The Plumbline

No doubts - wouldn't this be a good way to live our lives?  To be in a place where every decision we make is perfectly certain, not tainted with worries or anxiety.  Is this even possible?  I don't know about you, but the closer I walk to Jesus, the more certain I am of my decisions and the less anxious I am to ask for the things I might need more than a little help with.  In fact, I find the things I desire to do and the things I desire for others in my life are much closer to the way God wants to do things the closer I am walking to him.  The further away I get from him, the more uncertainties enter into the picture.  Therefore, I can assume from this that getting right up close and personal with Jesus is the very best means of avoiding some of the foolish things I may decide on my own! We can come to God with no doubts. This means that when we ask God for things (and those things agree with what God wants for us), God cares about what we say. He li...

I have not been to Buckingham Palace, but have seen those pictures of the finely dressed guards in the tall black hats, bright red uniforms, and standing at rigid attention.  It is said it is almost impossible to distract them or to get them to crack a smile, laugh, or pay attention to something you are doing right in front of them.  They stand at their post, guarding the Queen, or whoever is in residence.  They have a duty to perform, and it is said they perform it with the utmost of professionalism and dedication.  Rain or shine, they stand their post. I kind of liken this tenacity of commitment to the "post" of standing guard to what we can experience when the peace of God stands guard over our thoughts and feelings.  Rain or shine, good moments or the tough ones, his Spirit appoints "Peace" to stand guard.  With that kind of guard over our thoughts and feelings, we can stand assured that whatever we have need of in our lives, it will be provided - we n...

None of us is exactly what God wants us to be, are we?  We all struggle with just a little bit of the same things - we may just call them different names. Regardless of what we call the things which keep us from being entirely what God wants us to be, we haven't reached our goal.  What is that "goal"?  Many times we go through life without ever asking that question - where am I headed, why is it important for me to get there, and what will it take for me to realize the goal?  For a long time, I saved money, but had no idea how to invest it, or how much I'd actually need to save in order to reach some goals, such as paying off the house mortgage or being able to retire from a full-time job.  It took me a while to realize without a goal, I'd just continue to be half-hearted in my saving.  It took a plan.  God has plans for our lives and he is quite willing to share those plans with us - to know where we are headed, why it is important for us to get ther...