Mercy Becomes You

Mercy Becomes You

My Beloved,

           Mercy is Love Unmerited; it is Love breaking the bounds of Justice; it is loving the Undeserved, forgiving the Unforgivable; befriending the Forgotten; it is bringing hope to the Broken.  But you know this, because I have shown you my Mercy.

           As Love-Received demands return, so Mercy-Received must be given in kind.  In finding my Mercy, you have found your God.  In finding your God, you have found yourself.  Your voice is now my Voice.  Your face is now my Face.  You have your Father’s Eyes.  Your life is now my Love.

           Release yourself into my Holy Spirit, for I am sending you into the world, not to condemn it, but to brighten it with my Love.  Avail yourself to my Broken Hearted.  Show them my Face.  Invite my Downtrodden into your eyes; give them refuge in my Love; let your smile penetrate their loneliness.

           Hold out your hand to those who have fallen low; reach out to them with my Mercy; lift them up with my Hope.  Open your arms to my Forsaken; dry their tears in your Breast; draw them into my Heart.

          My Beloved, I have forgiven your sins, healed your wounds, and filled your emptiness.  You must now love with the Love I have given you.  I have seized your spirit with my Holy Spirit.  You have tasted the Joy of my unjust Mercy.  Go now, make my Joy complete, share it with those for whom I weep.

Of Psalm 96

Of Psalm 96

“Sing Yahweh a new song! ...bless his name.”

   

Why Lord would you gift me this Word, unless I need to hear it, unless I am prone to be unfaithful to it?  I have known the emptiness of banishing your name.  You snatched me from that pit and my heart yet throbs.  Holy Spirit, bring forth from my depths a New Song for this New Day, with its new blessings and Love yet revealed.

“Proclaim his salvation day after day, tell of his glory among the nations, tell his marvels to every people. Yahweh is great, loud must be his praise…”

   

I cannot be silent or I should die of shame.  Your Mercy is unrelenting, your deliverance unstoppable.  Dare I mumble your praise, my Lord?  I shall shout it from the mountain tops, that your Glory be accompanied by clouds into the Heights.

“Yahweh himself made the heavens, in his presence are splendor and majesty …power and beauty.”

   

You are the Wellspring Of Life, all creation sings your Glory.  Your resplendent work reflects your finger’s Power -Beauty Incarnate.  My breath, my heartbeat, proclaims your Presence –as the poem betrays the Lover’s Heart.

“Pay tribute to Yahweh …of his name's due glory.  Bring out the offering …worship Yahweh …tremble before him, all the earth!   Say among the nations, 'Yahweh is king!' ”

My Lord, your Kingship designs the atom, it gathers the stars.  Your Reign is beyond all bounds, your Power without limit.  Yet you allow me Yes and No.   You set at my table Life and Death; Everything and Nothingness.  I choose You.  I worship You.  My life is my offering.  May it reflect your Glory.

“Let the heavens be glad, let earth rejoice, let the sea thunder and all that it holds, let the fields exult and all that is in them, let all the woodland trees cry out for joy,  at the presence of Yahweh, for he comes, he comes to judge the earth, to judge the world with justice and the nations with his truth.”

I shall not fear your Justice, nor your Truth.  How can I fear my Lord and King, who loves me so –who has shown his Saving Hand?  Yes, I shall be Glad.  I shall Rejoice, Exult, and cry out for Joy.  My King has seen fit to bring me into his Presence; to clothe me with his Robe and Ring; to bequeath upon me a Justice I do not deserve.  He calls me My Child.  In Truth, he is my Father, my Protector, my Rock, my Cause to live.  So, Sing my heart and soul, “Blessed be his Name!”

Prayer Perceives Purpose

Prayer Perceives Purpose

        “In the morning, long before dawn, he got up and left the house, and went off to a lonely place and prayed there.  Simon and his companions set out in search of him, and when they found him they said, 'Everybody is looking for you'.  He answered, 'Let us go elsewhere, to the neighboring country towns, so that I can preach there too, because that is why I came'.”

In this first chapter of his Gospel, Mark portrays Jesus as a man who turned his back on a throng of people who were desperately seeking his healing touch.  How can this be?  Why would Jesus do such a thing?

The previous day, Mark introduces Jesus’ first public ministry with Jesus astounding the synagogue with the authority of his teaching, then delivering a man possessed by an unclean spirit.  Jesus ends that day by healing Simon’s mother-in-law, and then by ministering to the horde of people who showed up at her door, all in need of healing and deliverance.  It is this throng of needy who were seeking him out the next morning.

If you had the power to heal every person in a desperate crowd that was clamoring for your saving touch, would you turn your back on them and leave town?  Jesus did.  Why would he do such a thing?

Clearly the answer lies in those pre-dawn hours spent in prayer.  Jesus told us that he only speaks the words the Father gives him, and he only does what the Father tells him to do.  Surely, it was in prayer that Jesus encountered his Purpose, and it was prayer the framed his every action in the Will of the Father.

If Jesus based his actions on his feelings, he would have stayed and healed that crowd.  But his action, his purpose, was not determined by the tyranny of the moment.  His purpose was not to appease, but to proclaim the Truth.

In retrospect, healing was secondary.  It was a sign attesting to the truth of his Word, the Good News, that the Kingdom of God has dawned upon us.  Prayer clarified his Purpose.  Healing and deliverance were the result of living out the Kingdom of God he proclaimed.

Yes, out of love and mercy, he healed many desperate souls, but he left many still wanting.  His primary purpose was to usher in the Kingdom of God -to bring this Truth to all the people of Galilee- since all who embrace its unstoppable unfolding, will end up in the bosom of the Father.  For, no matter what the obstacle, the Kingdom of God will bring triumphant deliverance to those who believe.

Surely, as he turned his back on those precious needy ones, Jesus was conflicted, even distraught.  But the power of his prayer -of his connectedness to the Father- kept him faithful to his Purpose, all the way to Calvary.

          Holy Spirit, keep me faithful to my prayer time.  Steep me in your Word.  Open my ears to the Voice of my Father.  Make me faithful as my Lord Jesus was faithful.  I want to accomplish the purpose for which you have created me.  May my every action be framed in your Truth, no matter how I feel, even Lord, if I do not yet understand.

Love Complete

Love Complete

       “My dear people, since God has loved us so much, we too should love one another.  No one has ever seen God; but as long as we love one another God will live in us, and his love will be complete in us.” (1John 4:11-12)

       John first tells us the obvious - that God is not obvious.  Then he tells us what is not obvious - that God is made known to us, made real, in our small acts of love.  Since God is Love, he is made real in our world when his Spirit, living within us through faith, manifests the Invisible God through our acts of kindness.

       In this simple Truth lies a momentous Promise: If we submit to Love’s Way, God will come to live in our hearts.  And not only will he be made present within us, but his love within us will be made complete.  This sense of Completion is an act of God, as Completion is extraordinary to us, outside of our nature, for our nature is defined by Incompleteness.

       This Completion of Love, which we are promised, comes not as a result of any small act of love on our part.  Rather, it emanates from The Greatest Act Of Love –the eternally present action of the Cross –the moment when our Lord uttered that Saving Word, “It is finished.”  (John 19:30)

       Our Father’s Sacrificial Gift of Love became Complete as his beloved Son’s last Breath was released upon the world –Love Complete, now eternally present to all who give themselves to Love.  

       To give ourselves in Love, we must die to self.  To love as our Lord loved us, we must die as He died.  We must submit to the Cross.  Only when we offer him our arms in Surrender, and allow him to plant them onto his Cross, will we know Love Complete.  “…as long as we love one another God will live in us, and his love will be complete in us.”