Mercy

. Part four of lesson three/mercy To be merciful is to forgive. I wrote a series on forgiveness in a blog we call “moreaboutHisWord” and here is an excerpt from that blog, July 08, 2007
The test of our spirituality is in forgiving.“Brethren, if any person is overtaken in misconduct or sin of any sort, you who are spiritual [who are responsible and controlled by the Spirit] should set him right and restore and reinstate him, without any sense of superiority and with all gentleness, keeping an attentive eye on yourself , lest you should be tempted also. 2)Bear (endure, carry) one another’s burdens and troublesome moral faults, and in this way fulfill and observe perfectly the law of Christ (the Messiah) and complete what is lacking (in your obedience to it).” A quote from the Amplified Bible found in Galatians ch. 6:1-2. The next verse 3 really should make us squirm if in fact we have been guilty of judging somebody else in their indiscretions. It says “For if any person thinks himself to be somebody [too important to condescend to shoulder another’s load] when he is nobody [of superiority, except in his own
estimation], he deceives and deludes and cheats himself.”What a responsibility we have for each other as Christians and it brings to light the importance of the scripture found in Hebrews that says “exhort one another daily while it is called Today”. Heb. 2-13. That means to warn, urge admonish and encourage one another every day. Wow! Have we missed the mark or what? That verse in Hebrews goes on to talk about the deceitfulness of sin by the fraudulence, the stratagem and the trickery which the delusive glamour of sin plays on an individual. The delusive glamour of sin. Now that is a mouthful isn’t it? But oh, how true and how many times we fall for it. I believe we can do more and we need to do more. When I look around at many of what were once thriving congregations filled with a good contingency of young people and young families, and today our numbers have been decimated and our average age is somewhere in the fifties or sixties, is this part of the reason …..We have not been caring for each other like we should be? Are we spiritual? Let us encourage each other and exhort each other….daily the Bible says. Do you pray for a specific individual each day? I’m talking about somebody outside your own family, someone you may or may not like all that much, maybe. I have a friend who will remain nameless who prays for me each and every day. And I pray for him, although I have to confess I am not as faithful as he is. (Forgive me brother) But I am going to get better. I am determined to do better and I can because the Bible says I can. In the book of Romans ch. 12 and verses 9&10 it says “Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. I have been doing a kind of series on forgiveness and the responsibility is ours to forgive one another when we fall into sin. Whispering and murmuring and backbiting have no place in the life of a Christian. It is the opposite of forgiveness, in fact it is judging another person and in itself (I’m still speaking of the backbiting et al) in itself is sin. May God convict us and may we ask His forgiveness and work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. Mercy means forgiving one another, it means not pointing fingers at one another, in fact it means forgetting those things that have happened that have caused you or I to look down on some brother or sister that may have caused us pain. Remember the words of Jabez in 1 Chronicles 4:10. He prayed to the God of Israel, “Oh that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory and that your hand would be with me, and that you would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!”NKJV that should be
the prayer of every one of us tonight. The Blood has been applied to the Mercy Seat tonight! Can you say Amen?