Now, the last matter to deal with regarding if Jesus was just a “moral” man is the cross. Jesus said He would be taken by His very own people, turned over to the Gentiles to be scourged and crucified, but be raised up three days after His death. If we believe Jesus is a moral man, we must also believe everything that He said since it would be impossible for Him to lie. We must believe He endured the cross and three days after being dead, He rose from the dead; He came back to life. If we don’t believe that, then we are calling Him a liar and He would be stripped of the title of being a moral man. I cannot label a liar as a moral man. However, if we believe that He truly was a moral man, then we MUST believe He died and rose again. This leads to the question: what mere moral man has the power to die and come back from the dead three days later? Now, some may say He wasn’t really dead but once again that would show He is not a moral man because He lied when He said that He would die or that He was dead. Some religious circles go as far to say it was not Jesus on the cross, but instead Judas Iscariot. I would beg for us not to challenge the intelligence of the Jewish and Roman people in those days. They were not stupid. In addition, if Jesus, being a moral man was to let Judas take His place on a cross that was meant for Him, that would not only make Him a liar, but also a coward. He would be no better than Judas Iscariot. I cannot label a liar or a coward as a moral man either.

We are really cornered in by Jesus when it comes to who He is. His words and His actions do not leave the option for us that He is just a moral man. We either have to take Him as God or completely reject everything He ever did and said. The consequences of rejecting what He said and did will put a big empty hole on history just as big as the holes in our hearts and lives that can only be filled by the Spirit of the Living God. Many people allow their pride to have them believe a lie. We can humble ourselves and take Jesus Christ as the God who truly loves us and gave Himself for us (Galatians 2:20), or we can stay prideful and treat Him lower than the dirt under our feet. In any event, He has not left an open door for us to classify Him as anything lower than God or nothing. There is no neutral or middle grounds.

Now while we may not be as well versed in the Scriptures as the Jewish people were at that time, we can learn a lot from them. While people may say Jesus never made claims to be God, the Jewish people knew exactly what claims Jesus were making. They planned to kill Him over and over because of this.

John 10:31-39 continues to say:

The Jews picked up stones again to stone Him. Jesus answered them, “I showed you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you stoning Me?” The Jews answered Him, “For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy; and because You, being a man, make Yourself out to be God.” Jesus answered them, “Has it not been written in your Law, ‘I SAID, YOU ARE GODS’? If he called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken), do you say of Him, whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’? If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; but if I do them, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father.” Therefore they were seeking again to seize Him, and He eluded their grasp.

This is not the first or only instance that they attempted to kill Jesus for this reason.

John 8:56-59 reads:

Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.” So the Jews said to Him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.” Therefore they picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple.

This “I am” statement is linked with Exodus 3:13-14 when Moses said to God, “Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I will say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you.’ Now they may say to me, ‘What is His name?’ What shall I say to them?” God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM”; and He said, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” The Jewish people understood EXACTLY what Jesus was referring to. He was claiming to be the Most High God in form of a mere man like you and me. Even before this particular incident, John 5:18 reads, “For this reason therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because He not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.” There are many more examples of how well versed the Jewish people were in the scriptures and for that very reason they made attempts to kill Him.

The last example, the best example, is the reason of the crucifixion itself. John 19:5-7 reads, Jesus then came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Behold, the Man!” So when the chief priests and the officers saw Him, they cried out saying, “Crucify, crucify!” Pilate said to them, “Take Him yourselves and crucify Him, for I find no guilt in Him.” The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and by that law He ought to die because He made Himself out to be the Son of God.” The ONLY reason Jesus was crucified is because He claimed to be God. There is no other valid explanation for His crucifixion other than that. Who can accuse Jesus of a sin or a crime? Jesus asked that very question in John 8:46, “Which one of you convicts Me of sin?”

The Jewish people in those days knew EXACTLY what and who Jesus was claiming to be. They were not blind to the fact. Now, many years later, we have some “smart” religious leaders or some intellectual skeptics who try to challenge the Jewish interpretation of their very own scriptures. We must understand the Jewish people never had an issue with interpretation; they had an issue with belief. They knew exactly how to interpret the scriptures to know of God and that they were expecting a Messiah; however they refused to believe it was Jesus because He did not fit in according to their plans. They fully understood everything that Jesus was saying to them with their intellect; their spirits and their hearts just could not accept or believe the claims of Jesus.

This then lead to the fact that if Jesus was the most moral man, He would not be able to claim He was God, if He was in turn not God.

Now that we have clarified the centralized purpose of the Bible is to reveal, or better yet, unveil Jesus Christ to the world, Jesus, being the most moral or law-abiding man ever, made claims that no one else can ever made (or at least can seriously make). Jesus said He was God. Immediately red flags will go up by many different religions and belief systems that will challenge this. They will say “Jesus never said He was God, and Christians just try to make it seem like He said this.” Before we even get this argument, let us go straight to the Scriptures to see this.

Mark 2:5-12 reads:

And Jesus seeing their faith said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” But some of the scribes were sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, “Why does this man speak that way? He is blaspheming; who can forgive sins but God alone?” Immediately Jesus, aware in His spirit that they were reasoning that way within themselves, said to them, “Why are you reasoning about these things in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven’; or to say, ‘Get up, and pick up your pallet and walk’? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—He said to the paralytic, “I say to you, get up, pick up your pallet and go home.” And he got up and immediately picked up the pallet and went out in the sight of everyone, so that they were all amazed and were glorifying God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this.”

This alone is enough to prove Jesus is either God or else He is NOT the most moral law-abiding citizen to ever live. The scribes asked a perfect and true question. Who can forgive sins but God? Nobody! So now if Jesus is not making a claim to be God (and if He was not truly God), then by Him telling the paralytic man to rise and walk and the man still stayed there on the ground unable to walk, then He would not be a God, which would lead to telling the man his sins are forgiven to be worthless. However, the man did rise and walk. So the same question Jesus asked the scribes, we can ask it to ourselves: “Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven’; or to say, ‘Get up, and pick up your pallet and walk’?” When I read this for the very first time, I said it is definitely easier to say your sins are forgiven since we can’t actually see someone’s sins being forgiven. Then when I read the man rose and walk, I was in shock! If Jesus can do what we can see in the healing of a paralytic man, He can absolutely do what we can’t see. I was then lead to the conclusion that both are equally difficult to do, because if only God can forgive sin, a mere “moral” man doesn’t have the ability to do that; the same way a mere moral man does not have the ability to tell a paralytic man to rise and walk. At least, I am unable to do that myself. Now, if Jesus did not really forgive the man’s sins, He would be a liar. Since the man did rise and walk, it was proof that Jesus had the ability to forgive His sins. He did two things that ONLY God has the capability of doing: first and foremost, healing in the Spirit and then the next healing in the flesh.

If this is not enough proof or evidence for our intellect, let us also read Luke 18:18-22 and John 10-24-30.

Luke 18:18-22

A ruler questioned Him, saying, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments, ‘DO NOT COMMIT ADULTERY, DO NOT MURDER, DO NOT STEAL, DO NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS, HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER.’” And he said, “All these things I have kept from my youth.” When Jesus heard this, He said to him, “One thing you still lack; sell all that you possess and distribute it to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.

John 10:24-30

The Jews then gathered around Him, and were saying to Him, “How long will You keep us in suspense? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.” Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe; the works that I do in My Father’s name, these testify of Me. But you do not believe because you are not of My sheep. My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”

Extracting from Luke 18:18-22, Jesus did not deny He was God but rather confirmed it by answering His question and solidifying it with a firm closing: come, follow Me. Just as much in John 10:24-30, who can give eternal life but God. Then to solidify His response to the Jews gathered around Him, He says “I and the Father are one!”

Morality: principles concerning the distinction between right and wrong or good and bad behavior. Another label for Jesus is being a very (or the most) “moral” man. They will not label Him as God, but instead say He is the most moral man to ever live. Too many people are not only uneducated on the definition of morality but also on what makes a person moral.

I’ve heard people say they don’t believe in God but they strongly believe in “morality.” What in the world is that? First and foremost, morality is not a religion. The biggest question is where do we get “our” morality from? How do we know these are wrong: immorality (including sexual immorality), impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. (Galatians 5:19-21) We can say we get it from the Bible which “man” wrote but that is not true. The Bible has the laws written out that are already embedded in our hearts. Anyone who tries to force his (or her) mind to believe what his or her mind tells him or her is not true, is simply making a fool out of himself (or herself). We don’t tell a child not to lie until they actually lie. We don’t tell a child not to steal until they actually do steal. We don’t tell a child not to be greedy until they are being possessive. Why do children have to urge to hide what they have done if they don’t already know that it is wrong?

So where does our moral standards come from? Well, morality is based on the person we get it from. If we think it is wrong to lie but acceptable to have a mouth filthier than a rat’s mouth, then our morality comes from the person who taught us it is acceptable to use filthy language but not acceptable to lie. If we look to science and scientists to teach us morality, we make science our god. The shortcomings of science is that there are so many unanswered questions (not to mention the questions that are answered but have the possibility of changing this next very minute), and it also doesn’t teach us anything about what is right and what is wrong. In a sense, science only goes as far as telling you killing a person is murder, but it cannot tell you that murder is right or wrong. Science has no distinction of right and wrong, only of what something is. If we follow the morality that teaches us aggressiveness towards one set of group (whether being race, religion, gender, etc.) and not another group, we make that system of morality our god. This is the reason that Jesus cannot be labeled as just the most moral man ever. Morality is in the eye of the beholder. It would probably be better to say that Jesus is the most law-abiding citizen to ever live. However, law-abiding citizen according to who’s law? I would say the only law that truly matters: the Law of the Most High God Almighty.

Now, here is the conflict of Jesus being the most moral or law-abiding citizen and still refusing to believe Him: by not believing the things He said and did, that makes Him a liar. According to the morality or Law that He followed, He would be breaking the morality code of God. Now this might be confusing to some people who don’t know the things that Jesus said or did. They may ask, “How did Jesus lie?” I suppose this is where the majority of people miss the purpose of the Bible. It is not to teach us how to live or be “good” human beings. I think the best explanation of the centralized (if not only) purpose of the Bible is found in Revelation 1:1 which reads, “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His bond-servants.” Now while this verse may be specific to the Book of Revelation, I believe this is also applicable to the entire Bible in the sense that Jesus Christ is being revealed to us through His word. Another way of saying it is the “unveiling” of Jesus Christ. Not seen as much in these days, when a bride would stand at the altar, the person performing the ceremony would tell the groom to unveil his bride. In the same sense, Jesus Christ is unveiling or revealing Himself to us.

We have heard many different descriptions of Jesus Christ. To some people, it’s even part of a curse word. When Jesus asked His disciples who people say that He is, there was a variety of different answers.

Matthew 16:13-16

Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, He was asking His disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” They said, “Some say John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; but still others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Mark 8:27-29

Jesus went out, along with His disciples, to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way He questioned His disciples, saying to them, “Who do people say that I am?” They told Him, saying, “John the Baptist; and others say Elijah; but others, one of the prophets.” And He continued by questioning them, “But who do you say that I am?”Peter answered and said to Him, “You are the Christ.”

Luke 9:18-20

And it happened that while He was praying alone, the disciples were with Him, and He questioned them, saying, “Who do the people say that I am?” They answered and said, “John the Baptist, and others say Elijah; but others, that one of the prophets of old has risen again.” And He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” And Peter answered and said, “The Christ of God.”

This is who Jesus proclaimed to be and never anything less. He did not associate Himself with those other titles people try to give Him. While we have the freedom to have whatever opinion we want about Him, saying He is anything less than the Son of God, God in the flesh, is just a wrong opinion.

One of the most common belittling opinions of Jesus Christ is He was just a “good” man. Many people don’t understand the meaning of the word good. I’ve met a few people in my life that I would consider to be good people. In the same light of being good, those people never walked on water (Matthew 14:25; Mark 6:48; John 6:19), nor turned water into wine (John 2:9), nor fed 5,000 men along with their wives and children (Matthew 14:19-21; Mark 6:41-44; Luke 9:14-17; John 6:10-11) as well as 4,000 men along with their wives and children (Matthew 15:36-38; Mark 8:6-9) on two separate occasions, nor gave sight to the blind (Mark 8:22-26; Matthew 9:27-31; John 9:1-7; Mark 10:46-52; Matthew 20:29-34; Luke 18:35-43), nor unlocked the eardrums of the deaf (Mark 7:31-37), nor cleansed lepers (Matthew 8:1-4; Mark 1:40-45; Luke 5:12-16; Luke 17:11-19), nor restored the crippled (Matthew 9:1-8; Mark 2:1-12; Luke 5:17-26; John 5:1-8; Matthew 12:9-13; Luke 14:1-6; Matthew 12:9-13; Mark 3:1-6; Luke 6:6-11), nor healed blood flow problems (Matthew 9:20-22; Mark 5:24-34; Luke 8:43-48), and for sure, never raised people from the dead (Matthew 9:18-26; Mark 5:24-34; Luke 8:40-56; John 11:43-44), or greater than all, did not come back from the dead as they promised they would, after being killed in front of many spectators at a nationwide event (Matthew 28:5-6; Mark 16:6-7; Luke 24:4-7; John 20:1-18). If Jesus was just a “good” man, then all good men should have the same ability to do the things that the Bible reports that He did. This is just a small portion of all the miracles performed by Jesus Christ within a three year ministry.

People like to classify Jesus as just being a good man, but if that were the case, that would mean He did not perform the miracles as it is reported. If that is true, then that opens a lot more problems that the world finds itself lost in, and outside the kingdom of God. For now, we’ll just stick to just one issue. If Jesus did not perform those miracles, we would have to read the Bible as if they never happened. If we did that, there would not be much to say about Jesus. In fact, He probably would not have made the pages of scriptures to be classified as a “good” man. All he would have done in His lifetime would have been to teach a few people but without any authority to prove what He was saying was true. The teachings of Jesus gave the people hope, and the life of Jesus proved that the hope He gave could be believed and trusted.

Jesus Christ: a good man? Yes indeed but so much more! His life proves it to us even until this day! Amen!

Jesus asks us some simple questions that we have a very difficult time answering. One of the questions He asks is found in Matthew 20:29-34. It reads:

As they were leaving Jericho, a large crowd followed Him. And two blind men sitting by the road, hearing that Jesus was passing by, cried out, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!” The crowd sternly told them to be quiet, but they cried out all the more, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!” And Jesus stopped and called them, and said, “What do you want Me to do for you?” They said to Him, “Lord, we want our eyes to be opened.” Moved with compassion, Jesus touched their eyes; and immediately they regained their sight and followed Him.

Jesus asks everyone what they want Him to do for them. That is one of the most difficult questions to answer. We all see the results of Solomon’s answer of asking God to give him wisdom. What appeared to be a very wise answer, in the end was one of the most foolish choices he could have made. Some people choose to not answer the question at all. They hear it being asked everyday but they act as if they are deaf. Many people answer that question based on fleshly desires. How many times do we hear methods to increase church growth, church budgets, and things of that nature? Some people answer the question with desires for big houses, fancy cars, nice jewelry, and other worthless materialistic things that lead to separation from God. When we start to acquire these things, we want more. That is our flesh working at its worst. It is never satisfied. We always want more! When we hear of people who are supposed to be in positions of spiritual leadership involved in all sorts of scandals, it goes back to how they originally answered the question Jesus asked them.

As we see in Matthew 20, the blind men wanted what was most important to them. They wanted their eyes to be opened. Imagine the first thing you see for the first time is Jesus Christ! All the materialistic things they could have asked for had absolutely no value to them. They wanted to see!

Jesus asked a similar question in John 1:37-38. It states the two disciples (of John) heard him (John) speak, and they followed Jesus. Jesus turned and saw them following and asked to them, “What do you seek?” They said to Him, “Rabbi, where are you staying?” The two disciples of John were seeking Jesus. They didn’t say they were seeking riches, or big houses, or any other thing that they would lose. They wanted to know where He was staying to have fellowship with Him.

We have to carefully consider what we actually want Jesus to do for us. In most cases, we can actually get what we want. However, the consequences of asking for the wrong things can be extremely severe. Remember the incident in Acts 19:13-17 when the Jewish exorcist attempted to use the name of Jesus to cast out an evil spirit and that evil spirit actually responded to them. The evil spirit said to them, “I recognize Jesus, I know Paul, but who are you?” Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them, beat them up, and stripped them of their clothes. The Jewish exorcist ran out of the house naked and wounded. How embarrassing! It is just as embarrassing to see people who are overpowered by their desires of the flesh that they accumulate in the name of Jesus. We all face this battle but through Jesus, we have the power to overcome it. James 4:1 asks, “What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members?” People try to take advantage of God but little do they know, “whatsoever a man sows, he shall also reap.”

I would hope we can all fix our hearts to ask, as the blind men, that our eyes would be continuously opened to see the love of God working in and through our lives. As the disciples of John said, let us know where Jesus is staying so we can have fellowship with Him. His desire is to have communion with us. Let it be our heart’s desires to want fellowship with Him as well. He wants to be the first thing that we see when our eyes are opened and He wants to open the door so we can come and dine with Him.

Our unbelief causes us not to live in the inheritance of God resulting in us continually living in the slums. If we remember the story of the prodigal son, after asking his father to give him his inheritance, he left home and blew the money on materialistic nonsense. He was at the point of eating pig food (if only the pigs were willing to share with him.) As the Bible so clearly points out, when he (the prodigal son) came to his senses, he returned home. The reception he received from his father was great. The prodigal son though his inheritance was in the material possessions and wealth his father would leave behind when he died, quickly found out the true inheritance was in the love, mercy, compassion, peace, and grace the father had for him. The son did not deserve to be accepted back but by the grace of his father, the father humbled himself to put his son first and his pride last. He embraced and kissed his son; something that was never done in that era. We must understand that as long as the son stayed with the father, he was already living in his inheritance. However, as soon as he left the wing of the father, that inheritance quickly withered away.

Whatever physical conditions we face in life, we must not allow it to have us live in the spiritual slums. One of my favorite verses is Philippians 4:11 when Paul writes, “I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am.” Can we say we have learned to live that way? I believe once we learn to live in that state of mind physically, that is when we truly experience what it means to walk in the Spirit. In the same sense, when we walk in the Spirit, we will truly know what it means to be content in whatever circumstances we face. When we look past our earthly circumstances, we see our heavenly inheritance which is what truly matters. When we compare earth’s inheritance to our kingdom inheritance, they don’t even come close to each other.

Jesus tells us in Matthew 6:20-21, “Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” In the same Spirit, Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 8:9, “You (we) know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your (our) sake He became poor, so that you (we) through His poverty might become rich.” When Christ became poor, we became rich. He emptied His bank account in order to pour it into our bank account.

In closing, we must know who we are in the light of Jesus Christ. Job 28:28 says, “The fear of the Lord, that is wisdom and to depart from evil is understanding.” All these things God has written to us bring us into the light of Jesus Christ. In the light of Jesus Christ, there is no need for spiritual depression. In Jesus Christ, we become rich in love, grace, mercy, and peace from God above. That is the true inheritance that we are to seek. Once we have our hearts and our minds set on that inheritance, we reign with Christ who is seated high above the heavens of heavens.

I had a dream the other night that I lived in a place that had tons of leaks through the ceiling, animals crawling in and out of the walls, and had an odor that is out of this world. The place was a total mess. In the dream, I realized I was living in the slums. It was a terrible feeling. I kept trying to figure out how I arrived there.

The sad part is many of us as believers are living spiritually in these conditions. We have a Father in Heaven who is rich with everything we could ever think of or imagine. Yet, we often let our conditions and circumstances define us instead of letting God who lives in us define who we truly are in Him. That is one of the biggest mistakes we can ever make. When we live this way, we torture ourselves, we give a bad witness to the world, and worse of all, we show a lack of appreciation to the One who formed us with His very own hand and loved us so much that He sacrificed His life for us.

Here in the United States, at the age of 18, a person is considered to be an adult. Some parents have different age limits before they accept their child as an adult, but legally it is at 18. However, I praise the Lord God Almighty that He never calls us the “adults” of God. We are always referred to as His children. When you think of the love a parent has for their children, they are willing to sacrifice everything for the well being of their children. That is exactly what God did when He let His only begotten Son Jesus Christ take the cross that was meant for us. If God can go to that extreme measure for us, we already know there is nothing He wouldn’t do for us. Everything we go through, although we would hate to admit is, is far less significant when compared to the cross of Jesus Christ. If God could go as far as the cross, how much more is He will to resolve our little day to day dilemmas we face here in this life? The children are the heir to all of parents’ possessions. Therefore, we are already rich in Christ. We have an incredible inheritance we have.

Do we think for one second we can be more merciful than the cross of Christ? Even being led to the cross, Jesus turns back to the women weeping for Him and says in Luke 23:28, “Daughters of Jerusalem, stop weeping for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children.” Some of us claim Ephesians 2:8 to be our life verse which reads, “By grace you have been saved through faith.” God’s grace is the greatest act of love and mercy towards sinful man.

We should examine the things that we say and the thoughts that we have towards God. If God being merciful enough to send His Son to the cross while we were still sinners, how much more merciful will He be once we come into fellowship with Him as His children. Romans 8:32 betters asks the question as, “He (God) who did not spare His own Son (Jesus), but delivered Him (Jesus) over for us all (me, you, and the entire world), how will He not also with Him freely give (be merciful, compassionate, loving, and gracious) us all things?” When we were totally separated from God, living as we just won the sin lottery, God cared for us then plucked us out of the fire eternal damnation festivities. When did we ask God to be merciful upon us at that time? Now that we are children of the Most High God, we believe we have to make some kind of donation or effort in order to receive mercy from God. Some of us decide to fast day and night and others might have decided to be in ‘deep prayer’ for hours upon hours for God to hear us in return so He can speak to us and show us His mercy. I would hate to think it requires more effort to experience the mercy of God from a believer than from a non-believer. If God hears non-believers asking to be saved, how much more does He hear the prayers of His children?

As we continue our walk on planet earth, I encourage us all the next time we want to beg for mercy or do some type of physical act so God can show His mercy towards us, let us instead thank God for His mercy thus far because things could be a lot worse and rejoice! When we are faced in a difficult situation, let us lift up our hands, shout with the Psalmist as he does in Psalm 136:1, “Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.” Remember Paul and Silas in the jail at Philippi, who at midnight were praying and singing praises to God and God delivered them. They weren’t begging and pleading for God to have mercy on them or that they didn’t deserve to be in prison for speaking in Jesus name. They already believed Romans 8:28 that “all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” After all, Paul is the one who wrote it. They knew if they were in jail at Philippi, there was a purpose for it. It was the will of God. They were not singing praises for God because they were in jail but because they were being led by God and they were in the center of the will of God. It seems we start complaining as the will of God begins to move and we stay in the same place. As the will of God starts to shift, we must shift along with it to always stay right there in the center of it. Many of us don’t like change but change can be the best thing if it is from God. Through Paul and Silas’ faithfulness and obedience, God’s mercy was demonstrated on the jail keeper. Our begging and pleading can easily become what prevents others from the tender mercies of God. Let us walk in the truth and mercy of God knowing that He is love and seeks to rain His grace and compassion upon anyone whose heart is open to accept it. Praise the Lord!

How many times do we pray for God to have mercy on someone’s soul? Many times being in a tough position, we will cry out, “Lord! Have mercy!” This phrase came to mind the other day and I thought of Jonah’s description of God. In Jonah 4:2, Jonah is angry at God for being merciful to Nineveh (the place which he despised), and described God as “a gracious and compassionate (or merciful) God, slow to anger and abundant in loving-kindness, and one who relents concerning calamity.” What a beautiful description of God!

Why do we think we have to beg God to be compassionate or merciful to someone? There have been some who pray day and night that God would be merciful to someone. It seems like a much better prayer that the person’s heart would be softened enough, or broken enough, to see how merciful God has been, is being, and will be to them. When calamity happens, many people tend to blame God with the attitude of, “God, how could you let this happen to me!?!?!” While God may throw roadblocks in the path of wickedness, He will not deliberately interfere with our free-will. After all, we have the power to make our own decisions. If someone is going to commit a crime, and the Holy Spirit is pestering the person not to, and they do it anyways, God did His best to reach that person and the person refused. I guess sometimes we believe we are more compassionate than God. Isn’t that a shame?

We should ask ourselves what does “mercy” really mean. Mercy is defined as compassion or forgiveness shown toward someone whom it is within one’s power to punish or harm. Another definition of mercy is an event to be grateful for, especially because its occurrence prevents something unpleasant or provides relief from suffering. Wow! Does mercy sound like a person who walked this earth?

Jesus Christ left His position on the throne in Heaven to come down and live as feeble man. In His humanity, He lived a way we could only dream about living ourselves. He was a man who had power. When we think of power, we think of authority and ruling over others. While Jesus does have that power, that isn’t the true type of power we desire. Jesus had inner power. He had power over His emotions, His thoughts, His actions, His feelings, over sin and over temptation. He truly had the power to resist the devil. How many times do we say the wrong thing or think the wrong thoughts? Many people have that desire to rule over others but they cannot rule over themselves. They are prisoners to their thoughts, their emotions, their actions, their feelings, to sin and to temptation. They have these loud public outbursts and then are very embarrassed after the fact.

Jesus came down from Heaven as a perfect example of the life God wanted for man and we dream that can be our demeanor when dealing with others. However, God being so gracious and merciful knew it would be impossible for us to accomplish this on our own, He says to us, “Why do you want to ‘just’ be like Jesus? I will put His Holy Spirit in all of you who call upon My name and you will have the same power He has.” What a glorious thing! To think we were speeding our way to hell but God stepped in the way to say “Hey, life in the Son is available,” that is extremely merciful!