Take the Mercy

“For whatever reason God chose to make man as he is–limited and suffering and subject to sorrows and death–He had the honesty and the courage to take His own medicine. Whatever game He is playing with His creation, He has kept His own rules and played fair. He can exact nothing from man that He has not exacted from Himself. He has Himself gone through the whole of human experience, from the trivial irritations of family life and the cramping restrictions of hard work and lack of money to the worst horrors of pain and humiliation, defeat, despair and death. When He was a man, He played the man. He was born in poverty and died in disgrace and thought it well worthwhile.”–Dorthy Sayers

 

Before the universe began, from all eternity, Christ was in God. Since the birth of humanity, he has been a living Word. Then he dwelt among us on earth as a poor man. Risen from the dead, by the Holy Spirit he remains alongside each person.

 

 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”—John 1:14

 

Now that we know what we have—Jesus, this great High Priest with ready access to God—let’s not let it slip through our fingers. We don’t have a priest who is out of touch with our reality. He’s been through weakness and testing, experienced it all—all but the sin. So let’s walk right up to him and get what he is so ready to give. Take the mercy, accept the help. –Hebrews 4:16-17 (The MSG)

 

Jesus, we are thankful that you ‘walked in our shoes’ and you know our pain and struggles intimately through first hand experience.  Thank you that you are with us even now and forevermore. 

 

 

 

 

 

Lent-Indentifying With Christ’s Suffering

Lenten season is the time when we especially identify with the sufferings of Jesus.  During Lent we walk the way of the cross, we share in his rejection when the religious leaders and others turned from him, rejected him, and plotted his death.  Lent is a time for repentance and renewal, a time to fall at the feet of Jesus and admit our sinfulness and our need of him.  Lent is a time to confess, and cry “Lord have mercy on me, a sinner!”  Lent is a time for humility and repentance, a time to get on our knees and get right with God.
-Robert Weber  

Lord, wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Let me hear joy and gladness…
hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities, 
create in me a clean heart, O God,
and put a new and right spirit within me.
-Psalms 51:7b, 8a, 9-10

Our Fathers

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Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best;
but God disciplines us for our good,
that we may share in his holiness—Hebrews 12:10 

Because the LORD disciplines those he loves,
as a father the son he delights in.. –Proverbs 3:12

 “Blessed is the man whom God corrects;
       so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty.
 
For he wounds, but he also binds up;
       he injures, but his hands also heal.—Job
5:17-18

Uniqueness of Christianity

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Christianity with its doctrines of humility, of forgiveness, of love, is incompatible with the State, with its haughtiness, its violence, its punishment, its wars.-Leo Tolstoy 

Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I myself have founded empires, but upon what do these creations of our genius depend?  Upon force.  Jesus alone founded his empire upon love, and to this very day millions would die for him.-Napoleon Bonaparte 

The cross of Christ is the still-point in a turning world.  Everything before leads up to it, everything that follows flows from it.  It is the climax of the story the center-piece of the whole drama-T.S. Elliot 

The essential fact of Christianity is that God thought all men worth the sacrifice of his son.-William Barclay

Remember When You Leave This Earth

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You have made my days few;
the span of my years is as nothing before you.
Each man’s life is but a breath.
Selah(pause and ponder this)—Psalm 39:5 

Remember that when you leave this earth, you can take with you nothing you have received, fading symbols of honor, trappings of power, but only what you have given; a full heart enriched by honest service, love, sacrifice, and courageFrancis of Assisi (1181-1226)

Children Are A Gift

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Sons are a heritage from the LORD,
children a Gift from him.—Psalms 127:3 

We will tell the next generation
the praiseworthy deeds of the LORD,
his power, and the wonders he has done.—Psalm 78:4 

It is easy to love those who are far away. It isn’t always easy to love those who are right next to us. It is easier to offer food to the hungry than to answer the lonely suffering of someone who lacks love right in one’s own family.  The world today is upside down because there is so very little love in the home, and in family life. We have no time for each other. Everybody is in such a terrible rush, and so anxious…and in the home begins the disruption of the peace of the world.-Mother Theresa