The Plumbline

Trust  in the  Lord  with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take. (Proverbs 3:5-6 NLT) How is it that weather can go from one extreme to the other? One day it can be in the 100’s in the Phoenix area and the next it can be in the seventies! You can go from huge billowing dust storms to the calm of clear springtime nights. Almost as quickly as the storms start, they are over…leaving behind a plethora of downed branches, gathering leaves, and grit on every surface as far as the eye can see! My poor plants are confused – they don’t know whether to bud or wilt! There can be equally as confusing times in our spiritual, emotional, and/or relational lives that leave us wondering. When spiritual storms confront us, we might discover either how solidly we are secured to Jesus, riding it out quite well, or how loosely we have become connected to him that we just get tossed to and fro lik...

Always be joyful. Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus. ( 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18   NLT ) Okay, how many of us actually "do" what this scripture tells us? I could honestly say that I am joyful some of the time, but when hard circumstances come into my life, my first inclination is not joyfulness! As far as this issue of praying without ceasing, I don't think too many of us have mastered that one either! Thankfulness in times of difficulty --- maybe we do this one on occasion, but our first reaction is usually one of, "Not again!" or perhaps "Really!", or am I just alone in that one? God's will is that we learn something most of us miss when we read through this passage - to trust him, regardless of the events or happenings in life - not because he is a magic ticket "out of" those circumstances, but because he is the stabilizing force "through" them. ...

So let us stop going over the basic teachings about Christ again and again. Let us go on instead and become mature in our understanding. Surely we don’t need to start again with the fundamental importance of repenting from evil deeds and placing our faith in God. Hebrews 6:1 NLT Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end . (Seneca) Stop for a moment to think about the last time you chose to begin something new. Did you simply add to the stuff you had already been doing or did you actually find your new beginning required you to put something else away? In a physical sense, I cannot mow and weed eat at the same time. I cannot stir the stew and chop the vegetables at the same time...one leads to the other, but both aren't done at the same time. Why do we then think we can just go on and on in the same learning we have been taught without ever beginning anew to explore what God has for us? Yes, we maintain a great foundation of fundamental truth, but t...