“Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about your neck, write them on the table of your heart. 4. So shalt thou find favor and good understanding in the sight of God and man.”
Those two verses arrested my attention and I want to share the meaning that I found in them. I checked on the Hebrew meanings of mercy and truth, which will show their importance in our lives. According to the proverb we need to hang onto these two qualities and never let them go from our lives. Here is what I found: Mercy – The Hebrew word for mercy is “besed” (Pronounce it like bessed.). The meaning of besed expands the meaning of mercy and shows why we need to hang onto it. First, besed means “unfailing love.” This is certainly what we know about God’s mercy in our lives, and we need to practice it in dealings with other people. Second besed means “loyal love.” This is also the quality of mercy that we receive from God. This “loyal love” is certainly revealed in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Without that loyal love and mercy we would be lost forever. Third, besed means “kindness.” Here again we see the quality of the mercy that God shows to us and should be the mercy that share with others. We need to follow the advice of the proverb and not let “mercy forsake (us).” Truth – The Hebrew word for truth is met. It is pronounced just like our word “met.” First, met means faithfulness. We should not have any trouble putting truth and faithfulness together. God’s truth in our lives is based on His faithfulness in our lives. This means that we can depend on God’s word and God’s truth in our lives. Faithfulness should also define the truth that we practice in our lives. Second, met means “reliability.” We know that God’s truth is always reliable in our experience with Him. It should also define our truthfulness in our lives. People should be able to take our word as reliable. Third, met means “trustworthiness.” When we go to God in prayer, we know that He is trustworthy to answer our prayers. People should also see the same trustworthiness in our lives. We need to follow the advice of the proverb and not let “truth forsake us.” Mercy and truth should be on the “tables of our hearts.” We are not to just practice mercy and truth as defined by besed and met, they should be part and parcel with our lifestyles. Then verse 4 gives us the result of God’s mercy and truth as practiced in our lives: “So shalt thou find favor and good understanding in the sight of God and man.” When we practice mercy and truth we find favor with God and man. “Good understanding” means that practicing mercy and truth in our lives will give us a good name among people. At least they will know that we belong to Jesus, because He certainly practiced mercy and truth for us. Perhaps we can never look at mercy and truth in the same way after seeing their depth as defined in the Hebrew. Rejoice in God’s mercy and truth in your life, and practice them in your daily life. Bro. Joe
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“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint, anise and cumin, and omitted the weightier matters of the law: judgment, mercy and faith; these ought you to have done, and not to leave the other undone. 24. You blind guides, which strain at a gnat and swallow a camel.” (Matthew 23:23-24)
“He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8) Jesus took the chief Jewish leaders of that day to task for not having the right priorities. The scribes and Pharisees were long on religion and short on human decency. Jesus pointed out that they were careful to tithe their crop of herbs, but leaving out the “weightier matter of the law.” Actually Jesus was not criticizing their tithe. In fact, he said that they should have done that. The point is that this was easy obedience compared to what they did not do. They were scrupulous in religious practice, but scrimpy in heart. And there is plenty here for us to learn! They fell short in “judgment.” This is also translated as “justice.” The prophet, Micah, had given as a requirement of the Lord that they “do justly.” They did not treat the less fortunate, and less religious with fairness. This means that we should be just and fair in our dealings with people. They fell short in “mercy.” The scribes and Pharisees were meticulous in their religious practices, but fell short in the matter of compassion and kindness.One of the requirements that Micah made was “to love mercy.” In Matthew 9:35, it was said of Jesus that, “When He saw the crowds He had compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.” As the religious leaders of these “fainting” people, the scribes and Pharisees should have been moved with compassion as Jesus had been. We are to look at our lost world with eyes of mercy and compassion. We should never consider ourselves so good that we cannot treat people with kindness and respect. This would certainly not minimize our stand against sin. In fact, it would maximize our stand. They fell short on “faith.” This is also translated as “faithfulness.” They forgot what Micah wrote about, “walking humbly with your God.” The idea is that they were more faithful to their image, and their righteousness than they were to the Lord. In other words, their faith was in themselves in not in the Lord. Religiosity will engage us more in “navel gazing” than in humbly serving the Lord in witness and ministry. We need to watch these things in our own lives. What are your real priorities? Bro. Joe “Hear the word of the Lord, you children of Israel: for the Lord has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God.”
While I was reading in Hosea this morning, I thought that if one were looking for "feel good” theology, he/she was in the wrong book. In this verse, Hosea tells the Israelites that God has a “controversy with the inhabitants of the land.” It is not good news when a people are told that they have a controversy with God. Hosea listed three qualities that the “inhabitants” did not have that they needed: truth, mercy and knowledge of God. It occurred to me that these are three qualities that we need to have to be in good fellowship with God. The first thing that Hosea mentioned was “truth.” We already know what truth is without defining it, but the Hebrew word for truth has several shades of meaning. The best of these to me is “trustworthiness.” You have to agree that this is a quality that every Christian should have in order to be in good standing with God and people. Just as Hosea watched the lives of the Israelites and saw that they were not trustworthy, people are looking for that quality in our lives. Another word that comes to mind is “dependable.” Can people depend on us to keep our word or to be truthful in all of our dealings with them? The second quality that Hosea mentioned was “mercy.” There were also various meanings for the Hebrew word used here, but the main shade that I want to deal with is “kindness.” Mercy and kindness just seem to fit together. We will not be merciful in our dealings with people if we are not kind. Hosea saw that the quality of mercy was missing in the lives of the Israelites. It would seem to me that a church that carries the name “Christian” would be filled with merciful and kind people. This does not mean that we would have to compromise with sin in order to be merciful and kind. We should certainly be merciful and kind with each other. Would you say that you have this quality, and does the church of which you are a member have this quality? The third quality that Hosea mentioned was that there was no “knowledge of God in the land.” This means that the Israelite people did not acknowledge God in their daily lives. The problem was that their perception of God was of statues of wood, or perhaps statues of metal. How are you doing in your knowledge of God? I’m not asking whether or not you go to church. People can go to church every Sunday and still not acknowledge God, or have a deep understanding of Him. This takes some time in prayer, worship, and, yes, Bible reading. The Israelite people did not know that they were breaking God’s heart by their untrustworthiness or their unkindness. They didn’t remember that God loved them, and all that He had done in their history to deliver them. Take a few minutes today and consider the qualities of truth, mercy and knowledge of God in your life. Bro. Joe “God be merciful to us, and bless us, and cause His face to shine upon us; Selah 2.That thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations.”
I see in this text four important things that pertain to our lives. Following is what I found to share with you: We need God’s mercy: “God be merciful unto us.” We are reminded in the Bible that we are sinners and stand in need of God’s mercy. The word translated mercy is also translated as gracious. However we translate the word, we need for God to give us His mercy, and be gracious to us. We can claim God’s mercy and grace by faith in Jesus Christ. We need God’s blessing: “…and bless us.” We need His spiritual blessings in our hearts and minds, and we need His outer blessings in our lives. God will send His blessings to us through Christ. I pray for God’s blessings everyday upon my life and in the lives of my family. Let us be thankful that God is the God of mercy who gives us His blessings. We need God’s light: “…and cause His face to shine upon us.” We need God’s light to shine upon us, through us and out from us, that is, we need to reflect His light to the world. Here is what God wants of us: “That thy (God’s) way be known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations.” God’s wants us to share His mercy, His blessings and His light with the world. We can do this through prayer, and through participation. We can pray for God’s work throughout the world. He can use you to share his mercy, blessings and light wherever you are and wherever He sends you. Are you sharing these important things that God has put into your life? You need to think about this today. Selah Bro. Joe “Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto your name give glory, for your mercy (love), and for your truth’s (faithfulness) sake.”
There is a lot to write about in this verse, but I want to pick up on three words that are used in it: glory, mercy/love and truth/faithfulness. These three words give us a perfect picture of how we are to relate to God and what He means in our lives. The psalmist began, “not unto us…” He meant that glory is not ours, but it is God’s. God is referred to as the God of glory. In everything that we do, we are to pray that it will bring glory to God. We do not serve God for our glory, but for His glory. This is something that we need to constantly remind ourselves of when we serve Him. We want to take a little credit for what we do, but we need to remember that if we take the credit for what God does in our lives, we are missing the point of serving Him, and that we are using our God-given gifts for self-glory. It is certainly alright to be as creative as we can in service to God, and to be glad when people are touched, or moved, by what we do. But we cannot forget the admonition of our psalm: “Not unto us, not unto us…” We certainly don’t want people to think that we did a lousy job in serving God, whatever that service was, but we need to give Him the ultimate glory. We give God the glory because He is the God of mercy. The Hebrew word used for mercy here can also be translated “love”. Love and mercy certainly belong together. The word can also be translated “compassion.” It is good that God has compassion for us, that He loves us and that He shows us mercy. I do not like to think what the world would be like if God was the opposite of these three words. What if He were the God of only hate and retribution? This would be a miserable world. We do make God angry, but His anger is always tempered by His mercy, love and compassion. His anger becomes discipline, which makes us stronger Christians, and keeps us on the right road. Personally, I have experienced God’s love, mercy and compassion in almost every way that it can be given. What a joy it is to know that God loves me and wants the best for me, and that He will remind me through His loving discipline when I stray. Give glory to God because He loves you and wants the best for you. Give glory to God because He loved us enough to “give His only begotten Son, that whosever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” We give God the glory because He is the God of truth and faithfulness. The Hebrew word that is translated “truth” in the King James Version, can also be translated as “faithfulness.” In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life.” Jesus portrayed Himself as truth, because He embodied all of the truth of God, and all of the real truth for people. There are many reasons that we need to give glory to Jesus as God’s truth, but the reason that I am thinking of now is because of His faithfulness to die on the cross for our sins, to send the Holy Spirit to lead and guide us, and to give us His love and favor. Again, His truth and faithfulness are tempered with discipline, but it is nevertheless eternal truth and faithfulness. Pause now and give God the glory for His mercy/love and truth/faithfulness. Bro. Joe “If I say ‘my foot slips,’ Your mercy O Lord, will hold me up, 19. In the multitude of my anxieties within me, Your comforts delight my soul.”
What does the psalmist mean by: “If I say ‘my foot slips’”? He is concerned that he might have a moral lapse of some kind, or do something stupid that might displease God. The way he states it, the psalmist would be aware that his foot had slipped. If we are honest with ourselves, we will admit the same. We know right from wrong and we need to choose the right, but there are times when we choose the wrong and we stumble. What was his remedy? The first thing that the psalmist did was to appeal to the mercy of God. This did not mean that he took the mercy of God for granted, but that he knew that God would be merciful when he acknowledged that his “foot had slipped.” The first step to being forgiven for sin is to acknowledge that we have sinned. When we acknowledge that and ask God for forgiveness, we can depend on His mercy. Let me reiterate: We should not take the mercy of God for granted, but if we are sincerely repentant, we can know that God will be merciful. One of the greatest, and most remarkable traits of Holy God is that He is merciful. Think of how different things would be if He was not merciful. If that were the case, this life would indeed be bleak. We can see God’s mercy at work throughout the Bible, culminating in His sending His “only begotten Son” to save us from sin. The second thing that the psalmist pointed out was that God’s mercy would “hold me up.” In my mind, I picture a person drowning in sin, and in His great mercy, God holds the person up and keeps him or her from drowning. The reason for the world not drowning in sin today is because of the mercy of God. Sin is, and has always been prevalent in the world, but God’s mercy has kept the world afloat despite the sins of the world. This is not to say that everyone has been held up by the mercy of God, for there are people who are literally drowning sin in its various forms, but the mercy of God is available to those people as well. I know that I am glad that God’s mercy holds me up. I do not claim in a self-righteous way, but in a humble understanding that I stand in need of God’s mercy daily, and that I need to claim that mercy for myself. The same applies to you. The third thing that I noticed in this text was that despite his anxieties, caused by sin, the psalmist delighted in God’s “comforts” that delighted his soul. When I read this, I began to consider what the psalmist could possibly mean by God’s “comforts.” I have already referred to one of those comforts, i.e., the mercy of God that results in forgiveness. Unconfessed sin that is not repented of can indeed drag us under, but we can delight in the comfort of God’s forgiveness. The misery of sin does not have to discomfort us if we will do something about it. Another of those “comforts” is that when God forgives us, He cleanses us. It is a terrible thing to feel dirty. If the dirt is on the outside, it is easily cleaned off, but the “dirt” that is within caused by sin causes self-loathing and depression. We do not have to go through life feeling dirty, because God will comfort us with His forgiveness. If you feel “dirty” right now, you can be cleansed by God’s forgiveness through the blood of Christ. The next “comfort” that comes to my mind is to be in good relationship and fellowship with God. It is good to feel that there is nothing uncomfortable between ourselves and God. We can thank God that, though we will never be perfect, we can have a good relationship with Him because of His mercy and forgiveness. When your foot slips, thank God for His mercy and lean on Him for forgiveness. You have the promise of the Bible that God will forgive and cleanse you. Bro. Joe “Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay saith the Lord.”
Have you ever heard anyone say, “I’ll get you for that”? Worse yet, have you ever said, “I’ll get you for that”? When I taught school years ago (more years than I want to remember) I heard children say those words a lot. I could have put it off as “child’s play,” except that in the “adult world” I have heard a lot of the same thing. In fact, I have heard a lot of it in the church. It is a natural human tendency to want to repay someone for something that they have done to us. I’ll just have to confess that I have to watch that tendency in myself. There is just something about us that can’t stand feeling that another person has gotten the best of us. As natural as it may seem, the Bible tells us over and over again that we are not to seek revenge for wrongs done to us. Why? Because, for one thing, the Good Lord knows that there is no such thing as final revenge. We can’t get even, because the person we got even with is probably not dead and will try to get even with us. There is just no end to it. The best example of this that I know of is the Arab/ Israeli conflict. They are always trying to get even with each other, and all that happens is that the conflict just keeps spiraling out of control. In my memory, almost every one of our presidents has tried to bring peace between these two factions – all to no avail. Why? Because they just have to get even. This conflict has been going on for, give or take, 5,000 years, and until they realize that there is no such thing as revenge, it will continue. (I have often said that the only solution to that conflict will be the second coming of Jesus Christ.) What is the antidote for this poison called revenge? The Bible gives us one word that can bring an end to seeking revenge – forgiveness. Jesus set the perfect example for us. According to Luke’s gospel, the first words of Jesus from the cross were, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” I know that we are not Jesus, but He has given us the capacity to forgive as well. Paul gave some advice in Ephesians 4:31-32 that could take care of a lot of our penchant for revenge: “Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour (shouting at each other), and evil speaking (slander), be put away from you, with all malice. 32. And be ye kind to one another, tenderhearted (compassionate), forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven you.” The point is that we, who have been forgiven, should also be willing to forgive. After all, Christ did not have to forgive us for our sins against Him, and we have all sinned against Him. But in His grace, mercy and love Jesus forgives us when we ask him. This is all the more reason for us to be forgiving. In order to do this, we must have forgiving hearts. How do we get forgiving hearts? We do it through a lot of prayer for those who have offended us. We have to depend on the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. He will help us forgive – if we really want to forgive. Almost every church problem that I have seen, and after 54 years in the ministry I have seen a lot of them, could be solved with three wonderful words:“I forgive you.” Those three words are right up there with “I love you.” When you feel the urge to think, or say, “I’ll get you for that,” remember Jesus’ words from the cross, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do,” and follow suit. Bro. Joe “But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed: came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him. 34. And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35. And the next day when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him and whatsoever you spend more, when I come again, I will repay you.”
You probably know the content of the Parable of the Good Samaritan. You remember that a man was beaten by thieves and left half dead on the side of the road. A priest and Levite passed by the man on the other side of the road, but the Samaritan stopped and helped the man. The priest and Levite, when they saw the suffering man, might have said: “Who cares?” Along came the Samaritan and said: “I care.”The question for us is which of these people would we be as we encounter suffering humanity. Would we say “Who cares?” or “I care?” The Good Samaritan has some lessons to teach us – let’s learn them. It is written that the Good Samaritan had compassion on the man. This is what the priest and Levite did not have. It is possible that the priest and Levite had important religious business to attend to in Jericho, and did not want to waste the time to stop and help the man. This reminds us of the Pharisees who were ready to kill Jesus because He healed people on the Sabbath. To put religious activity ahead of compassion for lost humanity is not good. It is not our duty to be “religious;" it is our duty to be Christian. To have compassion on someone is to empathize with them – to feel their pain. Perhaps the Good Samaritan thought, “If this was me, I would want someone to stop and help me, or if this was one of my children, I would want someone to stop and help them." It is possible that the priest and Levite felt sorry for the injured man, but feeling sorry for someone is not the same as feeling with someone. We need to ask ourselves if we have compassion in our hearts for hurting and lost humanity? The Good Samaritan took the time to help the injured man. He used what “first aid” resources he had available at the time. He bound up the man’s wounds and poured in oil and wine. Remember that he did not have bandages and other things that we might have in a first aid kit. He used what he had to help the man. He did what he could to do good to the injured man. We read stories all of the time of where people see people suffering in some way and “pass by on the other side.” It is not unheard of that people have watched people beaten, or raped, and just kept on going. I think that in a case like that a cell phone would be like “binding wounds and pouring in oil and wine.” If one didn’t have a cell phone, there is certainly something that they could do. Like the priest and Levite, people today just don’t want to get involved. Could it be said of us that we do not want to get involved in other people’s suffering? The Good Samaritan was willing to pay to be compassionate. He took the man to an inn and found lodging for him until he could get well. Furthermore, he told the innkeeper: “Take care of him; and whatever you spend more, when I come again, I will repay you.” The Good Samaritan followed through on his commitment to help the man get well. He didn’t just drop him off at an inn and say: “There, I’ve done my part." It does sometimes cost to act compassionately, but it pays off in our Christian witness. Who cares? Do you care? It is a good question. Caring is not just about helping suffering people on the side of the road. It is about being a good neighbor to others, and showing compassion in all areas of life. Bro. Joe “Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, Vengeance is Mine; I will repay says the Lord. 20. Therefore if your enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirsts, give him drink; for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. 21. Be not overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good.”
Of course, the answer to the title question is never. All of our human instincts are not bad, of course, but there are some instincts that we should not encourage. One of the main ones of these is the desire to take vengeance on people who mistreat or insult us in some way. Before you accuse me of self-righteousness, allow me to go ahead and confess that I have to battle this instinct just like you do. There is something about our competitive natures that makes it difficult for us to accept that we have been defeated in some way. “I’ll get you for that” is almost an automatic reflex, but one that the Bible forbids. Let’s take a look at the text from Romans 12:19-21 and see what it says to us about avenging ourselves. Paul wrote that rather than avenging ourselves, we should “give place to wrath.” The NIV translates this: “Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: It is mine to avenge; ‘I will repay’ says the Lord.” Why would the Lord want to take vengeance? For one thing, He knows who is really right and who is really wrong in human relationships. We are not likely to be objective in our desire to take vengeance, and God might think that we are wrong. At this point, it might be a good idea when we feel vengeance coming on to count to 10. That’s not very spiritual advice, but it works for me. It is also true that God’s vengeance will be redemptive for that person, i.e., God will mean well for him or her and use that moment to teach them something. Whereas, we will just be “getting back” at them, which is really a waste of time, for they will probably want to get back at us, setting an endless cycle of vengeance. Paul actually gave better advice than mine about counting to ten. What he wrote was: “Therefore if your enemy hunger feed him; if he thirsts give him drink; for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.” That seems to be telling us that if we are nice to our enemies, it will really get back at them and we can feel vindicated. That’s not the way I see it. I think that when we return good to those who would consider themselves our enemies, they will be convicted of their mistreatment of us, and want to make it up to us. A word that is not used here, but understood, is “forgive.” When we forgive people and do nice things for them, we are doing what Jesus did when He went to the cross. Jesus could have called “12 legions of angels” (Matthew 26:53) to avenge His rough treatment by sinful humanity, but instead, Jesus forgave and subsequently died on the cross that all of those who crucified Him, and all others who trust in Him might be saved. Now, we come to what I consider the main point of this text. What we are supposed to do instead of taking vengeance is to “overcome evil with good.” In our human nature, we are likely to be “overcome with evil,” and Paul wrote: “Be not overcome of evil.” When we are angry and in a vengeful mood we are likely to be overcome with evil if we give in to our negative feelings. The devil will certainly pounce on a chance to get us to sin. When we have a real desire to get back at someone, it is not God who is encouraging us; it is the devil. That’s why we are told to feed a hungry enemy and give drink to a thirsty enemy. Also, Jesus told us how to handle this desire to get back at our enemies: “But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, and do good to them which hate you. Bless them which curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you.” This is how we overcome evil with good: Instead of surrendering to our baser instincts, we surrender to the Spirit of God, who will enable us to do good instead of evil. There might be someone at this time that you really want to get back at. Don’t entertain the idea. Think of something good that you can do for them and do it. You’ll feel better and you’ll be a better person for doing it. Really!!!!!! Bro. Joe FYI: Mary and I will celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary on Sept. 1 at FBC Camilla, in the fellowship hall from 2:00-4:00 p.m. "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God."
“I owed a debt I could not pay, and Jesus paid a debt He did not owe.” I have heard and read this many times but came across it again today and it inspired me once again. Of course the debt that I, and all humanity, owe is the sin debt. The Bible clearly states that “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. ”When the Bible says “all” that is what it means. You might know someone that you think is so good that they could not possibly be sinners. Let me put it this way, he or she might not be a “lowdown” sinner, and might be a good neighbor, a good friend at all times and would not harm a flea. That’s good. I wish that all of us knew more people like this. But if this person does not believe in Jesus Christ and submit to Him by faith, he or she will die in his or her sins. Jesus was not joking when He said: “I am the way the truth and the life, and no one comes to the Father but by me.” This is not to say negative things about nice people, it is to say good things about what Jesus did for us. We all sin and we all have a sin debt, and it is always wondrously true that Jesus paid that debt that He did not owe for all of us. The good news that this reveals to us is that Jesus really and truly loves us. The kind of love that Jesus has for us is impossible to explain or describe. The words from Romans 5:6-9 tell us what we need to know about this love: “For when we were without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. 7. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. 8. But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 9. Much more then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.” The old hymn says, “In my hand no price I bring, simply to thy cross I cling.” If Jesus hadn’t loved us and died on the cross, we would still be subject to God’s wrath. The fact that He did should compel people everywhere to gladly receive Him into their lives. Such love should compel us to accept, worship and serve Him. This kind of love demands love in return. Another good thing that this reveals to us is that Jesus’ ministry did not end with the cross, the resurrection or the ascension. His ministry of love on the cross continues until this very day. Hebrews 7:25 tells us about Jesus: “Wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever lives to make intercession for them.” Do you see the significance of this for your life? Jesus is making intercession for you. This means that He stands in for you before the Father and prays for you. John dealt with this in 1John 2:1-2: “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not, and if a man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 2. He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.” Do you know what an advocate is? An advocate is a lawyer. Jesus is our lawyer, pleading our case. He pled our case eloquently on the cross, but the wonderful thing is that this ministry of His continues in eternity and makes a difference in our lives today. His invitation to “come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest,” still stands today. We can go to Him at any time and receive His great ministry in our lives. He is pleading for us, praying for us and making our lives better. After all Jesus is the One who "paid the debt that He did not owe, for all of us who “had a debt that we could not pay.” We owe Jesus our lives, but He will not make us come to Him. He wants us to come to Him by faith and live every day by our faith in Him. It’s a great life when we do. I sincerely hope that you know what I mean. Remember: You owed a (sin) debt that you could not pay, and Jesus paid a debt for your sins and mine that He did not owe." Rejoice! Bro. Joe |
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