Friday: Mercy (5)

"For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him."

"Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing."

"I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise."

Good Morning, my dear brothers and sisters. It is Friday and the day we pray for all those who work for our Lord Jesus, all those who are going into the fields of Harvest and talking to people about the Good News. Also today, please pray for the family of Jordan. We have been praying for Jordan, 15 years old who had cancer. His cancer is gone, he is healed, he is with Jesus. Not the healing we wanted to see on earth. So pray for his family.

Mercy (5): All week we have been talking about mercy, today I want to talk to you about what I think was the greatest mercy shown which went for all people ... The mercy from God The Father through Jesus His Son was delivered on the cross FOR ALL PEOPLE. All you need to do to receive this mercy is believe in Jesus, and confess unto Him, and then work for Him. Let's face it, if we don't work for Jesus, how can we really believe in what He did for us and still does for us?

All these Bible quotes today will come from my NIV study Bible ...
John 3: 16 - "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever BELIEVES in Him shall not perish but have eternal life."
John 3: 17 - "For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him."
John 3: 18 - "Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son."

Now let us go to the cross with Jesus. This in my opinion is where all the mercy comes from when talking about our Lord Jesus. This is where the price was pa, on the cross. This is where our sins, yours and mine, mine and yours, and all the sins of the world, were nailed to the cross, and while Jesus was on the cross, with the nails in His hands, with His side pierced by the sword, with thorns in His head ... Jesus poured out mercy in the form of not just words but these things were written in His blood. Think about it as we review some of His last words ...

Luke 23: 34 - Jesus said: "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing."

Even as Jesus was telling His Father in Heaven to forgive them, they were dividing up His clothes.

Now when Jesus was put to death there were two criminals who were on crosses next to Him. Here is the word on them ...

Luke 23: 39 - One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at Him. "Aren't you the Christ? Save yourself and us!"
Luke 23: 40 - But the other criminal rebuked Him. "Don't you fear God," he said, "Since you are under the same sentence? 41 We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong."

Now here comes one really great ACT OF MERCY ... While dying on the cross Jesus forgave the one ... and guess what, the one that hurled insults at Him, WENT TO HELL. Here are the words of Jesus:

Luke 23:43 Jesus answered him, "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise."

Now if there is any doubt about where Jesus might have gone after being put to death, this tells me that as soon as Jesus died, He went to Heaven with the one criminal. Why do I think that? It is in the words of Jesus: Today I will be with you in Paradise. Not tomorrow, but today and Jesus would be with Him in Paradise, in Heaven. I picture it like this. Jesus takes this criminal up to God our Father, Jesus has forgiven him of all his sins and presents Him to God clean. It might have been something like this ... Hi Father, this is Joseph, he is clean of sin and I present him to you to get into Heaven. With that Jesus leaves. Now think of it, it is not going to be any different when we get called. If we know Jesus one on one and we love Him, it would go something like this ...

Hi Father, this is "Tim the Gospel Singer and he loves me and has confessed to me his sins. He is clean, please Father let Tim in. Or it might be like this: Hi Father, this is Dan the Mechanic who is now a pastor. He is clean of sin, please let him in. Hi Father, this is Sharon, she was in the Navy and worked at the Army Base after that. She loves me, Father, and she is now free of sin, please let her in. Hi Father, this is Leslie, and she has worked so hard for me Father, she has been forgiven of her sins, please let her in. Hi Father, this is (now if you love Jesus put your own name in here.) Remember, this is a very personal thing. I am going to do one more. Hi Father, good to see You, look at my hands and feet Father, see the nail scars that they put on me. Father, I did this for You and for all people of the world, red and yellow, black and white ... all people, Father. Oh, and here is "Joe the plumber". He was rough at one time, but he came to me. He gave it all over to me, Father, and I took all of his sins to the cross with me. Please let Joe into paradise.

Now that is the way I picture it on my mind.

Now one last thing ...

John 14: 1 - "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, trust also in me 2 In my Fathers house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I WILL COME BACK AND TAKE YOU TO BE WITH ME THAT YOU ALSO MAY BE WHERE I AM." (NIV) Yes, again all my Bible quotes came from my NIV study Bible.

Who else will show mercy like this?

John 14: 6 - Jesus answered, "I am the way, and the truth and the life ... NO ONE comes to the Father except through me."

Who else will show mercy like this? NO ONE!!! And if you are like me this morning you are jumping and shouting THANK YOU JESUS ... and giving a really big AMEN.

Dear Father in Heaven, again I ask for mercy for I am a sinner. Help me be of service to You in the fields of harvest. Help us, Lord. Be with all the workers of Yours. Lord, please touch these workers as I call them by name ... Pastors, Tony, Kevin, Rick, Charles, Larry, Paul, and me, Lord ... and all others who teach, preach, tell, show, etc., others about Your Love. Please heal Pastors Tony and Charles. And please intercede between two of those listed. You know who in the list has been reaching out to one of the others, help me get that fence mended. Lord, we need to get out the word about Your mercy and grace. Help us, dear Lord, help us. In the name of Jesus I pray, Amen.

Now folks go forth, sharing your blessings and showing mercy to others. Again I tell you that God is going to forgive you as you forgive others. It is the same with Mercy, for indeed if I had to come up with a one word description for mercy, after writing all week about it, it would be just this:

Mercy = Forgiveness! Forgiveness = Mercy ... and it starts with God, comes through Jesus and YOU MUST BE INVOLVED. Check out our Blogspot at carrythelight4Jesus.blogspot.com and get involved ... love ya, dan.