Mercy and Grace

That word, grace, is amazing to me. That means, "getting what I don't deserve." And usually, mercy, goes along with that. Mercy is, "NOT getting what I DO deserve."

Someone dear to me got caught doing something very wrong. And I don't mean caught by Mom....no, sadly, this person was caught by the FBI. This person and the family are devastated, naturally. And our tendency is to point and say, "Look! Look at them! See what they did? What were they thinking?? How awful!" Look! Look.......
John 8
1 But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2 At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. 3 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4 and said to Jesus, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?" 6 They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.
But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. 7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." 8 Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
9 At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. 10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?"
11"No one, sir," she said. "Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin."

Mercy and grace should abundantly flow from us as an outpouring of the tremendous mercy and grace God has bestowed on us. We all do foolish things at one time or another in our lives (or, for most of us, many times). Thank God that while He is a just and perfect King, He is also a gracious, merciful Father who is able to look past the gunk and see the person.

May we each be blessed with opportunities to lavish mercy and grace on others! What an awesome chance to be more Christlike and less "world-like".

Shalom!