The Plumb line
Amos speaks about the divine Plumbline. God as a building inspector
set a plumb line in the midst of Israel. To test the straightness of a wall,
the builder used a plumb line, a cord with a heavy weight at the end. Sadly
Israel failed God’s test of straightness or righteousness, which resulted in
impending judgment being inevitable.
Our reference point must be God and His Word. Everything we do must
be in alignment with His word; our beliefs and views must be biblical. When we walk away from God and His Plumb line
and standards, we walk in our own ways and worldly beliefs. When we move away
from God’s presence and stop spending time with Him we experience worry, hate, jealousy,
anger etc but when we stay connected to God there is peace. When you put your trust in Him, everything
shall fall into place. God wants our foundation to be based on Him. 1 Peter 2:6
says “Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, chosen and precious: He who
believes in him will not be disappointed”. Our foundation and dependency must
be built on Christ the rock, not on the things of this world (Matthew 7:24-29) wants
Christ to be the cornerstone.
Study the Word, Day & Night!
It’s so important that we keep pursing God by meditating on the word
of God day and night, by doing this we shall prosper and be find success
(Joshua 1:8). Seek the Lord; problem or no problem, go to God. Ask God for
fresh revelations-where there is revelation, change occurs.
If a computer isn’t working, you don’t take it to chef to fix do you?
And it’s the same with us, when we go through things we shouldn’t turn to alcohol,
drugs, sex, pornography or even friends we need to turn to our creator, God. If you don’t have a revelation of God’s love,
you can’t love others. If you don’t have it, you can’t give it. When we live in
lies, we live in bondage. When we live in the truth, we live in freedom
Love
Love is a giving based relationship, which releases value in one’s
being (1 Corinthians 13). You-Love=0=anxiety and depression. You + Lust=0=frustration
and addiction. When you find lust, you’re looking for love and use lust to meet
that need, lust involves getting pleasures from someone. Love give. Lust says give me. You + Love=Self esteem
+joy+peace+life. God wants you to be His beloved=be-loved. Bad experiences we
go through in life can cause us to either rebel or experience rejection. Rejection
leads to us hurting ourselves through self condemnation and rebellion leads to
us hurting others. Rebellion leads to
pride and rejection leads to unbelief. Unbelief and pride must be taken to the
cross. We need to pour our hearts out to God and ask Him to heal and deliver us
from the pain we have experienced.
Forgive, Forgive, Forgive
To the world, child molestation, abuse (spiritual, emotional,
physical and sexual), adultery, murder, abortion, rape, divorce, abandonment
and abuse are all unforgiveable. But in God’s eyes it IS POSSIBLE to forgive
people who hurt and wrong us. Jesus is an great example of this. EVEN WHEN THERE IS INJUSTICE, God IS JUST IN
ALL HIS WAYS. Satan is unjust in all his ways. Man in unjust in many ways
What is forgiveness?
Forgiveness is a verb which is a doing word. An expanded form of the
verb “to give” giving at its deepest level of self giving, giving up deeply
held parts of the self. We give up the right to revenge, to perfection, to
justice and instead we give forth to ourselves-or to the other person. FREEDOM
FROM THE PAST and an openness to the future.
Myths and truths about forgiveness
Can we forgive and forget (no) only God can forgive and truly forget
Is anger a necessary part of the forgiving process (Yes)
Should I try and forgive others completely and quickly (No). Healing
is a process that takes time, we must wait for God’s timing, His timing is the
best. It’s different when we know we should forgive but don’t want to.
If I forgive, am I saying that what happened to me didn’t matter
(No)
Forgiveness is a one time decision, either I forgive or I don’t (No.
Forgiveness is a continuous process.
I can’t forgive until the person who hurt me repents (No). That’s
not true, we can forgive. When Stephen was being martyred he had such compassion
for his persecutors that he said “Lord do not charge them with this sin” (Acts
7:60).
Path of bitterness vs forgiveness
Forgiveness-offence occurs- we experience hurt-we tell and retell
the event- we make a choice-we place the blame
appropriately–grieve-forgive-consider reconciliation-learn to trust again (develops).
Process of Forgiveness
1)Recognize the injury-who I need to forgive
2)Identify the emotions involved-feelings I have about what happened
3)Express your hurt and ager
4)Set boundaries to protect yourself
5)Cancel the debt
6)Consider the possibility of reconciliation
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