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mercy

What is Required?

by TerryLema

There is a familiar verse in the book of the prophet Micah.  “Mankind, He has told you what is good and what it is the Lord requires of you: to act justly, to love faithfulness [mercy], and to walk humbly with your God.” [6:8 HCSB]

This is not a formula for salvation. Salvation has always come through sacrifice. In the OT, forgiveness came through the sacrifices of animals, the atonement for sin rolling ahead once more until the entire sin of the world was taken to the cross of Christ Jesus. There the final solution for sin was wrought through the sacrifice of God’s Chosen One.

Micah, when he uttered those words was addressing a people in covenant with God. When we take those words to heart, it is because we too are in covenant relationship with God. Jesus called it the New Covenant in His Blood. No one can act justly, love mercy, or walk humbly with God unless they are in relationship with Him!

To “act justly” is to show true religion. God gave Ten Commandments that set His Holy Standards for our relationship to Him and to others. We cannot achieve salvation through them, but they still set the criteria for our hearts in how we are to connect to Him and our neighbors now that we have salvation through Christ Jesus our LORD.

To “love mercy” is to freely and with great grace and love be willing to show kindness to everyone.

To “walk humbly with [our] God” means to live in that everyday awareness of His presence in our lives, to exercise a spirit of humility before Him. As John the Baptizer said it, “He must increase, I must decrease.”

Lord, grand us by the power of Your Holy Spirit, to live and walk like this every day! Amen.

 

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His Mercy is More

by TerryLema

Pastor Laura led worship again last Sunday. We sang the song “His Mercy is More” by Matt Papa. The melody is simple but oh, that chorus!

“Praise the Lord, His mercy is more. Stronger than darkness, new every morn. Our [My] sins they are many, His mercy is more.” 

The Scriptures are clear that we are to be holy like our God is holy. We are to avoid sin, even the appearance of evil. Yet, we still sin. Sometimes it is outward and noticeable to all. Sometimes it is an inner attitude or bitterness only seen by God.

At times, we are weighed down by the sin in our lives and the harder we try to avoid it, the more we seem to collide with it. The enemy of our soul loves to temp us. The world loves to sabotage us. Our own flesh even rebels against our good intentions.

As we sang that wonderful chorus on Sunday, I felt such relief. No matter my sin, God’s mercy to me is more. No matter how many my sins, God’s mercy to me is abundantly more.

I think when David wrote Psalm 23 and included the wonderful truth that “Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of our life,” he knew what it was to experience the mercy of God over his sin.

As I joined in singing the song last Sunday, I was reminded that I, too, know what it is like to experience the mercy of God over my sin.

“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” [1John 1:9 HCSB]

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Abundant

by TerryLema

I was catching up with a long-time friend recently who has endured a lot in the past few years. One difficulty after another with little time in between to catch his breath.

Compounding trials are some of the most difficult times in life to endure. It is hard to get the victory when you become more and more worn down.

As I prayed for my friend, two words came to mind – compassion and abundance.  I found those two words in a psalm of David. But before we get to the verse with those two words, listen to how the psalm begins: “Bow down Your ear, O LORD, hear me; for I am poor and needy.” [86:1 NKJV]

Interesting that David asks God to bow down His ear to him. It is as if David cannot lift his own head up to the LORD but must ask God to bow down to his level. I know I have felt that way a few times in my life. Trials and difficulties had beaten me into the ground and unless God came to my level, I would have been bereft of any comfort.

But God did bow His ear to David’s need and He did bow His ear to my needs also. David acknowledges that in verse 15.

“But You, O Lord, are a God full of compassion, and gracious, Longsuffering, and abundant in mercy and truth.” [Psalm 86:15 NKJV]

God is full of compassion. God is abundant in mercy. No matter how many trials or difficulties assault us, they will never exhaust God’s compassion or abundant mercy.

Today: Thank you LORD that you are willing to come down to us when we are beaten down by life, and that the deep wells of your compassion and mercy never run dry.

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The Throne of Grace

by TerryLema

“Therefore let us approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us at the proper time.” [Hebrews 4:16 HCSB]

The beginning of Hebrews is an admonition to not allow a pattern of unbelief and disobedience to take up residence in our hearts.

In the middle of the chapter, the writer reminds us that the written Living Word of God is able to discern when that happens. And that our Living WORD, Christ Jesus our LORD, is also able to scrutinize our hearts and see if what is there matches our words and actions.

The writer also reminds us that the Living WORD understands our weaknesses. He walked this earth and was tested in the same way we are. He grieved, He cried, He suffered loss, He died. He not only reveals our weakness, but He also knows them and understands them. He is sympathetic to us.

The end of Hebrews 4 is an invitation to approach the Throne of Grace. To come with a confidence that we will receive the mercy and grace that we need to help us.

We do not come arrogantly, as if we deserved this invitation, we come with a quiet assurance that we will be welcomed because Christ Jesus our High Priest sacrificed Himself for us. He opened the way to the Throne of Grace.

Warning, scrutiny, sympathy and finally an avenue to grace and mercy.  Thank you Jesus! Amen

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The Sabbath, the Disciples, the Beatitudes (Luke 6)

by TerryLema

Wow, what a chapter! It begins with Jesus proclaiming that He is Lord of the Sabbath. (The Sabbath means far more than just taking one day off from work to rest. It means a deep rest, a profound peace. When Jesus says He is LORD of the Sabbath, He means He is our deep rest and our eternal peace.)

Then Jesus calls His disciples together and chooses 12 to be His closest. He calls them apostles. For the remainder of the chapter, Luke recounts an abbreviated version of the Sermon on the Mount.  A large portion of that is dedicated to loving our enemies.

“But I say to you who listen: Love your enemies, do what is good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you…. For He is gracious to the ungrateful and evil. Be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful.”  [Luke 6:27, 35b-36 HCSB]

Sometimes Christians can be cavalier about “loving our enemies.” We all know what Jesus said. We even think we are doing it. But are we really? Or are we choosing which of “our enemies” to love?

It is easy to love your enemies if you get to choose which ones – because we will usually choose as enemies those who are just a little irritating or annoying. We seldom choose to love those who can do immeasurable harm to us, or those with whom we have major disagreements. (Think political figures we disagree with, or those on the other side of the virus and vaccine debates, or those who hate Christianity and seek to stamp it out.)

But Jesus was specific. We are to do good to those who hate us. We are to bless those who curse us (and those who curse our God). We are to pray for those who abuse us.

We are to be merciful simply because our Father is merciful (and has extended that mercy to His greatest enemies – us!)

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Following Me …

by TerryLema

“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.” [Psalm 23:6 NKJV]

Have you ever wondered about that phrase … shall follow me?  What does it mean to have goodness and mercy follow us?

Actually, in this case, the Holman Christian Standard gives us a better idea.  “Only goodness and faithful love will pursue me all the days of my life….”

The word translated “follow” in most translations is “radah” in Hebrew. It means to pursue, chase, and even persecute. It is used often in the context of war. (Read Genesis 14:15, Deuteronomy 11:4, and Joshua 7:2 for examples.)

To think of goodness and mercy or goodness and faithful love simply following us is a bit passive. The LORD’s love and mercy do not just meander along behind us somewhere.

Instead, they have an intense focus … they chase after us like an army would, but unlike an army that seeks to harm, the LORD’s active and relentless love is not seeking to harm us, but to bless us.

Too often people think that when God pursues them it is to take everything away. They think that coming to Christ Jesus as Savior means giving up everything. Instead, God pursues us so that He might bestow His amazing goodness and love, His goodness and mercy upon us in bountiful abundance!

Praise the LORD God Almighty and Bless His Holy Name Forever! Amen

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New Every Morning

by TerryLema

One of the first things I do every morning is go to my kitchen and get the coffee started. It is all set up the night before, so I simply pour the water into my Bunn coffeemaker, shut the lid and in about two minutes I have a pot of steaming hot coffee. The second thing I do (during that two minutes while I am waiting for the coffee to brew) is to take the prior day’s kitchen towels and wash cloths and toss them in the laundry basket.

I like to begin the new day with fresh towels. (My husband, on the other hand, could use the same towel for a decade without it ever seeing the laundry basket.) I am very careful in my kitchen. I scrub the sink regularly, sanitize the disposer, make sure the counter tops are clean. I use a separate cutting board for raw meat. I wash my hands frequently when handling anything I think might contaminate.  We rarely get any type of stomach bug and I think my efforts in the kitchen contribute to our health.

As I took fresh towels and cloths out of the drawer this morning, I was reminded of God’s promise to us. “Through the LORD’s mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness. ‘The LORD is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘Therefore I hope in Him!’” [Lam 3:22-24 NKJV]

The LORD’s compassions and mercies are fresh every morning. No matter how used and soiled we may get by life, when we wake each morning God is there to be our “portion.” His is a “portion” that never runs out, enough for each day and refreshed again each morning.  We can be assured when we place our trust in Him that He will never disappoint, never disappear, never fail us.

“Great is Your faithfulness, O God!”

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Sweet Mercy!

by TerryLema

Matthew 5:7: The merciful are blessed, for they will be shown mercy.  [HCSB]

 That Scripture verse from the Sermon on the Mount came as a Verse of the Day to my inbox the other day.  It started me thinking about mercy and being merciful.

The word for mercy is “eleémón” and it means full of pity, merciful, compassionate. One of the word studies I checked said it is “acting consistently with the revelation of God’s covenant.”

We are shown mercy by our Father God who loved His creation so much that He sent His beloved Son to die to save it. We now, having experienced that covenant of God’s mercy are to be merciful to others.

Unfortunately, being merciful is not overflowing in modern society. We have little patience with anyone or anything that goes against our “opinions.”  We seldom give people the benefit of the doubt. The media is intent upon finding anything wrong they can dig up in the lives of others. Even our 30-minute national news outline is 29 minutes of all that is wrong everywhere, ending with 1 minutes of an “uplifting” story.

God’s people are to be different from this “present age.” We are to be merciful to others. This is also one of those “back at ya” rules in that the more merciful we are to others, the more mercy we will receive in return.

Mercy is to influence our attitudes toward all people—family, friends, enemies … and yes even politicians and broadcasters and freeway drivers! It should also drive our actions. When we are merciful, we pray, we give, we spend our time and money on others, we help, we support, we love.

Oh, Father, let us be a channel of the mercy you gave us … let it flow from Your heart to ours and then to those we meet every day. Amen.

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Gifts & Boldness

by TerryLema

As I look back on Christmas 2020, I see sadness and joys. One sadness came when our California children were locked down so far away. Our plans to be with them faded long before the Thanksgiving holiday, so it was not unexpected. When Christmas arrived, while we knew we would not have them with us, that sadness enveloped us anew.

While sad over our California kids, God blessed us with newfound joys. Our youngest son met a lovely young woman with three children. They became part of our 2020 Christmas celebration, and we laughed and loved and enjoyed watching once again small children amid Christmas Day “chaos!”

I find that the greatest gifts are not usually the material ones. The greatest gifts are those which minister to my heart.

One of my favorite “let us” commands in Hebrews is one that revolves around receiving gifts. “Therefore, let us approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us at the proper time.” [Hebrews 4:16 HCSB]

We are told to approach God’s Throne of Grace with boldness. Boldness is not arrogance. The Greek word used by the author is “parresia” and it carries the idea of free and fearless confidence, cheerful courage, and assurance.  It has none of the superiority attitude or overbearing manner contained in arrogance.

No, this boldness is based on our relationship with Christ Jesus our High Priest, and upon His invitation to come into His presence. When we accept His invitation to approach the Throne of Grace, we are to “fear not.”

And, it is at His Throne of Grace that we will find the gifts that minister to our hearts … mercy and grace. 2020 needed a lot of mercy and grace, I am betting 2021 will also!  So “let us” approach God’s Throne of Grace with free and fearless confidence and cheerful courage!

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God is Not Silent …

by TerryLema

Micah 6:8: “Mankind, He has told you what is good and what it is the Lord requires of you: to act justly, to love faithfulness, and to walk humbly with your God.” [HCSB]

I came across that verse last Monday afternoon. It is a well-known verse. I have seen it quoted often. I have heard messages on it and even preached messages on it myself. It made me consider a few things once again.

First, God is not – never has been – silent about what He expects of His creation. He has told us what is good, and He has been consistent in reminding us what is required of us. He did it in the Old Testament, and He repeated Himself through His Son in the New Testament.

It is clear. We are to act justly. We are to love faithfulness, or as the NKJV translates, we are to love mercy. We are to walk humbly with our God.

We are to act justly. As disciples of Christ Jesus, we are to act toward and treat all rightly, honorably, fairly, and honestly. Not always easy, but when have the commands of obedience from our God ever been easy! There are many in this life who have not been treated honorably or fairly. We can place whatever terminology on it we want, but the church must never be in the business of treating people dishonorably or unjustly.

We are to be a people who love faithfulness and mercy. Love it, act upon it, reflect it, give it. We know God always treats us faithfully and that His mercies are new to us every morning, but do we treat others the same way? Are we faithful to them? Are the mercies we have for them new every morning?

Last of all, we are to walk humbly with our God. If we strive to do the first two commands, we will find out just how difficult they are – then it is easy to walk humbly with our God!  There can be no arrogance, no pride, when we discover just how far removed we are from perfect obedience to a perfect, holy, wonderful, faithful, just God.

Amen & Amen

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