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myexodus
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Joined: 2008/10/25
Posts: 32


 Recommendations for article on "The Mercy of God?"

Greetings, all!

I would like to know if anyone can recommend a Biblically balanced short (1 page) article on "The Mercy of God" that would be sound teaching, but not too cerebral or hard to understand for a group of women that have been taught more from the Charismatic Pentacostal/Toronto Blessing type of teaching.

I have been blessed by our dear Lord today, with one of them actually asking me for such an article! Praise the Lord for His open door! And I am praying about this, but must confess I am at a loss with not much time to recommend one.

So I come before all of you and ask for your help. I have been blessed time and again over the years spent here to see your family response to these type of needs, and I thank you in advance!

Your sister in Christ,

Lois

p.s.

If anyone feels led to pray for these women's hearts receiving this teaching, that would be graciously appreciated as well! :-)


_________________
Lois

 2009/4/16 17:49Profile
InTheLight
Member



Joined: 2003/7/31
Posts: 2850
Phoenix, Arizona USA

 Re: Recommendations for article on "The Mercy of God?"

Here's something from Tozer's [i]The Knowledge of the Holy[/i]...

The Mercy of God

Holy Father, Thy wisdom excites our admiration, Thy power fills us with fear, Thy omnipresence turns every spot of earth into holy ground; but how shall we thank Thee enough for Thy mercy which comes down to the lowest part of our need to give us beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and for the spirit of heaviness a garment of praise?

We bless and magnify Thy mercy, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

When through the blood of the everlasting covenant we children of the shadows reach at last our home in the light, we shall have a thousand strings to our harps, but the sweetest may well be the one tuned to sound forth most perfectly the mercy of God.

For what right will we have to be there? Did we not by our sins take part in that unholy rebellion which rashly sought to dethrone the glorious King of creation? And did we not in times past walk according to the course of this world, according to the evil prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the sons of disobedience? And did we not all at once live in the lusts of our flesh? And were we not by nature the children of wrath, even as others?

But we who were one time enemies and alienated in our minds through wicked works shall then see God face to face and His name shall be in our foreheads. We who earned banishment shall enjoy communion; we who deserve the pains of hell shall know the bliss of heaven. And all through the tender mercy of our God, whereby the Dayspring from on high hath visited us.

When all Thy mercies, O my God,
My rising soul surveys,
Transported with the view, I’m lost
In wonder, love, and praise.
Joseph Addison

Mercy is an attribute of God, an infinite and inexhaustible energy within the divine nature which disposes God to be actively compassionate. Both the Old and the New Testaments proclaim the mercy of God, but the Old has more than four times as much to say about it as the New.

We should banish from our minds forever the common but erroneous notion that justice and judgment characterize the God of Israel, while mercy and grace belong to the Lord of the Church. Actually there is in principle no difference between the Old Testament and the New.

In the New Testament Scriptures there is a fuller development of redemptive truth, but one God speaks in both dispensations, and what He speaks agrees with what He is. Wherever and whenever God appears to men, He acts like Himself. Whether in the Garden of Eden or the Garden of Gethsemane, God is merciful as well as just.

He has always dealt in mercy with mankind and will always deal in justice when His mercy is despised. Thus He did in antediluvian times; thus when Christ walked among men; thus He is doing today and will continue always to do for no other reason than that He is God. If we could remember that the divine mercy is not a temporary mood but an attribute of God’s eternal being, we would no longer fear that it will someday cease to be.

Mercy never began to be, but from eternity was; so it will never cease to be. It will never be more since it is itself infinite; and it will never be less because the infinite cannot suffer diminution. Nothing that has occurred or will occur in heaven or earth or hell can change the tender mercies of our God. Forever His mercy stands, a boundless, overwhelming immensity of divine pity and compassion.

As judgment is God’s justice confronting moral inequity, so mercy is the goodness of God confronting human suffering and guilt. Were there no guilt in the world, no pain and no tears, God would yet be infinitely merciful; but His mercy might well remain hidden in His heart, unknown to the created universe.

No voice would be raised to celebrate the mercy of which none felt the need. It is human misery and sin that call forth the divine mercy.

“Kyrie eleison! Christe eleison!” the Church has pleaded through the centuries; but if I mistake not I hear in the voice of her pleading a note of sadness and despair. Her plaintive cry, so often repeated in that tone of resigned dejection, compels one to infer that she is praying for a boon she never actually expects to receive. She may go on dutifully to sing of the greatness of God and to recite the creed times beyond number, but her plea for mercy sounds like a forlorn hope and no more, as if mercy were a heavenly gift to be longed for but never really enjoyed.

Could our failure to capture the pure joy of mercy consciously experienced be the result of our unbelief or our ignorance, or both? It was so once in Israel. “I bear them record,” Paul testified of Israel, “that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.” They failed because there was at least one thing they did not know, one thing that would have made the difference.

And of Israel in the wilderness the Hebrew writer says, “But the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.” To receive mercy we must first know that God is merciful. And it is not enough to believe that He once showed mercy to Noah or Abraham or David and will again show mercy in some happy future day. We must believe that God’s mercy is boundless, free and, through Jesus Christ our Lord, available to us now in our present situation.

We may plead for mercy for a lifetime in unbelief, and at the end of our days be still no more than sadly hopeful that we shall somewhere, sometime, receive it. This is to starve to death just outside the banquet hall in which we have been warmly invited.

Or we may, if we will, lay hold on the mercy of God by faith, enter the hall, and sit down with the bold and avid souls who will not allow diffidence and unbelief to keep them from the feast of fat things prepared for them.

Arise, my soul, arise;
Shake off thy guilty fears;
The bleeding Sacrifice
In my behalf appears:
Before the throne my Surety stands,
My name is written on His hands.

My God is reconciled;
His pardoning voice I hear:
He owns me for His child;
I can no longer fear:
With confidence I now draw nigh,
And “Father, Abba, Father,” cry.
Charles Wesley


_________________
Ron Halverson

 2009/4/16 21:05Profile
TaylorOtwell
Member



Joined: 2006/6/19
Posts: 927
Arkansas

 Re:

I don't know if this is exactly what you are looking for, but I have found this to be a very enlightening and helpful presentation of the Gospel. I enjoy reviewing it even as a believer...

http://www.redeemer2.com/resources/papers/KnowGod.pdf


_________________
Taylor Otwell

 2009/4/16 22:35Profile









 Re:

And here's another one:

http://www.spurgeon.org/sermons/1907.htm ~ On the Tender Mercy of God

What a wonderful attribute of God to talk and share about!

Joy

P.S. I will be praying!

 2009/4/17 4:55
myexodus
Member



Joined: 2008/10/25
Posts: 32


 Re:

Thank you, Ron! This was a wonderful confirmation. I had thought of it and she was delighted because she actually received this book as a gift recently! :-) I love how our Lord prepares hearts ahead and sometimes we are privileged to see Him working.


_________________
Lois

 2009/4/27 13:43Profile
myexodus
Member



Joined: 2008/10/25
Posts: 32


 Re:

Thank you, Taylor! I have bookmarked the page and will keep it at hand as a great resource, and reminder. :-)


_________________
Lois

 2009/4/27 13:44Profile
myexodus
Member



Joined: 2008/10/25
Posts: 32


 Re:

Thank you, Joy! I love reading Spurgeon, his understanding of the processes of our Lord's work in us, including the suffering and trials, has always been a great comfort to me when going through difficulties. He is a treasure to us all.

And thank you so much for your prayers! I am believing our Lord is working in this woman's heart. His ways are so different than ours, but He continues on. I am often reminded of Phil. 1:6 as His promise to us. Paul Washer paraphrases it as: "what He starts, He finishes" I for one, am very thankful!

Lois


_________________
Lois

 2009/4/27 13:48Profile









 Re:

Quote:
"what He starts, He finishes" I for one, am very thankful!



Me too! :)

 2009/4/27 16:43





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