The Plumbline

Ten people who speak make more noise than ten thousand who are silent. (Napoleon Bonaparte) I must ask the question - just how much do you speak? How many times do you find it more important to get your 'two cents' in when others are raising a subject you might just know a little bit about? When you think you know more than they do, is that the time you interject your thoughts? When you believe you can add valuable information, do you find the urge to speak up? We have a whole lot of people offering opinions these days, but I reckon the silence of the wise may just confound those who are offering such opinions! The more talk, the less truth; the wise measure their words. (Proverbs 10:19 ) The wise measure their words. What exactly does that mean to you? To me, 'measuring one's words' is kind of like putting a muffler on your mouth. You 'suppress' some of the things you might like to say. It is also a little bit like using that tiny tube on the spray can of l...

We can certainly hear a lot of voices today - each representing some "cause" or "purpose" we are supposed to get our lives behind. Some are reasonable and seem to catch our attention simply because what they present seems both logical and straight-forward. Other voices are not as forth-coming in their motives, oftentimes not very logical and definitely not telling you the whole story. They simply use a technique that manipulates the crowds until they have them to the place we might call "biting on the bait". Our mailboxes are inundated with this request for "charitable contribution" one right after another; get this product now; attend this seminar to get rich quick; and get these veneers put on your teeth to change the way people perceive you. Lots of voices demanding our attention, but do we recognize its source? Jesus was most concerned with the repetitive 'voices' and 'demands' our world puts out there over and over again - vo...

I once heard that we must not allow how another sees us to define us - why - because their perception of us is very limited - they don't have the full picture. What do we make when we don't have the full picture? An opinion - good or bad - but it isn't always based on the full facts of a matter. I have an opinion as to the best tasting Italian dressing to put on your salad - but you could have a totally different one from mine because you haven't yet tasted mine. Experience my favorite dressing and you may change your mind. Were you wrong in your original opinion? No, but you just had a limited perspective or perception of what an Italian dressing should taste. At best, you can guess about my life, but the only one who truly knows the inner workings of my mind, the beat of my heart's passion, and the hope of my emotion's trust is God himself. No one’s ever seen or heard anything like this, never so much as imagined anything quite like it— what God has arranged f...