The Plumbline

I have been asked if I was really "serious" about something on occasion - usually because I am a little bit of a joker and like to have a little bit of fun with life.  So when someone asks me if I am serious about a matter, they are really trying to figure out if I am trifling around with them.  When I am serious about a matter, you usually can tell it, though.  My focus changes from that of making light about a matter to being quite concentrated on the matter at hand producing whatever outcome we desire to see.  It is this change in focus that clues another into the "seriousness" of the matter and the desire to have my actions (and theirs) align with the desired outcome.  The same is true in our walk with Jesus - we can "trifle" around a little with it, or we can be "serious" about our focus.  Either way, our focus will be determined by the way we are treating this pursuit - if seriously, then the outcome will surely differ than if we are only ...

There are times when all we need is a little nudge in the right direction - then we are off and running at full speed.  It is the lack of that "little nudge" which can keep us cemented to our chairs, too.  We are definitely creatures who want "confirmation" of direction before we set out.  There is nothing wrong with this, but there are just times when God expects us to act in obedience, even when we don't feel a "little nudge" to do so!  Over the past couple of weeks, we have explored passages which point to us listening intently, using our common sense to help us in our decision-making, and hearing God's voice in a myriad of ways. There is no "secret" voice of God - he doesn't speak to just a select few - he speaks to all of us.  We just have to learn to recognize when it is we need to wait for his "voice" to become clear to us and when it is we can count on what we already know to be true in our lives to guide us.  Learn...

If you have ever played that little game known as "telephone", you know how convoluted the message given by the first person can become by the time it reaches the last person in the line.  The first person whispers the message into the ear of the one right next to them, then that one passes it along in similar fashion to the next, and so on.  By the end, sound alike words get all mixed up and are often replaced, such as banana become bandanna, or rogue become road.  Those tiny differences change the entire message and we usually have a hoot about the final message as it is repeated.  In essence, you might say the person at the end (and those in between) did not receive the complete message.  Really, they did, it just got mixed up because what one person "thought" they heard was not what was said.  This is why it is important for us to take the messages we hear "about" God right to the scripture ourselves to figure out if this is really something he wo...