The Plumbline

For who do you know that really knows you, knows your heart? And even if they did, is there anything they would discover in you that you could take credit for? Isn’t everything you have and everything you are sheer gifts from God? So what’s the point of all this comparing and competing? You already have all you need. You already have more access to God than you can handle. (I Corinthians 4:7-8 MSG) I have various levels of relationships, each saying they 'know' me, but do they really 'know' me fully? As close as some friendships may be, even the relationship I have with my own children, is it possible for us to really know our hearts fully? God knows our heart better than any human ever will - all we ever will need comes from God because he knows us better than anyone else! The heart is a hard thing to really get to know, isn't it? It is influenced by every emotion known to mankind and can change at the drop of the hat. No wonder our human relationships have a hard...

Don’t imagine us leaders to be something we aren’t. We are servants of Christ, not his masters. We are guides into God’s divine secrets, not security guards posted to protect them. The requirements for a good guide are reliability and accurate knowledge. (I Corinthians 4:1-2 MSG) We have placed our leaders on 'pedestals' of sorts, not realizing that when we elevate them to such a position of power or authority over our lives, making them the 'absolute' we turn to, we are not always keeping God as our 'absolute'. There is but ONE absolute - God. Whenever we elevate a man or woman into that position that God should hold, we are in danger of focusing more on their charisma than on the Spirit of God that dwells within them. God wants us to make wise decisions as to who we allow to be in positions of authority in our churches, being sure they are consistently being the type of leaders we can 'look up to', but not regarding them with more authority than God h...