Mercy Archives - Gracefully Truthful

Waiting Day 5 Surrendered Love Story

October 8, 2021 by Rebecca Leave a Comment

Read His Words Before Ours!

Hosea 1:1-2
Isaiah 30:18-26
Hosea 2
Psalm 18:4-19

Waiting, Day 5

When the Lord first spoke to Hosea, He said this to him:
“Go and marry a woman of promiscuity,
and have children of promiscuity […]”
(Hosea 1:2)

Hosea, like any other man of his culture, had waited for a bride, working hard to prepare a home and livelihood for them and their future children. Hosea’s father would choose a bride, then they would choose to stay married, have children, and build a life together to perpetuate a new generation who would honor Yahweh.

Hosea’s plans radically shifted when he heard the voice of the Lord instructing him which bride to take. As bizarre as this was, the kind of wife the Lord had selected for Hosea was the most outlandish.

Unmarried she was.
Virgin she most definitely was not.
Gomer, daughter of Diblaim, was well-known for blatant prostitution.

As Hosea entered the school of waiting on the Lord,
lesson 101 focused on tearing down his expectations.

Hosea always had a choice.
Either he could surrender to the calling of the Lord, and humbly let go of his plans in exchange for the Lord’s, or he could walk away and say no.

And so it is with us.

Only through our surrender can God’s love story be told through us.

Either we are the author, or we give up rights to our pen.
As my friend, Sara, likes to say, “The Lord writes the best stories.”
Most often, His stories involve purposed waiting built into the storyline, as the Lord, with deep love, wrecks our plans to show us true love.

The most direct route to our total surrender is waiting.

Hosea’s waiting is inextricable from his journey with Yahweh, the One True God, as is ours. Wherever we see waiting in the timeline of our tale, we can be assured the Lord is rewriting our narrative to emblazon His love story across the pages of our days.

We generally don’t consider the Lord waiting for us, but He does.
Within our chronological timeline, He waits for us to embrace Him.
He waits for us to reject all the lesser loves of our lives.
He waits for us to seek Him, call on Him, trust Him, and love Him most and best.

“I will depart and return to My place
until they recognize their guilt and seek My face[…]”
(Hosea 5:15, emphasis mine)

“What am I going to do with you, Ephraim?
What am I going to do with you, Judah?
Your love is like the morning mist
and like the early dew that vanishes. […]
For I desire faithful love[…]”
(Hosea 6:4, 6, emphasis mine)

Waiting is the means, surrender is the goal, an unimaginable love story is the reward.

“I will take you to be my wife forever.
I will take you to be my wife in righteousness,
justice, love, and compassion.”
(Hosea 2:19)

While our waiting often seems meaningless, the sharp edges of our hearts continuously cutting us with grief and pain as we sit in the messy unknown, God’s command to Hosea came with a clear reason behind it.

“[…] for the land [the people of Israel] is committing blatant acts of promiscuity
by abandoning the Lord.” (Hosea 1:2)

Anti-surrender. Self-love. Gross promiscuity.
These were the pursuits of the people God had purposed to set His love upon.

Death, judgement, and separation would be their just reward unless Love intervened and drew hearts into total surrender. (Hosea 6:5)

God, who waits with compassion, lovingly called aside one ordinary man who would live out the love story of God for His people in brilliant colors that could not be ignored.

“[Hosea], go again; show love to a woman who is […] an adulteress,
just as the Lord loves the Israelites though they turn to other gods.”
(Hosea 3:1, emphasis mine)

Gomer fled Hosea many times, refusing to surrender her promiscuity for the ravishing love of one faithful husband. In the same way, Israel rejected Yahweh on repeat. Spurning His priceless love and forgiveness, instead choosing to whore themselves after false gods and selfish lusts of their sin-wrecked hearts.

My sister, I’m leaning in to tell you a secret I’ve often kept from myself.
I am Gomer.

I, like she, have rejected the God who perfectly planned my rescue, devising a way to uncurl my fists around my lusting desires of self-love, pride, and arrogance by living out His love in brilliant colors, then dying for me, and rising again to prove His victory.

With His blood, He paid the bride-price for my soul, adopted me as His own, and gave me His robe of righteousness which I could never dare hope to earn for my filthy sin is much too weighty. (2 Corinthians 5:20-21)

The same God who called Hosea to live out radical love for a bride who would leave him,
parted the Heavens, emptied Himself of His rights as God of all,
to surrender Himself as payment for my sin and yours,
that our storylines might be forever re-written with the ink of radical love.

His pen does indeed write the best stories.
His waiting beckons our surrender.

“Therefore, I am going to persuade her,
lead her to the wilderness,
and speak tenderly to her. […]
In that day—
this is the Lord’s declaration—
you will call me, “My husband,””
(Hosea 2:14, 16)

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Alive Day 14 Dearly Loved: Digging Deeper

September 30, 2021 by Lisa Marcelina Leave a Comment

Digging Deeper Days

Finding the original intent of Scripture and making good application to our everyday lives as we become equipped to correctly handle the Word of Truth!

Yesterday’s Journey Study connects with today’s!
Check out Dearly Loved!

The Questions

1) If God is for us and sacrificed His son on our behalf, what does this say about God’s love for us? (verses 31-32)

2) Christ died, was raised, and now intercedes for believers, but what does His intercession entail? (verse 34)

3) How is the truth that nothing can separate us from Christ’s love intended to impact our everyday lives? (verse 35)

4) What does it mean to be put to death all day long and counted as sheep to be slaughtered? (verse 36)

Romans 8:31-36

31 What, then, are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? 32 He did not even spare his own Son but gave him up for us all. How will he not also with him grant us everything? 33 Who can bring an accusation against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies. 34 Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is the one who died, but even more, has been raised; he also is at the right hand of God and intercedes for us. 35 Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Can affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written: Because of you we are being put to death all day long; we are counted as sheep to be slaughtered.

Original Intent

1) If God is for us and sacrificed His son on our behalf, what does this say about God’s love for us? (verses 31-32)
From the beginning, God’s purpose for creating mankind was to have a relationship with them. When man sinned, purposefully choosing to love and pursue themselves and their selfishness over God, their relationship with God was broken. “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love for us” (Ephesians 2:4), made a pathway to reconcile that broken relationship by sending God the Son, Jesus, to take the punishment for our sin upon Himself. (2 Corinthians 5:21) Abraham’s story of sacrifice in Genesis 22 gives us a real sense of God’s deep love for us. “Take your (Abraham) son,” He (God) said, “your only son Isaac, whom you love, go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering…”. (Genesis 22:2) Notice God’s words, “your only son…, whom you love.” God knew how much Abraham loved Isaac; this was the ultimate test. Yet, Abraham obeyed without hesitation or protest. Abraham woke early the next day to carry out God’s command. When God saw Abraham’s willingness to love Him more than Isaac, He stopped Abraham at the last moment, ^“‘Do not lay a hand on the boy or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your only son from Me.’” (Genesis 22:12) Consider how Abraham, a mere man, loved Isaac yet willingly sacrificed him for a Greater Love, God. Flipping this, consider God. His love boundlessly stretches beyond Abraham’s love for Isaac. In God’s case, however, His son, Jesus, actually died; His death was not stayed by God’s hand. He suffered a horrible death that through Him, we might be drawn back to God’s heart. This is magnificent love! God will never let go of those who place their trust in Him! (John 10:28) No matter who opposes the Reconciled Child, God will allow nothing to separate us from Him. He will do whatever is necessary to bring us to Glory with Him!

2) Christ died, was raised, and now intercedes for believers, but what does His intercession entail? (verse 34)
To help us study biblical words in their original languages, we can use well trusted commentaries as resources as we return to the original meaning of a word. Part of Strong’s definition for the Greek word translated as intercession is “to go to or meet a person, especially for the purpose of conversation, consultation, or supplication.” Intercession is the past participle of the verb, intercede. Dictionary.com defines intercede as: (1) to act or interpose on behalf of someone in difficulty or trouble, as by pleading or petition; and (2) to attempt to reconcile differences between two people or groups; mediate. Jesus’ death and resurrection reconciled us to God if we have placed the full weight of our trust in Him for our salvation and rescue from sin. Therefore, Jesus, as God the Son, our eternal interceder, discusses, deliberates, and prays to God the Father concerning us. Bible commentary author, Warren W. Wiersbe, states it this way, “Intercession means that Jesus Christ represents us before the throne of God and we do not have to represent ourselves.” One of the best examples of Jesus interceding for us is in His personal prayer recorded in John 17. In this prayer, Jesus prayed for Himself, His disciples, and all believers who would eventually come to know Him as their Savior through the preaching of truth. In His prayer for all believers (John 17:20-26), He prayed for their unity just as He and His Father are united as one. This unity would prove to the world that Jesus was sent by God. He continues now to pray for our unity, always declaring us as righteous in the sight of God because we have trusted Him as our Savior instead of relying on ourselves to be good enough on our own (which is impossible!).

3) How is the truth that nothing can separate us from Christ’s love intended to impact our everyday lives? (verse 35)
Paul knew firsthand what persecution and hardship felt like in real life. Paul experienced imprisonment, whippings, and humiliation many times; eventually preaching Christ cost him his life. He experienced persecution both from his own people, the Jews, as well as from Gentiles (non-Jews). He faced hunger, thirst, shivering cold, nakedness, and death. Read 2 Corinthians 11:23-27 for a full list of his hardships. Yet, in the face of all these things, Paul persevered not because he was physically strong, but because he had decided to surrender himself entirely to God. It was in his weakness, he most closely experienced the strength of God at work in him. (2 Corinthians 12:9) Before He ascended into heaven, Jesus encouraged His disciples with these words, “… I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20) Paul persevered through his struggles because he knew Jesus loved him and was with him throughout every trial. Before his death, Paul wrote his final letter to Timothy and stated, ^“At my first defense, no one stood by me, but everyone deserted me. May it not be counted against them.But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, so that I might fully preach the word and all the Gentiles might hear it…”. (2 Timothy 4:16-17, emphasis mine) Paul fought a good fight and finished the work the Lord gave him, and he looked forward to receiving his reward, the crown of righteousness. (2 Timothy 4:7-8)

4) What does it mean to be put to death all day long and counted as sheep to be slaughtered? (verse 36)
This reference from Psalm 44 would have been very familiar to the first audience listening to the reading of Paul’s letter. They knew it spoke of a time in Israel’s history when they felt defeated on all sides by enemies too strong, fierce, cruel, and taunting. (Psalm 44:9-12) The current day believers would have felt they could relate to Israel’s suffering from the past. This psalm also carried a prophetic writing, “Because of You we are being put to death all day long; we are counted as sheep to be slaughtered.” (Psalm 44:22) The ancient Israelites faced defeat at the hands of their enemies because of their rebellion against God. They were oppressed and exiled as a consequence of their choice to ignore God as the One True God. Though we don’t know exactly which incident in Israel’s history brought on the writing of this psalm, we do know there were times in war when God did not fight with Israel because of their sin. (Joshua 7) In the case of this psalm’s description, Israel maintained they hadn’t broken their covenant and had been faithful to God. (Psalm 44:17-21) They begged God to help and redeem them. (Psalm 44:23-26) Suffering is nothing new for God’s people. Christians are expected to endure hardship and adversity once they follow Jesus. Philippians 1:29 states, “For it has been granted to you on Christ’s behalf not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for Him.” In some cases that suffering may include death. Paul, in quoting this verse from the psalms in his letter, sought to explain that despite immense suffering, God still loves us, sees us, and is faithful to us in our suffering.

Everyday Application

1) If God is for us and sacrificed His son on our behalf, what does this say about God’s love for us? (verses 31-32)
John 3:16 states, “For God loved the world in this way: He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.” God loves all of mankind. His wish is for everyone to be saved and be with Him in eternity, “The Lord…is patient with you, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9) But salvation can only come through belief in Jesus Christ, “Jesus told him, ‘I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6) Therefore, for believers, God will do anything to finalize the proof of our salvation by bringing us into eternity with Him. Nothing can thwart our chances of receiving eternal life, but only after we have surrendered our will to His. Earning eternal life is out of the question for ANY of us. We cannot be good enough to win God’s approval for even one small sin disqualifies us entirely. (James 2:10) It is by God’s grace alone that we are rescued from the nature and consequence of sin and its eternal consequences. (Ephesians 2:8-9)

2) Christ died, was raised, and now intercedes for believers, but what does His intercession entail? (verse 34)
Jesus intercedes, that is, brings requests to God, on our behalf. He always does so by presenting us as already fully righteous without sin because His righteousness has covered us. (2 Corinthians 5:21) All genuine believers in Jesus are declared righteous when we surrender to Him! Christ has called us to follow Him in all things, and interceding on behalf of others is an important Christian duty following His example. How do we intercede? Through prayer. “First of all, then, I urge that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone.” (I Timothy 2:1) I have the privilege to be on the prayer team for a few Ministries. The most common prayer requests are for healing, finances, and salvation for family members. I don’t know any of these people, but I trust God will hear and answer my petition on their behalf. Intercession also brings humility and perspective of God’s power. We are not focusing on ourselves alone, interceding puts us in the position of sharing each other’s burdens as Scripture teachers. “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves. Everyone should look not to his own interests, but rather to the interests of others.” (Philippians 2:3-4) We are not only to intercede for fellow believers but for everyone. This includes praying on behalf of non-believers and our enemies! (Luke 6:28)

3) How is the truth that nothing can separate us from Christ’s love intended to impact our everyday lives? (verse 35)
Right now, we are living in a chaotic world, no matter where you call home. Climate change, political conflict, and a world-wide pandemic, together with our own personal battles, converge into a life of uncertainty. Yet Paul reminded us that nothing – no problem, persecution, danger, nor death – can separate us from Jesus’ love. Just like Paul, we too can persevere through our struggles knowing Jesus is present with us throughout. He will faithfully use all things in the life of a believer to point our hearts to knowing Him and using our lives to proclaim His glory. His love is unfailing! (Psalm 136) We too can fight the good fight, finish the race, and claim the reward that awaits us if we will choose to accept the free gift of life and eternal rescue that Christ holds out for us. Only with Christ, and His gain, do our worldly struggles and passions fade. “For I (Paul) consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be revealed to us. For the creation eagerly waits with anticipation for God’s sons to be revealed.” (Romans 8:18-19)

4) What does it mean to be put to death all day long and counted as sheep to be slaughtered? (verse 36)
The early church believers were witnessing Old Testament prophecies being fulfilled right before them in everyday life. With new understanding, old familiar words took on new meanings. Suffering was so closely connected with choosing to follow Jesus that new believers considered themselves as sheep to be slaughtered; they understood this decision could cost them their lives, yet they still chose Christ. Regardless of the era, no true Christian is immune to suffering. Paul’s words ring just as true for you and I as they did for his first audience, “For it has been granted to you on Christ’s behalf not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for Him…”. (Philippians 1:29) Whether we are mocked for praying publicly, prioritizing worship, lose friendships for speaking of Christ, or even if our lives are threatened we are still guaranteed a home in heaven if we have trusted Jesus as our Savior and Forgiver. I recently read of a woman named Hannelie Groenewald whose husband and two children were killed in Afghanistan in 2014. The children were only 15 and 17. After killing the family, the Taliban set their house on fire. According to her testimony, what gives Hannelie strength is knowing they served God faithfully and her family is now with Jesus. With recent events in Afghanistan, we know Christians continue to be at risk of persecution and death. Let’s pray for one another around the world, but also take heart that God loves His Church, He is with us, and He will faithfully bring each genuine believer home to be with Him forever. Despite what happens, there is a crown of righteousness awaiting persecuted Christians in Heaven, and for all who have longed for His appearing! (2 Timothy 4:8)

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Digging Deeper is for Everyone!

1) Take this passage (or any other passage).
2) Read it, and the verses around it,
several times
3) Write down your questions
as you think of them.
4) Ask specific culture related questions and be ready to dig around for your answers. Google them, use www.studylight.org, or look them up in a study Bible and read the footnotes (click on the little letters next to a word and it will show you
other related verses!). (www.esvbible.org)
5) Check your applications with other trusted Christians that you are in community with and embrace the fullness of God
in your everyday!

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Why Dig Deeper?

Finding the original meaning is a huge deal when we study Scripture and can make all the difference in our understanding as we apply God’s truths to our everyday lives.

In our modern-day relationships, we want people to understand our original intention as we communicate; how much more so between God and humanity?!

Here’s a little bit more on why we take Digging Deeper so seriously.

Study Tools

We love getting help while we study and www.studylight.org is one of many excellent resources, providing the original Hebrew (Old Testament) or Greek (New Testament) with an English translation.

Want to know more about a specific word in a verse? Click on “Strong’s Interlinear Bible” then click the word you’d like to study. Discover “origin”, “definition” and hear the original pronunciation – That Is Awesome!

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Alive Day 1 Justice + Mercy = Freedom

September 13, 2021 by Rebecca Leave a Comment

Read His Words Before Ours!

Romans 7:22-8:4
1 John 1:5-2:2
Galatians 5:13-18
Hebrews 12:1-6

Alive, Day 1

“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus, because the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do since it was weakened by the flesh, God did. He condemned sin in the flesh by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh as a sin offering, in order that the law’s requirement would be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” (Romans 8:1-4)

“Son, do you love Jesus? Have you given Him your whole life?”
“Yes, Mama. You were there when I prayed to Him.”
“Do you see how you have been jumping quickly to make rude comments to your brothers? Do you see how fast you are to throw a punch and then say you were ‘just playing?’”
“Yeah, I do. It’s just…so hard to follow Jesus all the time.”

Yes.
Yes, it is.

“So then, with my mind I myself am serving the law of God, but with my flesh, the law of sin.” (Romans 7:25)

To surrender our lives once to the Savior of the world for the rescue of our souls is an incredible, necessary act. But to surrender to His Spirit at work within us on the daily, in every moment, is something else entirely.

Herein is the long, grueling, often painful process of sanctification by which our souls, once dead to God and alive to sin, are now being fashioned into the image for which we were always intended: Christ’s.

“… the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death.” (Romans 8:2)

But, oh, the habits of the flesh cling hard and fast to our rhythms of life. Always competing with our desire to follow Jesus is our desire to still love ourselves most and first and best.

“For in my inner self I delight in God’s law, but I see a different law in the parts of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and taking me prisoner to the law of sin in the parts of my body.” (Romans 7:22-23, emphasis mine)

What wretches we are!
And who will rescue us from this ceaseless war within ourselves? (Romans 7:24)

With tears, oh Christ. Only Christ!
Jesus, the only One worthy to sit at the right hand of our Father God. (Ephesians 1:20-21)
Jesus, willing to take our sin and shame upon Himself that we might never bear it again. (1 John 2:2)
Jesus, willing to break us free again and again and again from the ridiculous chains of sin we insist on slinging around ourselves. (Romans 5:21)
Oh Merciful Christ.

“Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:25)

This beautiful Christ, and the freedom He lavishly gives, are the subject of one of the most profoundly significant chapters in all of Scripture, Romans Chapter Eight.

And the benefactors of such magnificent love?
The wretched ones.
Us.

We who, having witnessed the atrocities of our own sinful rebellion, have now turned instead to look upon the blood stained, nail-pierced body of the resurrected Jesus. He who, having died the death we deserved, now offers us His life and righteousness. He willingly laid down His life that we might live anew with Him, both in eternity and right now, in the nitty-gritty of everyday choices. Here, we choose either to surrender to His Spirit or lustfully love ourselves.

This great unfolding of the vast love of Christ begins here in the dark places of our souls. For only in knowing, grasping, and insistently gazing upon the ugliness of our sin can we truly be taken aback by the sheer glory of the love of a magnificent God who chose to set His love upon us simply that we might be called His own forever.

Never could we dream of becoming good enough to qualify as “righteous” before the Holy One. No amount of law-keeping, good deeds, kind words, gut-wrenching sacrifices, or generous giving could ever amount to earning even a single drop of God’s mercy.

“All of us have become like something unclean,
and all our righteous acts are like a polluted garment…” (Isaiah 64:6)

Our law-keeping is meaningless for earning right standing before God.
So, what hope have we?
None, Sisters.
None.
We are utterly without hope.

Our sin demands the death penalty, for we are wholly unrighteous.
We cannot earn goodness, for we have already earned death.
“For the wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23)

And here, in the inky blackness of hell, eternally separated from a loving God, the Spirit of God whispers, “For what the law could not do since it was weakened by the flesh, God did.” (Romans 8:3)

Like brilliant, white light streaming into a once-darkened dungeon, “God Did” thrills our hearts with blissfully delicious, entirely immovable H O P E.

With perfect Justice, God “condemned sin in the flesh by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh as a sin offering in order that the law’s requirement would be fulfilled in us.” (Romans 8:4) He paid for sin with His perfection, forever slaying Death on our behalf, and now extends to us unshackled freedom if we surrender our sin-loving, self-focused selves.

His justice.
His mercy.
Our freedom.

And what will we do with this freedom?
Come alive, Sisters, we will come alive!

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