The Plumbline

  34 Jesus said to her, "Daughter, you took a risk of faith, and now you're healed and whole. Live well, live blessed! Be healed of your plague." (Mark 5:34) Jesus was passing through town one day on his way to accomplish a totally different thing when someone touches him and his healing power is released.  For those of you familiar with the story, you recognize this individual as the woman with an issue of blood (hemorrhage) for nearly twelve years.  I imagine she had sought every healer in the region (and perhaps beyond) in hopes of finding the cure for her condition.  She has obviously found no relief, no remedy, in these twelve years of dealing with this life-debilitating hemorrhagic condition.   For those of you who don't know the impact of such a disease process, let me lay out a picture of what this woman was dealing with.  She would be severely anemic - probably constantly bordering on being in a state of health that would have prevented her from ...

1  We no more give honors to fools than pray for snow in summer or rain during harvest.  (Proverbs 26:1) This chapter is full of advice about living around "fools", dealing with their "foolish behavior", or the unceasingly ill-effects of the "attitude of fools".  I thought it might be good to take a look at both the advice for dealing with a fool and their behavior, as well as considering the traits outlined within this chapter to see how many might actually be used to describe us once in a while.  These are by no means an "all-inclusive" list of the character traits of a fool, but they sure give us some insight! Don't respond to the stupidity of a fool; you'll only look foolish yourself. (vs. 4) - the advice to "not respond" to a fool is simply based on the idea that most of their argument is really not based on fact.  The fool argues (presents his/her point) from a position of having a limited understanding of a circumstance....

14-15 "The farmer plants the Word. Some people are like the seed that falls on the hardened soil of the road. No sooner do they hear the Word than Satan snatches away what has been planted in them.   16-17 "And some are like the seed that lands in the gravel. When they first hear the Word, they respond with great enthusiasm. But there is such shallow soil of character that when the emotions wear off and some difficulty arrives, there is nothing to show for it.   18-19 "The seed cast in the weeds represents the ones who hear the kingdom news but are overwhelmed with worries about all the things they have to do and all the things they want to get. The stress strangles what they heard, and nothing comes of it.   20 "But the seed planted in the good earth represents those who hear the Word, embrace it, and produce a harvest beyond their wildest dreams." (Mark 4:14-20) Mom asked me to get some planting soil the other day so that we could freshen up a large housepl...