The Plumbline

The Lord will keep good people safe, but evil people will have many troubles. (Proverbs 12:21) Josh Billings said, "Life consists not in holding good cards, but in playing those you hold well." We might not always be dealt the 'best hand' in life, but we can 'play the cards' we are dealt to the best of our ability, all the while trusting God with the outcome. We 'hold' certain cards in life, some good while others are not as good. I learned a long time ago it didn't do much good to complain about the hand one receives. It is best to take those 'cards' to Jesus, ask him for the wisdom to 'play them well' and then trust him with the rest. The Lord will keep good people safe - these words ring true time and time again in our days, even when we don't realize how much 'safety' he has provided along our path. We want a 'clear path', but we don't see what goes into clearing it because God has done all that work ahea

The Lord sees everything, and he watches us closely. Sinners are trapped and caught by their own evil deeds. They get lost and die because of their foolishness and lack of self-control. (Proverbs 5:21-23 CEV) None of us can say we watch so closely as to NEVER miss a thing! If I were honest, I would tell you there were times I was watching so closely to see what God would do in a particular circumstance, only to miss him moving somewhere other than where I was focusing! I wasn't looking where he was acting! He focused on another area of my life, but I missed it all together - seeing only the end results, but oblivious to the exact way they happened! We probably are all like this now and again - focusing so intently on one thing and missing where God is moving just a little bit down the road in our lives. Our focus might be too broad. We miss the pothole because we were just gazing at the scenery! Life is a little bit of focusing intently, but not so intently that we cannot see

I am a survivor. Have you heard those words, or seen them proudly worn across the front of a t-shirt announcing some event the wearer has endured and survived? A survivor is one who has 'beaten the odds', coming out on the other side of something they had a hard time enduring. If God is the one who fights with us, helping us with our 'survival skills' in the midst of whatever it is we have been called to endure, then we can be assured that we will come out on the other side. Will we have 'war wounds' of some sort? Probably. We aren't guaranteed to be 'wound free', but we are promised to be 'held together' and 'put perfectly together' in the presence of Jesus. For people who are stumbling toward ruin, the message of the cross is nothing but a tall tale for fools by a fool. But for those of us who are already experiencing the reality of being rescued and made right, it is nothing short of God’s power. ( 1 Corinthians 1:18 ) There are