Tag Archives: Mercy

Thanks be to God!

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In Scripture, there are just certain passages that you read and you go – that’s it!  That’s how I feel!  That’s what I’m feeling, that’s what I’m experiencing

For me, Paul’s words in Romans 7 are that.  When I read the end of Romans 7, I say, yep, that’s the story of my life, that summarizes my feelings.  Today, as I read through it, a couple of things from this chapter just leapt out to me.

Paul writes:

I want to do what is right, but I can’t. 19 I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. 20 But if I do what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.

Hello?  Man, oh man, I’ve been there.  I know what’s right.  I know what’s wrong.  I know what I should do, I know what I shouldn’t do!

I know it.  It’s not guess-work.  I know the answer.  I know how I should live, serve, give, who I should be.  It’s a plain as the nose on my face.

And what do I do? What’s wrong. What I shouldn’t do. The very thing I don’t want to do. The very thing I despise.

The good I should do I don’t do, the evil I shouldn’t do, I do.

In other words, that thing that we struggle with.  That we know we shouldn’t do. That day after day after day we know we should not do – that very thing we do!

UGH.  It drive me crazy.  I don’t want to do it!  I want to be different.  I want to live apart from these sins.  Yet, I keep falling into it.

What am I to do?

The reason why I love this passage is because Paul gives an answer:

25 Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord.

The answer is not my will power.  It’s not in my being good enough, smart enough, strong enough.

I can’t. I’ve already proved that.

It’s not in what I can do.  It’s in what He can do.

I can do nothing.  He can do all things.  I am weak, He is strong. I choose what is wrong.  He is what is right.

Through ourselves, our own devices, our own choosing, we get ourselves in trouble.

Through Jesus, we find life.

Thanks be to God!

Today, trust in Him. Rely upon Him. Cast your cares on Him.  He is life.  He is strength.  He is hope.  Lean not on yourself, but on Him.  Trust.  Live.  With Him.

Thanks be to God!  For in Him, all things are possible.

Mondays are Awesome!

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One of the things in life that is most disheartening, to me at least, is when folks feel like giving up.  When people feel like their is no hope. When we lose that sense that things can get better, can change, can be different.

In short, when people want to give up. When people think that there is no reason to hope.

We hear, oh, but things can change. Things can be different. It doesn’t have to be like that.

And, when we are broken, we say – impossible. That can’t happen.  It won’t change.

If that is where you are on this Monday morning, listen to the word of Jesus from Matthew 21:

21 Then Jesus told them, “I tell you the truth, if you have faith and don’t doubt, you can do things like this and much more. You can even say to this mountain, ‘May you be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and it will happen. 22 You can pray for anything, and if you have faith, you will receive it.”

Things don’t have to be the same. They don’t have to be like they’ve always been.

I know it’s Monday, and we hate Mondays.

But this Monday, this Monday is a new day!  Each day is a new day. Each day, through faith, we get to start over. Each day is new. Full of new life, new hope, new grace.

This is a new day.  It does have to be like a aways. Things can change. Things can be different.  It isn’t impossible.

Now, through ourselves and our strength, yeah, nothing will change.

But, through God. Through faith. Through grace.  Through His life, things can change. Things can be different. There is hope. There is life. There is a change for a new start.

Today, through faith.

Today, yes even today. Even this morning. There is a chance for a fresh start.

Things can be different.  Things can change. Nothing is impossible.

Mondays are awesome!  Through God’s grace, each new day is awesome.

Go out and live a fresh, new, loved life.  For today is a new day.  Nothing is impossible for God.

Nothing!

Payday

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One of my first real jobs was as a camp counselor during the summers at Twin Lakes, in Florence, MS.  I worked their two summers and some of the best times of my life there. I made friends there that I will treasure forever.

One of the things I remember most, though, about camp, was getting that my first paycheck.  Looking back now, it wasn’t much. But at the time, I thought I’d won the lottery.  I thought I was the richest man I knew.

I’d worked hard for that check. I loved my job, but I’d worked really hard. I’d earned what I had.  And, honestly, if I’d have worked that hard, and the camp had not paid me, when they promised to, I’d have been upset.  You want what’s coming to you!  What you deserve!

Sometimes, I think we tie ourselves in a knot with God.  Just like in our job, be it our first job, or our current job, we feel like we have to earn God’s love. We feel like we have to “do” something to make God love us. Just like at camp I had certain things I had to do as part of my job, as Christians, we sometimes feel like we have to “do” something to make God love us.

Forgive us.

Care for us.

And, here’s the problem. We can’t ever do things just perfect. We mess up. We fall down.  We make mistakes. We sin.  It gets ugly.

And then, because we’ve mess up, we feel like we haven’t earned that love we want.

Today in Roman’s we see Paul talk about Abraham.  He writes this:

1 What then are we to say was gained by Abraham, our ancestor according to the flesh? 2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. 3 For what does the scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.” 4 Now to one who works, wages are not reckoned as a gift but as something due. 5 But to one who without works trusts him who justifies the ungodly, such faith is reckoned as righteousness.

God didn’t love or accept Abraham because he was perfect.  In fact, if we look back it his story, he did some pretty dumb things.

He loved Abraham because He’s God. And that’s what He does. What God wanted from Abraham was this.  Faith.  Trust. Relationship.

We don’t have to earn God’s love. We just have to accept it.  We have have to make God love us. We just have to understand He does.

We don’t have to wait for payday.  Payday is here, today. We just have to have faith.

Today, God loves you. Believe that.  No matter where you or what you’ve done.  God loves you. Have faith. And find that love and acceptance you’ve been seeking.

Get Back Up!

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One of my mentors said something in class once which has always stuck with me – Bible Characters weren’t always Bible Characters.  They were real folks, like me and you. And, somehow along the way, we’ve forgotten that. What do I mean by that?

Each of them, they each made terrible, terrible mistakes. They were human as we are. That means they were not perfect. They did dumb things, just like we do dumb things. They fell down, as well fall down. They were imperfect, and God loved them anyway. Just like He loves us.

Paul reminds us today in 1 Timothy:

12 I am grateful to Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because he judged me faithful and appointed me to his service, 13 even though I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a man of violence. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, 14 and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. 15 The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners-of whom I am the foremost. 16 But for that very reason I received mercy, so that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display the utmost patience, making me an example to those who would come to believe in him for eternal life.

Paul, this great man of faith, this man that started church after church, this man, led by the Holy Spirit, this man that wrote over half of the New Testament, says that he was unworthy of doing what God had called him to do.

He had fallen down, he had made mistakes.  He had done things he should haven’t done.

But, while he was unworthy, God had judged him worthy.   He didn’t deserve the grace God gave him.  No one does. That’s why it’s called grace.  It’s undeserved, it’s freely given.  No matter what we’ve done, we are loved. And forgiven.  And treasured by God.  No matter what.

You are loved.

Yes, your past is your past.  Yes, you (and I) have fallen down.  So, what do do we?  We get back up!  We fall down, we get up. We fall down, we get up!  Because God’s grace is bigger than any mistake we could make. God’s grace is bigger.

Remember, you are loved today.  God used someone even like Paul.  He can use us too. When we fall down, by His grace, may we get back up!

Mercy

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As I was reading a portion of Psalm 78 this morning, the last passage really spoke to me:

38 But he was so merciful that he forgave their sins
and did not destroy them; *
many times he held back his anger
and did not permit his wrath to be roused.
39 For he remembered that they were but flesh, *
a breath that goes forth and does not return.

This Psalm recounts how the people of Israel turned from God again and again and again.

It tells of how God brought punishment to them over and over for their sin.  And how, after a time of repentance, He forgave.

But, they would fall down again and again and again.

And each time, He would forgive.

This last passage tell us why. He remembers they, and we, are just flesh.  God knows our strengths.  And He knows our weaknesses.

Do we think He is surprised by our faults and frailty?  Do we think He is stunned when we fall?  Do we think that God didn’t see out mistakes coming?

He created us.  He knows us better than we ever know ourselves.  He knows all there is to know about us.  He knows our mistakes before we even make them.  He knows we are sinful and weak and frail.

And He loves anyway.  He loves you.  He loves me.  He loves in spite our mistakes.  He loves us in spite of what we’ve done wrong.  No matter what it is. God loves us.

No.  Matter.  What.

He doesn’t love us for our strength or despise us for our weakness.  He loves us.

He is a God of Mercy.  May we rejoice because of that. And may we understand today just how much we are loved.