Tag Archives: Merrcy

BY HIS MERCY WE WALK FREE

BY HIS MERCY WE WALK FREE

John 8:1-11

Here is a story of great mercy and how merciful our God is.

Is it not odd to know that sinners who are found to be guilty yet can walk free and enjoy the life of liberty?

Have we ever thought that it is bizarre to understand that a man convicted for an offense he admitted responsibility for, be pardoned, be justified, and live a life normally acceptable without any condemnation?

This story is about you. This is about us who benefited from His great grace and mercy.

This is about our God whose mercy is beyond the depth of the sea and far above the height of the sky we see.

From Adultery to a Deserve Mercy

In a courtroom drama, the accused was found guilty of a sin he committed.

From the seat of the judge, a verdict was imposed, and the pronouncement of the death penalty was ruled guilty.

As per the law, a man found to commit a heinous crime deserves the death penalty. A fair verdict was issued because justice was served.

Mr. Justice is the judge who is responsible for that punishment is served to the sin committed but here comes Mr. Mercy who appeals and pleas for his client to be pardoned and free.

This reflects the story of the encounter between Jesus and the adulterous woman.

This reflects the story of the encounter between Jesus and the adulterous woman.

The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery; and making her stand before all of them, they said to him, ‘Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women.

In the law of Moses an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth was the principle of punishing the offender and the lawbreaker.

I wonder how many people today are toothless and stoned to death because of adultery.

But in the time of Jesus, God has emphasized the importance of being considerate and He showed it to us by Jesus’ example.

He acted on it by giving His very own life to demonstrate what mercy is.

Justice and Mercy

Have you been accused of something you did not do?

Because if you had, then you shall be asking for justice.

If someone accused you of something you are guilty of, they maybe you are crying for mercy.

Maybe only a few of us will cry for justice, but most of us surely plead for mercy.

Justice is a friend of the innocent and mercy is a friend of the guilty.

Justice, after all, is the dispensing of deserved punishment for our wrongdoing and mercy is the dispensing of pardon and compassion.

The two are incompatible and completely in opposition with each other yet they both work together for our salvation.

When you accused me of something I did not do, I need justice; but when I am accused and found guilty of an offense that I did, I plea for mercy.

When the woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery, the woman was outrightly found guilty of a sin that was punishable by death.

The people cry out for justice after stoning the woman to death.

Yet Jesus, who was merciful, did not condemn the woman but rather show His mercy to the people who wanted to impose the consequence of her sin.

All of us sinned before God as In Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”

And since we have all sinned, the wages of sin are death and eternal separation from God.

All of us deserve that kind of punishment and to demonstrate the justice of God.

Punishment is for those who sin against the Lord.

When the people of Nineveh committed sin to the Lord, the wrath of God is upon them. Justice was about to be served in forty days.

Yet the mercy of God was demonstrated when the people of Nineveh repented from their sins and the punishment was reverted.

The people were given a chance to start a new life and amend their ways, a chance to live free from their slavery to sins that anger God.

His Mercy and Grace

Mercy is deliverance from judgment while grace is extending kindness to the unworthy.

As a result of our sin, we all deserve death (Romans 6:23) and eternal judgment in the lake of fire (Rev 20:12-15).

With that, we live our lives daily in the Mercy of God. If God will give us what we deserve, we would all be destined for eternal condemnation.

King David cries out in Psalm 51:1-2 “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love, according to your great compassion blot out my transgression. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from all my sins”

When Christ died for us on the cross, He showed us His unfailing mercy and love, with His compassion, he blot all our transgression and cleanse us from all our sins.

When we accept Christ as our Savior, we receive mercy from God and we are delivered from judgment. Instead of judgment, we receive the grace of salvation and the forgiveness of our sins, and eternity in heaven with Him.

By His Mercy, We Walk Free

When we go to heaven, we don’t ask for justice because all of us are guilty of sins. We come and knock on the door of heaven asking for mercy.

When all the people who were about to impose the judgment on the woman, one by one left the center of the court.

Jesus never say any words of judgment or condemnation but the word that came out from Him “ Did no one condemn you?” I do not condemn you either. Go. From now on, sin no more.”(John 8:10-11)

By his love and mercy, he brought our sin on the cross so that we might live free.

He became the sacrificial lamb, He became our replacement.

He paid it by His life so that we may have life.

He paid the price in full and redeemed us so that by his death, we receive the prize of eternity.

So that by His sacrifice, we may enjoy the prize of living in liberty.

By His act of redemption, we may enjoy the prize of salvation.

Jesus never condemned anyone of us for our wrongdoing. Because he wanted us to start a new chapter of our life being free.

Free from the slavery of sins.

Free from the guilt of sins.

Free from the anxiety of life.

There is no freedom such as undeserved freedom…

That is why we have to GO and SIN NO MORE….

GIVE WHAT YOU RECEIVED

Mt 18:21-35 is a parable story of a king who gave mercy to his slave who cannot repay him. The King decided to sell the family of the slave so that he could take back his money.

But the slave fell to the ground and asks for mercy. The Master re-consider his plea and has compassion for him. All of his debts were forgiven.

Enjoying the grace he received from the Master, one day he found his fellow slave who owed him but fellow slave kneel before him and asked for his patience.

But instead, he was unwilling and threw him into prison.

When the Master of the slaves knew what had happened, he was furious and told the slave “Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow slave, in the same way, I had mercy on you?”

And the Master handed him over for torture until the slaves repay all that he owed to him.

We have to be merciful like the Father.

We have to give to others what we received.

We have to pardon the way we are pardoned.

To forgive is how we are forgiven.

WALKING IN LIBERTY

When we receive a word that we escape even when we are guilty, when we realize that we are forgiven for all the stupid things we did in the past…we know no one can touch us.

N0 one can condemn us.

And when we know that God pardoned us for all the stupid and wicked things we did in the past, who can stop us from dancing.

Who can stop us from celebrating the new opportunity we have.

When the prodigal son returned, the father asked his men to prepare a feast and celebrate.

Truly that the mercy of the Lord endures forever!!

Treasure every moment that we live in liberty,

Mikesendon

HOW DEEP IS YOUR DEBT

HOW DEEP IS YOUR DEBT

Luke 7:36-39

Mercy 1

One of the good Filipino values that I learned is to consider the debt of gratitude or “pagtanaw ng utang na loob”.

It’s a debt that is very difficult to repay because no price tag is attached to it.

However, at the proper time, it should be returned when it is expected or wanted.

Filipino Values

“Utang na loob” or debt of gratitude is a norm of reciprocity, Filipinos are expected by their neighbors to return favors when it was expected and wanted at the proper time.

We Filipinos usually don’t forget the goodwill done to us and reciprocate that favor.

When abused, this becomes a burden and creates stress as the person becomes beholden to his debtors.

The only negative about this practice is when being used for some instances wherein the recipient is put in uncompromising situations.

Some people were instrumental to your success, to your victory. They tendered their support when the time you needed them without asking for any return.

However, in some later stages, they will ask you favor and remind you how they contributed and were helpful in where you are right now.

The common practice is in politics that usually results in graft corruption, illegal transactions, nepotism, and, appointing people that are unqualified of rendering good service to the people.

The Parable of the Two Debtors

The gospel shows us two types of people and how they react to and respond to the goodwill of Jesus in their life.

Jesus highlighted a picture of two characters on how they retort depending on how much favor they received.

Here we see a woman who was a sinner when known that Jesus was reclining at the table in the Pharisee’s house, brought her alabaster vial of perfume and standing behind Him at His feet, weeping, she began to wet His feet with her tears and wiping His feet with her hair.

The other character was Simon, the Pharisee that invited Jesus for a dinner yet never offered water or assigned someone to clean Jesus’ feet.

The deeper Your Debt

The parable states that there are two debtors whom both of them were forgiven as they cannot repay.

The greater the debt, the greater is our love for God.

I wonder who among us can repay His goodness.

But, is our response to His goodwill deeper enough to truly appreciate and reciprocate what He has done for us?

The parable, it reflects that the deeper our debt, the more we should love Jesus.

The woman received much so she loved much.

Her gratitude to Jesus was shown by her care and her action toward Jesus for she doesn’t know how she could repay what Jesus did to her.

If we will remember that this woman might have already been dead when she was caught on the ground of adultery and those people were ready to stone her to death.

Until Jesus came to the rescue and dare each one of those people to throw a stone if they don’t have sinned.

Our Gratitude towards God’s Attitude

All of us experience the same goodness from God day in and day out.

But how do we respond and reciprocate this love, mercy, and goodness of God to us?

The woman’s response shall give us a clear view of how we should respond to God’s goodness to us.

Like the woman, we should always repent of our sins and start to walk to where Jesus is. We need to refuse to sin anymore and seek to be in His presence always.

The woman wets her feet of Jesus and wiped them with her hair as a sign of repentance.

Being sorry for all the wrongdoing we have done in our life, we cry because we feel sad and sorrowful that we hurt the feeling of God when we sinned against Him.

The woman kissed the feet of Jesus as a sign of humility.

A sign of gratefulness is to be humble before our Lord.

The woman brought her expensive vial of perfume to anoint Jesus’ feet means giving up whatever is important to her just to please her new Master.

When we consider gratefulness for God’s goodness and mercy to us, we are willing to give whatever it takes to show our love for God.

We do it without any hesitations or reservations.

We give it fully; we give it freely.

Liberating Goodness of God

In my introduction, “utang na loob” or debt of gratitude is expected to pay back when expected and wanted.

God wanted us to show our debt of gratitude to him but He never forces anyone.

There is no price tag nor string attached to His mercy towards us.

His mercy is liberating because He doesn’t burden us to pay him in return.

It rather liberates us to start a new chapter in our life by doing what is good, just, and right.

He gives us the freedom to choose the path we want to take, yet the experience we have in Him inclined us to decide to respond and reciprocate His love toward us.

Because when we were still a sinner, God loves us with everlasting love.

Worry-Free Debt

Jesus said to the woman, “Your sins have been forgiven, your faith has saved you; go in peace”.

The most debt we have causes us stress and trouble.

In fact, many cannot sleep because of their insurmountable debt wondering how they could pay it.

When we committed sin, we feel guilt within that robbed us of our peace of mind and joy.

But Jesus redeemed us and He paid the debt that we cannot afford to pay by giving His life for us.

We are now debt free because we were redeemed in full.

We can now walk in the freedom bestowed on us by God.

God’s love is so deep that He doesn’t keep any record no matter how deep is our debt.

No matter how deep is our debt, Jesus paid it in full so that you will not worry about the credit slip.

May your happiness be full,

Mikesendon

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THE HOUSE OF MERCY

Mercy

Have we realized that somehow in our life, we are stuck and remain on our situation, figuring out what we need to do to get out of our mess, to escape from our troubles and move on our miserable situations?

It seems odd that every time we fail, we blame that failure to others.

We cannot even recognize that we are part and parcel of the misery we are in.

This is common to all man, it is hard to admit our own mistakes and be accountable why we suffer.

But here is another encounter of a man like us, who suffered from a long time paralysis, who was sick, who blame to others his inability to receive healing.

Jesus will once again enlighten us that He is not only a miracle worker but He is the house of Mercy, a mercy that flows freely for all.

THE MAN BESIDE THE POOL

In the reading of John 5:1-9, a paralyzed man for 38 years were sitting by the pool in the sheep gate and called as Bethesda, Jesus seen and approached him.

The place was called as Bethesda which means House of Mercy. It has five porches in which in some porticoes lay those who were sick, lame and withered. They were waiting for the well to be stirred as they believe that an angel of the Lord for a season comes down and stirred the water.

Whoever stepped down first into the pool will be healed after the pool was stirred.

And here was one man, Jesus spotted and approached him and asked if he wanted to get well. The man replied and started to tell his miserable story to Jesus why he was not been able to get well.

OUR OWN PORCHES

In the olden times, this porches or porticoes was a place for commerce, health, wealth and economy.

Some porches were for the healthy and some were for sickly.

What get worse is when we are in the sickly porch yet we see other are well of on the other porches.

Even today, we have so many porticoes and which portico we are in?

Our community has different porches, porches for the poor and porches for the wealthy. Porch for each race, a porch for each nationality.

It is sad to say that even in our churches, there are also some different portico, a porch for every religious community or group or denominations.

OUR CHURCH, OUR BETHESDA

Most of us who went to the church may be having the same problem.

We may be lame, crippled, sick, blind. But when we talk about this, it is not only about physical infirmities but we may be sick emotionally, financially, in our relationship or spiritually.

All of us are having that desire that may we have an exceptional encounter with God.

Our church is our Bethesda, we come to His house of mercy because in our own we know that we have limitations, we are weak.

Like this man, we wait for the pool to be stirred and receive healing, to obtain favor and answer to our prayers.

But the good thing is that, we don’t wait for an angel to touch the water. We are waiting for the Living water to stir and satisfy our life.

Before, they believed that an angel might come and turn the water in season but now we have that privilege to experience God’s presence every time in the Holy Eucharist, in our prayer and in our worship. He comes with assurance that His presence will always be with us.

In this year of Mercy, let us experience that His mercy is always available for those who desire to touch the heart of God.

JESUS IS THE HOUSE OF MERCY

In Fr. Lenny Connuly’s message, mercy is going inside the chaos of others.

Jesus always comes to us in the midst of our trouble to bring order and peace.

He comes to our sickness to bring us health and well-being.

He came down for our sin and sacrifices himself for our salvation.

There are so many people of today who are not willing to enter the chaos of others. Unless we put our feet on the shoes of others, that’s only the time that we can feel their agony, their sacrifice, their ordeals.

Mercy is willingness to feel the ordeals of other and brings comfort and change in their life.

Jesus is the house of mercy where he put himself to the ordeals of others.

AN EYE OF MERCY

Jesus has an eye of mercy. He can easily spot and see people who are in struggle.

His eyes is wide for those who are in trouble and willing to bring change and comfort in their lives.

Let our eyes be an eyes like Jesus that see no evil in the life of others but rather compassion.

If their life is a life of sin, may they be no condemnation because that is how Jesus sees us. He understand our weakness, he knows our flaws.

Instead of condemnation, his mercy prevails.

His mercy turn the heart of people to come back to him.

No words of judgment but rather words of encouragement and liberation.

Remember the woman caught in adultery, Zacheo the publican and tax collector.

No act of discrimination but he was willing to dine and be part in their life.

MERCY TO CARRY THE WEIGHT OF OTHERS

Are we willing to carry the weight and burden of those who suffer.

This is the character of Jesus.

This is what we should learn from our Master. He carried the cross that supposed to be carried by us.

ADMIT THAT WE ARE SICK AND NEED HELP

God comes to our aid.

But God could freely help us unless we are willing to be helped by God.

We need to admit that we are sick. We need to accept that we are in trouble and our limitations are far more that the ability of God to help and deliver us.

Unless we bow down and humble ourselves, only that time that we can truly experience His abundant grace.

Let the mercy of God be upon us always.

May your happiness be full,

Mikesendon

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