Mercy Me part 4
I think its interesting that every time God (LOVE) has power over us, He does what is RIGHT for us. He never uses His power to dominate. And I like to quote 2 Corinthians 5:14 from the New Living Translation as much as possible, "Either way, Christ's love controls us. Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life." Because love doesn't demand its (HIS) own way... but Christ's love DOES control us. Either we think we don't have it and we do everything in our power to try to get it--looking for love in all the wrong places and making things worse and worse for ourselves and those around us--or we know and believe the love of Christ and we do everything we do in service to that love. When you know that you are loved... you can love. You are COMPELLED to love. Because love is too big to stay hidden inside us. What's inside DOES come out. Or, I should say, what you BELIEVE is inside comes out. What you do flows from what you believe. But my point is, when we were yet sinners (before the cross), when we needed mercy the most... that's exactly what God gave us. He gave us His life because, while there was nothing we could do for Him, He loved us and wanted to do everything for us. And let me qualify that: I love my son, Logan, and I want to do everything for him. I want him to have the best life that he can have. But that doesn't mean I DO everything for him. We have a rule and it goes like this, "Son, if you try your best and you need help... I will help you 100% of the time. But you have to try. You have to do what you can do." Because I want him to grow up to be a capable human being. I don't want him to be helpless. I want him to be helpful. I want him to be USEFUL (remember that Rant series about kindness?). But in the matter of Spiritual things, we don't have to try our best before God steps in. I mean, I guess in a sense we DID try our best before the cross. We did what we could with what we thought we had. The problem was, we didn't think we had anything. So we couldn't really do anything. "I'll scratch your back in the hopes that you'll scratch mine" was about as much as we could do. But then Jesus came to show us a more excellent way. To show us that turning the other cheek is better than an eye for an eye. To show us that once someone has forgiven you, you can forgive others. Once someone has been merciful to you, you can be merciful to others. And He told at least one parable to that effect--the one about the rich guy who forgave a debt, but then the guy who was forgiven DIDN'T forgive his neighbor's debt. And that was no good. Because we were created to receive and release. To fill ourselves to overflowing with what God has filled us with--His Spirit, His love, Himself--and let it come out. Naturally. When something is filled to overflowing you don't have to force it out. You can't keep it in at that point! And that's how the Kingdom economy works--freely you have received, freely give. You were shown mercy... show some mercy. Don't kick people when they're down. REACH down and help them up. Don't lord over people, or try to control, or dominate people. Just love the hell out of people and let things work themselves out. Its all about love, guys. Its all about love...