Day 3 with God
1 timothy 1:16, “Yet for this reason I found mercy, so that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life.”
<April 6, 2011 / 10:23pm>
1 Timothy 1:16, “Yet for this reason I found mercy… ” It’s interesting how the Lord is speaking and revealing things to me in His light through His words. I’m really loving my time in the word with God, those are such precious times I cherish. Here’s some hard facts…I know I am sinner and there is no getting around that, I have no ground to defend myself that I am not a sinner. And if I did that would make Christ a fraud; that would make everything He did for all mankind a fluke and just a bed time story, a fairy tale at the least. But He is no fraud, and so that makes His life His words true and sound. So what does that make me? A sinner. Paul says, “Yet for this reason I found mercy”, I couldn’t help but think of the greatest quality that qualifies me for the kingdom of heaven. Am I qualified because I have believed in Jesus Christ or maybe because of my baptism? Is it because I have been in church my whole life, or maybe served in ministry? Or is it because I have led hundreds or maybe thousands of people to Christ? Answer, none of the above. Take notice of the bold letterings ‘I have’, now in Psalm 16:2 which says, “I said to the LORD, You are my LORD; I have no good besides You.” The Hebrew word ‘good’ is towb (tove) which means ‘valuable in estimation, excellent of its kind, or rich’. I have nothing valuable, I have nothing excellent, I am not rich, why? Because (Jeremiah 17:9) my heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. What God values and finds precious is not what we value, the things that we put value on can skew our perspective of who we really are. God loves the sinner, not what the sinner can do. When we find the reason for finding mercy we find what qualifies us for heaven. Reading the previous verse 15 in 1 Timothy 1 it says, “…Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all.” I’m a sinner…that is what qualifies me for heaven! Now isn’t that something, now doesn’t that put a whole different perspective on the world if you keep in mind Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God”? All are qualified but not all have received their citizenship in Christ. “Yet for this reason I found mercy” because I am a sinner.
O Lord how great is your mercy on my life, that I am justified in You. Your word says that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ. Thank you Lord for dying on the cross for a sinner like me. Thank you for working your perfect patience on me. Again Lord I pray for my wife, have mercy and pour grace over her head, overflow her cup Father. Give wisdom to me Lord, bless me with the understanding of your scripture. Excel, grow, strengthen my brother in Okinawa.
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