On Mercy
Tonight my heart is full and my mind is overflowing with thoughts and ideas that are racing in a competition to be heard and understood. Please forgive me if I ramble or babble. I am not a professional writer and these past few days I've seen some magnificent blogs. I almost have blog envy.
Still, in spite of my shortcomings I find myself at my computer typing madly in an effort to regain mastery over my frenzied thoughts and make them come out in an orderly fashion. What is all the excitement about you ask???? God's infinite mercy. His complete and total love for us. I'm tellin' ya it's got me all twitterpated and google-eyed.
I can hear you saying, "Oh, is that all? God's love and mercy? Yawn. Heard it, read about it, starred in the video." Yes, yes I know you've heard a billion sermons on the subject, but have you ever had a revelation about it? Has God's love and mercy ever become real to you? Maybe you're like me. You know that God loves you but you take that love for granted. Or, maybe you believe that God's love and mercy applies to everyone else on the planet except you. Well hold on to your hats people, because you are about to get a refresher on the depth of God's love and mercy.
First of all, let me just say that God's love and mercy applies to everyone. That's right, I said everyone. I don't care if you've slept with every guy/girl on the block, had fifteen abortions and smoke crack, God's love and mercy is available to you. It even applies to all of us "churched" folk who have become disillusioned, bored, and only go to church out of habit instead of love for God. It's there. For free. No strings attached.
How do I know? I've experienced it. But rather than go into the details of my sordid past, (because, let's face it...I could be lying to you. Remember the author of A Million Little Pieces? Uh, huh, moving on now...) I'm going to give you an example from the bible. The past couple of weeks I've been involved in a bible study about King David. Who he is, what he's like, yada yada yada. Anyway, it's a great study conducted by Mike Bickle of Kansas City IHOP (International House of Prayer). He pointed out an amazing verse that just absolutely blew me away.
Acts 13:22 "And after He (God) had removed him (King Saul...David's predecessor), He raised up David to be their (the Jews) king, concerning whom He testified saying, "I have found David, son of Jesse, A MAN AFTER MY HEART, who will do all My will." NASB version, parentheses mine.
Everyone who's read the bible knows this description of David very well. He was a man after God's heart. However, look at the last bit of the verse..."who will do all my will." Those of us who have read the Old Testament know that David screwed things up a lot. I mean, one very famous instance is his relationship with Bath Sheba. She's married, David takes her anyway and has sex with her (an offense punishable by death in those days), gets her pregnant while her husband (Uriah) is away fighting David's battle. David brings him home, tries to get Uriah drunk so he'll sleep with Bath Sheba in order to try to cover up her pregnancy, but when that doesn't work, David has Uriah deliberately sent to the front lines of the battle where he is killed. So now, not only is David an adulterer he's a murderer. This is a man after God's heart, who will do all His will???? Ummm....what???
How did David get a description like that, not from men mind you, but from God...and yet he's a major screw up??? The answer is this: David was completely sorry for what he had done and went to God and repented. Meaning, David acknowledged his sin against God and Uriah and then turned away from it. He stopped behaving like a lunatic. And God forgave him completely. Not only that, but He restored David to a right relationship with Himself. Immediately. No waiting involved. And not only that, but God totally wiped the slate clean. Once David repented, God never again remembered David's sin. To God, it was as though David had never sinned in the first place; he was a man who "will do all My will."
I'm reminded of my kids. When they were little and they did something wrong, they would just come to me and say "Mommy I'm sorry" and I would hug them and forgive them and they would go on their merry way. Not once did they ever come back and say, "Oh, but mommy, you can't just forgive me like that. I'm a bad person. You have to punish me because of what I've done. And if you don't do it, I'll do it myself. Please mommy, please, put me in the corner." Nope, not once did I ever get that from my kids. They just accepted my forgiveness and all was right with the world. Too bad we're not like that with God. We say we're sorry, and then, when God doesn't strike us down with fire and brimstone we punish ourselves. We beat ourselves up with guilt and shame instead of just accepting the gift of forgiveness and moving on. Or worse, we believe that our sin is so bad and so monstrous that Jesus could never forgive us. How sad. We must make God cry an awful lot. II Corinthians 5:21 says, "He (God) made Him who knew no sin (Jesus), to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God through Him." NASB, parentheses mine.
All of our sins have been nailed to the cross. They are gone completely. All we have to do is accept the gift that Jesus offers, and move into a life of obedience through love. Have you sinned? NEWSFLASH: YOU'RE NOT ALONE. You're not weird. Chances are you've been doing what millions of other people have been doing throughout the ages. Accept Jesus' precious gift of forgiveness, and move on. If you are reading this, and you don't know Jesus, then I challenge you to find a bible somewhere and read the Gospel of John. Go to your local library, they should have a copy, or go to biblegateway.com and read it online. I suggest the Message version because the language is modern and easier to understand. Anyhoo, read the Gospel of John and ask God to reveal Himself to you. I promise you, you will come away changed. I know I did.
Still, in spite of my shortcomings I find myself at my computer typing madly in an effort to regain mastery over my frenzied thoughts and make them come out in an orderly fashion. What is all the excitement about you ask???? God's infinite mercy. His complete and total love for us. I'm tellin' ya it's got me all twitterpated and google-eyed.
I can hear you saying, "Oh, is that all? God's love and mercy? Yawn. Heard it, read about it, starred in the video." Yes, yes I know you've heard a billion sermons on the subject, but have you ever had a revelation about it? Has God's love and mercy ever become real to you? Maybe you're like me. You know that God loves you but you take that love for granted. Or, maybe you believe that God's love and mercy applies to everyone else on the planet except you. Well hold on to your hats people, because you are about to get a refresher on the depth of God's love and mercy.
First of all, let me just say that God's love and mercy applies to everyone. That's right, I said everyone. I don't care if you've slept with every guy/girl on the block, had fifteen abortions and smoke crack, God's love and mercy is available to you. It even applies to all of us "churched" folk who have become disillusioned, bored, and only go to church out of habit instead of love for God. It's there. For free. No strings attached.
How do I know? I've experienced it. But rather than go into the details of my sordid past, (because, let's face it...I could be lying to you. Remember the author of A Million Little Pieces? Uh, huh, moving on now...) I'm going to give you an example from the bible. The past couple of weeks I've been involved in a bible study about King David. Who he is, what he's like, yada yada yada. Anyway, it's a great study conducted by Mike Bickle of Kansas City IHOP (International House of Prayer). He pointed out an amazing verse that just absolutely blew me away.
Acts 13:22 "And after He (God) had removed him (King Saul...David's predecessor), He raised up David to be their (the Jews) king, concerning whom He testified saying, "I have found David, son of Jesse, A MAN AFTER MY HEART, who will do all My will." NASB version, parentheses mine.
Everyone who's read the bible knows this description of David very well. He was a man after God's heart. However, look at the last bit of the verse..."who will do all my will." Those of us who have read the Old Testament know that David screwed things up a lot. I mean, one very famous instance is his relationship with Bath Sheba. She's married, David takes her anyway and has sex with her (an offense punishable by death in those days), gets her pregnant while her husband (Uriah) is away fighting David's battle. David brings him home, tries to get Uriah drunk so he'll sleep with Bath Sheba in order to try to cover up her pregnancy, but when that doesn't work, David has Uriah deliberately sent to the front lines of the battle where he is killed. So now, not only is David an adulterer he's a murderer. This is a man after God's heart, who will do all His will???? Ummm....what???
How did David get a description like that, not from men mind you, but from God...and yet he's a major screw up??? The answer is this: David was completely sorry for what he had done and went to God and repented. Meaning, David acknowledged his sin against God and Uriah and then turned away from it. He stopped behaving like a lunatic. And God forgave him completely. Not only that, but He restored David to a right relationship with Himself. Immediately. No waiting involved. And not only that, but God totally wiped the slate clean. Once David repented, God never again remembered David's sin. To God, it was as though David had never sinned in the first place; he was a man who "will do all My will."
I'm reminded of my kids. When they were little and they did something wrong, they would just come to me and say "Mommy I'm sorry" and I would hug them and forgive them and they would go on their merry way. Not once did they ever come back and say, "Oh, but mommy, you can't just forgive me like that. I'm a bad person. You have to punish me because of what I've done. And if you don't do it, I'll do it myself. Please mommy, please, put me in the corner." Nope, not once did I ever get that from my kids. They just accepted my forgiveness and all was right with the world. Too bad we're not like that with God. We say we're sorry, and then, when God doesn't strike us down with fire and brimstone we punish ourselves. We beat ourselves up with guilt and shame instead of just accepting the gift of forgiveness and moving on. Or worse, we believe that our sin is so bad and so monstrous that Jesus could never forgive us. How sad. We must make God cry an awful lot. II Corinthians 5:21 says, "He (God) made Him who knew no sin (Jesus), to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God through Him." NASB, parentheses mine.
All of our sins have been nailed to the cross. They are gone completely. All we have to do is accept the gift that Jesus offers, and move into a life of obedience through love. Have you sinned? NEWSFLASH: YOU'RE NOT ALONE. You're not weird. Chances are you've been doing what millions of other people have been doing throughout the ages. Accept Jesus' precious gift of forgiveness, and move on. If you are reading this, and you don't know Jesus, then I challenge you to find a bible somewhere and read the Gospel of John. Go to your local library, they should have a copy, or go to biblegateway.com and read it online. I suggest the Message version because the language is modern and easier to understand. Anyhoo, read the Gospel of John and ask God to reveal Himself to you. I promise you, you will come away changed. I know I did.
Comments
In His Love,
Annette
I'm on CWO blogring. Thanks for visiting my blog - http://sproutofamustardseed.blogspot.com.
I just found your blog and let me say...I too am a Christian...it's AWESOME to find other Christian women and moms online who have blogs sharing their lives as Christians and as Christian Moms! It REALLY is AWESOME!
Feel free to stop by my site (you'll need to register for FREE first before you can post a comment...just click on the register link on the right side of the page) and leave a comment and say hello (just click on Leave Your Comment on any of my blog entries or whatever and post reply on the box that comes up). Hope to have you as a regular visitor to my site and I'll try to visit your's often as well!