“Mercy” isn’t the same as a shoulder-shrugging “tolerance,” an “anything thing goes” attitude to life. “Anything” doesn’t “go.” “Anything” includes arrogance, corruption, blasphemy, favouritism and lawbreaking of all kinds. If God was “merciful” to that lot, he would be deeply unmerciful to the poor, the helpless, the innocent and the victims. And the whole gospel insists that in precisely those cases his mercy shines out most particularly. So must ours.
Our holy faith does not consist in talking. ”Reality, reality, reality,” is what we want. Let us have heart-work; let us be genuine. Brethren! we should live so as to be missed – missed both in the Church and in the world, when we are removed. Oh how rapidly is time hastening on! We should live in such a manner as that, if we were called hence, our dear brethren and sisters might feel our loss, and from their inmost souls exclaim, “Oh that such a one were in our midst again! ” We ought to be missed even by the world. Worldly persons should be constrained to say of us, “If ever there was a Christian upon earth, that man was one.”
We can be a part of God’s rescue mission to heal the land and its people. Indeed, as we serve our communities in love, we heal our own minds. Love is the most powerful healing force. True love is not only a miracle but also creates miracles—true love has a “pay it forward” snowball effect. It is the key to a life of happiness, health, and peace for everyone and everything.
Jesus will say, “Well done, my good and faithful servant,” not “well said.”
It is most unfortunate that when the split between liberal and conservative believers took place in the last century, the liberals kept the social agenda and the conservatives kept the Scriptures, generally speaking. This resulted in one stream speaking up for social justice, without an accompanying emphasis on a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ, and the other stream being very Bible centred, particularly when it comes to the point of being born again, yet being dismissive of the social aspects of the Gospel for fear of the so-called social gospel. These two streams ended up opposing rather than complementing each other.
Jesus imparts, through the way that He loves us, the ability to love others deeply and freely. The love of Jesus makes it possible to truly care for, fight for, and serve our friends without worry or fear that they will not love us back. The love of Jesus frees us from the need to fight for ourselves, to protect ourselves, or take the weaknesses and deficiencies of those we love personally. His love is what makes true friendships endure the difficult seasons of life.
Do you want to look for my fullness?
Do you want to partner with me?
Do you want to count for my kingdom?
Do you want to see miracles and stand for justice?
Do you want to see reconciliation and people set free?
Do you want to see nations transformed by the power of prayer?
Then come follow me, and I will show you where to go.
It’s not to the platform and the spot-lit speaker.
It’s not to the conference, the meeting or the camp.
Come with me to the darkest places.
Come to the hurting, the howling, hollow faces.
Come with me to the addicted, convicted and caught.
Come with your light, run with your salt.
Come to the sorrow; the suicide tree.
Come to the stable—Come follow me.
I have observed that when any of us embarks on the pursuit of happiness for ourselves, it eludes us. Often I’ve asked myself why. It must be because happiness comes to us only as a dividend. When we become absorbed in something demanding and worthwhile above and beyond ourselves, happiness seems to be there as a by-product of the self-giving. That should not be a startling truth, yet I’m surprised by how few people understand and accept it. Have we made a god of happiness?
We become neighbors when we are willing to cross the road for one another. (…) There is a lot of road crossing to do. We are all very busy in our own circles. We have our own people to go to and our own affairs to take care of. But if we could cross the road once in a while and pay attention to what is happening on the other side, we might indeed become neighbors.
To be truly good means more than not robbing people. To be truly good means more than being righteously religious, to be truly good means being a good neighbor. And to be a good neighbor means recognizing that there are ultimately no strangers. Everybody is my neighbor! Everybody is my brother! There are no isolated wounded on the other side of the street! We’re all connected.