The Plumbline

Who may worship in your sanctuary, Lord? Who may enter your presence on your holy hill? Those who lead blameless lives and do what is right, speaking the truth from sincere hearts. (Psalm 15:1-2) Who may worship in the presence of a holy God? Those who lead blameless lives - who do right and speak the truth they have been given by their loving heavenly Father. The first time I read this passage, I thought there was absolutely no hope for me because I was a sinner, not living blamelessly and not speaking God's truth, much less my own truth! Yet, as I read it time and time again, I found God reminding me of his grace, pointing me toward his finished work on the cross, and assuring my doubting heart that there is hope for the one who gives God access to their heart. Blameless lives are more than just living 'above suspicion'. I made some pretty questionable choices in my younger life, no one really pointing the finger at me, but I was not blameless - I was just 'above susp

Now, who will want to harm you if you are eager to do good? But even if you suffer for doing what is right, God will reward you for it. So don’t worry or be afraid of their threats. Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if someone asks about your hope as a believer, always be ready to explain it. But do this in a gentle and respectful way. Keep your conscience clear. Then if people speak against you, they will be ashamed when they see what a good life you live because you belong to Christ. Remember, it is better to suffer for doing good, if that is what God wants, than to suffer for doing wrong! (I Peter 3:13-17) Have you ever done the 'right thing' only to have others criticize your efforts, or worse yet, not even notice that you did it? We can 'do right' and have all the 'wrong' motives for doing it. We can 'do right' with the 'right motives' and still be misunderstood by others, or not have our efforts acknowledged or appr

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

Life Hack #16: Oh listen, dear child—become wise; point your life in the right direction. Don’t drink too much wine and get drunk; don’t eat too much food and get fat. Drunks and gluttons will end up on skid row, in a stupor and dressed in rags. (Proverbs 23:19-21) It might seem a little restrictive, but if you look at the reasoning behind each of these "hacks", there seems to be this theme of "safety", "well-being", and "overall protection". Is this a hard and fast rule to avoid the consumption of alcohol and rich foods? If we examine this in the context of the principles being taught,  we find this is a principle to guide us into choices which are "moderated" by wisdom and common sense in our lives. It isn't a debate over the merits or demerits of consuming alcohol as much as it is a call for us to make all decisions about these life choices with wisdom, guided by the Holy Spirit, and within the boundaries of moderation. The app

Getting wisdom is the wisest thing you can do! And whatever else you do, develop good judgment. (Proverbs 4:7) "Choose your friends with caution; plan your future with purpose and frame your life with faith." (Thomas S. Monson) No truer words have been spoken - all these choices matter so greatly, don't they? Wisdom eludes many of our decisions throughout our lifetime, leaving us a bit more disappointed in the outcome than we'd have hoped. Choose wisely and the outcome brings us cheer. Make an unwise choice in friendships, or our future plans, and the end result will surely leave us wanting. Choose to put God first in our lives and the choices we make in the other two area are sure to be better than if we'd made them on our own! How do we consistently make wise choices? The answer is really quite simple - we choose Christ first above all else. Why does this ensure consistently wise choices? Christ IS wisdom - he embodies all wisdom, so choosing him means we actual

It is election year here in the United States and the campaign 'flinging' has already begun. The field of candidates has begun to shrink before our eyes as one after another throw in the towel and call it quits. As with any other election year, there will be a lot of 'story-telling' about how this candidate will out-perform the other, until we are all down to the wire and must choose one over the other. In the end, we can pray God will intervene and place the best candidate before us, but sometimes the 'people' demand what is not always the 'best' for them. It was Joe Biden who reminded us, " Our future cannot depend on the government alone. The ultimate solutions lie in the attitudes and the actions of the American people. " If you recall a time in the history of the nation of Israel, there was this great outcry to have a king - just like the other nations around them. They wanted a 'royal' upon the throne - a man to govern their kingd

"He is wise beyond his years" - when we say this, we are pointing to the fact the person is making choices "smarter" than they usually would be for their age or station in life. In common thinking, wisdom is something that comes with age. As an individual ages chronologically, the opportunity for multiple experiences have presented the added benefit of learning new things. We get exposed to more, so therefore it stands to reason we will get to learn new things as we grow up a little. I think we can challenge the belief that aging equates to the development of wisdom, though. I have known many an individual who has "aged" chronologically without really "learning" from their life experiences! They just keep repeating them over and over again, not really showing any signs of having learned anything along the way. Oh, how I love all you've revealed; I reverently ponder it all the day long. Your commands give me an edge on my enemies; they never