01 JANUARY 2009

Today is 01 January 2009. Wow. While i was visiting my family i had a birthday, i am 52, beginning my 53rd year of the life God gave me. Wow. Praise God.

i pray that we all, each one of us and our families, have a holy and blessed 2009. For thankfulness and joy to fill us. For faith and trust in God in all our needs, in all our joys and all our sorrows. For holiness and righteousness to reign in our lives. For love, mercy and compassion to flow out of us like rivers of living water. For serious focus on God, his word, prayer and doing the word. For healing in sick and feeble bodies. For the saved to stand on the truth they know and deepen their relationship with God. For the unsaved by God's great mercy have a true revelation of God's Son, Jesus Christ and are saved before the Day of the Lord. Knowing that God hears the fervent prayers of the righteous, i ask these things in Jesus name, amen.

i have been thinking on mercy of late. Mercy. Our iniquity (sin, or path of least resistance) is atoned by it (Proverbs 16:6), it is commanded of us (Proverbs 3:3, Hosea 12:6, Micah 6:8, Matthew 9:13..etc..), there are rewards of it (Psalm 18:25, Proverbs 14:21, Matthew 5:7..etc..). Mercy. It is important to God. What does it look like?

The greatest example is the mercy of God. His mercy is everlasting (1 Chronicles 16:34, 41; Psalm 89:1-2..etc..), his mercy is manifested in his withholding punishment (Genesis 8:21, Exodus 32:14..etc..), his mercy is rescuing from destruction (Genesis 19:16, Judges 2:18, 2 Kings 14:26-27, Nehemiah 1:10..etc..), his mercy in leading his people (Exodus 15:13), in comforting the afflicted (2 Corinthians 12:9), in hearing prayer (Exodus 22:27, Hebrews 4:15), in his desire to save sinners (Deuteronomy 5:29, Jeremiah 2:9, Matthew 18:12, 1 Timothy 2:4..etc..), in his forbearance toward sinners (2 Chronicles 24:18-19, Psalm 145:8-9, Daniel 4:22-27), and so importantly his granting forgiveness (Exodus 34:6-7, 2 Samuel 12:13, Psalm 32:1-2, 78:38-39, 130:7-8, Proverbs 16:6, Matthew 6:14, Luke 1:50, Romans 10:12-13, Hebrews 8:12, 1 John 1:9..etc..).

There is so much to be said of mercy. The mercy of God to us and our mercy to those around us. It is a grace of the Godly (Romans 12:8, Proverbs 11:17, Psalm 37:25-26..etc..). A great example is of the prison keeper to Joseph in Genesis 39:21-23, or Joshua to Rahab in Joshua 6:25, or David to Saul in 1 Samuel 24:10-13, 17. Examples abound and we are to imitate them in our lives as followers of Christ. Mercy.

This year i spoke to my brother who i have had a rocky relationship with for many years. He is living in sin, but i looked at him with the eyes of Jesus, with mercy and i was moved with compassion. i saw his sin and was broken for it. i love my brother and am praying he comes to repentance soon. This mercy is oiktirmos in the Greek, it is pity, compassion for the ills of others. God who is the father of all mercies modeled this for us and it is the grounds upon which we present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, as our reasonable service (Romans 12:1). Mercy, eleos and eleemon, also in the Greek, is my outward show of mercy to my brother. In this case, actively compassionate, bringing in love the word of God, praying for him, for God's mercy upon him (Galatians 6:16, 1 Timothy 1:2) and continually for me (Hebrews 4:16).

Too much scripture? Yea, i am told that a lot. But i like to study thoroughly God's word on everything he tells me. Mercy...we all need it, and it needs to endureth forever. Because if we are destined for eternity, it must be part of our character, because it is part of God's character. Amen.

Have a holy and blessed 2009, i am praying for us all...amen.