Mercy Seekers Unite!

In Matthew 20:29-34, two blind men humbly cry for mercy. 

1 Peter 2:10 once you had not recieved mercy but now you have received mercy. 

Mercy seekers cannot be proud. Jesus gives sight to the Messiah-seeking humble blind. Jesus restores the Christ-dependent needy who ignore the crowd's rebukes and continue to call on Him, stopping the traffic with their persistent cries. 

Mercy seekers are so desperate for mercy that they humbly seek Jesus, and His message of hope then spreads to more and more people, bringing more and more praise to God. 

Ransomed

Most of us in Christ are humbled by life. Like cowering puppies. Oliver Twists. We mourn the weight of our sin. Guilty liars. Captured thieves. Broken hearts. Sometimes we prop ourselves up with false exaltation. Trying hard to mask our insecurity. Or we deem ourselves unworthy of any good. We stay in jail when a pardon has been granted. But the ransom was paid. Freedom granted. Released. Set free. A death occurred. Brutal. Bloody. Christ in our place. Substituted. For us. Mercy extended. Grace offered. Life received.  All praise to the Lord Jesus Christ. I have been saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, as revealed in Scripture alone, for God's glory alone. Jesus loves you!

The Waiting is the Hardest Part

We always want to go and DO something. What did Jesus want His disciples to go and do with what He said in Matthew 20:17-19? Nothing really. He wanted them to receive it and wait. Don't run out and change the world just yet. Marinate in the truth first for a little while. Wait. Just like after the cross and resurrection. Go to Jerusalem and wait. That doesn't work with adrenaline junkies. Extreme sports enthusiasts can't relate. We want to act now. Get it done. Bang it out. Check it off the list. We take pride in knowing AND doing. But we run into a brick wall with waiting. We don't do waiting. We hate waiting. We were promised a burrito in two minutes or less and we will time them. We expect results right away and are offended when anyone else is late. It's my money and I need it now! Somebody take initiative and just do something. We get it. But sometimes that something is to wait. It burns us up. Kills us. We choke on time. We have a stopwatch. "The sands of time are sinking" and all that. There comes a time to act. Decisively. Boldly. Confidently. But it follows a period of waiting. You mix the ingredients, put them in a pan, close the oven, and wait. Then you eat your cake. The best things involve waiting. Sex in marriage. A beautifully prepared meal. A hand-sewn dress. A painting. Coffee. Sunset. Sunrise. Fruit. Sometimes days, weeks, years. I left a melon plant on June 24 and came back to a growing melon on July 14. In the Lord my soul does wait. From Him comes your fruit. Wait on the Lord. Cultivate faithfulness. The temptation is always to leap and look later. To barge in, jump the gun, false start, take it by force. The way of peace is to wait. Jesus wanted them, and wants us, to stockpile the truth. Tuck it away for safekeeping. Keep it in mind. Hide it in your heart. So that they, and we, would know the truth, prepare and in time (after letting it take root in the heart) proceed with cautious confidence.

Christ is Stronger

It doesn't take a brain surgeon to know that life is hard and without Divine intervention, can be unbearable. Pain will kill you. Adversity will beat you down. Conflict will break you. Ask anyone who has trusted in their own resources and they will tell you the well ran dry. Atheists, agnostics, even professing believers will say otherwise but quicksand is their foundation. Because Jesus is God He endured. Because He endured we can really live. But flesh and blood cannot reveal this to us. We must be born of (and led by) the Spirit of God. We must be changed by God and thereby want Him to rule over us. Jesus is the Righteous One. The Beginning and the End. Thereat Creation and coming again. The Lion and the Lamb. Vengeance and salvation is assured. Nothing else matters, really, in light of that fact. So what will you do with your brokenness? Offer it to Jesus. The pain won't kill you, but make you stronger. Adversity will spur you on to godliness. Conflict will drive you to the Fountain of Living Waters. Trust God's unlimited resources rather than your puny offerings. Jesus never runs out of juice. He is all-powerful. All things are possible with Him. You can do everything God wants you to do through Christ who strengthens you. He is stronger.