The Plumbline

What are the ways you are influenced? Where is it you turn to when you need to be updated on the state of affairs in politics, the weather, or the results of the football game? It used to be we had newspapers, but more and more of those have gone by the wayside. We used to huddle around radios and listen with intent as the latest events were crackled from the airways. Now we are likely to read our social media posts, quick one liner tweets, and updates on our 'electronic' news feeds. As times change, so do the ways we receive our influences in life. We might not realize it, but the things that need to have the greatest influence in us are actually being suffocated out of their place of influence by all the things that vie for influence in our lives today. "Let me set this before you as plainly as I can. If a person climbs over or through the fence of a sheep pen instead of going through the gate, you know he's up to no good—a sheep rustler! The shepherd walks right ...

Gain:  To get, usually as the result of your own efforts.  There are a lot of ways we "gain" in life, but the common thing is that we are the ones "doing something" in order to realize that gain.  Even if you consider weight gain, we are doing something to cause it - overeating, making poor eating choices, and/or exercising way too little for our body's metabolism.  We can gain from saving and structures spending - living within our means, methodically putting away small sums of money into savings, etc.  In the end, we gain a little wealth, nice things to wear, comfortable things within our environment, etc.  Seriously thinking on this, we might think of gain as that which we accomplish ourselves - there just isn't a whole lot of reliance upon anyone else to provide what it is we are seeking to gain.  To "have" is a little different because it might also lean toward this idea of receiving something from another.  Gains can be quickly there and al...