The Plumbline

This is how we’ve come to understand and experience love: Christ sacrificed his life for us. This is why we ought to live sacrificially for our fellow believers, and not just be out for ourselves. If you see some brother or sister in need and have the means to do something about it but turn a cold shoulder and do nothing, what happens to God’s love? It disappears. And you made it disappear. (I John 3:16) Disappearing love - does that sound like the state of so many homes these days? Did you know that in the US there were 5 marriages per thousand in the two-year span from 2020-2021, with 3 of those 5 ending in divorce within the same time span (and that is only 45 states reporting statistics)? Our homes were hard hit with the pandemic, weren't they? Relationships still developed, but they didn't withstand the pressure. It is tough to love someone, especially when there are external forces at work to tear the relationship apart! It is equally tough to love someone when we are so ...

In 1955, a song hit the airwaves sung by Vince Gill and which is often associated with the Christmas season.  For most of us younger than our 50's, this song may not have much meaning, but when we take a step back in time, we might be surprised at the history of the song, "Let There Be Peace On Earth".  Jill Jackson Miller and Sy Miller actually penned the lyrics to this song, but you may be surprised as to the "why" behind the lyrics.  Jill was suicidal after a failed marriage (something quite scandalous and still not "socially acceptable" in the mid-fifties).  Yet, in the midst of her sorrow and agony over her loss, she found hope.  In her account of how she came to write these lyrics, she said it was as a result of finding "the life-saving joy of God's peace and unconditional love".  This song has been sung in times when war was ravaging countries, pleading for those warring factions to lay down their weapons and take up the call to p...