Lord, Mercy Please.

“Let thy mercy, O LORD, be upon us, according as we hope in thee.” Psalms 33:22

The prayer of the Psalmist here is for mercy. The word “mercy” here means – kindness – therefore the Psalmist is asking God for kindness, which neither the Psalmist nor we deserve. The Psalmist understood that it was God who delivered us from the eternal fires of hell and it is He whom we trust to be able to provide us with mercy. “Our soul waiteth for the LORD: he is our help and our shield.” V. 20 God is our help because without His loving gift of mercy, He never would have ever helped us in any area. God owes us nothing, people believe God functions at their command, but God is a Sovereign Being and reacts as He chooses. He owes us nothing, therefore He owes us no blessings or mercies. So we see the Psalmist clarified his request in verse 21 “For our heart shall rejoice in him, because we have trusted in his holy name.” It is in Him that we have found blessings, the blessing of salvation, the blessing of love, the blessing of protection and all other blessings. Therefore, it is Him that we very often call upon for the continued blessings in our lives, called mercy. When we ask God for mercy we are asking for His kindness toward us in the daily happenings of life. As Christians in the Twenty- First Century we need to group together and request of the Lord for mercy because of the world we live in. We live on the edge, we live in uncertain times, we live in very troubled time. We live in times that Christians have not seen since the “dark ages” when Christians were being murdered by the millions, just because they would not recant Jesus Christ or follow another religion. While the Lord promised more than we know, it is Him that our full trust and faith must be in. No one else can help us; no one wants to help us. We are totally going to make it because of Gods mercy. With that being said, that’s what I do, I ask the Lord for mercy in uncertain times. Christian friends, I plead with you to join me to ask God for much mercy, because anything can happen at any time in these uncertain times. However, I have faith, I have pleasure in the God that I serve and will trust Him with my entire being that He has us in His blessed hands and nothing can harm us unless He allows it. The Psalmist also reminds us “But let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice: let them ever shout for joy, because thou defendest them: let them also that love thy name be joyful in thee...For thou, LORD, wilt bless the righteous; with favour wilt thou compass him as with a shield." Psalms 5:11 - 12 Christians we have much to rejoice in because our entire existence is in the power of the Most High God. Therefore, let us be joyful because it is He who “dedendest” us. Boy, if that is not shouting ground I will never find it. This last part I really love “…wilt thou compass him as with a shield." The word “compass” means - to encircle – which means to form a full circle around us to make sure we are fully protected by our Saviour Jesus Christ, and since He has all power that is wonderful protection. Therefore, beloved, lets rejoice in this wonderful blessing, but also let us continually request mercy from the Lord in these most uncertain times. "Many sorrows shall be to the wicked: but he that trusteth in the LORD, mercy shall compass him about...Be glad in the LORD, and rejoice, ye righteous: and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart." Psalms 32:10 – 11 Amen!

The Greedy

1 John 3:17 “But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?”

I am a believer in sharing. Most of us have been without in this world and have been in the need of help. The worse people in this world is greedy people, but even worse are the greedy Christians. God has spoken so many times in His word about helping others in need. But, when it come to the household of God and other Christians, greed should never exist. No one will ever out give God, He has given so much us that it would be impossible to ever out give him. Let us look at a few gifts of God. (1.) He gave his love, before the creation of anything God had already given a remnant of people His love, (2.) He gave of His Son, God elected that only His Blessed Son could ever deliver the sinner from their sins, therefore He sent Him to this world born of a woman to sacrifice His life and blood for our sins. (3.) God gave the blessedness of adoption into His family, God could have chosen to give heirship to any of His creation but He chose to give it to the worst of His creation, sinful man. And (4.) He gave of the rest of the list of fruits listed throughout the scriptures. God did not have to give of these things, but he did and because He did we as believers in Jesus Christ are eternally blessed by God’s compassion. The Psalmist wrote in Psalms 86:15 “But thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, and gracious, longsuffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth.” The word compassion means - to have pity – This word compassion comes from the word mercy because it also means to have pity. Paul wrote of mercy "But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us...Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)" Ephesians 2:4 – 5 God loved us because He was merciful unto us. God was not or is not forced to love us, He does not love everyone, but if you are saved then He loves you.” As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.” Romans 9:13 The purpose in going through all this is to show that God is the prime example of what love and kindness is. Giving without being asked too. The hardest thing for people to give up is their money. I know it is hard, but if we are going to follow the commandments of God, then we cannot sit around and watch other Christian do without. God asked if a Christian “…shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?” What would you do if you where the believer in need? Would you want someone to help you? Folk’s, we must be careful here and obey the will of God. It is easy for us to shut up the bowels of compassion, but it is not godly too. Let us all be thinking on this subject the next time we see another Christian do without because we refused to help them. God said “Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” Hebrews 13:2 We must be careful, because we never know whom it is that is in need. Angels have visited this world as men several times and they could again. We need to think and pray before we shut-up the bowels of compassion to those believers in need. "Gracious is the LORD, and righteous; yea, our God is merciful." Psalms 116:5

Is The Gospel Hid?

“But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost…In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.” 2 Corinthians 4:3 - 4

The gospel message is the most powerful message of the bible. God said “...it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe." 1 Corinthians 1:21 the message is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Not that preaching the gospel is foolishness, oh no, it is the single most powerful message we can preach because it has saving power. The foolishness of it is what Satan has made it. People laugh and mock people who preach the gospel. They fail to see that in the message of the gospel, as simple as it is, can actually save a sinner. To them the gospel is hid, and it must be reviled to them before they will ever hear it. How many time does the bible speak of salvation and the simplicity of it? God said “And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.” Acts 16:31 but the argument is that God through Paul did not go far enough, that there is more to being saved, than the simple act of believing in Jesus Christ. They will say that salvation could not be that easy, making this thought foolishness to them. Many will say that there must be more, what about works, baptism, church membership, doesn’t all these have to fit into salvation. They will repeat “it just can’t be that simple”, but God said it was. God said of the gospel "And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son...He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life...These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. 1 John 5:11 – 13 God said that the record of God is that if we believe in Jesus Christ then we have eternal life, again excluding anything else. So people ask about works, they will say salvation is impossible if there is no effort on our part, that salvation cannot be that simple making it foolishness to them. But what they fail to see is salvation in Jesus Christ is not about our believing it is about the gospel in which we believe, "...how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures...And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: 1 Corinthians 15:3b – 4. So exactly how did Christ die, he gave his life on that cross for our sins, He shed His blood to heal or to pardon our sins just as God said He would, "But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed." Isaiah 53:5 But according to many this is just too simple; it must include something on our part. Well that is their blindness by Satan. Satan has the eyes and ears of the lost blinded so that they will never see, hear, understand, or believe the gospel message for salvation, even though it is the record of God. God said if one fails to believe this message and believes in another path, then they make God a liar. "He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son." 1 John 5:10 This is Satan’s lie, that salvation must involve more than faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ. So Satan adds works, baptism, church membership, or etc. This is why it is impossible for a lost person to see this truth. Satan has the truth hid. So God must shine the salvation light on a sinner before they will ever see the gospel for it’s true meaning. It takes the power of God to overpower the power of Satan, therefore if Satan has them blinded then God must make them see. This is why the gospel message of salvation is pure foolishness to them, they simply cannot see it.