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. 

 

 

 

 

 

Constancy

Constancy
Constancy
Constancy:  The state or quality of being constant or steadfast; freedom from change; stability; fixedness; immutability; as, the constancy of God in his nature and attributes.

 We are facing difficult days, many we know and love suffer and there is much darkness and despair around us.  We must fight the temptation to leave the path of truth for the sake of some prospect of hope of our own. It is not our understanding of the situation which can show us what is wise, but only the truth of the Word of God. 

 

I will remember the deeds of the LORD;
   yes, I will remember your wonders of old.
I will ponder all your work,
   and meditate on your mighty deeds.

-Psalm 77:11,12

 

 It is easy to focus on the hardship and difficulties that fill our headlines and our hearts.  But we do well to take to heart God’s command to reflect and remember all He has done for His people all that He has done for you and me.  Find comfort that constancy, stability, and faithfulness are found alone in Him. 

 

Want of trust is at the root of almost all our sins and all our weaknesses.  How shall we escape it but by looking to him and observing his faithfulness?  The man who holds God’s faithfulness will not be foolhardy or reckless, but he will be ready for every emergency.  Abraham held God’s faithfulness and offered up Isaac, “accounting that God was able to raise him…from the dead” (Hebrews 11:19, KJV)  Moses held God’s faithfulness and led the millions of Israel into the howling wilderness.  “and what shall I more say?”  for the time would fail me to tell” of those who, holding God’s faithfulness, had faith and by it “subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises…out of weakness were made strong.    -Hudson Taylor

 

Lord, lifter of our heads and hearts help us to gaze upon your beauty and reflect on your faithfulness.  Give us grateful hearts full of praise and thanksgiving.  Amen 

 

 

 

What do you want?

We live in a time when we can look around us and see the dire thirst of the world around us.  We find ourselves in a world filled with many tempting waters said to satisfy any thirst. In Jeremiah it is said that the people had erred in two ways they had forsaken God, the living water, the source.  Secondly, they had built their own cisterns, ones that were faulty full of cracks and leaks.  Jesus once asked two men who were following him, “What do you want?” It is a question I believe he still bids us to answer. What is it you thirst for? What is your heart’s deepest desire? Is the world you have created to manufacture life and happiness working?  Are you in an unending cycle of grasping and clinging for life that is always seeping out of your grasp?  -unknown

 

 we read Jesus’ own words, that those who give themselves to him will receive a “living water,” the Spirit of God Himself, that will keep them from ever again being thirsty—being driven and ruled by unsatisfied desires—and that this “water” will become a well or spring of such water “gushing up to eternal life” (John 4:14).  Indeed it will even become “rivers of living water” flowing from the center of the believer’s life to a thirsty world (John 7:38).–Dallas Willard

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

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

Let All Things Their Creator Bless

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Praise the Lord, all you nations!
Extol him, all you peoples!
For great is his steadfast love toward us,
and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever.
Praise the Lord!—Psalm 117

Let all things their creator bless,
and worship him in humbleness,
O praise him, Alleluia!
Praise God the Father, praise the Son,
and praise the Spirit, Three in One:
O praise him, O praise him,
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!
-from All Creatures of Our God and King-words written by Francis of Assisi (1182-1226)

Jesus Spent Much Time Healing The Sick

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He heals the brokenhearted
and binds up their wounds.
He determines the number of the stars
and calls them each by name.
Great is our Lord and mighty in power;
His understanding has no limit.
The Lord sustains the humble
but casts the wicked to the ground.Psalms 147: 3-6 

Our Lord Jesus spent much time in healing sick people, and in the natural course of events it happened that the last thing He did with His kind hands was to heal a bad cut.  (I wonder how they could have the heart to bind His hands after that.)  In this, as in everything, He left us an example that we should follow in His steps. -Amy Carmichael

By His Wounds We Are Healed

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But He was pierced for our transgressions.He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishmentthat brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed.—Isaiah 53:5  

What Thou, my Lord, hast suffered
Was all for sinners’ gain;
Mine, mine was the transgression,
But Yours the deadly pain.
Lo, here I fall, my Savior,
It is I who deserve Your place;
Look on me with Your favor,
Promise to me Your grace.
-from O Sacred Head, Now Wounded, written by Bernard of Clairvaux (1091-1153)

What To Fill Your Minds With

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Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.—Philippians 4:8-9

Love is born of an earnest consideration of the object loved—Thomas Aquinas