The Plumbline

God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. (2 Corinthians 1:3-4) Have you ever wondered why we go 'through' troubles instead of avoiding them all together? Jesus went through a lot of stuff while he fulfilled his ministry on this earth, not avoiding even some of the worst things a person could endure. If he didn't, what makes us think we should? Maybe the reason for going 'through' those troubles is so we can do what Jesus did - help others as they face similar troubles. It is quite possible God is making a way for us to be the hands and feet of Jesus to others as they face similar trials and troubles. Martin Luther King, Jr. reminded us to consider where a man stands 'at times of challenge and controversy', not so much where he stands in times of comfort. I believe where we turn, who we loo

But he knows where I am going. And when he tests me, I will come out as pure as gold. For I have stayed on God’s paths; I have followed his ways and not turned aside. I have not departed from his commands, but have treasured his words more than daily food. (Job 23:10-12) There are probably more times when you don't know exactly where your life is headed than there are the times you are 100% certain where everything will work out as planned. The good news is that God knows where we are headed, and he has prepared the path we walk upon. Stay on the path and you will come out the other side of this present journey tried and true. Following God's ways in the midst of 'not knowing' is harder than it sounds. We want certainty, but God isn't always going to show us the end from the beginning. We just need to stay the course and trust him even when it doesn't seem like 'all is well'. Job didn't have a great perspective from the top of a dung pile, but

Dr. Seuss reminds us, "Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened." So many times, we focus on the 'end' of things and forget all that happened in between the beginning and the end - the 'going through' part. We get through something, look back a bit, celebrate or mourn, depending on the occurrence, and then we commit to our memories something from that experience. It won't be the full details, but we will latch onto some part of it as the memory we will keep. If it was a happy occasion, we may not have wanted it to end. If it was just the opposite, we are probably grateful to have it over once and for all. Either way, it isn't the end that made the difference for us - it was the 'going through' that did. If with heart and soul you’re doing good, do you think you can be stopped? Even if you suffer for it, you’re still better off. Don’t give the opposition a second thought. Through thick and thin, keep your hearts at attentio

Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way. (James 1:2-3) Is anyone else like me, trying to get out of something a bit 'prematurely' because they are harder than you expected when you went into it? Trust me on this one, you and I will just find the next challenge a bit harder, so we might as well buckle down and finish this one! There is something that is 'required' of us and we need to see it through, or else face the next 'something' in order to do it all over again. What is required? I don't know what your particular 'challenge' is right now, but whatever it is, God has a plan in it. That may seem a little hard for some to swallow, especially when the issue at hand seems kind

No test or temptation that comes your way is beyond the course of what others have had to face. All you need to remember is that God will never let you down; he’ll never let you be pushed past your limit; he’ll always be there to help you come through it. (I Corinthians 10:13) Pay close attention to the words here - nowhere in scripture does it ever say a Christian will be 'problem-free' in life, nor that temptation and testing will somehow just magically never come our way. In fact, it promises there will be both testing and temptation - trials of our faith; testing of our conviction and dedication. What is promised is that God will ALWAYS be right there to help us come THROUGH it. He never leaves us defenseless - he expects us to set up good defenses BEFORE we have to go THROUGH them! All of us have to face trials and temptations - there is no way to escape the fact they will come our way. If we prepare AHEAD of time, going THROUGH them with Christ at our side will mean we s

What's your trial? What is it you are attempting to bear up under right now? Some will quickly say it is this social distancing thing, limiting their ability to go about the normal day-to-day activities they would other find themselves doing. Others will admit their trial is some form of illness, perhaps even this COVID-19 or flu virus that is circulating. Still others will acknowledge they are under some spiritual trial, not really sure what it is they are under, but knowing they are fully and completely under some form of attack. Regardless of the trial, the expectation is the same - you hold up because God is holding you up. Happy is the person who can hold up under the trials of life. At the right time, he’ll know God’s sweet approval and will be crowned with life. As God has promised, the crown awaits all who love Him. ( James 1:12 ) Holding up begins with us being in right relationship with God. The closer we draw to him, especially 'under pressure', the more we wi

How good of a test-taker are you? I have met individuals who really struggle with this one because as soon as they get that exam in front of them they kind of 'clam up' and shut down. They just cannot focus and their efforts toward studying / preparing for the exam all go out the window. They are frozen in time. They have an anxiety moment that initiates the 'shut-down' and then they cannot seem to 'reboot' to get back on track. The testing challenges of life can sometimes put us into a mode where we find it hard to 'reboot' and get back on track again, right? There are just some challenges we don't imagine we will ever make it through, but let me assure you of this - you are prepared more than you will ever know! Anyone who meets a testing challenge head-on and manages to stick it out is mighty fortunate. For such persons loyally in love with God, the reward is life and more life. ( James 1:12 MSG ) Let's face it - testing is hard - even a b

Now and again, mom begins a discussion by saying she doesn't know what she has done in this lifetime to 'deserve' all the pain she experiences because of her arthritis, stenosis, and neuropathy. Any one of those can be quite debilitating - add all three together and you rarely have a day when one or the other isn't a troubling thing. Add to this that she is legally blind, hard of hearing, and 100 years old, and you can see why she might just 'bemoan' some of these ailments once in a while! While we may not understand the 'why' behind the present set of worries and woes that we experience, we can be assured of one very important fact - the day is coming when we will live healed and whole once again if our hearts are surrendered to Christ! What a God we have! And how fortunate we are to have him, this Father of our Master Jesus! Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we’ve been given a brand-new life and have everything to live for, including a future i

As with most 'baby Christians', I was one of those who actually believed that everything would come out all right - nothing bad would ever happen to good people because God makes everything work together for their good. Only good things are gonna happen to Christians, right? Wrong! It came as a surprise to me that bad things still happen to good people! What I failed to recognize is that God often takes us through periods of "adjustment" in order for his vision to be accomplished within us. He sometimes has to "enlarge" us enough to see what it is that he intends for us. The 'bad' isn't really meant to hurt us, but to make us see a new aspect of his keeping touch, understand a little more about his healing hands, and come to a place where we follow him no matter how the circumstances attempt to dictate otherwise. Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God's Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don't know how or wh

  All praise to the God and Father of our Master, Jesus the Messiah! Father of all mercy! God of all healing counsel! He comes alongside us when we go through hard times, and before you know it, he brings us alongside someone else who is going through hard times so that we can be there for that person just as God was there for us. We have plenty of hard times that come from following the Messiah, but no more so than the good times of his healing comfort— we get a full measure of that , too. (2 Corinthians 1:3-5) Most of us don't want to consider that the hard times we are going through yourself may be designed for us to learn what we will need to know in order to come alongside someone else going through a hard time.  When we are in times of trial and the way seems pretty awful to us, the last thing we think of is that God would make us an instrument of his grace in the life of another!  As a matter of fact, we usually are thinking, "Get me through this as fast as possi

Those who stand firm during testing are blessed. They are tried and true. They will receive the life God has promised to those who love him as their reward. (James 1:12 CEB) There are certainly times of testing and trial - when you don't feel like you are ever going to be out from under the pressure of "issues" that just keep surfacing. You just get your head to the surface again, gulp a little fresh air, and another wave comes crashing down over you! Some time ago, I watched a movie about the first black Navy diver portrayed by Cuba Gooding, Jr. - born to a poor family, joining the military in hopes of finding that "better life". It is the story of our lives, isn't it? We want something "better", taking steps in that direction, only to find the "distance" between what we had and what we want is gigantically longer, harder, and more challenging than we ever expected. Gooding soon comes to realize he isn't going to be "accep

“But he knows where I am going. And when he tests me, I will come out as pure as gold. For I have stayed on God’s paths; I have followed his ways and not turned aside." ( Job 23:10-11   NLT ) When we are in the thick of things, we probably don't even think God knows what direction we are headed! The chaos of the issues bombarding us on all sides just leaving us with questions, uncertain outcomes, and decisions too numerous for us to even think about some days. We just cannot possibly imagine any other "disaster" that can come our ways, only to be broad-sided by something totally unexpected. Could it just be WE don't know where we are going at the moment, but that God has all things perfectly orchestrated and the outcomes already well under his control? The key isn't that we know the destination, it is that we stay on course. To be totally transparent here, there have been more than a few times that if God had showed me clearly where it was I was headed

And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.  ( Philippians 4:8   NLT ) In a time with so much negative input through media of all sorts, it is imperative that we not lose our perspective on just exactly who remains in control. It has never ceased to be Jesus - for he holds all things together by his word. It has never once veered from the course of justice - for his reign demands nothing else. We can get caught up in the hype of the moment, distracted by all the violence and protests, or we can redouble our efforts to remember God is able to turn the circumstances of even the worst imaginable conclusion into something no one ever expected.  Don't believe me? I would only have to remind you of a very hot, fiery furnace of old, where four men were planned for their final fate. The day they stepped into the furnace

Trials teach us what we are; they dig up the soil, and let us see what we are made of.  (Charles Spurgeon)  I can recount numerous times when a particularly difficult season of my life seemed to be finally winding down, when I could just begin to see the clearing of the fog of chaos, and then almost imperceptibly there comes the "next wave" of trial! I know you have had similar experiences, when you didn't think there was much more you could or would have to face before the muddle you were in would clear and allow you some "breathing room". You might have even uttered the words, "Can it get any worse?" I think Satan might just like to hear those words uttered because he relishes in showing off his pretty ugly self all around us!  I have learned not to ask those words, but rather to ask God, "How shall you show yourself stronger than the trial adding havoc in my life today?" But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives:

Ernest Hemingway said, "The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places."  He also said his life had a "tendency to fall apart" when he was awake, so he advocated for periods of sleep to lessen the effects of being awake! Isn't that the truth!  Our day-to-day life probably doesn't so much have the earth-shattering events which do us in as much as it has the constant "erosion" of time which seems to take a little bit of this and a little bit of that away from us without us even being the wiser it has done so!  As much as we need to be vigilant for the "big" things which might leave us toppled and seeking some type of grounding again in our lives, we probably need to be more aware of the things which come upon us in these gradual, and almost undetectable ways! What sacrifice I can offer You is my broken spirit because a broken spirit, O God, a heart that honestly regrets the past, You won’t detest. (Psalm

We have been studying for a while about some of the obvious differences between the fool and the simpleton and the lackadaisical  way they live life vs. the wise and those who use the common sense God gave them.  The differences can be dramatic, or just plain obvious!  Yet, there are times when the differences aren't so obvious - when it looks like we are making wise decisions and acting in pretty honorable ways, only to discover the path we are on is really one marked with all manner of selfish intent!  The wise come to realize some of their decisions may not have been "founded" in the right stuff.  The difference between the wise and the fool or simpleton in those moments is what they do when they come to realize self has been at the center of their decisions. Trouble manages to find us out - exposing what it is which is at the core of our being.  We encounter trouble for a variety of reasons in life, but one of the surest ways to encounter trouble is to make a commitm

Endurance is often defined by one's ability to hold out without giving into some impairment or difficulty.  In "undergoing" some stress, you are able to come out the other side still standing.  Over the course of my life, I have learned not everything we "undergo" is designed to leave us "standing" - sometimes we need to be in a place which displays a different type of "strength" than being able to "stand".  In other words, sometimes the "strongest" place we find ourselves is in admitting our weakest place within!  There is something which comes in the times of "trouble" in our lives which has a way of revealing these "weak" spots - and I think God may have just designed the thing we "undergo" to reveal that "spot" so he might help us with that weakness. My friends, be glad, even if you have a lot of trouble.  You know that you learn to endure by having your faith tested.  But y

There are times when God just want to hear from us that we desire him to be close enough to us to actually "feel" his presence - almost like we feel the breath of one so close to us that their every exhale is sensed.  This desire of our hearts sparks something within God's heart which almost demands his immediate response - simply because when our hearts are so eager to connect with him, he cannot help but respond!  Word pictures abound in scripture - allowing us to somehow connect the thought of the words with actual actions we understand.  I think God does this because we need "pictures" - they help to speak into our lives what otherwise would just be words.  I know it is much easier to assemble something when I have both the illustration and the words.  The words alone could get me to the finished product - but those photos or illustrations "speak" to me about how to get it done in a way the words just could not.  Since God knows us so well, it mak

If you have never read the account of Jesus being tempted in the wilderness just before he launches out into his "public" ministry, it is worth a read.  As the Devil tempts Jesus, he puts him through three tests - one aimed at his physical hunger with the intention of getting Jesus to satisfy his needs on his own; a second aimed at getting him to jump off a high place and presuming upon the grace of God to catch him before he fell to the ground; and a third aimed at getting Jesus to "save the world" without really having to go to the cross by accepting an alternative to God's divine plan.  After all three of these temptations, we find the words, "That completed the testing."  Lest we think the Devil is all done with us when we don't give into one or more tests, remember the rest of the passage - he retreated TEMPORARILY.  His "retreat" is always only temporary at best.  He actually is looking for the next opportunity to interject himself

Crush:  To press or squeeze with a force that destroys or deforms; to force out by pressing; to break.  Sometimes people don't see my fascination in the study of words, but when we take a little time to explore the various meanings of a word, we often begin to ponder things we might have missed before.  This is especially true when it comes to understanding the Word of God.  The "words" God chose to share with us in the pages of our Bible are not by chance - they are selected for their meaning.  Therefore, getting the most out of the Word of God often requires us to be open to considering the meaning of the words chosen to express a certain matter of thought or instruction. A healthy spirit conquers adversity,   but what can you do when the spirit is crushed? (Proverbs 18:14 MSG) I have some friends who have been through tremendous pressures this past year, and others who are beginning this year with some of the most terrifying decisions they will have to make in thei