The Plumbline

By entering through faith into what God has always wanted to do for us—set us right with him, make us fit for him—we have it all together with God because of our Master Jesus. And that’s not all: We throw open our doors to God and discover at the same moment that he has already thrown open his door to us. We find ourselves standing where we always hoped we might stand—out in the wide open spaces of God’s grace and glory, standing tall and shouting our praise. (Romans 5:1-2 MSG) Just in case there remains any question, faith isn't us making our way to God's open door - it is him opening the door for us, drawing us in, and making us feel welcome right there in his presence. We enter in, but he draws us in. We don't open the door, he does. As we enter into this relationship with him, we must open the doors of our heart, mind, and spirit to him. Any one of those areas that remain closed to him will keep us from experiencing fully the grace and love of Jesus in our lives. We ar...

The old life is gone; a new life emerges! Look at it! All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other. God put the world square with himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins. God has given us the task of telling everyone what he is doing. We’re Christ’s representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God’s work of making things right between them. We’re speaking for Christ himself now: Become friends with God; he’s already a friend with you. (2 Corinthians 5:19-20) Have you ever purchased some piece of clothing, only to have it sit unworn in your closet? You thought you did a great job of finding a bargain, getting a style that is totally 'in' at the moment, but when you tried it on at home, it just didn't fit you right or you didn't have the right shirt to go with the trousers. Go...

You must grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (2 Peter 3:18) "I do not at all understand the mystery of grace - only that it meets us where we are but does not leave us where it found us." (Anne Lamott) Do you understand grace? I know more about grace each and every day I live - simply because there isn't a moment that goes by where I don't need more of it! Grace isn't always 'understood' as much as it is 'appreciated'. We are wrapped in the healing power of grace, not so we can sin again, but so we can see our sin as forgiven and learn to live without sinning again. All of this walk with Jesus is one of coming to 'appreciate' the extreme value of the work of grace in our lives. We discover new things about how grace does a work within us every day. We might not 'feel' grace at work but trust me on this one - if you are a child of God, grace isn't finished with you yet! Have you ever worn a garme...

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 in heaven—and the future starts now! God is keeping careful watch over us and the future. The Day is coming when you’ll have it all—life healed and whole. (I Peter 1:3) This was one of those verses I'd remind mom of anytime she'd worry over her many aches and tremendously haunting neuropathic pain. We'd just sit for a bit and imagine her walking upright, without pain, able to see perfectly once again. She had a hard time imagining it, but she held onto that promise time and time again - life healed and whole. Sometimes all we have is the hope - we cannot let go of it no matter how long the answer may be delayed - because the day is surely coming! I don't know what you delay may be, but trust me on this one, the day is coming! Too many times we think the ...

A solid reputation requires a commitment to being honest. Deceitful people walk a treacherous, thorny path. Mom always said that my lies would "snowball". In other words, it was like rolling the tiny snowball into the bigger one which eventually became the biggest part of the snowman's body! The more you "roll around" in the lie, the more lies you attract and use to cover up the original one. Eventually, there is more effort in being dishonest than there ever would have been in maintaining your integrity and just coming clean about what it is you wanted to cover up in the first place. At the moment, a lie seems like an easy fix to a miserable situation, but in the end, the situation is made more miserable by the lies. No amount of "cover-up" actually stays covered up very long. Eventually some form of "heat" will cause the truth to surface - and when it does, the damage the lies have done to your reputation leave a bigger "hole" to ...

Only the person involved can know his own bitterness or joy—no one else can really share it. Laughter cannot mask a heavy heart. When the laughter ends, the grief remains. Only a simpleton believes everything he’s told! A prudent man understands the need for proof. A wise man is cautious and avoids danger; a fool plunges ahead with great confidence. A short-tempered man is a fool. He hates the man who is patient. The simpleton is crowned with folly; the wise man is crowned with knowledge. (Proverbs 14:10, 13, 15-18) Whether we know it or not, we often bear our bitterness alone - although others may step in to attempt to help us bear it, it is primarily something we bear alone. We can experience great joy, but no one can fully experience it the same as we do. Emotions are really something others attempt to share with us and we with them, but in essence, the joy or bitterness of another is something we can never truthfully fully comprehend and experience in the same manner as the one e...

Some years ago, I saw this sign: God allows U-Turns. Profound statement, right? So many times, the roads we travel upon are marked with all kinds of restrictions - U-Turns being one of them. Isn't it good to know in God's grace, he allows U-Turns? Sometimes we don't pay as close attention to the things God tells us to focus on, getting ourselves down a road or two which don't "fit" the plan as well as we'd hoped. When we find ourselves traveling in the wrong direction, I wonder if we are bold enough to do a U-Turn? When the road is wide and no traffic seems to be coming, this seems a whole lot easier, does it not? But...get a little bit more traffic, take that road down to a two lane narrow passageway, with no shoulder or "wiggle room", and you might find a U-Turn a little more difficult. Why? Maneuvering room is limited! This is the way it is sometimes - we get ourselves on paths which allow very little maneuvering room! When we need t...

You’re blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right. Then you can see God in the outside world. (Matthew 5:8) I just caught a short post on social media about a 'street takeover' in a local community here in which streets were blocked, vehicles were doing donuts around the intersection, a home was hit by gunfire, and people were just acting really dumb. Purity sometimes gets overlooked because we don't live in a very "pure" world, do we? It is hard to make pure choices when all around us we are bombarded with all manner of wrong choices. Purity is the freedom from anything which debases (reduces in quality or value), contaminates (adding/mixing in that which makes unclean), or pollutes (corrupts or defiles). Impurity is the "adding in" of something which does not belong. That which does not belong actually changes the consistency or integrity of what does. It may be hard to keep out that which does not belong, but we certainly...

By entering through faith into what God has always wanted to do for us—set us right with him, make us fit for him—we have it all together with God because of our Master Jesus. And that’s not all: We throw open our doors to God and discover at the same moment that he has already thrown open his door to us. We find ourselves standing where we always hoped we might stand— out in the wide open spaces of God’s grace and glory, standing tall and shouting our praise . (Romans 5:1-2) Do you ever get to the spot in your life where life is coming at you so fast you just cannot "pull it all together"? You feel like you are under a mountain of stuff and cannot seem to see any relief on the horizon, much less the solution to the present muddle your are dealing with. I doubt you are in that muddled mess alone! Sometimes we just need a good catharsis to clean out the "stuff" that buried us so deeply! If you have ever gone garage sale hopping, you might have wondered about the p...

The journey you travel - what does it look like for you today? Some of us have been on a dead-end journey for a while, kind of just going along, but not really getting to anywhere worth all the effort. It is indeed hard to correct a course when it has been going along for quite some time, even when it is not getting us to where we want to be, isn't it? It is like we get way too comfortable just plodding along on that journey - not really satisfied, but comfortable because we 'know' the course well. When we say 'yes' to Jesus, we find ourselves making some immediate course corrections, and others come along the way that we didn't even know we'd be asked to make, but we make them. The first ones may be a little easier than the latter - maybe because we are experiencing God's grace and redeeming power in a very special way at that point in our lives. When the latter course corrections have to come, we may not be as excited about them because they will be a ...

But now that you’ve found you don’t have to listen to sin tell you what to do, and have discovered the delight of listening to God telling you, what a surprise! A whole, healed, put-together life right now, with more and more of life on the way! Work hard for sin your whole life and your pension is death. But God’s gift is real life, eternal life, delivered by Jesus, our Master. (Romans 6:23) Who tells you what to do? We probably all have persons in authority within our lives that give us tasks to complete and we go off in the direction of 'doing' whatever it is we are asked to do. Bosses are probably at the top of the list - they by nature of their position are guiding the work that gets done each day. If you are a child, parents are those individuals who remind the child of the bed needing to be made, teeth requiring a little scrubbing, and toilet paper that needs replacing when they use it all up. Traffic cops expect we will observe what they tell us to do, diverting this w...

It was Ernest Hemingway who reminded us, " The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places ." What are the 'broken places' of your life? Go ahead - for a moment or two - just ponder that one and begin to call those 'broken places' by name. You have them and you likely have attached some sort of 'name' to those broken places - like divorce, death, or defeat. You defined those broken places by an event or some outcome in life. Now, look again at those broken places and describe some of the strength that has come out of that place. What name does that strength bear? It was likely easier for us to put a name to our 'broken places' than it was to put a name to the strength that was worked into us because we were broken. We remember what 'broke us', but we oftentimes don't recall all that has happened in our lives that help to mend those broken places into even stronger ones. A broken spirit is my sacrifice...