Posts tagged mercy
Jerusalem Tomorrow
The Bluegrass Gospel Blog
2 notes &
The Cross and Captain Wentworth
surrenderrdorothy:
“I was proud, too proud to ask again. I did not understand you. I shut my eyes, and would not understand you, or do you justice. This is a recollection which ought to make me forgive every one sooner than myself. Six years of separation and suffering might have been spared. It is a sort of pain,…
The original poster said it all.
Just because you’re mad at someone doesn’t mean you stop loving them.
(Source: theultimatefitspo, via meredithbrooke)
1Chronicles 16:34
(Source: cbelias, via claimingtobedifferent)
1 note &
Lamentations 3:22-23 NKJV
Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.
The dawning of each new day sees new mercies from the Lord for you — yes, even you.
neverhappen.com | Pastel Sunrise on We Heart It - http://weheartit.com/entry/53875443/via/bluegrassgospelblog
1 note &
“And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples, “Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
When Jesus heard that, He said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”
1 note &
It will be immediately obvious that the video and audio don’t match. This is also an edited version of a song with a wonderful second verse. Nevertheless, I’m posting this clip because the vocals are so good. Here’s some lovely country gospel from The Church Sisters, with “He Understands My Tears”.
1 note &
Proverbs 21:9 NLT
It’s better to live alone in the corner of an attic than with a quarrelsome wife in a lovely home.
1 Peter 3:7 MSG
The same goes for you husbands: Be good husbands to your wives. Honor them, delight in them. As women they lack some of your advantages. But in the new life of God’s grace, you’re equals. Treat your wives, then, as equals so your prayers don’t run aground.
1 note &
Hold Baby Showers, Not Political Debates
Pro-life focuses mainly on the child. Pro-choice focuses mainly on the woman. God wants to meet the needs of both. Exceptionally thoughtful, must-read article from Christianity Today online.
0 notes &
Today’s Posts
Some troubling posts have come across my dash. What’s troubling is that they’re from committed Christians who hurt so much that they’ve resorted to blame as a form of activism, of justice.
Folks, Jesus intimately understands your pain — even if you hurt for someone else. He understands how hard it is to defer judgment to Him since our intimacy with Him is what fully awakened our concept of justice in the first place.
I pray that today’s posts will inspire you to turn away from blame and toward Him, for comfort, validation, and direction in the midst of your outrage.
28 notes &
It is only the infinite mercy and love of God that has prevented us from tearing ourselves to pieces and destroying His entire creation long ago. People seem to think that it is in some way a proof that no merciful God exists, if we have so many wars. On the contrary, consider how in spite of centuries of sin and greed and lust and cruelty and hatred and avarice and oppression and injustice, spawned and bred by the free wills of men, the human race can still recover, each time, and can still produce men and women who overcome evil with good, hatred with love, greed with charity, lust and cruelty with sanctity. How could all this be possible without the merciful love of God, pouring out His grace upon us? Can there be any doubt where wars come from and where peace comes from, when the children of this world, excluding God from their peace conferences, only manage to bring about greater and greater wars the more they talk about peace?
(via carpeveritas)
What We’re All Looking For
“Show us Your mercy, Lord, And grant us Your salvation. I will hear what God the Lord will speak, For He will speak peace To His people and to His saints; But let them not turn back to folly. Surely His salvation is near to those who fear Him, That glory may dwell in our land. Mercy and truth have met together; Righteousness and peace have kissed. Truth shall spring out of the earth, And righteousness shall look down from heaven.” (Psalm 85:7-11 NKJV)
Grace from Isaiah 42:22
(via thesunrisemusic)
Leave the Light On
“He who says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness until now. He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him. But he who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.” (1 John 2:9-11 NKJV)
Whew! Now you know, when somebody talks about blind hatred, what they mean. Hatred is so powerful that it blinds us to our actions and their potential consequences. Only after we do something destructive do the scales fall from our eyes, showing us the sad fact of what we’ve become.
Our God is a holy God. If He drew near to us while we were blinded by hatred, He would no longer be holy, no longer just or merciful.
“And whenever you stand praying if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.” (Mark 11:25-26 NKJV)
Forgiveness is not acceptance or approval. It’s an acknowledgement of our faith in God’s justice and mercy, as well as His timing. It’s the recognition that we’re no better than the next person, and s/he’s no worse than we are.
(Source: kingdom-of-colour, via tropical-breezee)
0 notes &
Deuteronomy 15:7-11 ESV
“If among you, one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, but you shall open your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be. Take care lest there be an unworthy thought in your heart and you say, ‘The seventh year, the year of release is near,’ and your eye look grudgingly on your poor brother, and you give him nothing, and he cry to the Lord against you, and you be guilty of sin. You shall give to him freely, and your heart shall not be grudging when you give to him, because for this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake. For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.’
4 notes &
Him and Me
Yeeeoowww! That last one stung some of you!
It was meant to.
I get it now: Jesus asked me to speak in my own words last time because He wanted you to see the contrast between Friday night and today, between Him and me.
Since Friday, some of you have lived with the knowledge that God is angry with you because you won’t stop sinning. You’ve lived with the understanding that He hasn’t forgiven you. You’ve lived with fear.
What is that about? Isn’t God a God of forgiveness?
Indeed He is, but some of you are confusing forgiveness with unconditional love. Some of you think you have a get-out-of-jail-free card because someone dunked you in their backyard pool once (Or the river. Whatever.)
Folks, if you don’t know God’s Word, how can you do it? In John 15:10-14, Jesus says, “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.”
If you don’t keep His commandments, how can you abide in His love?
What does Jesus command us to do in order to receive His forgiveness?
“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” (Mark 1:15)
That’s it: Repent, turn away from your sins as in stop doing them, and start doing what Jesus tells you to do. That’s all.
What about all those prophecies against you?
“Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.” (I Corinthians 13:8)
If you repent.
If not, you live under God’s wrath, and you get me prophesying your doom whenever He asks me to, broadcasting your sins in increasingly specific detail for all to see.
If you’ve got it going on, you’ve noticed that I haven’t mentioned one single sin, haven’t called anybody out today.
That’s what Jesus is offering you.
“Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that,Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Yay! Don’t you want that? If you don’t have it (and if Jesus still has me on your back, you don’t have it), it’s because you haven’t repented yet.
Sin is the only thing standing in your way. You already know you have to repent, but as Paul writes in Romans 7:18-19, “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.”
Yup, you’re gonna do it again, and again, and again, and again. Even if you repent.
How do you get out from under that?
“I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.” (Psalm 32:5)
What about those times when you’re so stubborn, so angry, so pained, so conflicted that you don’t know what’s right?
“Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” (Romans 8:26-27)
But we have to put in the time. We have to be present. We have to be praying.
I’ve already shown you that Jesus is way cooler than I am. What do you think would happen if, instead of coming here reviling me, you went to Him repenting of the sins you understand, asking Him to show you the sins you don’t, asking Him to help you move forward. What would happen if you stopped wasting time hating me and started gaining time loving Him?
“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31)
You want power over someone? Stop sinning, and show Satan Who’s Boss.
