When Can I receive Mercy? - A Dose of Encouragement

Last month I wrote about God bringing my
attention to a special song to share about His
Mercy in the post
You're Not Guilty Anymore.


Then last week I started this short series on looking at God's Mercy in more detail and covered the question
What is Mercy?

Today I would like to come back to look again at this subject and consider when God's Mercy is shown upon us.



When Can I receive Mercy?



On Salvation

God is shows mercy to us as sinners and extends His mercy so deliberately at the point of Salvation.
In fact isn't He so merciful that He wants to draw us to Salvation and has provided His perfect plan in Jesus to be our substitute at the cross.
This is the obvious time in our lives for us to witness His mercy towards us and to understand partly what His mercy entails because suddenly we truly know we are being treated with Love and not rejection and death as we really deserve.

From Creation

Right from the start of mankind God’s mercy is shown.
 All the way through the Old Testament.
 All the way through the New Testament.

His mercy was not just produced at the cross although it is His greatest sign of mercy.

Mercy is an attribute of God so has always been part of Him, and always will be part of Him.



For Evermore

Every Day

God is merciful to us every day at all times it does not stop at Salvation.
This is the part that is hard for many Christians to fully understand, often we do not feel that God can possibly continue to show His mercy to us once He has Saved us. Even though we will read about it and sing about it and speak about it we still deep down do not accept that He is always a merciful God. It is one of His attributes and He doesn’t change so He is still merciful.

"It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness."  Lamentations 3 v 22-23

New Every Morning what a blessing!
1. Each day we can start afresh knowing that He is still merciful.
2. Can we even experience new different examples of His mercy on a daily basis?
            Yes God is infinite so His Ways are infinite

Edith McNeil wrote the words of this song based on Lamentations 3 v 22-23

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases,

His mercies never come to an end,

They are new every morning, new every morning,

Great is Thy faithfulness O Lord,

Great is Thy faithfulness.

She was leaving us with a great prompt to help us remember that God extends His mercy to us on a daily basis.

Not only that but this song should be on our lips each morning as we rise to face the day with the new mercies He will extend in that new day.

We need to accept His mercy that is given so freely to us and be thankful for it daily.

Even when we do not feel worthy of it.

He has not put any conditions on it.

Let's be thankful for His Mercy even when we do not feel worthy of it.

And the last & most important comment is

Right Now

Aren't we thankful for that!



Enjoy this version of the song today and then go on to enjoy His Mercy.

The Other Blog Posts in this mini Mercy Series are:
What is Mercy
Where, Why, Who of Mercy
The How of Mercy

Songs for Worship #19

Welcome to the Sunday Series

Last year from January to June I wrote a series on
Why We Worship  where I considered an attribute of God each Sunday.


At different times people mentioned to me about a song that a post reminded them of so I thought that I would now go through those attributes again with a song for each one.

I hope you will follow along with me.

                         Looking today at 

God is Gracious

This is Amazing Grace

Who breaks the power of sin and darkness

Whose love is mighty and so much stronger

The King of glory, the King above all Kings

Who shakes the whole earth with holy thunder

Leaves us breathless in awe and wonder

The King of glory, the King above all Kings

This is amazing grace

This is unfailing love

That You would take my place

That You would bear my cross

You laid down Your life

That I would be set free

Jesus I sing for all that You've done for me

Who brings our chaos back into order

Who makes the orphan a son and daughter

The King of glory, the King of glory

Who rules the nations with truth and justice

Shines like the sun in all of its brilliance

The king of glory, the King above all Kings

Worthy is the lamb who was slain

Worthy is the King who conquered the grave

If you would like to see the post from last year that this is based on please click on the graphic below

A Real Noah's Ark? It's How Big? - Xtra Special Day

Yes I really do love arks and collect pictures, ornaments and some jewellery

                                        all to do with Noah's Ark.


But this time

          this Ark was going to be completely different.

I looked forward to this day all the time I lived in Belgium.

Having found out about this from the internet I wanted to get a time when all five of us would be together and could go see the Ark Replica.

This was a scale model of Noah's Ark and not just one that you could put on display inside a museum or exhibition this was one you could actually go inside of yourself because it was so large.


The Best time to go see it was while we were living in Belgium because this Ark was in The Netherlands.  The replica was moved from port area to port area all around the coast of The Netherlands so I really wanted to find a time to go see it when it was in the South West because that would mean a shorter distance for us to drive from Tervuren through the north of Belgium and into the southern area of our northern neighbour, in the part actually named Holland.

In 2010 we really had to make this happen because before the end of that year we knew we would be returning to Northern Ireland and in August all three kids came back to visit at the same time as the Ark was going to be in a place called Vlissingen which would be very accessible for a day trip.


You can imagine how excited I was to be going there and even more so because we would all be together.

Fred is so good and has always accepted the fact that I would have different "Ark Decor" around the house and the kids have often laughed and guessed that perhaps a new thing I may have got would have something to do with an Ark and occasionally they were wrong!

But I must admit I do like it when my family humour me.

It was a beautiful day for the drive and for wandering around the Ark.

Naturally because Noah's Ark had been a Safe Haven during the flood for animals as well as Noah's family we were bound to meet a selection of animals in this Ark.

But there were other things to be found inside as well which would not have been in the original Ark such as a representation of the Ark of the Covenant.

And a large mural on one of the walls depicting the creatures that would not have been within the Ark.

This was in the process of being created while we were there and we had the opportunity to watch the artist at work.

After we went home I realised from the pictures we had taken that rather appropriately we had a picture of Fred with the baby giraffe - tall and thin

and me with the baby elephants (no comments here please!)

There was no set tour around the Ark but everyone was left to walk around as they pleased with some guidance from information on the different items and some videos. 

We were able to take our time and stay as long as we liked.

There was a small cafe area with a view out of the Ark 

and we were also able to go up on the deck of the Ark and look around from there.

On the way out there was a shop with Ark toys, books, bookmarks, etc. and jewellery.

So you may have guessed that I could not resist leaving with out another momento, yes I got a nice Ark necklace.

We were still in no hurry to leave and stood around taking pictures of us and the ark and even Daniel (not a photo lover) had his phone out to take some pics which he then used some filters on and put up on instagram.

It was a fun relaxed day out together at a very unusual exhibition and we all enjoyed it.

  The Ark was very large but was not the exact measurements of the original.


Since then the same people who created this one have worked on a full size replica and have plans to take it around the world.


If you would like to have more information about this you can watch the video below





and you will also find details at their website

Arc of Noah

What is Mercy? - A Dose of Encouragement

Last month I wrote about God bringing my attention to a special song to share about His Mercy in the post You're Not Guilty Anymore.


Today I would like to draw some more attention to
God's Mercy.

The obvious thing might be to start by looking at
What Mercy is,

but

I think it is important to focus first on
what it is NOT!



Mercy is not:


A Gift of the Spirit.

Gifts of the Spirit are given to believers.

Mercy is extended to everyone.

Even to the people who have not accepted His Salvation, God has extended His Mercy.
Even to those who never accepted His Salvation, God gave them the chance to receive His Mercy.


A Fruit of the Spirit.

The Fruit of the Spirit is the result in believers of walking in the Spirit of God.

Mercy is not listed as a fruit of the Spirit in the Bible but rather it is one of the attributes of God it is part of His character.

"He is kind and full of mercy; he is patient and keeps his promise. . ."  Joel 2:13

As we grow and the fruit of the Spirit is produced in our lives then we will become more like Jesus and more merciful in our character because all the fruit of the Spirit are expressed when in a merciful character.


Something we can earn.

Mercy is freely given by God, not something we have to (or can) earn by how good we are or how much we do.

There is no grade of person we must be to attain Mercy or be worthy of it.

Mercy is:

God not treating us as we deserve to be treated.

We are so used to being rewarded, commended, praised or punished, rejected, attacked, condemned for our actions and words that we just naturally expect God to react to everything as others do.

But God is God 

and 

He is not like other people.

Even when in the eyes of everyone else we deserve punishment, even when we have broken God's laws, God decides what He will do so

His Mercy is

the act of  

NOT 

meeting out the punishment we really do deserve to get.

Shown in the form of several things.

There are many things that we could list here that would form part of His mercy like love, cleansing, forgiveness, and acceptance.
They are the ways we should recognise His Mercy.

It is like our mother heart for our children, we do not always punish wrong doing, we talk to them in love and explain things to them and show them the right way.
We are actually setting them examples of the type of God's Mercy.

By our mother heart for our children, we can actually be setting them examples of the type of God's Mercy

A Lifter of depression and oppression.

It is God's hand on us.

If He turned away from us when we disobeyed or didn't follow Him then His hand would not be on us and if His hand is not on us then the hand of Satan would be on us.

So each day when God's hand is on us we are receiving His Mercy in keeping the hand of the enemy from us even when we don't realise that is happening.

This means that Satan is hindered from continually oppressing our minds and bringing depression upon us.

Photo Credit: BigStock

MERCY
is

NOT

the receiving 
of the damnation that we are due 

BUT

the
offering
of a 
substitute 
to take 
our 
punishment

Are we like Jonah?

Jonah did not think the Ninevites merited the patience God was showing them and the second chance He was willing to give them because he did not understand what mercy was.

Even though he then disobeyed God and ran in the opposite direction God preserved his life, God showed him mercy.

Jonah did not have a merciful heart toward the people of Ninevah until he himself had fully experienced the mercy of God.

Even if we start out like Jonah we can also learn to recognise God's mercy toward us and in turn be merciful toward others.


Let's thank God for His mercy to us and have mercy for others stamped in our hearts

If you did not listen to the song "Not Guilty Anymore" by Aaron Keyes in the blog post last month then you can listen to it here

Join me for some more thoughts on
When Can I Receive Mercy?
Where, Why, Who of Mercy
The How of Mercy

Songs for Worship #18

Welcome to the Sunday Series

Last year from January to June I wrote a series on
Why We Worship  where I considered an attribute of God each Sunday.


At different times people mentioned to me about a song that a post reminded them of so I thought that I would now go through those attributes again with a song for each one.

I hope you will follow along with me.

                         Looking today at 

God is Righteous

Cornerstone

My hope is built on nothing less

Than Jesus' blood and righteousness

I dare not trust the sweetest frame

But wholly trust in Jesus' Name

(Chorus)

Christ alone

Cornerstone 

Weak made strong 

In the Savior's love 

Through the storm 

He is Lord 

Lord of all 

When darkness seems to hide His face

I rest on His unchanging grace

In every high and stormy gale

My anchor holds within the veil

(Chorus)

When He shall come with trumpet sound

Oh may I then in Him be found

Dressed in His righteousness alone

Faultless stand before the throne

(Chorus)

If you would like to see the post from last year that this is based on please click on the graphic below

Songs for Worship #17

Welcome to the Sunday Series

Last year from January to June I wrote a series on
Why We Worship  where I considered an attribute of God each Sunday.


At different times people mentioned to me about a song that a post reminded them of so I thought that I would now go through those attributes again with a song for each one.

I hope you will follow along with me.

                         Looking today at 

God is Wise

Perfect Wisdom of Our God

The perfect wisdom of our God,

Revealed in all the universe:

All things created by His hand,

And held together at His command.

He knows the mysteries of the seas,

The secrets of the stars are His;

He guides the planets on their way,

And turns the earth through another day.

The matchless wisdom of His ways,

That mark the path of righteousness;

His word a lamp unto my feet,

His Spirit teaching and guiding me.

And oh, the mystery of the cross,

That God should suffer for the lost

So that the fool might shame the wise,

And all the glory might go to Christ!

Oh grant me wisdom from above,

To pray for peace and cling to love,

And teach me humbly to receive

The sun and rain of Your sovereignty.

Each strand of sorrow has a place

Within this tapestry of grace;

So through the trials I choose to say:

“Your perfect will in your perfect way.”

If you would like to see the post from last year that this is based on please click on the graphic below

Songs for Worship #16

Welcome to the Sunday Series

Last year from January to June I wrote a series on
Why We Worship  where I considered an attribute of God each Sunday.


At different times people mentioned to me about a song that a post reminded them of so I thought that I would now go through those attributes again with a song for each one.

I hope you will follow along with me.

                         Looking today at 

God is Alive

He's Alive

Hallelujah

Jesus is alive

Death has lost it's victory

And the grave has been denied

Jesus lives forever

He's alive! He's alive!

He's the Alpha and Omega

The first and last is he

The curse of sin is broken

And we have perfect liberty

The lamb of God is risen

He's alive, He's alive!

Jesus is alive!

If you would like to see the post from last year that this is based on please click on the graphic below

Songs for Worship #15

Welcome to the Sunday Series

Last year from January to June I wrote a series on
Why We Worship  where I considered an attribute of God each Sunday.


At different times people mentioned to me about a song that a post reminded them of so I thought that I would now go through those attributes again with a song for each one.

I hope you will follow along with me.

                         Looking today at 

God is The Creator

God of Wonders

Lord of all creation,

Of water, earth and sky.

The heavens are your Tabernacle.

Glory to the Lord on high!

God of wonders beyond our galaxy,

You are holy, holy.

The universe declares your majesty,

You are holy, holy.

Lord of heaven and earth

Lord of heaven and earth

Early in the morning,

I will celebrate the light.

When I stumble in the darkness,

I will call your name by night

God of wonders beyond our galaxy,

You are holy, holy.

The universe declares your majesty,

You are holy, holy.

Lord of heaven and earth

Lord of heaven and earth

Hallelujah

To the Lord of Heaven and Earth

Hallelujah

To the Lord of Heaven and Earth

Hallelujah

To the Lord of Heaven and Earth

Holy, holy

Holy, holy

God of wonders beyond our galaxy,

You are holy, holy.

Precious Lord, reveal your heart to me,

Father, holy, holy.

The universe declares your majesty,

You are holy, holy, holy, holy

Hallelujah

To the lord of heaven and earth

Hallelujah

To the Lord of Heaven and Earth

Hallelujah

To the Lord of Heaven and Earth

Hallelujah

To the Lord of Heaven and Earth

Hallelujah

To the Lord of Heaven and Earth

Hallelujah

To the Lord of Heaven and Earth

If you would like to see the post from last year that this is based on please click on the graphic below