The Divine plumb line

The Divine plumb line

We are the temple of the Holy Spirit, both corporately as a church and also as individuals. If we were to consider the whole church, each person is a stone or brick in the temple of God. If we consider an individual then each day in a person’s life or each new decision in a person’s life is like a brick that goes towards building the temple of God.

Hopefully, none of us came into the church empty handed. We should have carried our Bibles’ with us. God who is here hasn’t come empty handed either. What has he brought along?

Amos 7:7, 8

That’s right. God has brought along a plumb line to see if the walls that signify the church or the walls that signify our lives are built right and straight.

How do you use a plumb line? The newest stone that is placed is referred for correctness against an underlying stone or layer of stones. If the stone that is used as reference isn’t proper (either jutting out or pushed in) then the newest stone would also be placed wrong and eventually, the whole wall would be tilted in the wrong direction.

Something similar is happening in the church and in many of our lives today. The reference point that we are using is wrong and hence our life and the church is slanted in the wrong direction.

We ought to build our lives based on God’s plumb and with Jesus as the reference point.


Worth

How much are we worth? What determines a person’s worth?
How does the world determine a person’s worth?
• Appearance, family background, talents
• Education, career, possessions
• Potential to achieve things in the world

Now the way the world evaluates a person’s worth is subjective and relative. Water is worth almost nothing in normal conditions, but to a person dying of thirst, it’s worth everything. South Indian actor Kamal Hassan is usually seen as light skinned in India. When he traveled to the United States, a black American told him, “Oh dark skinned people like you and I are discriminated by the whites here in this country.”


Can we go about building our lives based on the wrong reference that this world supplies us with? Not if you want your life to be a blessed and joyful.

So then, what are we really worth?
James 3:9
It makes no sense to praise God at one time and then curse man who is made in God’s image at another time with the same tongue. So do you see? Every human’s worth comes from the fact that he/she is made in the image of God.

Mark 8:36,37
What would you pay a kidnapper as ransom to get back your child?
I would pay whatever it takes. I was once kidnapped by the enemy and put in the prison of sin. Satan wouldn’t release me until the ransom was paid. So my Father gave away everything, by giving away Jesus to die on the cross. Jesus shed every last drop of his blood to pay the ransom to get me out into freedom.

That’s how much I’m worth. I’m priceless in the eyes of my Father.


Acceptance

Why do people get into the wrong company? People hang around with the company which values them highly. It could be for the wrong reasons. But, what matters most to an individual is acceptance and acknowledgement of his/her worth.

People would do anything for acceptance. They would do anything to please somebody or anything to prove something to somebody as long as that earns them acceptance.

Instead, if a person were to be told how they could be accepted by God, then they could spend their whole lives in the company of Jesus, who values them most highly and to who they are worth everything.

Well then, the question is, what should a person do to be accepted by God?
The answer is: NOTHING. They just need to believe that they are already unconditionally accepted by God. They can do nothing to earn his acceptance.

Even obedience to God is a consequence of knowing that we are accepted, not a prerequisite. In other words, we don’t obey God to get his acceptance; instead we obey Him because He has already, freely accepted us. Romans 5:8

Doing nothing but simply believing is called Faith in Christian circles and God’s unconditional acceptance is called Grace.

A person who knows the Truth of what he/she is really worth and how they have come to be accepted, spend all their lives, pleasing God and living in His company.




What about others?
Well the Truth that we have just seen is true for every person. In other words, the person sitting next to you or even the beggar on the street or even Osama bin Laden is worth everything to the Father who has created them in His own image, who has paid the ultimate ransom to get them back for himself and has freely forgiven and accepted them.

So we ought to value, accept and forgive others unconditionally. Matt 6:15,16


Action

When all these things that constitute God’s plumb line are in place, we come to the point of action. Our faith is not faith if it doesn’t translate into action.

What stops people from fulfilling the purposes that God has for them? Why does their vision and not become reality. Why do they desire to do great things, but do nothing?

They look at what they are capable of doing, the history of what somebody else like them has been able to achieve, or at the great people who don’t think it can be done and they get discouraged. They conclude: this is impossible.

But what does God think. Luke 1:37. Now you may say, well I know nothing is impossible with God. After all He made everything from virtually nothing.

Well God’s truth is even clearer in Phil 4:13. We can do all things through God who gives us strength.

Like the adidas slogan: “Impossible is nothing”


May we construct our lives with Jesus as reference according to God’s plumb line

May we live by His grace, through His power and for His glory. Amen