I will share about Christian books I have read or listened to.
I will be sharing about my life before and after Christ. I will include stories about my pet and other pets I have encountered.
God of Mercy
The prophet Micah once asked a rhetorical question: “Who is a God like you…?”
The answer is—no one.
Micah is making a significant distinction among the nations of his day. Other religions and peoples worshiped all sorts of gods, none of which offered forgiveness of sins … but Micah’s God did.
Over and over God forgave the Israelite people, pardoning their idolatry and disobedience. And, He always provided a way for His people to be obedient and find forgiveness when they sinned against Him.
Today, this is still one of the unique distinctions between Christianity and other religions.
Through Jesus, Micah’s words, “You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy” have come to pass. No other world religion has a god who came to die for his people. No other religion offers us a restored, personal relationship with God through the sacrifice of God Himself.
Paul wrote in Romans—
“There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith.”
Romans 3:23-25a ESV
According to the Christian faith, all have strayed from God and yet all have the chance to be brought back to God through Jesus.
Jesus is the ultimate sacrifice,and the ultimate show of mercy to a broken world. The Bible teaches that anyone who calls on the name of Jesus will be saved. So if you haven’t yet made the decision to trust in Jesus, consider calling on the One who delights in showing you mercy.
Don’t Lose Heart
As we start getting older, our bodies begin to change.
Muscles might ache. Hair might gradually turn gray. Vision and hearing might eventually get less sharp. And we, or someone we love, might even struggle with significant or devastating health challenges.
The apostle Paul once offered some ageless wisdom to the believers in Corinth, Greece, which can still be helpful for us today:
“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.”
2 Corinthians 4:16 NIV
Paul knew what it was like to face hard things; he’d been beaten, shipwrecked, snake bitten, and imprisoned.
Earlier in the letter, he’d said, “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 4:8-9 NIV)
The ripple effects of sin’s existence in the world might frustrate us physically, but it ...
