The Plumbline

“It is a great blessing when people are forgiven for the wrongs they have done, when their sins are erased!  It is a great blessing when the Lord accepts people as if they are without sin!” Psalm 32:1-2 As if they are without sin - these words set all things right in our lives because grace makes a way for all things to be set right. What a blessing indeed - to have mind, spirit, soul and body made right by the power of grace. I have often spoken of what erasure means - the process of removing what once was so it no longer exists. If we were to do the erasure, we might leave telltale signs of the former state - images of once was hanging around to affect what we now are. The truth of the matter is that God uses a much more reliable eraser than we do! The beauty of it all is that God accepts us as if we never sinned. As if we never did...did you get that? It isn't that he knows and remembered our sins, just overlooking them because of the blood of Jesus. It is that he sees ...

In the Book of Proverbs, there is much emphasis on the type of learning which comes by listening and then following the wisdom given to us through our elders, teachers, and good leaders. Wisdom doesn't come with age...it comes because we learn from what we are taught. We all know there is a whole lot of teaching going on each day, but there is far less learning than there is teaching! Learning requires keen observation, good listening, and the willingness to apply what one is taught. Without these three elements, we fall somewhere short of wisdom. Above all, be careful what you think because your thoughts control your life.   (Proverbs 4:23 ERV) According to our writer of this proverb, wisdom comes when we actually begin our quest for wisdom by looking for it. We don't look for something unless there is a desire to make a discovery. As I travel, there are occasions when I see signs posted warning me to watch for some form of animal crossing the road. The signs actually ...

Separation is a place or point of parting having occurred or about to occur. As infants, we grew quite attached to our parent and any degree of separation gave us a sense of panic, lending to periods of fitfully crying until we were once again reunited with that parent. We somehow equated them being out of sight as being unreachable, uncaring, or unavailable to us. It sent us into periods of what some may even call "panic".  I wonder if we ever quite experience that degree of panic over our separation from God's grace - maybe that is what draws us to him in the first place and keeps us coming back when we pull away on occasion. Maybe we experience a little separation anxiety when we are 'out of sync' with him - giving us that moment when we "panic" because we see the distance which has been allowed in our relationship. Who will separate us from Christ’s love? Will we be separated by trouble, or distress, or harassment, or famine, or nakedness, or dang...