The Plumbline

We started out bad, being born with evil natures, and were under God’s anger just like everyone else.    But God is so rich in mercy; he loved us so much  that even though we were spiritually dead and doomed by our sins, he gave us back our lives again when he raised Christ from the dead—only by his undeserved favor have we ever been saved— and lifted us up from the grave into glory along with Christ, where we sit with him in the heavenly realms—all because of what Christ Jesus did.    And now God can always point to us as examples of how very, very rich his kindness is, as shown in all he has done for us through Jesus Christ. (Ephesians 2:3-7 TLB) Yesterday, we began a study in this passage. If we want to deal with the residue we have in life, we need to recognize WE started out bad, but WE don't have to finish the way we started! The truth of the matter is that none of us is truly all that different from the other - we all have a sin nature and we all ...

3  We started out bad, being born with evil natures, and were under God’s anger just like everyone else.  4  But God is so rich in mercy; he loved us so much  5  that even though we were spiritually dead and doomed by our sins, he gave us back our lives again [ a ]  when he raised Christ from the dead—only by his undeserved favor have we ever been saved—   6  and lifted us up from the grave into glory along with Christ, where we sit with him in the heavenly realms—all because of what Christ Jesus did.  7  And now God can always point to us as examples of how very, very rich his kindness is, as shown in all he has done for us through Jesus Christ. (Ephesians 2:3-7 TLB) Have you ever tried to take something that went "bad" and make it good again? I have scorched food in the pan - making somewhat of a "burnt offering" of the dish - and tried to scrape out the parts that were "salvageable" only to discover they tasted pretty bad. I have a...

Before anything else existed, there was Christ, with God. He has always been alive and is himself God. And Christ became a human being and lived here on earth among us and was full of loving forgiveness and truth. And some of us have seen his glory—the glory of the only Son of the heavenly Father! ( John 1:1-2, 14   TLB ) Before is a powerful word. Before today there was yesterday - now only a memory and unable to be altered in anyway. Before light there was darkness - now the shadows of dark are no longer and the brilliance of light makes all once hidden plain to see. Before means there was something and now there is something different. One thing was 'before' everything else, but has never changed or ceased to exist - Christ! The 'before' might not have had human form, but the 'after' does - yet he never stopped being divine! In our everyday lives, there are lots and lots of "before" moments. The "after" moments we hope will all be ...