BLESSED ARE THE MERCIFUL, FOR THEY WILL BE SHOWN MERCY.
The Greek word for mercy is HESED which is a word that is interchangeable with the word AGAPE - the 'over the top', lavish, unconditional, never-ending love our heavenly Father loves us with!!!
HESED and AGAPE are inseparable.
The word HESED paints a picture of the deep love a mother or father has towards their children - a steadfast, endless, loyal, enduring kind of love that births continuous forgiveness. It's a love that sees past what is, to what will be.
It's undeserving and unstoppable.
HESED is what PAPA showed the children of Israel in the wilderness.
It was 40 years of HESED. Despite their unbelief, rebellion, disobedience, and complaining - He extended His HESED.
It's what JESUS displayed on the cross towards His executioners, and to His disciples even though they had left Him alone in His most painful hours.
Blessed are the merciful - blessed are those, who love those who are the hardest to love - blessed are those, who despite how they're treated, refuse to retaliate, but instead remain steadfast in their choice to love and forgive - blessed are the merciful - for they will be shown mercy - they too will be loved no matter what, they too will experience GOD'S steadfast, loyal, unflappable, undeserved love, forgiveness and grace.
To those who show mercy, mercy will be given.
Jesus told the expert of The Law that those who modeled their actions after the Samaritan who stopped to help the dying man on the side of the road - would LIVE - that those who extended HESED - that those who chose to stop and give even their enemy what they needed, would be awarded with not just ETERNAL LIFE with GOD when they died - but LIFE bursting with GOD GIVEN PURPOSE here on earth, that would change the world one beat up person at a time!!!!
In 2006 a man entered a Mennonite school, tied up ten little girls and then shot them one at a time, then killed himself. Five of those precious girls died and five were critically wounded, but survived.
The parents of the girls chose to be merciful.
Together they went to visit the wife of the man who had murdered their five daughters and forever traumatized their five daughters who had lived through the horrific ordeal - and gave her food and comfort. They expressed their grief for her - they surrounded her with their love and lifted her up in prayers. On the day of her husband's funeral - the press was there in droves. These Mennonite families showed up in their carriages and formed a human wall around her, shielding her from the camera's. They grieved with her that she had lost her husband - that wasn't always like he was, on the morning that changed their lives.
That's HESED.
That's MERCY.
Elizabeth Elliot took her two year old daughter and chose to live among the tribe that had speared her husband and four of his friends to death - because she so wanted them to come to know the Jesus that Jim had died for. Rachael Saint, the brother of Nate Saint who had flown the plane carrying this band of brothers into where the Auca Indians lived and who had also been martyred - also moved in with this tribe and stayed there until the day she died - in fact she is buried there, in a community that ALL came to know JESUS because of what Elizabeth and Rachael displayed to those who hurt them in the deepest of ways.
That's HESED.
That's MERCY.
Jesus was having dinner at Matthew's home together with a bunch of tax collectors and sinners. The Pharisees did what Pharisees do - they ridiculed and pointed fingers - they judged - and they did it all in the name of God. They were outraged that Jesus would associate with these kind of people. Jesus looked at them straight in the eyeballs and said, "It's not the healthy that need a doctor - it's the sick. Go and learn what this means - I DESIRE MERCY, NOT SACRIFICE. For I have not come to call the righteous, but the sinners."
Jesus was quoting the prophet Hosea who had told God's children centuries before - that their sacrifices meant nothing when their hearts were far from Him and filled with judgement towards others. Jesus was using Hosea's words, that were His Father's words, to make a point - - - they could pray on the street corners so everyone could hear them until they were blue in the face - but they wouldn't be heard by The One who they were supposedly calling out to - they could bring their lambs to the temple and sacrifice them every day - but The one who they were offering them to, wouldn't receive them, because their hearts were merciless.
Paul said it best to the called out ones in Corinth, "You can speak with tongues of angels until the cows come home - but if you aren't full of that AGAPE, GOD KIND OF LOVE and GOD KIND OF MERCY - you are nothing but an annoying GONG!!! You can have the gift of prophecy, you can have big huge revelations, you can have the faith to move a mountain - but if you aren't full of that AGAPE, GOD KIND OF LOVE and GOD KIND OF MERCY - you have NOTHING!!! You can give all you possess to the poor, you can even be a martyr for the sake of His name - but if aren't full of that AGAPE, GOD KIND OF LOVE and GOD KIND OF MERCY, than it's all for nothing!!!!!!!!"
To those that show mercy - mercy will be given.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be blessed with mercy...
says JESUS.
Jesus, we thank you for your mercy that you poured out for us on the cross and that you still make available to us with every sunrise!!
Thank you for looking past what we are, to what you have destined us to be!!!!
Thank you for not treating us the way our sins deserve for us to be treated!!!!
In light of ALL you have done for us - we choose mercy - because we know that we couldn't live without YOUR MERCY!!!
We choose to extend mercy and love like Jesus extended mercy and love!!!
May we be conduits of your mercy and love, both in Canada and in Haiti, to the ones who have been beaten up and cast aside, who are laying on the side of the road gasping for their next breath, who desperately need what we have in order to truly live....may we be willing to kneel in the dirt and pour out our lives to bring the broken to YOU, the one and only true and lasting refuge....
AH, our Sovereign God is about to release an unprecedented avalanche of His love and His mercy on to the nation of Haiti...........
Haiti is about to be swept away in a tsunami of His love and His mercy that is going to make the whole world gasp......
So please keep praying......because YOUR prayers move will unleash this promised outpouring of love and mercy that is going to transform that nation.....
Thanks so much for praying for Pete and Joelee's girls - they are doing well and so are the puppies, but Coffee is still struggling, so let's keep praying!
Isn't it beautiful that GOD'S love and mercy extends to ALL of His creation?!!
Isn't it beautiful that His eye is on the sparrow as well as us?!?!!
AH, there really is NOTHING that compares to the love and mercy of our GOD - absolutely nothing....
LIVING in His mercy and overwhelmed by His love,
M & S
Pour yourself a cup of something and then sit back, take a listen, and think about where you'd be without His love and mercy....