there. Her guests are in the depths of the grave. (Proverbs 9:13-18) To those who lack good judgment - I daresay I have been there at times, how about you? Those moments when we act without thinking, speak without considering the impact of our words, or purchase without contemplating the impact on our lives happens to all of us on occasion. Folly is brash - there is much that calls out to us these days from the 'door...

Wash yourselves and be clean! Get your sins out of my sight. Give up your evil ways. Learn to do good. Seek justice. Help the oppressed. Defend the cause of orphans. Fight for the rights of widows. “Come now, let’s settle this,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, I will make them as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, I will make them as white as wool. (Isaiah 1:16-18) If it were possible to have our sins washed away in our own power, we'd probably do everything we could to accomplish that task. In fact, a good many still believe they have to clean up their lives BEFORE they can come to Jesus. The opposite is quite true - Jesus came for the unclean, unholy, impure, unrighteous, and downright messed up lives. When God tells Isaiah that the Kingdom of Judah needed to wash themselves and be clean, getting their sins out of his sight, he was pointing out that they had embraced all manner of idolatry and cultural corruption. Their sins were an abomination -...

A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing. (George Bernard Shaw) Indeed, we all make many mistakes. For if we could control our tongues, we would be perfect and could also control ourselves in every other way. (James 3:2) Have you ever made a mistake, attempted to cover it up the best you could, then stood your ground that you didn't make that mistake when someone discovered it? I certainly have! Remember that little person in your home named "Not Me"? I lived as the only child in the home after my brother and sister went out on their own and tried to blame things on 'Not Me' a lot. It never worked, though. Why? "Not Me" didn't exist and I did! Jesus isn't impressed by how well we mask our sins. He doesn't believe the "Not Me" excuse, either. We might be surprised by how quickly he heals those broken areas sins leaves if we'd admit our sins just a bit quicker! "...

And we can be sure that we know him if we obey his commandments. If someone claims, “I know God,” but doesn’t obey God’s commandments, that person is a liar and is not living in the truth. But those who obey God’s word truly show how completely they love him. That is how we know we are living in him. Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did. (I John 2:3-6) Yesterday we explored the story of the rich young ruler who thought he did well with keeping all the commandments and hoped for eternal life to be granted to him as a result. While he did a 'good job' at living by the rules, he missed the one biggest one that said he should worship no other god. You see, his money became his god - he had a hard time when Jesus told him to sell all he had and give it to the poor amongst them. Today, we look at the 'measure' of one who obeys God's commandments to the fullest - they follow the example of love that Christ modeled for them while he walked t...

As dead flies cause even a bottle of perfume to stink, so a little foolishness spoils great wisdom and honor. A wise person chooses the right road; a fool takes the wrong one. You can identify fools just by the way they walk down the street! (Ecclesiastes 10:1-3) If you ever wondered about some of your decisions in life, you are not alone. I have built stuff, then looked at it a few years later wondering why I put it there or how come the materials haven't held up to the elements. I have said I'd do something, not really thinking through the demand it would place on my body or the time it would take. We all make those 'snap decisions', wondering desperately why we made THAT choice instead of the other. The hope is that we make wise ones, but truth be told, we ALL make some pretty foolish ones on occasion. What we do with that 'not very wise' choice is important. We can flounder around, looking for ways to escape the foolishness of it all, or we can simply go alo...

We all want progress, but if you're on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive.  (C.S. Lewis) God says, “Rebuild the road! Clear away the rocks and stones so my people can return from captivity.” The high and lofty one who lives in eternity, the Holy One, says this: “I live in the high and holy place with those whose spirits are contrite and humble. I restore the crushed spirit of the humble and revive the courage of those with repentant hearts. (Isaiah 57:14-15) Rebuild the road. We 'rebuild' by clearing away the rocks and stones. Whatever clutters our way, left as hindrances in our path, rubble from wrong decisions - all must go. The need for repentance merely means we have chosen the wrong road, progress has been difficult, if not impossible, and now we see there is a need to turn around from the path we had taken. Sin always leaves debris in it...