The Plumbline

Albert Pike said, "We have all the light we need, we just need to put it into practice." We might think we need more of everything, including knowledge, but the sad truth is that many of us don't even use the knowledge we have been given! What is missing is the 'practice' behind that knowledge. God's Word reminds us, "So get rid of all the filth and evil in your lives, and humbly accept the word God has planted in your hearts, for it has the power to save your souls. But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror." (James 1:21-23 NLT) We must 'humbly accept' God's word into our lives, doing what it says - putting it into practice, not just gaining knowledge about what he says. Therein is the rub - we read and read, but the words on the pages of the book just don't seem to draw us into c...

Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life. He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them. So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! (2 Corinthians 5:14-17 NLT) It is indeed good news that our 'old life' is no longer in control of our daily activities, isn't it? No longer living for ourselves, but living for Christ Jesus, the very one who gave his life for us. The one thing that happens when we live this 'exchanged life' that we often don't recognize is how it changes our view of everyone else around us. We don't see them the same because we are viewing t...