The Plumbline

It's the word of faith that welcomes God to go to work and set things right for us. This is the core of our preaching. Say the welcoming word to God—"Jesus is my Master"—embracing, body and soul, God's work of doing in us what he did in raising Jesus from the dead. That's it. You're not "doing" anything; you're simply calling out to God, trusting him to do it for you. That's salvation. With your whole being you embrace God setting things right, and then you say it, right out loud: "God has set everything right between him and me! (Romans 10:9-10 The Message) Well, if you've followed my blog for any time now, you know I really get into understanding what is in a word.  So, in true form, here I go again!  The word today is "welcome".  What does it really mean?  Guess, what?  I found out some pretty interesting stuff! A word we can use as interjection when one's arrival gives one PLEASURE.  This is like saying, "We...

10-11 Take the old prophets as your mentors. They put up with anything, went through everything, and never once quit, all the time honoring God. What a gift life is to those who stay the course! You've heard, of course, of Job's staying power, and you know how God brought it all together for him at the end. That's because God cares, cares right down to the last detail. (James 5:10-11 The Message) The very last sentence of this passage is my focus this morning.  Yet, to understand the importance of a passage, one must understand the context of that passage - so I give you the rest as a gift of "context".  James is concluding the letter to the churches.  He writes about some very practical "rules" of living that will keep us in solid relationship with Christ, build meaningful relationships with each other, and help us to exemplify Christ in all our dealings.  Now, in concluding, he reminds us of the importance of having solid examples - mentors we can lo...

13-15 My purpose in writing is simply this: that you who believe in God's Son will know beyond the shadow of a doubt that you have eternal life, the reality and not the illusion. And how bold and free we then become in his presence, freely asking according to his will, sure that he's listening. And if we're confident that he's listening, we know that what we've asked for is as good as ours. (I John 5:13-15 The Message) If every chapter of our lives was opened with the words, "My purpose in writing this chapter in your lives is...", we'd feel a whole lot better about what is going on at the moment!  The truth is, we don't know the end from the beginning, so we enter each new chapter of our lives with just a little bit of fear, a tiny bit of doubt, and/or an overwhelming amount of both!  Here in our passage, the writer does us the favor of laying it out plainly - I am writing this truth to you because it has the power to set you straight in your o...