The Plumbline

It goes without saying that we will all "slip up" now and again - regardless of how committed we are to following the scriptures.  We are human, will always have a human nature while here on this earth, and we do human things based on what this nature wants.  We feel guilty almost immediately when we do them, but we didn't stop short of actually acting upon those urges whatever they were.  When we do "slip up", we want the encouragement of someone to come alongside us to help us pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and get moving again.  We don't want another person to judge us for our misdeeds - we all know too well how many people there are out there who do this without even being asked!  Learning to be the kind of individual who "helps make that person right again" is indeed something we all need to learn. Brothers and sisters, someone in your group might do something wrong. You who are following the Spirit should go to the one who is sin...

Boy, oh boy, there can be conflict within our minds and hearts sometimes, right? It is as though you could close your eyes for just a moment and see this little image of the angel on one shoulder and the devil on the other, each presenting their argument for why you should listen to their "advice" on what decision to make in the moment.  Well, it isn't that easy sometimes to be sure we are clearly able to distinguish between one voice over the other.  That clever part of us is always finding "loopholes" in the arguments of one or the other simply because we really want to do things our way anyway!   So I tell you, live the way the Spirit leads you. Then you will not do the evil things your sinful self wants. The sinful self wants what is against the Spirit, and the Spirit wants what is against the sinful self. They are always fighting against each other, so that you don’t do what you really want to do. But if you let the Spirit lead you, you are not under...

We are made  free - we didn't get there on our own.  It isn't like we somehow did a "Harry Houdini" act and came out of the chains and locks "magically" - regardless of whether they were emotional, spiritual, or physical bonds.  We needed a deliverer.  I know I didn't possess the emotional stability to bring myself out of the places of depression I've experienced on occasion in my life. I also know I didn't possess the physical stamina to withstand the bonds of the things which physically wanted to keep me back like chronic pain.  We don't act as our own "deliverer" in this life - we are "made" free from those things which hold us in bondage - we aren't "making a way toward freedom" on our own.  To attempt this is as dangerous and unreliable as thinking we could find our way out of the chains and locks while submerged head first under water like Houdini. The world wants us to believe the "illusion"...