"Bound to Mercy"

"Thy testimonies have I taken as a heritage for ever: for they are the rejoicing of my heart." (Psalms 119:111)

  I can't say that there are not days that I don't feel worthy of God's mercy, because there are; those are usually the days when I am feeling seriously offensive to the love Jesus displayed upon that cross, as He gave His life to pay the price for the sins, sins I obviously still like to hold onto. There might be some out there who will disagree with what I am about to say, but that is totally okay. I was reminded of a lunch meeting I once attended, it was at Marie Callender's here in Redding, back in the late 90's. My wife and I sat across the table from another couple, maybe 20 years older then we were. The lunch was put on by someone that was a local estate planner, as a means to get new clients. The man across from me was seriously staring at my logo on the pocket of my shirt, that said Calvary Chapel. He finally broke his silence, and pointed at my shirt and said, "Why do we need that?" I politely responded, "What sir?" And he said, "Why do we need that, 'Calvary Chapel?' I believe that everyone must be baptized before they are saved!" So I leaned over to him as to make my point, and said, "That, sir, is why we need Calvary Chapel!" Then his wife started choking on the food that is in her mouth and his countenance began to change, and he became very angry; even though his wife was choking, he only cared about arguing with me about how we must be saved. Finally, after I could get a breath in, I asked him about the thief on the cross, as to whether he was saved or not, after Jesus said, "Today you will be with me in paradise." Then I asked him one more question: "Say, for example, you went to visit a dying friend in the hospital; a friend that had never been saved. And say that you led him to the Lord, right there in that hospital before he passed away. Would that friend be saved?" Both he and his wife became as white as ghosts, and for the rest of the lunch they did not say another word about salvation. It was obvious to me that he was a pastor and that they both had experienced exactly what I had suggested might happen. This might not make all the sense that I wanted it to make, but that is what I believe David is saying about "taken as a heritage." It is pretty much the same illustration Paul gives of this "Spirit of Reconciliation" in 2 Corinthians 5:17-21. We cannot outlive God; neither can we sin more than God can forgive; neither can we place a boundary around God's mercy! Yet, there are so many people, even good intended people, that continually do...

"So we have stopped evaluating others from the human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we see him now! This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! And all of this is a gift of God, who bought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people's sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ's ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, "Come back to God!" For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ." (2 Corinthians 5:16-21) NLT