The Plumbline

But now that you’ve found you don’t have to listen to sin tell you what to do and have discovered the delight of listening to God telling you, what a surprise! A whole, healed, put-together life right now, with more and more of life on the way ! Work hard for sin your whole life and your pension is death. But God’s gift is real life, eternal life, delivered by Jesus, our Master. (Romans 6:23) Stephen Covey was the one to remind us of the importance of listening to understand, not as so many of us do by listening with the eager intent to reply. God isn't looking for 'replies' as much as he is looking for us to make right life choices because we listened. I don't know about you, but I listen a whole lot of the time with the intent of replying, asking questions, getting answers. I don't listen as frequently with the intention of doing what I am asked to do! It is very important for us to recognize the one who is actually speaking to us. I have lived over six decades no...

Anyone who meets a testing challenge head-on and manages to stick it out is mighty fortunate. For such persons loyally in love with God, the reward is life and more life. (James 1:12) Woodrow Wilson reminded us, "The man who is swimming against the stream knows the strength of it." It is often when we are caught smack dab in the middle of the current of life's drama that we first recognize the 'forcefulness' of where we are being 'directed'. We don't realize we are being 'sucked in' until we are squarely caught up in the mess life is handing out at that moment. Once we are caught in the current of the drama, it is much harder to get free of it than it is to prepare for the 'current' ahead of time.  We all know life comes at us at speeds in excess of our perceived ability to 'keep up with them'. We feel overwhelmed at times - life is challenging on most good days - ramp up the challenges and it is easy to get caught up in the cur...