Grace Mercy Peace!

     In studying Romans I noticed how often Paul uses these 3 words: Grace, Mercy, Peace.   These are not words we hear used much today.   They seem foreign to us.  You almost expect to see them removed from the dictionary from their lack of use. 

   Grace is hard to define.  I once heard a pastor say, "Grace stands for, God's Riches At Christ's Expense".   That is nice and simple,  but is that all?   Is it just how God treats ME??    How do I live a life of Grace?   We are able to offer grace to others, but usually on a temporary and need-to-have basis.   Some one is being a jerk because they lost their job or a death in the family... we extend grace to them.   Someone is having a bad day at work.... we extend grace to them.   A person in line at a grocery store with 1 item in hand and we have a cart full of food.... we extend grace and let them go ahead.  That kind of grace is passive in nature.   I don't really have to do anything but let you by and have your way.   God's grace is not just passive.... it extends to action.   Mercy is the active form of Grace.  It doesn't just step aside, but it steps forward to help and to save.

   I was watching a TV show about "Horders".   These are people who are living a life of misery in the filth they have accumulated over many years.    One woman was helping her sister clean her house and as she walked upstairs she was astonished to find the upstairs carpet littered with dog feces.   It was literally everywhere you stepped.  She asked, "How do live like this?"  and her sister replied, "I don't go up there anymore!" .   She has a 2 story house but only lives on the first floor.  She didn't even smell the stench anymore.

   Jesus comes to our doors knocking.  Asking to come in.   Not to have tea, but here to clean up our sin-hording-lives.   We, like that woman, have horded our sins and collected them for so long we are either too ashamed to let people in or we don't even notice them anymore.   At first those sins were small and controllable we felt.  But somewhere along the line they took over.   Like those dogs who took over the woman's upstairs and had crapped all over her floor, our sins made a mess of our lives.   They are our "pet sins" we don't want to get rid of.   Jesus comes and kicks those dogs out and picks up the sin-feces that is all around us and halls it away to the cross for us.   That is MERCY.

   Finally, through that MERCY we can have PEACE, not only him but also with each other.  Our cleaned up homes/lives are not a sign of how great we are but how great he is.   But Jesus doesn't just come to clean your home.  He wants to come and have life with you in you and He wants to clean everyone's home.  He wants us to be on mission with him to help others using the same GRACE, MERCY and PEACE he has extended to us.   How do we do that?

    At the end of the TV program they would show the BEFORE and AFTER pictures of the home.   The people whose lives have been changed often say how they could not have done this on their own and how they owe a debt of gratitude to the people who stepped in and helped.  Other people who watch this show are compelled to call in and ask for their help.   They want what those people have.  We must be willing to show others, like in the TV show, our before and after pictures.   We must be open to allow others to see what Christ has done for us and continues to do for us because, you see, our hording natures have not been deleted.   We get lazy. We get side-tracked.  We get lured back into allowing "the dogs"  back into our homes only to have Christ kick them out again when we call out to God, "Lord have MERCY on me a sinner!"

GRACE, MERCY and PEACE now have new meanings to us. 

Suffering can be Merciful.

  How many of us pray for a quick and speedy death?  I know I sometimes do.  I don't even like going to the dentist to have my teeth cleaned (I do anyway).   When a person dies from a car accident or being hit by a car while walking often hear people say, "Well at least they died quickly and did not suffer much".   As humans we hate long painful deaths.   We want it over quickly and painlessly.  Even for horrible criminals in prison who are on death-row we give them quick and painless ways of dying. No one likes pain.   We avoid it all cost. 

   But pain and suffering are sometimes God's only tools to pry open our hearts to him.  Take for example the thief on the cross next to Jesus.   In one Gospel account it says that BOTH criminals mocked Jesus and hurled insults at him.   But somewhere in that 6 hour ordeal one of them had a change of heart.  One of the criminals in his own agony saw that the one in the middle was different.  He did not treat his mockers with hatred and animosity but instead called out to God to forgive them.  The Holy Spirit used the suffering he was undergoing to lead him to faith and ask Jesus ,in affect, for forgiveness by asking him to "remember me when you enter your kingdom".     That is all.. just "remember me". 

    Had God given the thief a quick and painless death he would have missed out on the opportunity to meet Jesus.   Suffering was the most merciful thing God could do for him. 

    Some refer to these as "death-bed-conversions".   We often question the "sincerity" of the conversion, but not God.  We may inwardly roll our eyes at stories of people who come to faith this late in life but God doesn't.  Did Jesus question his sincerity?   Did he mock him by saying, "Really??? Now you want to follow me?  It's a little too late for that!".    No.   Instead he gives the man assurance of his salvation.   In fact, he is the only person in the Gospels Jesus ever gives this promise to directly.  Was it a coincidence that this man could do NOTHING to earn or prove his love of Jesus?   I don't think so.   Jesus is showing to all that it is literally FAITH ALONE that saves.   Faith in a loving God that remembers us and pulls us from hell itself .

   Of course there are always many who are like the other thief on the other side of Jesus who continue to curse God up til the very end.   The "good thief" chastises the other thief on the cross when he says, "DO YOU NOT FEAR GOD??"    He goes on to testify for Jesus to his fellow partner in crime when he says, "We are getting what our crimes deserve, but THIS man has done nothing wrong!".    How did he come to that realization?   We don't know.   Maybe it was what he heard the Pharisees say about him when they said "He saved others but he cannot save himself!"   Note they did not say "He pretends to save others" , but that "He saves others".   Later these same men tell Jesus "If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross and we will believe you!".   Inadvertently they profess the Gospel without knowing it to the thief on the cross.   Maybe also it was the large group of women who came to the cross and weep for Jesus that struck a nerve with him?   What women would weep for a criminal or scoundrel who deserves death?   Maybe it was how Jesus cared for others even in his own pain as he reached out with words to his mother.  Whatever it was, the thief's heart was changed.   Like "The Scrooges" heart that was "2-sizes too small"  so also this mans heart was opened for Christ the King to enter in and make his throne. 

   I like to think that this thief died with a smile on his face to the dismay of the Pharisees and soldiers below.





      

The Boogie man

   Brother's can be as evil as they can get to little brothers when it comes to living in the same house together.   Every little brother has had to endure the torture of their older brother inventing dark savage creatures of the imagination that were to be found in basements, closets, old sheds and the woods they walked by on their way to school.  These creatures all went by the same name:  The Boogie man!

   Brothers created they creatures for one reason: to have power over their little brother and make them do what they wanted.

   Boogie-men exist today even as adults.  When bad things happen we want to find the villain and put them away so we can go and sleep soundly in our beds at night once again.  Recently a boy went into his high school and shot 17 students and killed them.   We ask ourselves "why?" and "how do we stop this from happening again?".   We search like little 5 year-old's for simple and easy answers.

   Still others would point the finger at an organization demonize them.  I am speaking of course of the NRA.  I watched as I saw a young man stand on stage and challenge a politician to not take anymore money from the NRA.   He asked his question with such conviction that one can only think he believed 100% that doing so would have literally stopped the bullets from leaving the perpetrators gun.   Frankly I wish the politician had answered "YES I will no longer take money from the NRA!" because, frankly, it's a false-flag.

    Last year the NRA gave 3 million dollars to Washington DC politicians.  On a list of the Top 50 Lobbying groups, the NRA would not even be on the list at all.   The biggest donor to Washington was the Healthcare industry which gave over 120 million dollars.  The NRA donations don't even come close and would be barely missed by politicians.

   So why does the NRA have so much sway in DC?   The NRA members have 3 basic qualities politicians look for in support groups.  First, they are CONSISTENT voters.   Studies have shown that NRA members vote in virtually every election, big or small.  Unlike some vocal groups that make noise on the streets with signs and banners, the NRA shows up at the polls.   Second, they are PASSIONATE about their issue.  They care about their rights being infringed, they care about the protection of their country from those who would destroy it from outside and inside.   They care about the weakest in society being able to protect themselves from the strongest.  For example, an 80 year-old grandmother is no match for a 300 pound man.   But with a gun she can be stronger than one.  Her rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is to be protected as much as anyone else. That passion is important to politicians because its those voters who will talk you UP or DOWN as a person running for office.  They will put signs on their lawns and bumper stickers on their cars.  They will not only go to the polls, they will also bring 3 or 4 family members with them.  Finally, they are WELL INFORMED.   The NRA keeps its members informed on where politicians stand on the issues.  They know that politicians are a sneaky breed that can turn on you in a moments notice and that person you voted for in the last election no longer exists. 

   That is why the NRA is important to DC politicians and that is why I am a member too.

    The problem with pointing at the NRA is that it prevents us as a society from looking at the real problems in our country.    Yes we need more mental health help in schools, but that is too little and too late to do anything.  The REAL question is WHY are we seeing more and more mentally unstable men in our country?   What are we as parents not doing that is causing this to grow?   We will never be able to growing weeds in the garden, but you can stop putting fertilizer on them!   So what could be the agents that are fertilizing these problems today? 

Here are just a few possibilities:

Breakdown of the family
   Today more and more kids are raised in single-family homes.  I know this goes counter to all the TV shows and movies that glorify single-family homes.  But we must come to grips on whether this is a contributing factor.  Often in divorce, children are placed in the mothers care which may be fine for the girls, but what of the boys who need to have a strong male figure in their lives that will correct them? 

Two-income families
   Even in cases of families that do manage to stay together we must look at are we being present for our kids.  Today, so many families feel they need two incomes to supply all their wants and desires.  These adults come home tired and an want to be left alone.   But children need their attention.   They need their input and guidance.  I know many have lots of energy to go around, but many... many people do not. 

Increase in violence in media
    Violent video games and movies DO play a role in all of this.  Go back and look at the Columbine video of the boys entering the school dressed in all back and wearing long black overcoats and dark sunglasses.  They were mimicking the movie The Matrix.  They had convinced themselves that they were in a video game shooting people with no feelings or emotions.  It was just a game.  They were not real anymore.

Pornagraphy
    Porn plays in this unhealthy development of boys brains even more.  They become desensitized to woman and humanity in general.  People are just objects for my pleasure and destruction.  It is a plague on our culture today and nothing is being done about it.   It is the ten 800 pound gorillas in the room we are ignoring.   Just GOOGLE search any topic on SEX and you will have more porn to view in an hour than people my age would see in a life-time.

Social Media
    Many of us were able to grow up without knowing what people around us were thinking of us.  Today's youth are bombarded on a regular basis with horrendous comments about their looks, their abilities, their lack of smarts and their lack of friends.  Social media has also hurt our kids because it has stolen from them the most important factor they need to become well-rounded adults.   That factor is us as their parents.   I am disgusted with how many parents I see in restaurants sitting inches away from their kids but are million miles away from them in spirit.  They sit with their head bowed to their devices scrolling with their thumb while their child tries to get their attention.  These children have been raised to think that from those devices is where all wisdom and answers to life's problems comes from.   They have not learned to communicate verbally and connect emotionally to adults and so they seek out answers from other emotionally disconnected and feeble brained kids like them.

And the list goes on and on....

But go ahead and keep blaming the Boogie-man for all your woes and things that are wrong in the world.   All that matters is YOU can go to sleep at night feeling content that tomorrow will hopefully be better day.