mercy – SeekGrowLove.com

Look UP!

The comedic author Erma Bombeck once wrote a book entitled: “If life is a bowl of cherries, what am I doing in the pits.” It’s a funny play on words using “the pits” as the antithesis of the good life. The “pits” she’s talking about are not really cherry pits, those things you spit out after you have eaten the deliciously sweet cherry, but the pits of despair. Webster’s Dictionary defines “the pits”: “something that is very bad or unpleasant. You caught the flu on your birthday? That’s the pits! This rainy weather is the absolute pits.”

You’re in the pits when things are going horribly wrong, or when you are feeling low. You feel low when you are depressed, like there is something heavy weighing down on you.

Psalm 130 is known as a penitential psalm (Psalm 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, 143). It starts out very low, “Out of the depths I cry to you, LORD”. This person is in deep despair because they are weighed down by feelings of guilt. They have done something terribly wrong and they are weighed down with the heaviness of regret.

In the Bible there are stories of people who are down in the pits of despair who cry out to God. When Joseph was taken by his brothers and thrown into a dry cistern down in the earth, he was in the pit. When Jonah was swallowed by the whale (or great fish), he was in the pit. When Daniel was thrown into the den of lions he was in the pit. But each of these people when they were in the pit cried out to God. And that’s what this Psalm writer does from the depths, they cry to God. They cry for mercy.

They acknowledge that it is only by God’s mercy that they are able to get out of that pit. If God kept a perpetual record of our sins that we had to carry around with us all of our lives none of us could stand under the weight. Imagine trying to swim holding a 100 lb barbell in your hands… you would sink to the bottom in an instant.

Psalm 130 is also one of the songs of ascents. This selection of Psalm from Psalm 120-134 were sung by worshippers journeying to the temple in Jerusalem to worship God by offering sacrifices. They would sing the songs of ascents as they climbed up Mt. Zion. They would sing them as they walked up the steps to the temple bringing with them their sin offering, their guilt offering and other reminders of their need for God’s mercy and forgiveness.

Notice as the Psalm begins they are “in the depths crying for mercy” lamenting that no one can stand in God’s presence as long as God remembers their sins. But feel them rising up as they get closer to the top of the mountain, closer to Jerusalem, closer to the temple, closer to God. There is the hope of forgiveness. There is this longing for God, they are waiting with their whole being for God, they are putting their hope in God. As they look up and draw closer to God they are literally coming up from out of the pits, out of the depths of misery and despair into God’s mercy and forgiveness into the arms of God’s unfailing love and full redemption. They are being bought from slavery to sin and given freedom in God.

So many people today, like this Psalmist, are in the pits. The rates of depression are incredibly high. A study in 2020 showed that 37 million Americans take anti-depressant medication (the numbers undoubtedly have gone up in the 2 years since then due to Covid lockdowns). Over 100,000 people died in 2021 from opioid/fentanyl overdoses. People take these pain killers not for physical pain but to try to relieve existential pain and despair. Suicide rates are rising because people find themselves in the pits and can’t find a way out.

Psalm 130 says to them and to us…. Look up, there is a way out. God is the way out of that pit of despair. God rescued Joseph from the pit and he became the most powerful man in all of Egypt and saved his whole family from starvation. God rescued Jonah from the pit of the whale and Jonah preached salvation to the entire city of Nineveh and they were restored to God. God closed the mouths of the lions and Daniel was rescued by God from the pit of lions. Even Jesus was in the pit of despair on the cross from which he cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” as he took the total weight of the sin of the world on his shoulders. God rolled back the stone and rescued Jesus from the pit of the tomb and brought him out to everlasting life.

There is no pit too deep for God to bring you out of if you will cry out to him, look up and move toward him. Ascend from the depths of despair to God’s mercy and forgiveness and true life through faith in Jesus Christ.

-Jeff Fletcher

Reflection Questions:

1. When was a time that you were in the pits? How did God help you out of that pit?

2. If you’ve experienced God’s saving hand in the pit, who can you share that hope with to help them out of the pit?

2022 SeekGrowLove Bible Reading Plan Download

Forgiven Much, Loves Much

John 9

April 6

Jesus heals a man born blind with a spit-filled mudpie. Creative. Unexpected. A tiny bit gross.

Totally worth it though, I imagine, to the man who can now see.

What we’re going to focus on, however, is the reaction to this healing by the elite, the ultra-religious, the Pharisees. Because this man’s miraculous healing happened on the Sabbath, they’re a little put out. A lot, actually.

As they drill him for information about the person who healed him, he does pretty good holding his own:

“Here is an astonishing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes.We know that God does not listen to sinners, but he does listen to one who worships him and obeys his will.Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind.If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”

They answered him, “You were born entirely in sins, and are you trying to teach us?” And they drove him out.

What they’re really saying is, “Who do you think you are?”

Matthew Poole’s commentary captures the attitude of their statement in this interpretation of their words:

Thou that art such a marked villain from thy mother’s womb, or that art such an ignorant idiot, dost thou think thyself fit to instruct us about true and false prophets, who are of God, and who are not? Surely we are to be thy teachers, and not thou ours.

It’s an indignant attitude, definitely an attitude of pride, wouldn’t you say? But we’ve all been there. We refuse the information because we don’t like the source. Maybe it’s because we feel superior (like the Pharisees). Or perhaps we simply don’t like them.

This passage reminds me of another time we can see the Pharisees’ pride shine a spotlight on their shame.

Luke describes a time that Jesus was dining at a Pharisee’s home and a sinful woman anointed him. In chapter 7 it says that she was “at his feet, weeping, and began to bathe his feet with her tears and to dry them with her hair. Then she continued kissing his feet and anointing them with the ointment.”

The passage goes on to describe how Jesus puts the shocked and indignant religious crowd in their place. He tells them that “her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.””

In both of these cases, we see beautiful examples of how Christ’s mercies are most valued by those who have felt the want of them. (Matthew Henry’s commentary on John 9:34)

There’s a song by Ten Shekel Shirt that captures this, I think. And it’s a good place to pause and reflect after this chapter.

I come to Your feet and weep
Remembering how You changed me
I kneel at Your feet humbly
I pour out my love and my thanks

I am the one who’s been forgiven much
I am the one who loves much

I sit at Your feet in peace
Sensing a smile over me
I’m here at Your feet gladly
Giving my love and my thanks

Listen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VrfvALiE8s

-Susan Landry

Questions for Reflection and Discussion:

Have you ever struggled to accept something as truth just because of the source? Why do you think that is? How can we be better at preventing this attitude?
Do you feel like you are someone who ‘loves much’ or ‘loves little’? If you’re unsure, pay attention to your actions, thoughts, and words for the next week and ask God to show you.
Re-read John 9:40-41. Restate Jesus’ words in a different way. What is he saying? What can we learn from his statement?

2022 SeekGrowLove Bible Reading Plan Download

Get Right with God

Micah 5-7

Many people point to Micah 6:8 as a simple, straightforward verse telling us how to get right with God: Micah 6:8: “He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”

Let’s look at this in context.

Micah 6 starts out as a courtroom scene. “Plead your case”… “For the Lord has a case against his people”. God then reminded His people of the things He had done for them including leading them out of Egypt, protecting them from Balaam’s cursing them, and leading them into the promised land.

We might pause here to remind ourselves how the Israelites reacted to each of God’s protections that He pointed out to them here.

He led them out of Egypt to be His people, but they grumbled repeatedly, wanting to go back to Egypt; worshiped a golden calf; and didn’t trust that God could bring them into the promised land – so they had to wander in the desert for 40 years.
He caused Balaam to bless Israel instead of cursing them. This was a spiritual battle God was fighting on their behalf, without them even knowing about it. Their response was to sin sexually with Moab’s women and worship Moab’s gods – so God sent a plague and killed many of the Israelites.
He caused the Jordan River (at flood stage) to dry up, letting the Israelites cross on dry ground. This was reminiscent of what He had done for the Israelites when they had left Egypt 40 years earlier. God had done for Israel what they could not have done for themselves – but the people didn’t remember all the righteous acts God had done for them, and turned away again and again.

In Micah 6:6-7, we see that things we do can’t reconcile us to God, including bowing down to Him (presumably in hollow worship), performing sacrifices (remember that to obey is better than sacrifice), even sacrificing things most precious to us – including our children. None of these things can reconcile us to God.

Then, we find the beautiful verse of what God really wants. Not religious ceremonies, but moral and ethical conduct – “To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”

None of us can do these things until we first submit to God as broken sinners and allow Him to transform our lives. We can only act justly once we have been justified. We can only love mercy (and extend it to others) once we have experienced and recognized God’s mercy. We can only walk humbly with our God after we bow humbly before Him, confess our sins, and claim his promise of forgiveness (I John 1:9).

Titus 3:5 reminds us, “He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.” So people are misguided if they think they can follow this formula from Micah 6:8 to be saved. It’s only because of our saving relationship with God that we can do what He requires in Micah 6:8.

As we continue reading Micah, we see that Israel hasn’t lived up to God’s requirements, so in 6:13, He says, “Therefore, I have begun to destroy you, to ruin you because of your sins.” If God treated Israel this way, and if God doesn’t change, I’ll let you consider for yourself the implications for you and the implications for our nation.

Micah 7:13 is pointing to a time still in the future to us, when “the earth will become desolate because of its inhabitants, as the result of their deeds.”

But the last 3 verses of Micah remind us of who God is and what He has done in the past.

Micah 7:18-20: “18 Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy.

19 You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.

20 You will be faithful to Jacob, and show love to Abraham, as you pledged on oath to our ancestors in days long ago.”

To quote Warren Wiersbe from his Bible commentary, “the better we know the character of God, the more we can trust Him for the future. The better we know the promises and covenants of God, the more peace we will have in our hearts when things fall apart.”

In closing,

We need to recognize we can never measure up to God’s requirements on our own.
We need to humbly come to God as broken sinners, confessing our sins, and asking for His forgiveness.
We need to remember who He is, what He has done in the past, and what promises He has made for the future.
We then need to develop a deep personal relationship with God.

Only then can we “be imitators of God as dearly loved children” (Ephesians 5:1). And only then can we live a life acceptable to God – “To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”

-Steve Mattison

Read or listen to today’s Bible reading plan passages at Bible Gateway.com here – Micah 5-7 and Revelation 10

2021-seekgrowlove-bible-reading-plan-1 Download

God’s Business

Jonah 3-4

Yesterday, we saw Jonah’s reluctance to God’s call for his life. Actually, “active rebellion” against God’s call is more accurate! However, we saw Jonah pray to God during his time in the belly of the great fish. We were left asking the question, “Will Jonah finally answer the call to proclaim God’s message?”

He does. In 3:1, the word of the LORD comes a second time to Jonah. In 3:3, “Jonah obeyed the word of the LORD and went to Nineveh.” As the story goes, which so many of us learned in our childhood Sunday school, Jonah preaches that Nineveh will be destroyed, and so the Ninevites repented. And our happy ending occurs in 3:10: “When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened.”

But wait. There’s more.

Why was Jonah SO reluctant to preach to Nineveh? Why did he run in the opposite direction to avoid God’s call on his life? Why did it take a great storm, being thrown overboard, and three days in the belly of a fish to learn his lesson? And why did Jonah scoff at the mercy of God in 4:1?

The truth is, we will never be able to see Nineveh or Assyria in the same way Jonah did. We didn’t grow up witnessing the brutality and evil that Assyria committed with every passing year, and we will never experience the same wars and terrible things that it did to Israel. But Jonah was very close to the evil that Nineveh did. In fact, Jonah had some really good reasons to really, really dislike Nineveh. Jonah didn’t want to see God’s mercy extended to his enemies. He actually wants to see the destruction of a city with 120 thousand people because he dislikes them so much! In fact, he camps out at the edge of the city hoping that their repentance doesn’t last.

And so God decides to teach Jonah a lesson. He grows a plant that gives shade and comfort to Jonah, and then kills it. Jonah reacts with anger once again. And finally God teaches Jonah the lesson he needed all along: Nineveh is like the plant in this story. God grew it and has concern for it (see 4:11). But on the other hand, he scolds Jonah for caring about a plant he never grew in the first place. In other words, just like the plant, Jonah has no right to be angry about a people that are actually God’s business all along.

So what do we learn here? There are a lot of lessons that come out of Jonah: God’s ways are far higher than our ways. His sense of justice and mercy will sometimes be at odds with our understanding of justice and mercy. We are challenged to lay down our prejudice and serve others in the name of God. And when God calls you to Nineveh, don’t run away– just go!

-Levi Salyers

Read or listen to today’s Bible reading passages at BibleGateway.com here – Jonah 3-4 and Revelation 7

2021-seekgrowlove-bible-reading-plan-1 Download

Tough Love

1 Corinthians 13

The simplest truth about human relationships is that if we just loved one another a bit more, we would have fewer problems. I know, it is a bit cliche, but it doesn’t make it any less true. Our focus would be consistently outward. We would be ready to listen and meet the needs of others. God has made it pretty clear that the most hardened heart can soften by showing the quality that embodies who He is, yet it is a weapon we often leave unwelded. We often list our harshness or judgements under the guise of “tough love”, and this may or may not be true on a case-by-case basis. However, we must stick closely to the prescribed path in 1 Corinthians 13. It actually might be simpler to love “toughly”, but if you simply write people off, or find a way to punish them, or speak your mind without backing it up with the many other qualities listed here, you are a hollow box and a lot of noise. What’s tough love, really tough love, is to love someone who isn’t concerned in the slightest with being like God at the moment, or even ever. Love never fails. So you must love. You absolutely must. And your love must be like God’s love. Below I reworded one of the most famous passages of scriptures (v.4-7) that coincides with our reading and, most likely, one of the last handful of weddings you attended. My goal isn’t to add to the list, only to reword it to give it novelty in hopes to make it challenging or convicting instead of a rehearsal of familiar words. If it helps tune your mind to God’s love, wonderful. If it is a confusing mess, don’t read it. My concern is that you know loving is tough, especially those whose actions betray your love. That shouldn’t stop you. But THAT is tough love. And THAT is what God shows to each one of us on the daily.

For God to come in and change the “unlovable” (mind you, this can be and has been you), you must sit and listen. Listen to their problems and hear them say what they think, even if you don’t agree. You have to include them, share with them, and treat them with dignity, even if they are not concerned in the slightest about having any. To love, you have to let others be great and cheer them on. Sometimes this means the spotlight will come off of you, or you are treated as less important. If you are loving, you’re not concerned with that, because in love, others come first. Love holds back the insults, name-calling, and doesn’t attack a person made in the image of God. True love can be shown without expecting anything in return and can be left unreciprocated. On rare occasions, you can have angry love. You can be mad at someone because they are doing some serious sin damage to others or even him/herself. But you don’t start there. You don’t live there. You are truthful with someone, because lying is not loving. But you retreat quickly from the fight, and fill the space with mercy, more patience, and more kindness. That means love is forgiveness, and not holding grudges. We can love those who have wronged us. We can love those who have besmirched our reputation, injured our family through carelessness, or hate us because of our beliefs. We may know their wrong to us as a historical account, but not as an emotional one, and we thank God we have an opportunity to show love to them in such a way. In fact, loving like God means that you would actually stand-up for this person who has done you the greatest harm. Loving someone means that you are trusting without “but.” And that can be so hard. But trusting in God first and foremost allows you to do that. Believe in people. Never give up on people. Much easier said than done. It’s tough. So tough. But don’t let it stop you from trying. Your efforts are to help others see God, and they will know His love because it has been extended to and shown through you.

-Aaron Winner

Today’s Bible reading passages can be read or listened to at BibleGateway here – Esther 1-2 and 1 Corinthians 13

2021-seekgrowlove-bible-reading-plan-1 Download

Detestable Prayers

Proverbs 28

As Marcia mentioned in yesterday’s devotion, many of us were at Midwest Family Camp last week, where the theme was “Stand Firm”. In a nutshell, if we don’t have a relationship with the Lord, it is critical that we repent and come into a relationship with Him. If we already have a relationship with the Lord, we need to strengthen that relationship, and stand firm in the faith – no matter what.

In today’s reading in Proverbs 28, there are a few verses that jumped out at me which reinforced that message. The first is found in Proverbs 28: 9, “If anyone turns a deaf ear to the law, even his prayers are detestable.” This proverb tells us that if we’re not doing everything to live the life God called us to live, if we’re not following his rules, then He won’t listen to our prayers. Since many of our prayers are about asking for God’s help with various things, if we selfishly want Him to answer our prayers, then we need to obey His rules, and live for Him. As we grow in relationship with Him, we come to long for an even deeper relationship with the Lord. Then we learn that prayer is powerful, and we don’t waste it just asking for superfluous things.

Proverbs 28:13 goes on to say, “He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy.” This is saying if we pretend to be Christians, we won’t prosper (you can’t fool God). But if we confess and renounce our sins, and turn completely to God, we will receive God’s mercy. I don’t know about you, but I would much rather have His mercy than to have Him holding me back from prospering.

As we continue to read through this chapter, we get to verse 20, which says, “A faithful man will be richly blessed, but one eager to get rich will not go unpunished.” I’ll take a detour here and comment on the health and wealth teachings we often hear from people who don’t know better. The theory goes sort of like this… “if someone follows God, God will bless every aspect of their life. They will be rich, healthy, and blessed.” Many people who call themselves Christians subscribe to this false belief. Jesus told us in John 16:33, “…In this world, you will have trouble. But take heart, I have overcome the world.” We have to remember this life isn’t our reward. This life is the test to see what reward we will receive when Jesus returns. If we are faithful to the Lord now, we will enjoy peace with God now, and eternal life when Jesus returns. If we are just trying to get rich, we are actually worshiping money, not God — our reward is in this life, and we will forfeit eternal life.

1 Tim 6:9-11 says, “People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people eager for money have wandered from the faith and have pierced themselves with many griefs. But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness.”

Instead of trying to get rich, we need to follow the advice given in Proverbs 28:27, “He who gives to the poor will lack nothing, but he who closes his eyes to them receives many curses.” Again, I think the idea is that if I’m greedy, wanting to keep all my money for myself, I’m not trying to please God, I’m just greedy for money, and God will curse me for not following Him. But if I’m generous with the things God has given me by giving them to the poor — this mimics God’s generosity to me. When I am imitating God, God loves that. In fact we’re commanded in Ephesians 5:1, “Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children.”

So the bottom line is this. We need to do everything we can to reconcile ourselves to God. We need to confess and renounce our sins, obey His laws, be faithful, and be generous. All these things are required to live in close relationship with God. And if we live in a close relationship with God, we will have peace with God in this life, and an amazing reward in the life to come. In Rev 21:4, we’re told, “He [God] will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain…” Rev 21:7 goes on to say, “He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son.”

How well are you imitating Dad?

Stand Firm.

–Steve Mattison

Today’s Bible reading passages can be read or listened to at BibleGateway here – 1 Chronicles 23-24 and Proverbs 28

2021-seekgrowlove-bible-reading-plan-1 Download

Sin is Serious – And So is Mercy

Today’s Bible Reading – Genesis 35 & 36 and Matthew 18

I have watched just enough mobster movies to know the awful fate of those who anger the mafia boss and receive the “cement shoes” treatment. That is the vision that always comes to mind when I read of the seriousness of leading a child to sin. “And whoever receives one such child in My name, receives Me; but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it is better for him that a heavy millstone be hung around his neck, and that he be drowned in the depths of the sea.” (Matthew 18:5,6 NASB) Jesus was giving a pretty heavy answer to the disciples who had asked who would be greatest in the kingdom. He answered that instead of trying to be great, they should focus on being childlike instead – not immature (we see enough of that), but humble, knowing that they don’t know everything and they need a Father and a Savior. And while the child is standing in their midst – Jesus commends those who welcome a child and blasts those who recklessly (or accidentally?) lead a child to sin. As a parent and a Christian this is a strong warning that I will be judged based on how I am spiritually leading and guiding God’s children. I do not know where the line will be drawn. We might be able to safely point out some cases that would definitely receive Jesus’ condemnation (those who exploit children and youth for sex trafficking, pornography, cults or gangs). But what of the parent who signs their child up for the youth sports, campouts and Sunday morning jobs knowing it will take them away from opportunities for God’s little children to grow closer to Him? I don’t know. But it seems wise to do my best to err on the side of caution. What else can I be doing to spiritually guide His children away from sin? Life is easier when you don’t feel the weight of a millstone around your neck or cement hardening in your shoes.

And, if that isn’t scary enough – Jesus broadens the picture next – to all people and sinners and the extreme measures that need to be taken to keep oneself from falling into sin. “Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to stumble! Such things must come, but woe to the person through whom they come!” (Matthew 18:7 NIV). And then comes the gruesome cutting off of body parts that causes you to sin. This gives a strong mental picture of doing whatever it takes to hold oneself accountable and keep oneself from sin. If your eye causes you to sin, cut it out, to save yourself from judgment and hell. This is definitely true in a metaphorical sense. We need to do all we can, even what would be considered extreme measures, to keep ourselves from sin. And, sometimes that will mean cutting off the influence some people hold over us – cutting off a friend or family member or social media/entertainment who entices us to sin. It’s a hard thing to do, just like cutting off your hand – but it could save your eternal life. And, we must watch ourselves to make sure we are not the ones enticing others to sin!

While I love the parable of the lost sheep and it hurts to skip over it…I am going to skip ahead to the next two passages in Matthew 18 which both deal with the brother who sins against you. Having just established the seriousness of sin, the consequences for those who lead others to sin and the extreme measures we are to employ to keep us from sin – it is easy to assume that the best course of action is to shun all sin and sinners. But, wait, what kind of cut off, silent, lonely, bitter world would that be? While we are all sinners – God gave us a way to be forgiven and to restore relationships. Jesus begins to explain it here.

First, if a brother sins against you – go and talk to him. Matthew 18: 15-17 goes through an important series of steps to work towards either resolution or healthy distance and cutting off -and it starts with talking to the “offender”. Too often when we feel someone has sinned against us we talk to others about it. I know I am guilty of this and need to do a better job of lovingly confronting the person I have an issue with – first. So the steps Jesus laid out are: talk privately to the person, if he doesn’t listen take 1-2 witnesses and try again, if he doesn’t listen tell the church, if he still doesn’t listen cut him off. The goal is always to win him back to ‘God’s saving side’, not to humiliate, point fingers or feel better about ourselves or peace at any cost. But, sometimes repentance doesn’t happen, and then we must be willing to cut the ties that would bring others down to sin as well.

So, let’s assume we correctly followed the steps Jesus left. Peter asked how many times he needed to forgive a brother who sinned against him. He thought 7 sounded like a lot. But Jesus said no – 77 or 70 x 7 or whatever number you want to use to remind yourself to keep forgiving – the same way you want others to forgive you. And the same way God has forgiven you. I think we can safely assume this is not the brother who was unrepentant and cast out of the church, but a brother who was repentant and seeking to live a godly life – but still tripped up – like you and me. And so Jesus lays out the powerful Parable of the Unmerciful Servant (make sure you read it again). Now the harsh words and judgment are not for the sinner who tripped up, or even the one who caused him to sin, but for the one who didn’t forgive. “Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.” (Matthew 18:32-34).

It isn’t that sin is nothing – and easily forgiven. Sin (of all kinds) is something huge and serious and able to block us from eternal life. If we could see how much our sin hurts others, handicaps ourself and damages our relationship with God we might more readily run from it. But we don’t always, and God in His mercy still lays out a way for us to restore a relationship with Him, ultimately it would cost Him the death of His Son Jesus. To accept the forgiveness offered to you, but not extend it to others puts you again in grave danger. Sin is a big deal – and so is mercy.

-Marcia Railton

2021-seekgrowlove-bible-reading-plan-1 Download

Micah 1-7

What does the Lord require of you_

Micah was a minor prophet who simply conveyed the truths of God to the people of Israel of his day and in just 7 chapters he spoke volumes! What I love most about his message was that he spoke of God’s judgement as well as God’s mercy.

His task at hand must have been very daunting to speak in a day of a divided nation (Israel and Judah) about their sins and the judgement of destruction it would bring on them.

Chapter 1 speaks of their Idolatry and looting. (Vs. 6&7) Chapter 2 refers to the schemes of the wicked oppressors and their evil plots and injustice to others. (1-3) Chapter 3 brings out that the leaders were corrupt and many were “paying off” false prophets to tell the people what they wanted them to hear. (Vs. 5)

Can we relate to a nation like this?

But in the midst of this we are told in chapters 4 and 5 of the Peaceful reign to come in “Latter Days”. Chapter 5:2-5 tells us of the baby to be born in Bethlehem and that this One (Jesus) will be our peace.

How refreshing is that?

In Chapter 6 God speaks of all He has done for His people. His words apply to us today as well. He requires our faith and obedience to Him over our sacrifices. We are told that we cannot justify our own sins by living wicked and then offer burned sacrifices to obtain salvation. (Giving up your first born is mentioned.) Thank goodness Jesus is now our atonement and our way to salvation! (Vs. 6&7)

The answer to what God requires of us is found in the verse I would like to highlight today… act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with Our God (Vs.6:8). Do we show love, kindness and walk with Him?

The acknowledgement of the Prophet himself is what we find in chapter 7. He reflects on the mercies of God and how God is our Salvation and Light. He is quick to forgive, if we truly repent, and we are redeemed by His unfailing love and compassion. He will be faithful to His Remnant.

Thank goodness Micah bravely spoke truth in such a difficult day and time. The beautiful words we have from his message, along with Isaiah, Hosea and Amos’ as well, as they stood up for the ways of God despite the downward spiral of their society still speaks to us today.

Micah leaves us with the reminder that there is a final day of judgement coming for all the earth so we must stay faithful no matter what we are facing even in our uncertain present day. That false prophecy is ringing in our ears every day and we must ingrain ourselves in the truths of God’s word and stand up to a society where many are turning away from God. Jesus is with us in the midst of this and we are to follow him and look expectantly for his return. Our God is faithful and will remember those who have remained true to Him just as He did all those before us and all to come. Most of all God expects us to ACT JUSTLY, LOVE MERCY AND WALK HUMBLY WITH HIM. May the peace of Christ be with you today.

~ Donna L. Smith

Today’s Bible passage can be read or listened to on Bible Gateway.

Tomorrow, we continue reading the history of Israel in 2 Chronicles 28 & 2 Kings 16-17 – as we continue the 2020 Chronological Bible Reading Plan

Making a Different People: Healing and Uncleanness

Leviticus 14-15

Leviticus 14 and 15 have many rules about how to stay ritually clean and become clean, even after something that would make a person ritually unclean, like leprosy or bodily discharges. While this is, again, good but weird, we get the REASON for all these rules in Leviticus 15:31. “Thus you shall keep the sons of Israel separated from their uncleanness, so that they will not die in their uncleanness by their defiling My tabernacle that is among them.”(NASB) Another paraphrase, the Easy-to-Read Version, puts it this way: “So you must warn the Israelites about being unclean. If you don’t warn the people, they might make my Holy Tent unclean. And then they would have to die!” God didn’t want disease, discharge, sickness, and other things that could be damaging to the community to come into the tabernacle or the temple, where everyone would gather. The community was being protected by God by keeping these rules. If someone ignored these rules and put the community in jeopardy, they would have to die.

But there was also MERCY in these rules. Though the leper may be called unclean, there was a process where they could be made clean again. Though these bodily discharges COULD be bad, there was a process for being made clean again. A person was not neglected by the community forever; there was always a way back in.

Today, that way back into the community of God, to become clean before him, is Jesus. And Jesus is better than the rules of the law. Here, the sickness had to end, the disease had to stop; only then could one be made clean and come before God in honor and with sacrifices. However, Jesus himself takes away the diseases, he makes us clean. This is why the story in Luke 8:42-48 is so powerful. A woman, who was ritually unclean because of her bleeding, believed Jesus could heal her. She risked everything to simply touch his coat. Every person in that crowd, and Jesus himself, became ritually unclean because of the law in this part of Leviticus. But Jesus was not concerned about his cleanness, but about the woman’s healing. Praise God that we have a healer, a priest, who can not only make us clean and allow us into the community, but can take away our diseases and give life to our bodies!

Jake Ballard

Today’s Bible reading can be read or listened to at https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus+14-15&version=NIV

Tomorrow’s reading will be Leviticus 16-18 as we continue on our 2020 Chronological Bible Reading Plan

Can the Entitlement – Serve Some Mercy Instead

Free Theme – Beatitudes – Matthew 5:7

Matt 5 7 nasb

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and got to spend time with family and friends. I know in larger families it can be a real battle for food! I hope everyone got plenty turkey and their favorite side dish.

Yesterday we all celebrated what we were thankful for and it is super appropriate for today’s beatitude that we have this thankfulness in mind. It is amazing how easy it is for me to forget how good God has been to me. One day, like yesterday. I can dwell on God’s sacrifice of his son for all my sins and how he suffered through all my rebellion. He can get over all the times that I have hurt him via my sin in our relationship. He steadily pursues us and extends us grace for actions that no human being would ever forgive. He has ALWAYS taken me back when I came back from being a prodigal. He has never given up on me despite my poor character and my inabilities. He continually sees a value in me that I don’t see in myself. He has given me family, friends and relationships that I completely do not deserve. The older I get the more I see how messed up I really am just as a human being and God’s mercy behind it. The amazing thing is he still sees value in me and adopts me as his child. He still extends mercy and grace to me in spite of it all.

Sometimes I think that just saying “God is good” or worse yet using the cliché “God is good, All the time” doesn’t do any justice or come anywhere near to expressing exactly how good God is. It feels like all words and vocabulary fail to fully express all God has done. Maybe that is why all we‘re left with is “God is good”.

The crazy thing is that his mercies really are new every morning (Lamentations 3.22-23). Everyday I wake up and breathe; God supplies the air (Isaiah 42.5). He supplies us everything that we have. Our jobs, houses, cars, cell phone, internet, toys, entertainment, the plants, the trees, the turkey – it all belongs to him. He made it, he created it, therefore it is all his. We often forget that we are in somebody else’s house and nothing here actually belongs to us. It’s frankly embarrassing the entitlement and lack of gratefulness that I allow in my life. If there was a way to keep all this in our brains 24/7 we would be the happiest people alive. We should be the happiest people alive.

Our beatitude for today is Matthew 5.7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.”

I already feel like I have received the mercy that is promised here. Sometimes I am amazed at how good we have it in this life. Still I let my gratefulness get drowned out by a sense of entitlement towards God. When in reality he owes me absolutely nothing and everything that he has already given me is far more than I can repay.

Given all that I just talked about and how merciful God has been to us, I think we should extend that to others. If we live with this knowledge imprinted on our hearts it should actually be easy. There really is a redemptive quality to God’s love that allows us to forgive others. To show them grace when they absolutely don’t deserve it. We don’t have to be concerned about righteousness when we show mercy to those around us because we know that God has forgiven us for far more than anything a person could have done to us.

It’s this principle that I believe is our light to the world. We show mercy to those who don’t deserve mercy and love those who don’t love us because there is one who loves us far more. So, let’s have this attitude of gratefulness and let it overflow from our hearts to those around us. Forgiving and loving others the way that God has for us.

Daniel Wall

Tag: mercy

NO Pit TOO Deep

Look UP!