The Plumbline

In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well. So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you. If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well. If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly. (Romans 12:6-8 NLT) In his grace - we have been given - no one is left out. Too many times, I hear believers say they aren't 'gifted' with certain 'talents' or 'abilities', but they totally neglect to even ask God how he can use their unique talents or abilities. You may not be called to preach from the pulpit, but you might be able to mow a senior's lawn. You might not be great with bookkeeping, but you can watch a frazzled mom's kiddos while she gets a much-deserv...

If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. (I John 1:8-9 NLT) You might be acquainted with the story recorded for us in the book of John where Jesus is teaching a crowd of people when the Pharisee leaders bring a woman to him who was caught in adultery. They expect him to back them up in their desire to stone the woman to death. Jesus' simple statement really puts grace on display for us, "let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone..." Before too much time passed, all her accusers turned around and silently left the scene. His next words are even more telling as it comes to seeing the impact of grace, "Didn’t even one of them condemn you...neither do I. Go and sin no more.” The truth is that we have ALL sinned - we ALL need grace. We ALL need to embrace the words, "Go and sin no more....