The Plumbline

My pastor aptly states, "Wisdom is not what you know, but what you show."  I cannot think of a better way to describe wisdom.  Many think wisdom comes with age - the older we are, the more wise we become because of what we have experienced.  Not always true!  Sometimes we can experience the same "bad" events over and over again, never learning anything from them!  There has been no learning - so there is nothing new to "show" from the event.  It is likely to be repeated until we learn to "show" what it is God desires to see! The wisdom of the wise keeps life on track;  the foolishness of fools lands them in the ditch.  (Proverbs 14:8 MSG) The writer of Proverbs gives us two scenarios - one of a life which seems to be on track, the other of one which leaves us stuck in the ditch.  As a teenager, I took driver's education classes, but never got my driver's license until I entered the military.  Needless to say, when I finally held the ...

There are times when I read through scripture and wonder how Jesus was so patient when accused of such things as being demon-possessed, doing miracles by the power of the devil himself, or simply being a man who could not possibly know scripture because he never sat under any of the great rabbi's of the time.  Today's passage is from one of those moments when you or I would probably have been provoked to say something more than "You're wrong about me".  We would have likely had to "prove" just how different we were from others!   Yet, Jesus answers with calmness and determination to continue to reflect the one who sent him - no "add-mixture" of personal opinion or "self-expression". “I tell you most solemnly that anyone who chooses a life of sin is trapped in a dead-end life and is, in fact, a slave. A slave is a transient, who can’t come and go at will. The Son, though, has an established position, the run of the house. So if the S...