The Plumbline

 Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved. (Helen Keller) We might desire all of life to be ease and quiet, but then we are living with unreasonable expectations. Jesus said, "I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33) We will have many trials - not just a few. We may not face all of them with strength, but we can learn strength in the midst of them. It is important to remember there is no temptation 'unique' to any man - we all have faced a similar temptation at one time or another. What we might find 'unique' is that we all learn different things from trials that are quite similar. Why? God is developing some strength within us that will not only benefit ourselves, but will be a means of helping another devel

I don't think of all the misery but of the beauty that still remains. (Anne Frank) After you have suffered a little while, our God, who is full of kindness through Christ, will give you his eternal glory. He personally will come and pick you up, and set you firmly in place, and make you stronger than ever. (I Peter 5:10) "Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God." (Corrie ten Boom) For those who are not familiar with Corrie, let me give you just a little background. She came from a family of Dutch watchmakers during the time of Hitler's regime. She and her family did much to protect the Jews fleeing the concentration camps and the horror that awaited them - hiding many in their attic space and providing for their daily needs. The motto of their household: "In this household, God's people are always welcome." She endured hardship upon hardship, including her arrest and detention in a political concentration camp. Yet, in all she endured

If I had not found joy in your teachings,   my suffering would have destroyed me.  I will never forget your commands,   because through them you gave me new life. (Psalm 119:92-93 ERV) We probably can all look back at points in our lives when we thought whatever it was we were going through just about "destroyed" us. Our joy was gone, energies depleted, and wherewithal to make any new decisions totally evaded us. In short, we were "suffering" - either by our own doing, or that of another, and it just about "undid" us. Our rescue in those times is often found in the simplest of things, but often the most overlooked when we find ourselves in the midst of tremendous suffering - his Word. It is by his Word all things were created - it is by his Word that all things are sustained - it is also by his Word all things are renewed and made whole again! David sums it all up for us by reminding us that everything has its limits - even those things that seem t