The Plumbline

How many of us long for true peace and just don't find it in anything we have experimented with in life? I think we all go through places in life that we hope will bring us some much needed peace - that deep rest for our souls and spirits. When we really stop to look at what gives us true peace, we might be surprised to realize it isn't the 'place', but who is in that place with us. It isn't the events, but the one who walks with us through the events. It isn't even the 'strong faith' we exhibit in the midst of the moment, but the fact that we are given the very faith by which we stand strong in the midst of the battle. When it is our self-made, let's see how much we can 'muster up' kind of peace, it will fade quickly. The moment might feel good, but the long-term effect of that 'mustered up' kind of peace won't last the long haul. It is only the peace that comes through experiencing Christ and all he brings into our lives that w

Jesus leads us into a place of  radical  grace where we are able to celebrate the hope of experiencing God’s glory.    And that’s not all. We also celebrate in seasons of suffering because we know that when we suffer we develop endurance,  which shapes our characters. When our characters are refined, we learn what it means to hope  and anticipate God’s goodness .   And hope will never fail to satisfy our deepest need because the Holy Spirit that was given to us has flooded our hearts with God’s love. (Romans 5:2-5 VOICE) Radical grace - what a visual image comes to mind when I think of grace this way.  Grace is unmerited - it is undeserved and unearned.  It is a gift, given freely, not under some sense of compulsion.  Radical grace is that which is totally opposite of what the present condition is that exists within someone's life. In other words, when God extends radical grace, he is saying you and I are getting something so totally and completely opposite of what it is we shoul

Radical - of or going to the root or origin of something.  If you haven't really thought about what "radical change" is, you might be a little surprised to find out it is change which goes after the "root" or "origin" of something in order to so totally change what has become "traditional".  If a business wants to "re-invent" themselves because they have been losing customers to some other big name chain with a newer look, what do they do?  They go through some "radical change" to make us believe this is the store we want to be shopping at instead of the other guy's.  J.C. Penney did just that - they changed up the lines they carried, took out a whole bunch of their stock, remodeled the interiors of the stores to be more "hip", and then they lost business!  Most of us who shopped at Penney's did so for a reason - the consistency of finding the lines we liked, which fit us well, at a reasonable price rang

3-4 You didn't think, did you, that just by pointing your finger at others you would distract God from seeing all your misdoings and from coming down on you hard? Or did you think that because he's such a nice God, he'd let you off the hook? Better think this one through from the beginning. God is kind, but he's not soft. In kindness he takes us firmly by the hand and leads us into a radical life-change. (Romans 2:3-4) An amazing truth about God is how immensely patient he is with his children.  He gives us space - to make our own choices.  He gives us time - to come to our own conclusions.  He gives us these things because he knows that in order to have our heart, he must have it yielded willingly.  God is infinitely patient in his waiting for us to turn from our sin - but he will not wait forever.  Sometimes, he gives us gentle nudges to cause us to see our sin.  When he does, remember that it is out of his immense love for us that he has done so. We often want to t