The Plumbline

  To learn, you must love discipline;  it is stupid to hate correction. (Proverbs 12:1) As a student in school, we received grades or 'marks'. Those papers were returned with positive 'scores' or some negative ones depending on how the teacher noted your work. The goal of a positive grade was to give credit where credit was due. The goal of any negative grade was always to encourage the student to do better the next time. In other words, to correct what was done wrong, learning from it as you did. Those grades were a bit of 'discipline' designed to get us 'motivated' to do better. When God corrects us, he isn't trying to point out what we did wrong. He is attempting to get us to see we can do better if we embrace what he is trying to teach us. The teacher in the classroom doesn't want the student to fail. The teacher wants the student to learn to love the lesson and get something out of it they can use throughout their life's journey. Why wou...

  We can make our own plans,   but the  Lord  gives the right answer. (Proverbs 16:1) Woody Allen once quipped, "If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans." We may think we have things figured out, but do we really? God's ways are often somewhere beyond our plans and schemes. We might be on the right course, but we may not know all that we shall encounter while on that course. We need God's wisdom in order to face the things we never 'planned for' along the way.  At best, our thoughts can be ordered and in line with God's plans. At the worst, they can get us all muddled up and in a situation we don't have the means to get ourselves out of. We might think one thing, but find God takes us in an entirely different direction. John F. Kennedy said, "Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction." We need to understand God's purpose and we need to choose his direction. Gather your thought but don't be too q...