All of Mercy

From Matthew Henry's comments on the parable of the prodigal son.

"His father saw him-- there were eyes of mercy;
he ran to meet him-- there were legs of mercy;
he put his arms round his neck-- there were arms of mercy;
he kissed him-- there were kisses of mercy;
he said to him-- there were words of mercy;
Bring here the best robe-- there were deeds of mercy;

Wonders of mercy-- all mercy!

Oh, what a God of mercy he is!

Oh, what a precious reception for one of the chief of sinners!"


This kind of mercy we often take for granted. Tonight as I read it I was struck with the thought of God' s redeeming love for such a sinner as I. If I were to receive what I deserve, I would receive Hell. Yet for His own glory He has chosen to save me from this fate and place me into His beautiful kingdom. Amazing!

But God continues to express and deluge me with with such mercy as I seek to follow Him down the Narrow Road. I can't make it. He has. I stumble. He stands. I despair. He is steadfast. I am week. He is strong.

I will arrive safely home. Jesus has promised me this (John14:3). And when I get there He will continue to pour out His grace and mercy upon me forever.

Ephesians 2:5-7 "even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus."

Amen! Come quickly, Lord Jesus!

Book of the Month

I have heard stories from Spurgeon to Jim Cymbala about the effectiveness of their preaching being directly related to the prayers of their church members. I think that there is truth to this line of thinking. God, through prayer, inflames the affections of His people with with His own passion. Because God has seen fit to reveal Himself through the folly of preaching, He works into His saints a love for preaching. We should then expect to be a people who pray for our pastors and their sermon each week.

That brings me to the book of the month this month. "Praying for Sunday" by Dr. Michael Fabarez is a challenging little book. In it we are exhorted to pray earnestly for the transformational proclamation and eager reception of God's Word each and every Sunday. Bryan Chapell, President of Covenant Theological Seminary, says "When God's people pray for their pastor to be equipped for such moments, then preaching becomes something truly supernatural. The preacher will be strengthened by such prayer, and the people will hear sermons as they have never before have."

So this is not just a book for my benefit, as the Pastor, but for the entire congregation. My hope is that every member of our church would get a copy of "Praying for Sunday" an put it into practice. We will be a deeper, healthy, more mature, in love with Jesus, preaching loving church for it.

A thought from Calvin

"Now there is a fear which would most willingly flee from the judgment of God but which, being unable to do so, dreads it more than ever. True godliness does not lie here. It consists, rather, of a pure and true zeal which loves God as a real Father and looks up to Him as a real Lord; it embraces His righteousness and detests offending Him more than it does dying.

And all those who have this zeal do not set about rashly fabricating a god in line with their own wishes. Instead they seek the knowledge of the true God from God Himself, and do not conceive of Him as being different from what He reveals Himself to be and what He makes known to them."

These words from the pen of John Calvin in his book A Truth for all Time (which is actually the original edition of the Institutes) caught my attention this afternoon. I have known many Christians that "hear from God". Whether this is a "peace" about a situation or the Lord "impressing" something on our hearts, it is all "fabricating a god in line with their own wishes." When pressed these folks usually admit that whatever they "felt" is not as authoritative as the Word of God and yet many are making decisions based on these subjective feelings rather than on the wisdom that comes from the Bible.

Those who have an awe-filled, God saturated vision of life are those who are spending the most time looking into the place where He has already revealed Himself, in the pages of sacred Scripture. The Word of God has everything that we need for life and godliness. Seek to know God more by carefully studying the Bible. Learn more fully from Him in His Book and leave the feelings and impressions to the foolish and thoughtless opinions of the falsely spiritual. They are an offense to God. We however would rather die than to risk offending our Father.