Sorting It All Out

Vacation is over.  As I said yesterday, that means back to reality.  Luggage to unpack.  Things to put away.  Laundry to sort.

But that isn't all the sorting.  There's that bucket full of mail from the post office that has to be sorted.  Some of it is obviously bills.  And some is obviously junk.  The magazines are obvious.  But there are a number of envelopes in that mail bucket that aren't so obvious.  And each of them must be carefully examined to see which pile it belongs in.  Is it something that needs attention?  Or is it just more junk?

Life is a lot like that bucket of mail.  There's a lot of sorting to be done.  Some things are obviously good.  And some are obviously bad.

It's the in-between that gets us in some trouble.  We have no difficulty identifying murder or stealing or pornography as bad.  We can readily identify Bible reading as good.  But we're bombarded daily with all kinds of stuff - from the TV or the radio, in the newspaper, on the internet, from our Facebook and Twitter feeds, in conversation.  And the list could go on.

It all has to be sorted.  How do we determine what to believe and what not to believe?  How do we know what is true and what isn't?  We need a plumb line.  You know, one of those things, sometimes also called a plumb bob, used in building or surveying to ensure that a vertical line is, in fact, vertical.  We need a standard for vertical if we are going to correctly sort through all the information bombarding us every day.

Our plumb line is the Word of God.  Everything we see, everything we read, everything we hear, everything we say, needs to be held up against that standard.

It's the only way we can sort it all out.  Because just because something is on the internet doesn't make it true!

"Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things."  (Philippians 4:8 ESV)