The Plumbline

There are very few of us who set out in the morning with the express purpose of making wrong choices, acting poorly, or just plain being "out of sync" with Jesus.  In fact, most of us would probably recount how we attempt to make a "fresh start" everyday - regardless of how many times we have messed up before.  When we "belong to Christ", there is something of a desire we don't fully understand, but it lives deep within us, purposing within us to help us "do right".  This is simply because Christ indwells us and is empowering us to make better choices.  As I have often referenced before, we still have this thing called "free will" which often give us a little more "interference" in our lives when it comes to making choices, though.  This free will of ours presents one way of seeing things, while the Spirit of God within sets out a totally different view.  This war within is what gives us most of our angst in life, isn...

Glad:  Feeling pleasure, delighted, and full of joy.  Most of us cannot say we go through the day with a sense of gladness 100% of the time.  In fact, if we were honest with ourselves and others, we'd admit to the fact there a whole lot of things and people in this world that don't delight us, don't produce much pleasure for us, and certainly don't leave us with much of a sense of joy.  When you factor in these things or people, it seems almost impossible to take it seriously when someone says we are to "always" be glad!  Always is a pretty long time, is it not?  Always is suggestive of some kind of permanent condition.  In a sense, it is more than a period in time - it is a consistent way of thinking which affects our "view" of all we face in life.  Ummmm....how's it going for you?  Have you arrived at the "always" point in your life yet?  If you are like the rest of us, you'd probably have to admit to some sense of disappointment...