rumination

Mercy

From this morning’s reading of New Morning Mercies by Paul Tripp:

“Mercy for others will reveal your ongoing need for mercy, driving you to the end of yourself and into the arms of your merciful Savior.
It’s simply not natural for us. It’s natural to make sure all your needs are met. It’s natural to hoard what you have in the fear that at some point you won’t have enough. It’s natural to carry around with you a long catalog of things you want for yourself. It’s natural to be more in tune with your feelings than with the feelings of others. It’s natural to want mercy for yourself but justice for others. It’s natural to be very aware of the sin of others, yet blind to your own. If we are ever going to be people of mercy, we need bountiful mercy ourselves, because what stands in the way of our being a community of mercy is us!

It’s impossible for me to think about God’s call to us to be his instruments of mercy and not reflect on Jesus’s powerful parable in Matthew 18:21–35. Please stop and read it right now. Christ had two reasons for telling this story. The first was to reveal the heart behind Peter’s question: “All right, Lord, how many times do I have to forgive?” This question evidenced a heart that lacked mercy. Christ’s second reason for telling this story was to reveal our hearts. You see, we’re all the unjust servant. We celebrate God’s mercy but scream at our children when they mess up. We sing of amazing grace but punish our spouses with silence when they offend us. We praise God for his love but forsake a friendship because someone has been momentarily disloyal. We are thankful that we’ve been forgiven but say that a person who is suffering the result of his decisions is getting what he deserves. We bask in God’s grace but throw the law at others. We’re simply not that good at mercy because we tend to see ourselves as more deserving than the poor and needy.

But when God’s call of mercy collides with your lack of mercy, you begin to see yourself with accuracy. You begin to confess that you don’t have inside you what God requires. You begin to admit to yourself and others that you cannot live up to God’s standard, so you begin to cry out for the very thing that you have refused to give to others. And as you begin to remember that God’s mercy is your only hope and you meditate on the grandeur of the mercy that has been showered on you, you begin to want to help others experience that same mercy. You see, to the degree that you forget the mercy you’ve been given, it is easier for you to not give mercy to others. I daily need God’s work of mercy in order to do his work of mercy.”

Ezekiel 18 and Psalm 62-63

Ezekiel 18 is a chapter on personal responsibility. Ezekiel begins the chapter quoting an old proverb and explaining why it is not an acceptable excuse for his listerners to use in excusing their convenant-breaking sin.

The proverb quoted in verse 2, “The fathers eat sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge,” is also found in Jeremiah 31:29, so it must have circulated both in Jerusalem and among the exiles. Apparently some people were using the saying as a cop-out: there was little they could do with their miserable lot, they were saying, since they were suffering for the sins of their fathers, about which they could do nothing. So instead of pursuing justice and covenant renewal, they were using the proverb as an excuse for moral indifference and tired fatalism.1

As a father, however, I must also remember the strong influence that my actions play in the development of my own children. I do not live my life on an island and my sin does in fact influence my children. Carson explains this reality from today’s reading.

We ourselves know that sin is often social in its effects: for instance, children from backgrounds of abuse often become abusers, children from arrogant homes often become arrogant themselves, or turn out to be broken and bitter. Sin is rarely entirely private and individualistic. The proverb is not entirely wrong.2

Having stated that, however, it is important for me to realize with my own background, that I am entirely responsible and accountable for my own choices and my own sin. I love that this chapter very clearly lays out the facts in this regard. A righteous person will not suffer judgment for the sins of his father. If however, a righteous person turns from his convenant relationship with God and begins to sin, he will be held responsible for that sin. Likewise if a sinful person turns from his sin to follow God and to hold to a convenant, his sins will be forgiven and forgotten and he will experience the blessings of God. D.A. Carson explains this further,

Ezekiel’s point is a little different. God is concerned with every individual: “For every living soul belongs to me, the father as well as the son” (Ezekiel 18:3). Moreover, whatever social consequences there are to sin, one must never use the proverb as an excuse to cover current sin. Individual responsibility always prevails: “The soul who sins is the one who will die” (18:4)3

In Psalm 62, the author repeats the refrain, “He only is my rock and my salvation,
my fortress; I shall not be shaken.”If I trust in anything or anyone else but God for my deliverance, I will be disappointed. Only God can and will protect me. Ps. 62:8 instructs me to trust in Him “…at all times.”

This verse from Psalm 63:1 is very appropriate for me this morning,

O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you;
my flesh faints for you,
as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.

Once again, the psalmist shares his delight in the “steadfast love of God” in Ps. 63:3. Because everything in life seems fleeting and temporary, it is good to be reminded that God’s love endures everything. In a time of life when love seems distant, the reminder of His abiding love is comforting.

1 D. A. Carson, For the Love of God: a Daily Companion for Discovering the Riches of God’s Word., vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1998), 25.

2 Carson.

3 Carson.

First Post

This blog has one sole purpose (Ps. 1). It is a place for me to record my thoughts on the passages from the Bible that I read each day. I believe that journaling is a worthy spiritual discipline and helps me to retain what I read from the Word of God. It also is a way for me to revisit my thoughts later on and reflect on the way that the Holy Spirit has spoken to my heart.

One thing that this blog is not is a place for me to publicize myself. I have other blogs that I have more social interaction with. If anyone discovers this blog, great. If no one finds this blog, that is also fine. If someone does read anything on the pages of this public journal, my hope is that he or she will discover something that might be a blessing.

With that, I am on my way to record my rumination of the Scriptures each day (Josh. 1:8)