The Plumbline

Debt carries a different meaning for some of us. There are those who run it up without any thought as to how it will be repaid, or even it it will ever be repaid. There is just no concern other than having whatever it is they wanted at that moment. Have you ever run up a debt on a credit card? It may not have been all that much in terms of financial debt, but when you ran up the debt, how did it make you feel? It is likely the "emotion" you attached to the spending frenzy had now become one of being "obligated" to someone. You now were indebted to another who extended you the credit. Some of us have a tendency to view "love" in a way that leaves us feeling "indebted" to another - always trying to "pay back" the debt we "owe". Don't run up debts, except for the huge debt of love you owe each other. When you love others, you complete what the law has been after all along. The law code—don't sleep with another pers...

Back some time ago, Michael W. Smith put out a song simply entitled, "Breathe". It starts with three simple lines: "This is the air I breathe. This is the air I breathe. Your holy presence living in me." Stop to think on that a little and you will soon realize every breath you take is God's presence flowing into your life. His presence permeates us much as breath enters our lungs and is soon taken into the body to be used up time and time again. Have you ever thought of God as "giving you breathing room"? I never really thought of it this way, but our devotional times are kind of "breathing room" - times to take in his presence as we would breath. The time we take to settle ourselves long enough to reflect on God's word and then to begin to allow it to impact us is really readying us by providing us with some "breathing room" from the hub-bub of everyday life. You've always given me breathing room, a place to get away fro...