The Plumbline

Defeat may serve as well as victory to shake the soul and let the glory out. (Edwin Markham) Is anyone crying for help? God is listening, ready to rescue you. If your heart is broken, you’ll find God right there; if you’re kicked in the gut, he’ll help you catch your breath. Disciples so often get into trouble; still, God is there every time. (Psalm 34:17-19) Markham also challenged us with the words: "We have committed the Golden Rule to memory, let us now commit it to life." There are far more times when we 'know the rule' but choose to live contrary to the rule. Those are the moments when God stands at the ready to rescue us from the folly of our own devices. Anyone who has ever been 'rescued' in this life can share just how much their need pressed upon them and how great it was to see that rescuer arriving just in the nick of time. We may not fully appreciate how much we need rescuing today, kind of poking along in life, thinking we are doing 'pretty g...

Success is the sum of small efforts - repeated day in and day out.  (Robert Collier) God is strong, and he wants you strong. So take everything the Master has set out for you, well-made weapons of the best materials. And put them to use so you will be able to stand up to everything the Devil throws your way. This is no weekend war that we’ll walk away from and forget about in a couple of hours. This is for keeps, a life-or-death fight to the finish against the Devil and all his angels. (Ephesians 6:10-11) Many of us go through the same routine day after day, without thought as to why or how we do whatever it is we do within those routines. Do you honestly think through the steps of brushing your teeth, combing your hair, or even putting on your clothing? Do you just head to the coffee pot not really thinking through the 'desire' for that first cup? If you are heading to work today, do you actually think about each twist and turn in the road, or do you kind of drive out of '...

Victory! What does this term mean to you? Perhaps it means you have succeeded in something you never thought you'd be able to complete, or that you triumphed over something that held you back in life. Maybe it carries the idea of having achieved superiority to your enemy - no longer having to engage that enemy in battle because you have been declared "victorious" over that enemy. If we look at this in the truest sense, any victory is really a sense of achievement where an advantage is attained and maintained. There is something in the one who is victorious that screams, "I have overcome!" There was an obstacle in your way and now that obstacle no longer stands as any impediment to your progress or success in life. I wonder just how many obstacles God has removed for us without us even knowing they were gone - allowing us to walk victoriously in areas we never really had any idea how to overcome? Only through God can we be successful. It is God alone who will...

My protection and success come from God alone. He is my refuge, a Rock where no enemy can reach me. ( Psalm 62:7 TLB ) Protection is often thought of as the preservation from harm or injury. It comes from the root word 'protectio' in Latin and means "a covering in front". We want God 'out front' in our lives - shielding us from all harm that is attempting to find a means to lay us out. The idea is that of 'guarding' so as to keep safe from invasion or loss. The President of the United States has a 'protection detail' with him wherever he goes. His 'detail' is huge, not only in number, but in the armored vehicles he has at his disposal and the military defense at the ready wherever he goes. The purpose is to keep him safe from any harm that might be planned for him. This allow him to do his job, much like God's protection 'out front' in our lives helps us 'do our job' on this earth. The right 'protection' mak...

Success:  The accomplishment of one's goals; the favorable or prosperous end to your attempts or endeavors; the attainment of something good or welcomed.   Most of us strive for success in our endeavors, but then find we have bitten off a little more than we could chew, making a true "success" a little out of reach for us.  If we examine the actual meaning of success, it might just give us a little hint as to why we don't hit a home run each and every time we try aim for success.  It is because they are our goals, our attempts to attain.  One thing I have learned in my 5+ decades on this earth - my plans are okay, but they aren't really good until they are blessed and overseen by God each step of the way. People go about making their plans,  but the Eternal has the final word.   Even when you think you have good intentions,  He knows your real motives.  Whatever you do, do it as service to Him,  and He will guarantee your success. ...

What standard do you live by?  I have a little plaque in my office which simply reads: "Every time you walk by the violation of a standard, you set a new standard."  It was given to me some years ago, but it still have great meaning to me, serving as a reminder to not simply "walk on by" those things which really matter in life.   Einstein once said, "Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them."  I believe this is true - we press beyond what we are willing to see as a limit which must be broken in order to move on in life.  There are limits which are kind of the "standards" by which we live - sets of beliefs and rules we adhere to without compromise.  Then there are limits we place on ourselves - beliefs which may not be founded in reality, but are self or other imposed.  I think we need to be careful what "standard" we use as a measuring rod in our lives, for the standard may be too low, or even too high. For we would never dare...

I run into people in all walks of life, "trying" to serve Jesus, but struggling with obedience, all the while knowing I am not unlike these fellow believers in my "trying".  "Try" as we might, we don't always get things right the first time.  This is kind of the way most of us learn things - by trying, failing, and trying again.  If I had given up on learning to tie my shoes as a child, long before the days of velcro fasteners, I'd have had to go barefoot!  If I had given up on mastering the clutch, brake, and gas combination, I'd never have learned to drive a stick-shift.  We define "success" in terms of something we call "failure" - hit the nail on the head each time you swing the hammer and we call it success; hit your thumb a few times and we call it failure.  I challenge us to think of failure as another form of "success" - simply because we often make the determination we will not choose to place our finger ...

Scripture teaches wisdom is something we acquire over time - it says "become wise" - it doesn't say "zap, now you are wise"!  Most of the wisdom we have acquired is done so in what some refer to as the "school of hard knocks".  You know exactly where you learned some of the lessons you have learned, while there are times when you really could not say it was one place or time when the learning happened - it came in the "course of time".  The point is, we don't stop "becoming wise" at any one point in life.  The process of acquiring wisdom is to be a continual thing.  Therefore, every opportunity presented is an opportunity to incorporate some knew knowledge or application of truth. We just need to use what we "amass" and let it affect how we make decisions in the future.  This seems to be the point of our struggle - in using what we already know to help us avoid mistakes and to amass more wisdom in the process! Become...