{"id":5529,"date":"2015-02-17T16:58:20","date_gmt":"2015-02-17T16:58:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pjhmail.wordpress.com\/?p=5529"},"modified":"2015-02-17T16:58:20","modified_gmt":"2015-02-17T16:58:20","slug":"merciful-without-sin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/5529\/merciful-without-sin\/","title":{"rendered":"Merciful without Sin"},"content":{"rendered":"

MERCIFUL WITHOUT\u00a0SIN<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEvery high priest . . . is able to deal gently with the ignorant and misguided<\/span><\/p>\n

because he, too, is encompassed with weakness.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Hebrews 5:1\u20132<\/span><\/p>\n

When we know ourselves, we are merciful to others. Until we come to know ourselves, however, we usually are not so merciful.\u00a0 People who are proud of how good they have always been are the least merciful and the most impatient with those who fail. One of my earliest feelings about the Lord was wonder, when I thought about how merciful and patient he is, and yet, he never sinned. How did Jesus come to be so incredibly forgiving without first being humbled by failures of his own?<\/span><\/p>\n

What Jesus told his disciples really is true: \u201cIf you have seen me, you have seen the Father.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0==============<\/span><\/p>\n

I love this John.<\/span><\/p>\n

To love mercy and to walk humbly with our God is a blessed and wonderful thing. To be able to have mercy\u00a0without<\/span>\u00a0sinning is nothing short of miraculous.\u00a0Oh, for us to have hearts of\u00a0mercy<\/span>, yet still walk in God\u2019s holy\u00a0standards, upright in\u00a0His integrity!\u00a0That takes God\u2019s power – it\u2019s impossible for man.<\/span><\/p>\n

As you said here, if we don\u2019t know ourselves (that is,\u00a0how much we\u00a0are being held up by\u00a0Him every moment, every day), we can\u00a0become proud.\u00a0Proud of how good we are doing (compared to other people that we think are \u201cblowing it\u201d).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When it gets that way, and we are puffed up,\u00a0I believe it can benefit\u00a0our proud heart if we have a\u00a0BIG fall, and then,\u00a0if we are wise, it can be a\u00a0stepping stone to learning the mercy of God.\u00a0When we have fallen, we learn how precious mercy is.\u00a0But to learn it\u00a0without falling,<\/span>\u00a0 like Jesus did… woo hoo,\u00a0what a short-cut to\u00a0life in the highest!<\/span><\/p>\n

Thank you for sharing this – it really felt good.<\/span><\/p>\n

Gary<\/span><\/p>\n

================<\/span><\/p>\n

Pastor John,<\/span><\/p>\n

Whew.\u00a0This [Pastor John\u2019s message, \u201cMercy without Sin\u201d] is the truth, and I am still learning it.\u00a0That pride messes up everything!\u00a0 That is a new thought to\u00a0me, what you said at the end about how Jesus is so merciful, yet he never sinned.\u00a0My, what great compassion, and what great love.\u00a0 It makes me think of that song, \u201cTo be like Jesus, to be like Jesus, that\u2019s all I ask, to be like him.\u201d \u00a0And Jesus loves people.<\/span><\/p>\n

Donna<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MERCIFUL WITHOUT\u00a0SIN \u201cEvery high priest . . . is able to deal gently with the ignorant and misguided because he, too, is encompassed with weakness.\u201d Hebrews 5:1\u20132 When we know ourselves, we are merciful to others. Until we come to know ourselves, however, we usually are not so merciful.\u00a0 People who are proud of how […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-netmail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5529"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5529"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5529\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}