The Plumbline

It wasn’t so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin. You let the world, which doesn’t know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief and then exhaled disobedience. We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat. (Ephesians 2:1-2 MSG) Whatever came of our 'old man'? No, not your father, your old nature - the one that used to find it so easy to run toward sin. It wasn't hard for us to compromise and choose sin because we allowed the world and all its enticements to tell us how to live our lives. The loudest voice received our attention - the 'coolest' or 'newest' fad took us in. We chose to listen to the advice of worldly counselors instead of the voice of God. No wonder we fell so easily into the traps the enemy of our souls set to ensnare us! What we fill our minds with eventually becomes the very things that lead to a...

For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are. But now God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law, as was promised in the writings of Moses and the prophets long ago. We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are. (Romans 3:20-24 NLT) As believers in Christ, we must forsake the desire to 'make ourselves right' by any other means than faith in the finished work of Jesus at the cross. We are always going to think we could just 'be a little better' because that is human nature. We can never be 'more better' than we are in Christ Jesus! We are our 'best' in him - nothing we do or say can change us quite in the same way as trusting in him can do within us. We are made right with Christ Jesus - that means we might not see all the change he has done in us, but...