So there I was, the third day of my second year in Carpentry class at college. Our instructor a few minutes earlier had asked each student to go build him a wall and set it up on the edge of the house we were beginning to build as a class. I was proud of myself as I had finished setting up the wall before many of my classmates. As I stood there looking at the framed up wall, it looked sturdy, strait and standing tall ready for the next phase of construction. My professor came over and looked at the wall standing there with me and asked me a simple yet profound question. “Did you use a level to plumb up your wall and make sure it is standing at a 90 degree?” It hit me standing there looking at my wall that looked strait that I had not used my 6 ft. level to make sure the wall was plumb and standing strait up. My professor went over to my wall with his level and checked, showing me that my wall was 7 degrees out of plumb and that if it was to stay that way, the entire wall at the point where it would meet the roof 2 floors up would be over 6 inches out of whack and be a serious unfixable problem. I should have used my level to plumb the wall, and that is a day that I will never forget and a lesson that I will always remember.
Today, in the reading from Amos 7, God uses the picture of a plumb line on His people. God’s people have gotten out of plumb/level with God and needed to get back on track before the judgement of God would come. The people of God were looking at their lives and their lives seemed ok and great, but then God held His plumb line against the people and they failed miserably. This is the same truth we need to realize and hear today. When the church looks at itself with its own eyes, we look great and like we are doing well. But when the church holds the plumb/level line and standard from God against itself, the church realizes how wrong they are and how much they need to turn back to God for and repent of. What do we ask is the plumb/level line from God? God’s Word is the plumb line for the church. Just like Amos was the Word of God for those people and the standard which they needed to hold themselves against, so today the Bible is the standard that the church needs to hold itself against. When we look at ourselves with our own standards and human experience we will always look great and be at peace. But when we hold the Word of God against ourselves, we realize how much we need to grow and how much we need to repent of. The Bible is sufficient for all that we need in this life, it is the guide for life, the standard for life, and the plumb line for our souls. Do we hold ourselves against the Word of God or do we judge ourselves by our own standards and experiences?
Today, in the reading from Amos 7, God uses the picture of a plumb line on His people. God’s people have gotten out of plumb/level with God and needed to get back on track before the judgement of God would come. The people of God were looking at their lives and their lives seemed ok and great, but then God held His plumb line against the people and they failed miserably. This is the same truth we need to realize and hear today. When the church looks at itself with its own eyes, we look great and like we are doing well. But when the church holds the plumb/level line and standard from God against itself, the church realizes how wrong they are and how much they need to turn back to God for and repent of. What do we ask is the plumb/level line from God? God’s Word is the plumb line for the church. Just like Amos was the Word of God for those people and the standard which they needed to hold themselves against, so today the Bible is the standard that the church needs to hold itself against. When we look at ourselves with our own standards and human experience we will always look great and be at peace. But when we hold the Word of God against ourselves, we realize how much we need to grow and how much we need to repent of. The Bible is sufficient for all that we need in this life, it is the guide for life, the standard for life, and the plumb line for our souls. Do we hold ourselves against the Word of God or do we judge ourselves by our own standards and experiences?
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