Tag Archives: compassion

Glimpses Of The Great God: Day Four

Devotion, , ,

DAY FOUR

 “Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.”

And the Lord said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. 

I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy,

and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.

But,” He said, “You cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.”

 Exodus 33:18-20

“Then the Lord came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed His name, the Lord. 

And as He passed in front of Moses, proclaiming,

“The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God,

slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness,

maintaining love to thousands,

and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. 

Yet He does not leave the guilty unpunished;

He punishes the children and their children

for the sin of the fathers

to the third and fourth generation.”

Exodus 34:5-7 

Notice in this revelation of God’s nature, both His mercy and His justice. God showed Moses that His glory is evident, not so much in what He looks like but in whom He is.  Never forget that God’s mercy is the weightiest part of His character.  Jesus illustrated, both in the stories He told and in the way He treated people, that God is a merciful God.  Francis Frangipane, in his book, “Mercy Triumphs Over Judgment”, put it like this, “God is not looking for reasons to judge us but for opportunities to show mercy.”  Allow God’s mercy to soak into your soul as you read through and reflect on this Scripture.

 

 

 

 

 

Stumped

Christian Life, , , ,

STUMPED

“One time, when Jesus went for a Sabbath meal with one of the top leaders of the Pharisees, all the guests had their eyes on Him, watching His every move. Right before Him there was a man hugely swollen in his joints. So Jesus asked the religion scholars, ‘Is it permitted to heal on the Sabbath? Yes or no?’

They were silent . So He took the man, healed him, and sent him on his way. Then He said, ‘Is there anyone here who, if a child or animal fell down a well, wouldn’t rush to pull him out immediately, not asking whether or not it was the Sabbath.’ They were stumped. There was nothing they could say to that.” Luke 14:1-5 (The Message).

How often did this scene not repeat itself and how often did Jesus not have to say the same thing and yet the same criticism was levelled against Him time after time. ‘Sabbath-breaker!’ What was wrong with the people that it was so difficult for them to understand the simple message of Jesus? He spoke it and lived it for three years and they still didn’t get it.

So what is this message that we have failed to grasp for the past two thousand years and are still not getting in spite of Jesus’ glaring example? It’s about mercy and compassion, not religion! Every time I encounter the ritualistic mumbo-jumbo that is done in the name of Jesus, I ask myself the question, “Is this why Jesus came?”

We have even managed to turn the work of the gentle Holy Spirit into a ritual. We lay hands on people and they have to babble or fall down, otherwise the Holy Spirit has not touched them! Is that really what we glean from God’s Word? How it must grieve the heart of Jesus that His church has wandered so far from His example and mandate.

The Pharisees were so stuck in their notion of God that not even the Son of God Himself could shift them from the beliefs and traditions that overruled their own Scriptures. They were so blinded by their arrogant pride and self-centred performance that they were unmoved in the presence of God Himself.

Strange that the ones who claimed to know God, never experienced Him right there and yet, people like Matthew and Zaccheus, greedy and wicked men, were transformed after one encounter with Him. And what of adulteresses, prostitutes, thieves, irreligious and thoroughly bad people? They melted in the presence of His holiness and were drawn to Him like moths to a candle.

When we meet in His name, what is the purpose of our gathering together? Is it to perpetuate our beliefs, traditions and practices or is it to have an encounter with Him that heals our ‘swollen joints’ and releases us from our pain and imprisonment? Jesus did not come to start another useless religion. There are enough of those already. He came to show us the compassionate heart of the Father and to release us from the bondage of Satan’s deception into the freedom of the sons of God.

Jesus is about taking us to the Father and introducing us to Him as “gracious, compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love and faithfulness” (Exodus 34:6). He is about reconnecting us to the Father and to one another so that we can experience our true humanity in unity with our Creator and His creation.

How does our futile religious gobbledegook contribute to His purpose? What does eating this and not eating that, or doing this and not doing that, do to help us do life together with one another and with God? Does keeping laws do anything to rescue a child or an animal that has fallen down the well on the Sabbath?

You decide…