God's Plumb Line    

   A few weeks ago, we hired some pros for household improvements. Yours truly was left with the task of hanging three bathroom mirrors.

   We cut several feet of string, attached a small lead weight from our old tackle box, and taped the top of the string to the wall. The weight hung precisely where we wanted each mirror to be centered. 

   It's called a plumb line, a method builders have used since ancient times to assure a wall is straight.

   God has his own plumb line. It is spiritual, as He is Spirit.

   Israel, the old Northern Kingdom, was proud...dependent on its own fortresses...and turned justice into poison and the fruit of righteousness into bitterness. 

   God called on a shepherd, who also took care of sycamore-fig trees, to prophesy for him. His name was Amos.

   In chapter 7, Amos wrote of a vision: The Lord was standing by a wall that had been true to plumb, with a plumb line in his hand.

   The Lord said, 'Look, I am setting a plumb line among my people Israel. 

I will spare them no longer.' 

   Since God doesn't change, we can assume He still has that plumb line ... probably not for nations, but for those of us who claim to be his children. 

   [Santa knows if we've been bad or good.] 

   God knows if we are centered on his gospel ... and if we understand He is 100 percent grace, but also 100 percent truth.