Grace & Mercy

Grace has been defined as “receiving what we don’t deserve.” Mercy has been defined as “not receiving what we do deserve.” I hear children all of the time saying, “That’s not fair!” Many times, when life hands us a bad twist we say the same thing, “God, that’s just not fair!” As I’ve told my children many times, fair would be an eternity without God, and us paying the price for our own sin. That would be impossible, but it would be fair. Anything outside of that is God’s mercy.

We live in a world today that needs to see mercy in living color. People who have blown it sexually, financially, personally, in their marriages, in their jobs, etc., need to be shown mercy. The world around us is much like the man who was beaten and robbed by the thieves in the story of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:25-37. People need the Lord’s mercy. Many have been beaten and broken by the effects of sin, theirs and others. They are sinking deep in their sins, however, many times we walk right by them on the ‘other side’ either by saying that they have made their bed so they must sleep in it, or we just ignore them and pretend that they don’t exist.

Maybe you are a person who feels, toward the ‘wounded’, “Oh, just pull yourself up by the boot straps and move on!” Well, my friend, without Christ and without His divine help and guidance and without the love and power of His Spirit through His people, the world’s ‘boot straps’ are paper thin to non-existent! They are helpless and need us to show God’s love, grace and mercy towards them. The forgiven are to show mercy like we’ve been shown mercy. Let’s never forget the ungrateful servant in Matthew 18:23-35.

Samaritans knew what it was like to be an outcast and to feel ‘thrown-away’. Do we remember what it was like to be lost and without Jesus? As we recall where we were before Christ in our lives we should be drawn to be merciful as Christ was and is to us.

Jesus, the “Good Samaritan” saw us on the road, but”

“Beautiful, that’s how mercy saw me.
Though I was broken and so lost,

mercy looked past all my faults;
he justice of God saw all I had done,

mercy saw me through the Son. Not was I was,
but what I could be,

that’s how mercy saw me. ) Geron Davis

May we today, this week and in the days to come have the same eyes~

“A Cheerful Heart Is Good Medicine!”

As I prepare for our worship services each week, I filter through many psalms, hymns and spiritual songs and try to put together the ones from each category that I believe will best lead us to the place that the Lord wants to take us on any given week. One of the criticisms of modern or contemporary (music of the day) specifically “praises choruses” is that many of them are repetitive. I heard someone once call them 7-11 songs - seven words sung eleven times! Admittedly, many of them are repetitive. The reason for this may be that most take their scriptural basis for the psalms. For instance, have you ever read Psalm 136? God wanted the first singers of this song to get the point—that “His love endures forever!” So much so that He repeated it 26 times in a row!

I’ve had many conversations with people about the strength and need for repetition and how our Lord used it throughout scripture, and have read much about it. I want to share with you one of the funniest illustrations I have ever seen regarding the subject. Enjoy.

An old farmer went to the city one weekend and attended the

big city church. He came home and his wife asked him how

it was. “Well,” said the farmer, “It was good, They did

something different, however. They sang praise choruses

instead of hymns.” “Praise choruses,” said his wife, “What

are those?” “Oh, they’re okay. They’re sort of like hymns,

only different,” said the farmer. “Well, what’s the

difference? “ asked the wife. The farmer said, “Well, it’s like

this: If I were to say to you, ‘Martha, the cows are in the corn,’

well, that would be a hymn. If, on the other hand, I were to say

to you, “Martha, Martha, Martha, Oh, Martha, MARTHA,

MARTHA, the cows, the big cows, the brown cows, the

black cows, the white cows, the black and white cows, the COWS,

COWS, COWS, are in the corn, are in the corn, are in the corn,

are in the CORN, CORN, CORN,” then if I were to repeat the whole thing two or three times, well, that would be a praise chorus!”

Go ahead and laugh. “A cheerful heart is good medicine!” Today, whether we say or sing, “God is good!” or God is good, He is good, He is so good, God is so, so, so, so, so, so good!”, our Lord is blessed as He hears His children singing His praise. In these day of uncertainty, keep repeating the truths of God’s word over and over again, your heart will gain from the repetition. “Sing them over again to me...wonderful words of life.” MJ

“But we have this treasure in jars of clay
to show that this all-surpassing power

is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side,

but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted,

but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.”

(2 Corinthians 4:7-9)

The longer I live, the more I come to understand that freedom and suffering usually go hand in hand. Take for instance, the freedom that we will celebrate tomorrow. Independence Day, 2011. The 4th of July! We celebrate our country’s freedoms, but one cannot truly appreciate the value of the freedoms we have without understanding that suffering was involved in gaining that freedom for us.

I’m coming to understand that suffering will always be a part of our earthly existence. Suffering comes from several sources: we may suffer as a result of our own sin, or of others sin, or, the most difficult to accept, our suffering may come from the hand of the Lord. Whatever the source, we are sure that Scripture teaches us that suffering is a part of God’s plan to mold us and shape us into all that He is creating us to be. It is a tool to cause us to hold loosely to the things of this earth and to help us yearn for Him and for “Home”!

When you boil it down, every great thing was born out of someone else’s suffering. How so? Well, for example, in order to perform the first heart transplant someone had to die! Braille was created for and is a help to the blind today because someone lost their sight. We would never be able to receive eternal life were it not for the suffering of our Savior.

May we never forget that freedom is really not free, it comes with a cost. So, my friend, as we celebrate the freedoms that we enjoy in this great country, let’s take a moment and celebrate the lives of those who fought and in some cases gave their lives gaining, protecting and defending our freedoms as Americans. And more than anything let this be another reminder of the freedom that God offers us in Christ, who gave the ultimate sacrifice to attain our freedom. And as we praise him let’s lift our voices with the “Song of the soul set free!!” Oh, the great joy of being free, as an American and much more than that, a Christian. To God be the glory. Happy Independence Day!

Pastor MJ