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.
Here’s what mercy really looks like…
What would you do if you ran into someone who offended, upset, or greatly wronged you?
The Pharisees in Jesus’ time taught that it was excessive to forgive someone more than three times. But Jesus’ teachings set a standard for extravagant forgiveness. He emphasized that we should forgive others generously and continuously.
The outward expression of forgiveness can look different for everyone, but true forgiveness should offer mercy and compassion to those who hurt us.
Forgiveness isn’t easy. Showing compassion to someone who hurt us goes against our natural desire. At times, it can even feel overwhelming, unfair, and impossible. But showing someone undeserved forgiveness and compassion is what mercy is … and it’s what Jesus does for us.
God so loved the world that—despite our constant mistakes and continual rejection of His presence—He sent His only Son, Jesus, to die for us. Although we didn’t deserve His forgiveness or love, He offered it to us anyways. And now, anyone who believes in Jesus can receive unlimited mercy and unmerited grace.
It’s because God freely offers us mercy that He asks us to show mercy also.
The world will tell you to hold onto your hurt and allow it to shape you. But Jesus wants to release you from the pain of your past by changing your heart’s posture toward others. This isn’t easy—it is often an act of continual, painful surrender. But Jesus doesn’t expect us to go through the process of forgiveness alone. He offers to help us if we are willing to trust Him and honor His teachings.
Jesus isn’t asking us to do anything that He hasn’t already done for us. And when we offer mercy to someone who has wounded us, we illustrate how God’s forgiveness has impacted us.
So is there anyone you can offer mercy and forgiveness to today? Spend some time with God, ask Him to search your heart, and give Him any hurt you’ve been carrying.
God is Our Comfort
Have you ever looked around you and wondered, “Why is there so much evil, wickedness, and pain in the world?”
In Psalm 94, King David is extremely upset about the state of humanity. People are blaming God for the world’s rampant wickedness as though God did not see it and did not care (see verses 1-7). So David reminds his audience that the Lord is Creator, and He knows, sees, and hears all that goes on (verses 8-11).
Because of God, David could say, “When the cares of my heart are many, your consolations cheer my soul.” (Verse 19)
King David’s “cares of the heart” were because of the wickedness and evil he saw—and our world is not much different. But David’s consolation in all the evil he witnessed was his Creator and Savior.
That’s why He could close his psalm by writing, “But the LORD has become my stronghold, and my God the rock of my refuge. He will bring back on them their inquiry and wipe them out for their wickedness, the LORD our God will wipe...
“Then said the high priest, Are these things so? And he said, Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken; The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran, and said unto him, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall shew thee. Then came he out of the land of the Chaldæans, and dwelt in Charran: and from thence, when his father was dead, he removed him into this land, wherein ye now dwell. And he gave him none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on: yet he promised that he would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him, when as yet he had no child. And God spake on this wise, That his seed should sojourn in a strange land; and that they should bring them into bondage, and entreat them evil four hundred years. And the nation to whom they shall be in bondage will I judge, said God: and after that shall they come forth, and serve me in this place. And he ...
“Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins. Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God: they ask of me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching to God. Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your labours. Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high. Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the LORD? Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of ...
