The Plumbline

God, create a pure heart in me,   and make my spirit strong again.  Don’t push me away   or take your Holy Spirit from me.  Your help made me so happy.   Give me that joy again.  Make my spirit strong and ready to obey you.  I will teach the guilty how you want them to live,   and the sinners will come back to you. (Psalm 51:10-13 ERV) Purity of heart is not something we accomplish on our own - we definitely need God's help with this one! In fact, it is impossible for the "impure" to ever reproduce "pure". The strength of spirit it took to compromise, or downright follow a path of impurity in the first place is what should make us realize we don't "find purity" on our own. We need (and we want) God to make our spirit strong again - but in the right direction! It is one thing to be strong - it is another thing to exhibit the strength that is initiated and sustained by God himself. I can be a very strong-willed individual, but does that strengt...

So imitate God.  Follow Him  like adored children,    and live in love as the Anointed One loved you—so much that He gave Himself as a fragrant sacrifice, pleasing God.  (Ephesians 5:1-2 VOICE) Have you ever observed a small child imitating his or her parent?  The parent crosses their legs and the child does the same.  The parent takes their cup of juice in a coffee mug and the child wants his the same way.  The father is pounding nails with a hammer and the little boy wants a scrap piece of wood, a handful of nails, and a hammer to do the same.  For some reason, children just naturally emulate the actions of their parents.  Notice that I used the word "emulate" there - they don't just imitate - they want to do it as well, not just "close enough".  I don't think anything is much different for a child of God - we want to live this life of grace and love - not just "okay", but with excellence and pretty closely emulating what we hav...

Have you ever wondered why it is that some people just get "found out" when they do something wrong and others seem to be very clever at concealing their mistakes, often avoiding any type of discovery?  I think we all have at one time or another simply because we wonder how we cannot get away with the same stuff!  We may not come out and admit it, but we definitely are thinking it!  Get caught holding a smoking gun and it is hard to deny you fired the shot.  When it all comes to said and done, all sin is sin and will eventually be "uncovered" - the timing may be different for some, but it all comes out in the wash.   The sins of some people are blatant and march them right into court. The sins of others don’t show up until much later. The same with good deeds. Some you see right off, but none are hidden forever.  (I Timothy 5:24-25 MSG) We hear the argument all the time about individuals thinking they are not "evil" or "sinners" - as ...

None of us relishes the idea of being disciplined, do we?  In fact, we'd probably rather avoid it at all cost, especially when we are feeling a little guilt load because of what we have done which really deserves the discipline. When it is hardest is when we don't feel we need the discipline - those are the times we probably resist it the most.  It is during these moments that we begin to feel sorry for ourselves - thinking we don't deserve what we are experiencing - all the while forgetting that discipline is not judgment. Discipline is training which is aimed at improving us - not judging us.  Too many of us equate discipline with judgment - like when we stole cookies from the cookie jar, got caught, and then ended up paying the price by being restricted from watching TV or the like.  We got caught - a price had to be paid for our disobedience - and we get to feeling sorry for ourselves, not because we disobeyed, but more likely because we got caught!  Maybe ...

Some of us have a tendency to deal too much in the "past tense" of our lives. There is this intense focus on the "what ifs" and the "should haves" instead of the stuff which makes up our current picture.  Maybe it is because our minds have this way of capturing those moments in living memory - "scrapbooking" the sadness of our past and continually dragging it out to dredge up these old memories in our present.  There is one part of "past tense" we don't realize - what has been done doesn't need to be done again!  Perhaps this is why God thought it so important for us to recognize the futility of continually living in sin when we have ALREADY died to it! Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace?     Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it?     Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him ...

So, what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose? If God didn't hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn't gladly and freely do for us? (Romans 8:31-32 The Message) In other translations, this passage begins with the words, "If God be for us, who then can be against us..."  Well, I think our worst enemy is not some demonic agent of hell, but US!  It is amazing to me to see the things we believe about ourselves that keep us limited in our lives.  The passage begins with a very telling question:  "What do YOU think?"  The answer to this question goes a long way in us walking INTO growth as we should and not AWAY FROM it! The truth we often fail to embrace is that God did not hesitate to embrace us - in our sin , aware fully of our fickleness of heart, and knowing full well that every promise we'd make him would al...

16-18 "This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn't go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person's failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him." (John 3:16-18) This past week someone asked me the question that seems to come up at one time or another whenever groups get together in an attempt to understand their faith just a little bit better.  That question was:  Is the "once saved, always saved" term biblical?  Tough question and I know parties that will weigh-in on both sides of this equation, bu...