The Plumbline

Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough. (Franklin D. Roosevelt) Your kindness will reward you, but your cruelty will destroy you. (Proverbs 11:17 NLT) While pondering all the ups and downs of life right now, grocery prices rising, fuel costs skyrocketing, and tensions building nation against nation, it might be hard to see much 'kindness' coming through at times. A nation built on kindness is one sure to be blessed by God. A people who binds together, seeing the needs of those around them, working hard to meet those needs to the best of their ability - this is what God must desire. Those with a hunger they cannot identify might just be spiritually hungry, looking to others to find what it is they are 'missing' in their lives. Wouldn't it be God's greatest joy to have them find the 'missing' part of their lives by seeing Jesus in us and then desiring that same re...

Who has a harder fight than he who is striving to overcome himself. (Thomas a Kempis) We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin . And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with him. We are sure of this because Christ was raised from the dead, and he will never die again. Death no longer has any power over him. When he died, he died once to break the power of sin. But now that he lives, he lives for the glory of God. So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus. (Romans 6:6-11 NLT) We were set free - nothing should give us greater hope that our lives are on a new trajectory than hearing those words. Especially when it doesn't seem like much has changed because we are still struggling with lifelong habits. Remember - change isn't always in...