The Plumbline

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. (Hebrews 12:1-2 NLT) If you are reading this passage for the hundredth time, it is still possible God will bring to light something that 'hits home' with you, isn't it? Therefore - because of the finished work of the Cross. Since we are surrounded - there are both good examples of our faith and those we can learn from because they did stuff we do. Let us strip off every weight - there are more things that slow us down in our faith journey than there are things that seem to be encouraging us to move forward. It takes a conscious effort to see the things that encourage us to move on and then neglect to pay attention to those things that wa...

The crucible tests silver, and the furnace tests gold, but the one who tests hearts is Adonai. (Proverbs 17:3 CJB) Adonai - Lord or Master - the one with ultimate authority. He is the one who tries the heart, revealing the true intent of a man's character. We may think we know our heart well, but in actuality, God knows it much better than we do ourselves. That is why we trust him to not only have our heart, but to reveal what is in there that needs to be built up or changed entirely. The crucible of affliction is nothing we like to endure, but what gets revealed in times of affliction might just give us a little bit of revelation as to who we are, what we believe, who we trust in, and what motivates us from within. It could be we discover some truths about ourselves that we didn't even know were present in our lives - like lust, prideful thoughts, or malicious plans. When God reveals, he also sets about to 'root out' those things that only the fire of his Spirit can r...