showing mercy

To really show mercy in the way God intended you have to have experienced it—at least that was the message in church this week and last week too.

But when was I shown mercy? Well on the road to Jericho when the Good Samaritan stopped! That parable is not just about how we need to be like the Good Samaritan, it is also about how each of us as a Christian has been shown mercy like the man who was robbed. When Lane (our Pastor) shared this message it struck home and I was reminded of an old truth in a new way.

Yes it was me on that mountain road beaten up and with no hope. There was nothing I could do to save myself, nothing I could do to get up, to make myself well, to make myself clean. I was waiting in the dirt for death. A priest and a lawyer came by, but religion and the law did not save me—I was lost! But a stranger came along and showed mercy—his name was Jesus. Bandaging my wounds he took me to a safe place and paid the price for me to be healed.

When we as Christians help the poor and the destitute it is not because we are better than they, it is because we have been shown mercy and we want to do likewise in His name.