The Plumbline

Consider it wholly joyful, my brethren, whenever you are enveloped in or encounter trials of any sort or fall into various temptations. Be assured and understand that the trial and proving of your faith bring out endurance and steadfastness and patience. (James 1:2-3 AMP) Okay, not going to sugar coat this one, but trials and temptations are definitely not something I count as wholly joyful! It goes without saying that each of us faces these day-to-day issues designed to keep us from following Jesus as closely as we'd like. They seem to come at us from all sides and definitely feel like they are 'enveloping us' in their snare, don't they? We must learn how to encounter them well, avoiding the snare completely. To that end, it may actually help to understand why we actually encounter these 'moments in time' that are seemingly designed to make us fail. They bring out endurance. Let me be the first to admit that aging has decreased my physical endurance, but my spi...

Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing. (James 1:2-4) Charles Spurgeon reminded us, "The Lord gets his best soldiers out of the highlands of affliction." While none of us actually 'signs up' for trials, they come our way. We won't always 'delight' in those afflictions or trials, will we? Some of us will even complain that we don't 'deserve' the affliction because we have been doing everything God asked us to do. It doesn't matter how 'right' we live at times - those afflictions still come! Why? They build our faith, increasing our endurance under pressure, often even softening our inner man, making us more receptive to what God wants to do 'next' in our lives.  I...

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 1:2-4) Charles Spurgeon reminded us, "Trials teach us what we are; they dig up the soil, and let us see what we are made of." While none of us actually look forward to trials, it is possible to develop a mindset that embraces the concept of trials helping our faith to grow. We might not actually have 'open arms' when it comes to facing discouragement, anxiety, or even an all-out battle of the wills, but it is possible to become comfortable having our 'spiritual comfort' disturbed from time to time. Why? We know discomfort in the spiritual realm will produce things of lasting value within us. Pressure might just make us feel like somethin...

I am not always excited to endure a trial of any sort - how about you? Do you eagerly await the next trial or temptation? I doubt you do! You are probably thinking about barely surviving with your sanity from the last doozy of a trial you went through, aren't you? Standing the test isn't for the weak hearted - it is for the bold hearted - those with the faith of a mustard seed, willing to put that faith to the test, even when the outcome seems a little foredrawn in your mind. The foredrawn conclusion? It is going to be tougher than you can endure! Blessed is the one who endures trials, because when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him. (James 1:12) The foredrawn conclusion doesn't always take God into account, does it? Sometimes we come to that conclusion all on our own - out of fear, past failures, and a lack of total trust in the one we serve. We give a whole lot of lip service to serving Christ, putting him f...

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...

The finest steel has to go through the hottest fire. (Richard M. Nixon) My brothers and sisters, you will have many kinds of trouble. But this gives you a reason to be very happy. You know that when your faith is tested, you learn to be patient in suffering. If you let that patience work in you, the end result will be good. You will be mature and complete. You will be all that God wants you to be. (James 1:2-4) While none of us actually wants to embrace the 'furnace' of trials and troubles of all kinds, it is actually how we realize the greatest growth in our faith and inner character. Be that what it may be, we don't usually run right into the face of trials and get all up in their grill, so to speak. We actually might just want to turn tail and run when we see them coming - especially when they are coming so rapid fire that we just don't seem to have any breathing room in between them. God's plan isn't to leave us devastated by allowing these trials - though t...

Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. (Thomas A. Edison) We must not get tired of doing good. We will receive our harvest of eternal life at the right time. We must not give up. (Galatians 6:9) It is easy to grow weary, much harder to regain momentum when we have been stagnant way too long! We will face trials - challenges beyond our 'natural' reasoning, ability, or strength. What we do when we stand face-to-face with those challenges makes all the difference! Will we turn and run? Will we stand up and fight in our own strength? Or will we turn to Christ for wisdom, renewal, and increased capacity? Sometimes we think the only thing we need when facing a hard challenge is to have more strength. More 'ability' to handle it. More 'intel' about the situation. The truth is that we might just need more capacity! Old wine skins were never meant to hold new wine. Why? As time passed, the new wine wou...

Moses led the Israelites away from the Red Sea and into the desert of Shur. They traveled for three days in the desert. They could not find any water. Then they came to Marah. There was water at Marah, but it was too bitter to drink. (That is why the place was named Marah.) The people began complaining to Moses. They said, “Now what will we drink?” (Exodus 15:22-24) God has just delivered you from some HUGE thing that was weighing heavily upon your shoulders, such as the bondage the Egyptians kept the Israelites under, and your immediate response to your deliverance is to sing praises to him. That sounds about right, doesn't it? Now, a few days or weeks pass by, and we find ourselves facing something much less challenging, but a hindrance, nonetheless. Our 'immediate' response in that moment is to praise God, right? Not always! If we are anything like the Israelites, when we face the first 'bump in the road' following God's mighty deliverance, will our response...

You don’t know where the wind blows. And you don’t know how a baby grows in its mother’s womb. In the same way, you don’t know what God will do—and he makes everything happen. (Ecclesiastes 11:5) We all have those seasons in life when we know stuff is happening, or about to happen, but we really aren't sure what all is about to come our way. We get a little frightened by the stuff we don't understand, try to make some assumptions about what we believe may be happening, and generally get ourselves all out of sorts when stuff gets harder than we'd like. Then along comes God's intervention and all of a sudden, almost without us noticing, things begin to sort themselves out and life gets a little easier. What we missed in all that in-between stage was the peace God wants us to walk in as we go THROUGH those seasons. Today, we can use 3-D ultrasound to get an almost perfect picture of the baby's features. In the time this passage was recorded for us, a baby was conceale...

God blesses those who patiently endure testing and temptation. Afterward they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him. And remember, when you are being tempted, do not say, “God is tempting me.” God is never tempted to do wrong, and he never tempts anyone else. Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away. These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death. (James 1:12-15) It should not catch any of us by surprise that God doesn't say "IF" testing or temptation comes your way, but rather that if "WILL" come your way. The 'patient endurance' thing may have more than a few of us concerned because we are less than patient when crazy stuff messes with our life! If we ALL face trials and temptations, testing our faith and bringing freshness into our walk with Jesus, maybe we'd do well to learn how to deal with them BEFORE we need to face them. W...

Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing. (James 1:2-4) I bet there aren't too many of us that actually think trials are good for us, much less that God could actually allow more than a few of them to come our way. Trials are meant to test our faith - period. Within the trial comes the chance to really show who it is we serve and what it is we believe. In other words, we are showing God we put him first and rely upon him for all we have need of in our lives. It is in the midst of the trial that our 'true self' emerges. It is within the trial that we see how much we rely upon ourselves through the knowledge we have amassed, or our ability to 'reason it out' on our own. These trials may not be easy, but they act...

So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while . These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world. You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy. The reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls . (I Peter 1:6-9) One of the hardest things for some of us to come to grips with is that we have to face and endure trials. Yes, the timeframe may be limited, but why on earth do we have to face them at all? Peter was writing to a group of believers who were likely facing great persecution on a daily basis, yet he tells them to rejoice and take hope. How...

Let me introduce you to Peter - a brash, outspoken leader who sometimes didn't get it all right, made impetuous decisions, too afraid to admit his association with someone others didn't exactly like, and who acted rashly on more than one occasion. Even though he wasn't all that 'perfect' in many of those day-to-day decisions, he was one of the founding fathers of the New Testament Church. Nero was the ruler of his day, and his reign didn't exactly leave those who followed Christ in a comfortable position. In fact, he'd as soon persecute them than support them. He often used them as scapegoats, blaming them for some vile action he had taken himself. Toward the end of Peter's life, he pens the letters to the Church at Rome and the 'aliens scattered abroad'. Being scattered leaves one feeling a bit disconnected from others - from the 'roots' one had formed and the protections one had enjoyed. All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus ...

 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...

Your unfailing love is better than life itself; how I praise you! I will praise you as long as I live, lifting up my hands to you in prayer. You satisfy me more than the richest feast. I will praise you with songs of joy. (Psalm 63:3-6) When you aren't 'dealt' the hand you expected, how do you respond? To be honest with you, I don't always immediately praise God for the 'lousy hand'. Sometimes I gripe about it, chafe against it, and get a little too 'me' focused right there in the midst of the 'hardship' I am enduring. "Me" comes first and "me" is not feeling like it is getting the 'best shake' in the moment, so "me" begins to resist and complain. Been there? Got the shirt and wore it out? Good! Sometimes our life is even turned upside down by the 'hand' we receive - what was up is now down, and the ground underneath us is quite shaky. When we 'receive' that 'hand', we might just fo...

My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? Why are you so far away when I groan for help? Every day I call to you, my God, but you do not answer. Every night I lift my voice, but I find no relief. (Psalm 22:1-2) I think we have all been in that place at one time or another where we find ourselves actually thinking God has somehow abandoned us. The circumstances suggest the worst is about to happen, we begin to whirl out of control emotionally, our thoughts are running rampant from one perception to the next, and we somehow feel like we are in it all alone. When we don't IMMEDIATELY see the answer to the circumstances, we might just begin to doubt God will lend any help, all our calls for help seemingly falling on deaf ears. Are we wrong to express our doubts or 'struggle of faith' in those moments? Absolutely not! God doesn't 'ding us' for our moments of doubt - he uses them to strengthen or deepen our faith. It is never wrong to seek to understand why such dif...

It seems to be a fact of life that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. I love to do God’s will so far as my new nature is concerned; but there is something else deep within me, in my lower nature, that is at war with my mind and wins the fight and makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. In my mind I want to be God’s willing servant, but instead I find myself still enslaved to sin. So you see how it is: my new life tells me to do right, but the old nature that is still inside me loves to sin. Oh, what a terrible predicament I’m in! Who will free me from my slavery to this deadly lower nature? Thank God! It has been done by Jesus Christ our Lord. He has set me free. (Romans 7:21-25) A fact of life...that I want to do what is right...but I choose what is wrong. Sound like anybody else's life story? There is a constant struggle of the 'will', isn't there? We find ourselves pulled this way and that, all the while wanting to go just o...

My troubles turned out all for the best—they forced me to learn from your textbook. (Psalm 119:71) To disturb the mental calm and contentment of an individual is indeed an unfortunate state of affairs. To constantly worry, be in distress, feel agitated or stirred up is a terrible place to find oneself. There are a whole lot of things in this life that annoy the stuffing right out of us. One trouble upon another will wear us down. If you have ever observed a stone 'grooved' by a constant drip of water, you may not know exactly when the 'erosion' happens, but it does! We never really know what "drop of water" will actually be the first to begin the "groove", nor do we know when the last drop will accomplish its work, do we? We have lots of tiny drops, all working away to "cut a groove" across our lives, trying desperately to divert the waters in a totally different direction. The seemingly impervious stone is eventually eroded away by the ...

A healthy spirit conquers adversity , but what can you do when the spirit is crushed? (Proverbs 18:14) To be pressed or squeezed with such a force so as to destroy or deform - anyone know what that feels like? It feels like you are being forced out by pressing, so that you will eventually 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. I have some friends who have been through tremendous pressures this past year, and others who are beginning t...

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 1:2-4 MSG) Our passage today refers to the process of our "faith-life" being forced into the open by the challenges we face in our daily walk. We don't always like it when our "faith-life" is brought into the open, though. Many times we try to compartmentalize our "faith-life" as something separate from the rest of our 'real life'. Pressure helps to produce evidence of our faith in Christ and brings evidence of Christ-like maturity in our choices - those 'real life' choices. I don't want you to miss the statement that "true colors" are revealed - these are often hidden or need something else to ...