The Plumbline

“Watch out! Don’t do your good deeds publicly, to be admired by others, for you will lose the reward from your Father in heaven. When you give to someone in need, don’t do as the hypocrites do—blowing trumpets in the synagogues and streets to call attention to their acts of charity! I tell you the truth, they have received all the reward they will ever get. But when you give to someone in need, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Give your gifts in private, and your Father, who sees everything, will reward you. (Matthew 6:1-4) Have you ever noticed that you could serve and not be noticed for your service? Sometimes it is possible that those who serve the most are acknowledged the least. There is nothing wrong with this, though. In fact, we may serve well, never being 'celebrated' for our service, and almost feel that others see what we do as 'expected'. The things we do over and over again, with consistency of heart and spirit, may not always b...

Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. (Romans 12:2) Ever made a really dumb decision? I know I can list a few, perhaps even more than a few. We all make mistakes sometimes, some 'dumber' than others, with some standing out as the 'dumbest' of the 'dumb'. These probably have led to some pretty deep hurts - hurts that seem to hang around long after the decision was made and done. What do we do with the deep hurts that are part of our past mistakes? We can repent, 'turn a new leaf', and move on, or we can harbor those hurts, rehashing the guilt of those decisions over and over again.  When the hurts of the past aren't in the past, we find the rehearsal of those hurts to sometimes be worse than the original 'misstep' was in the first place. God wants to do a work within us...

We are human, but we don’t wage war as humans do. We use God’s mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments. (2 Corinthians 10:3-4) Have you ever noticed that there is a war going on in your mind almost all of the time? It is a battle between faith and fear, trust and doubt, unrest and peace. Most of life's battles are actually won or lost on this very battlefield. When we learn to use God's word as a weapon, we learn how to battle well and win! One important thing we must realize - Satan is trying to shape our lives one thought at a time - this is how we are given over to deception. What is your strongest thought today? You will actually move toward your strongest thoughts. Believe it or not, the life we have today is a reflection of the life we are thinking. It is more than 'positive vibes', though. Whatever we allow into our minds is what will eventually come out of our lives in words and deeds....