The Plumbline

You have handled Your servant well, O Eternal One, as You promised. Help me to learn good judgment and knowledge because I believe Your commandments. Before I had trouble, I strayed from the true path, the path of righteousness, but now I live according to Your word. You are truly good, and Your acts are too; teach me what You require. (Psalm 119:65-68 VOICE) The learning of good judgment and knowledge are not always that easy.  We all learn at different paces and with different "learning styles".  I wonder how God keeps all that straight about us - I had a hard enough time figuring out my own two kids!  Yet, God does know our "style" and how it is we learn best.  He custom designs life lessons for us all the time, preparing us with each one we face for the next thing he is about to do in our lives.  This might be the hardest lesson to learn - the stuff we are going through right now may not be what he is really teaching us - it is just a doorway to the ne...

When  life is  dark, a light will shine for those who live rightly— those who are merciful, compassionate, and strive for justice .  (Psalm 112:4 VOICE) I know we all go through "dark" times in our lives - things just closing in around us until we feel as though all of life is being sucked from within and we have less than zero to actually give at any given moment.  We can all take comfort in knowing when darkness is closing in around us, God's light will shine, illuminating what we cannot see, differentiate what cannot be made out, and expose the "flimsiness" of those walls of darkness.  As darkness invades, look for the source of light which cannot be extinguished - a light cultivated in times past and there now when we need it most. Our passage assures us that those who "live rightly" will experience this light. What does it mean to "live rightly"?  It is a question many have sought to answer, but seldom realizing just how much the def...