The Plumbline

It was Oscar Wilde who reminded us, "I have the simplest tastes...I am always satisfied with the best." How about you? Are your 'tastes' simple? Are you always striving to be satisfied by pursuing the best? What is the 'best' anyway? Most will say it is the thing with the highest quality or standing - something that makes it stand out as the most desirable or advantageous for us to have or pursue. With that in mind, what is the thing you are pursuing so intensely right now? Does it measure up to be the 'highest quality' or most 'advantageous' for your life? If not, it might be time to alter your 'tastes' a bit. He will keep in perfect peace all those who trust in him, whose thoughts turn often to the Lord. Trust in the Lord always, for in the Lord Jehovah is your everlasting strength. (Isaiah 26:3-4)  Do you know what a 'taste' really is? It is the ability or willingness to relish, take a liking to, or show partiality toward so...

Just as there are many parts to our bodies, so it is with Christ’s body. We are all parts of it, and it takes every one of us to make it complete, for we each have different work to do. So we belong to each other, and each needs all the others. (Romans 12:4-5) What 'part' do you play in your varied relationships? If you are a mom, you likely fulfill roles such as chief cook & bottle washer, laundress, personal hygiene aide, and even thrift-minded shopper. If you are employed as a mechanic, you not only diagnose every squeak, plink, and plunk an automobile makes, but you are adept at figuring out how to set those things right again. We all have 'parts' to play in our daily work and home lives, but we also have a very unique 'part' to play in the Body of Christ - the church. Don't be deceived by those four walls you label as a church - the place where you 'go' on Sundays to worship for a couple hours. Complete with pews, chairs, choir loft, podium,...

I don't think of all the misery but of the beauty that still remains. (Anne Frank) After you have suffered a little while, our God, who is full of kindness through Christ, will give you his eternal glory. He personally will come and pick you up, and set you firmly in place, and make you stronger than ever. (I Peter 5:10) "Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God." (Corrie ten Boom) For those who are not familiar with Corrie, let me give you just a little background. She came from a family of Dutch watchmakers during the time of Hitler's regime. She and her family did much to protect the Jews fleeing the concentration camps and the horror that awaited them - hiding many in their attic space and providing for their daily needs. The motto of their household: "In this household, God's people are always welcome." She endured hardship upon hardship, including her arrest and detention in a political concentration camp. Yet, in all she endured...