5 Minute Friday is somewhat of a "writing flash mob" hosted weekly by blogger Lisa-Jo Baker. Each Friday she selects a subject and your job is to write about it for 5 minutes and link to her post. Whatever comes to mind, even if you aren't sure what the subject is about, don't know anything about it, or haven't ever really thought about it. Just write. For 5 minutes. Doesn't that sound fun?? There's only one rule: After you've linked your post, you MUST visit the person who linked up before you and leave a comment.
This is my first time participating! Want to join me?
Today's topic: Mercy
GO!
Whenever I think about mercy, I think about grace. What's the difference between the two? They're often used interchangeably, but they're actually not quite the same.
Mercy is God not punishing us, when we deserve to be punished.
Grace is God blessing us, when we don't deserve to be blessed.
All of us, Christians or not, live under God's mercy and grace every day. Every breath you take is a demonstration of God's mercy and grace.
God is in control. God created the universe and everything in it, including this world and the people who inhabit it. God determines right and wrong, not us. And God demands perfection in order to enjoy relationship with Him.
Unfortunately for us, none of us are perfect. NONE. Not me. Not you. I think we would acknowledge that.
Fortunately for us, Jesus was perfect. And Jesus took the punishment for our imperfection, for our sins, when He died for us on the cross. When He experienced the wrath of God that WE deserved. He took our punishment. And we get His perfection, when we believe in Him as our Saviour AND Lord. Both are required. We can't accept Him as only Saviour. We also have to accept Him as Lord of our lives. That's the tough one for people to swallow. It's hard enough to admit we need saving, let alone allow someone other than "I" on the throne of our lives. But it's the only way to perfection, to relationship with God, to heaven.
Our imperfection, our sin, deserves death. Death is a just and deserving consequence. God demonstrates His grace and mercy to us every single day that He allows us to live. Every breath we take is evidence of His mercy. But more often than not, we presume upon that mercy. We take it for granted. We don't even acknowledge it as mercy at all, but rather our "God-given right". Ironic, isn't it?
And.... STOP.
Eek. I think I actually went over by 2 minutes - lost track of time. Guess I should set an alarm next time! :)
Fortunately for us, Jesus was perfect. And Jesus took the punishment for our imperfection, for our sins, when He died for us on the cross. When He experienced the wrath of God that WE deserved. He took our punishment. And we get His perfection, when we believe in Him as our Saviour AND Lord. Both are required. We can't accept Him as only Saviour. We also have to accept Him as Lord of our lives. That's the tough one for people to swallow. It's hard enough to admit we need saving, let alone allow someone other than "I" on the throne of our lives. But it's the only way to perfection, to relationship with God, to heaven.
Our imperfection, our sin, deserves death. Death is a just and deserving consequence. God demonstrates His grace and mercy to us every single day that He allows us to live. Every breath we take is evidence of His mercy. But more often than not, we presume upon that mercy. We take it for granted. We don't even acknowledge it as mercy at all, but rather our "God-given right". Ironic, isn't it?
And.... STOP.
Eek. I think I actually went over by 2 minutes - lost track of time. Guess I should set an alarm next time! :)
2 comments:
Great post, Tammy! You got a lot into 7 minutes!! ;) When I saw the topic for that day I said, "Forget it!" It's just too deep! I shoulda done the week before ~ "red." Definitely easier!!
Yeah, no doubt!
I'm pretty sure her guest blogger went longer than 5 minutes too :)
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