My Kids: Let Mercy Lead

There are some artists and some songs that are timeless.  Their message is pure and it’s central to the heart of God.  One song that I was listening to last night that fits into this category is a song by Rich Mullins called Let Mercy Lead. 

As a parent we want to teach, train and equip our children for life.  We want to give them every mean necessary for success.  We want to look back and know they we gave our children our all and we didnt’ hold back.  I realized something last night, no matter how much of myself I give my children, it will never be enough.  Why?  Because I’m flawed.  I have my own issues and my own problems and if I gave them 100% I would just be passing down the good and the bad, and I don’t want this for my children.  I want to give them more than that. 

And that’s where Rich Mullin”s song comes in. 

Me and your mom
And all the love we have
We can only take you so far
As far as we can
But you’ll need something more to guide your heart
As you grow into a man

My kids need more than my love to help them grow into the adults God wants them to be.  They need Mercy.  And Jesus Christ is Mercy.  And I need to give them the one thing that can fill all their needs, give them peace that surpasses all understanding, and allow my children to use their gifts to the fullest.  That one thing is Christ!

Let mercy lead
Let love be the strength in your legs
And in every footprint that you leave
There’ll be a drop of grace

I want Christ to be the strength in their legs, and grace to ooze out of every action, every thought, and every word.  I want to let Mercy lead in my life that it may be one thing I pass to my children.

Thanks to My Friends

The last 48 hours have really been interesting.  In the midst of the change going on, it’s been nice to have some really great friends.  I cannot say thank you enough to all the friends that have reached out to Alison and I.  The simple things like texting, “I’m really sorry.  I will be praying for you and the family” have made a huge impact on Alison and I both.  We’ve received phone calls, texts, and emails all expressing the care and concern for us and asking if there is anything we need.  All of these have been a huge blessing and I wanted to make sure and offer up a public thank you.

Proverbs 18:24 says, “One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.”  I’m truly grateful that I have reliable friends!  I’m grateful that I have friends that have stuck by Alison and I through think and thin.  That’s what church is about.  The church is about God creating a community (the body of Christ) and that we stick by each other in hard times.   We are loved and we love you!

Enemies and Prayer

 You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

Matthew 5:43-45

Matthew 5:43-48 is one of the more difficult teachings of Jesus.  To start off with Jesus acknowledges how the world thinks and operates.  Be nice to the people who are nice to you, but hate those who are opposed to me.  “Scratch my back and I will scratch yours.”  For the most part this is how our society operates today.  We are more than willing to help other people in so much that we know they will pay us back, there will be some type of reward or we will get some type of recognition.  What’s in it for me?  How will I benefit from this?

Jesus’ teachings were just as countercultural in the 1st century as it is today.  We are to LOVE our ENEMIES!   What in the world is that?  Enemies are people who are out to get us.  They want to see us harm us.  When it comes to LOVE, enemies would be the last group of people who would receive LOVE from us.  But Jesus challenges us with something beyond human understanding and comprehension.  He asks us to go beyond our normal instincts and do something out of the ordinary.  There are no conditions on the request.  He doesn’t say love the nice enemies or the enemies or those who might be swayed by your kindness.  It’s just a straight forward commandment.  LOVE.

What makes things even more difficult is the LOVE that Jesus is describing is the same LOVE that God has for us, unconditional LOVE.   Love without merit or performance. 

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!

Romans 5:8-10

So when we LOVE our ENEMIES we are doing what God has already done for us through Christ Jesus.  He loved us when we didn’t earn it.  He loved us and when we were ENEMIES of God!    Jesus is not asking us to do what he himself has already for us.

So back to the practical side of things: How does this work in daily life?  We all have experienced times when we have a disdain for someone we work with, someone in our family or the guy who cut us off in traffic.  It’s easy to just want to hate them and move forward with our lives.  It’s easy to talk behind their backs, gossip and try to justify why we hate that person.  We feel right in our action to hate because we were wronged.  It’s their fault.  But when we buy into that philosophy we are following in line with ”Love your neighbor and hate your enemy’. We are doing the very thing that Jesus asks us to do.   The first thing we must do is to realize that our patterns of gossips, slanderous talk, anger and hatred are of the world and not of God.

The second thing we must do is pray.  It’s no coincidence that Jesus mentions LOVE and PRAYER almost interchangeably in Matthew 5:44.  Jesus wants us to realize that we can only LOVE others unconditionally through the power of Christ through the Holy Spirit.  We can only demonstrate the LOVE of God if the LOVE of God is real in active in us.  The only way that happens is being truly connected to Christ through prayer.  If we try to accomplish this level of LOVE on our own, we will fail.

So what enemies is the Spirit bringing to mind as you read this article?  Who have you had an attitude of hatred towards?  What names need to be added to your prayer list in order that you may demonstrate the LOVE of Christ that resides in you?