The Beatitudes: Blessed Are The Merciful: Part 2

Matthew 5:7 KJV

Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.

In Part 1 of this post on being merciful, I wrote about taking a stand against abortion and showing mercy to those innocent babies who desperately need it. Tonight I want to write about the other side of the coin. The women who abort. 

I had never given the women much thought, other than to think them despicable and vile. But since beginning this Ministry, my viewpoint has changed. I've come to realize that these women don't need my condemnation. They need my love, my comfort, and most importantly my prayers and my Savior. 

There are few women who have abortions that come out of them unscathed and emotionally whole. The full weight of what they have done and the regrets, the sadness, the remorse and depression begin to set in. Perhaps not immediately, but it does. 

I have stood crying with a woman while she bared her soul to me, telling me of her abortion. She, like me, had been thrilled when her pregnancy test turned positive. But then the crushing weight of her husband's infidelity and demands to have an abortion broke her. I stood crying with her as she told me of her fear to conceive again with her new husband. A very real fear that as her punishment, the Lord would let her conceive only to miscarry. I held her and told her of my sweet Savior's forgiveness and mercy. 

She had made the only choice she thought she could in the situation she was in. I don't condone, justify, or even comprehend how she could make such a decision, yet I don't need to to offer her, and the millions of others just like her, mercy.   

In taking a stand against abortion, we must extend mercy and grace to the women who choose abortion. We must counsel them with love and forgiveness and teach them that there is a better way.  We must educate our young girls and women about the consequences of premarital sex and the dangers of abortion. We must be proactive in our fight against abortion, in prayer, in changing our laws, in giving the millions of babies a voice.

I have never had an abortion, yet I understand all too well the pain of losing a child. It is debilitating, life altering, nearly life ending for me. The weight of the guilt that I may have done something to cause my babies to die was nearly unbearable. To think of the pain that millions of women are in because they know they took the life of their child is a staggering thought. 

My only lifeline was my Jesus. These women need Jesus. Whether they are lost and don't know Him as their Savior, or have salvation and have wandered off the righteous path, Jesus is the answer, He is the cure for their pain, the balm for their sorrows. By extending our love and mercy to these women, we let Christ's light shine through us. A light that they are in desperate need of. 

I was once in need of that light, that mercy. And I thank God every day for sending His Only Begotten Son to extend that mercy to me, to shed His blood on Calvary so that I would be reunited with Him and my babies in Heaven some glad day.

Charles Spurgeon said this, "Have you no wish for others to be saved? Then you are not saved yourself. Be sure of that."

Having been redeemed myself, I cannot begrudge Christ's mercy for another's soul. In fact, I must actively seek to lead them to Christ for blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy.

Matthew 9:13 KJV

But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

The Beatitudes: Blessed Are The Merciful

Matthew 5:7 KJV
Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.

Exodus 21:22-25 KJV
22 If men strive, and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart from her, and yet no mischief follow: he shall be surely punished, according as the woman's husband will lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine.
23 And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life,
24 Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,
25 Burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.

Genesis 50:20-21 KJV
20 But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.
21 Now therefore fear ye not: I will nourish you, and your little ones. And he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them.

I have been tossing this post around for nearly a week. I have been putting off writing it because it was a difficult one to research. I think that anyone that knows me, know the heart that I have for babies and for children. To think of one suffering in any magnitude, breaks my heart. I rarely watch the news for this very reason, my nerves simply can't handle it. 

Yet if anyone deserves our mercy it is our children. Both born and unborn.

And so it is with a broken heart that I find myself writing this tonight. That it even needs to be written speaks to the evil that the world has succumbed to. 

I cannot tell you of the pain of rape or incest. I have never suffered such tragedies in my life. I cannot tell you of the pain of being rejected by the only family I have because of what is deemed a mistake in their eyes. I cannot tell you of the pain of being told that I am an inconvenience and I need to be gotten rid of. Or that I am deformed and therefore not worth letting live. Yet, since the legalization of abortion in 1973, millions of babies have suffered this pain, have been murdered simply because they were unwanted. 

I sit here with a lump in my throat, trying to banish the images from my mind that I have seen tonight. But I realize that it's this very mindset that let the horrors of Kermit Gosnell's abortion clinic go on for over 3 decades. Sticking my head in the sand will not unsee what I have seen and it certainly won't stop what is being done in our country. 

There are viable babies being born all over our country tonight that are being refused medical care or being flat out murdered because they are complications of abortion. As if it isn't heinous enough that we legally snuff out the lives of babies because they are "non-persons" until they are born and fill their lungs with oxygen, it is pure evil that allows a baby to die alone in a metal dish, refusing life saving medical treatment, simply because he was supposed to have died during the abortion procedure. It is the stuff of nightmares. Truly it is. I had no idea, or perhaps I just didn't want to believe that man could be so cold and callous, that there are babies who survive abortions, babies who, with medical intervention, could live a healthy life. But men like Kermit Gosnell, who perform illegal abortions on women well into their 3rd trimesters and routinely deliver viable babies, are "ensuring fetal demise" without blinking an eye. I read for myself tonight parts of the Pennsylvania Grand Jury Report in Gosnell's trial and I could do nothing but sit and weep in anger, in horror, in utter sadness. I was completely unprepared for the photos that were included. Seeing the gruesome effects of his "medical practice" and knowing that for over 30 years his employees not only stood by but helped him, never questioning his obvious illegal practices, was in itself sickening. 

We have convinced ourselves that if it doesn't affect us, it's not our problem. Not my monkeys, not my circus. Maybe so, but when the monkeys show up on your doorstep, overturning your right to vote against homosexual marriage, your right to carry a gun, your right to free speech, then I guess the circus tent just got a whole lot bigger.

Women like Kay Hagan, Wendy Davis, Gloria Steinem, who support abortion, even abortion after 20 weeks, are terrifying to me. These are women brainwashing other women into believing that babies are an invasion on their bodies, inconveniences causing them to lose control of their lives. 

And let's get one thing clear, whether or not a baby at 12 weeks can feel pain or whether it can't until 20 weeks, is utterly irrelevant. Abortion is murder. Life begins at conception. 

The Bible tells us in Exodus, that if a man harms a pregnant woman and causes her fruit to depart from her, to deliver prematurely, and the baby lives then the man must pay whatever the judge determines. But if she delivers prematurely and the baby is harmed or dies, life for life is required. Can you imagine if every mother, father, friend, abortionist, nurse, or anyone else that might be involved in a woman's decision and subsequent abortion, had their life required for the baby's life they stole?

We need to stand up and speak out against abortion, in all stages of gestation. We need to speak up and put an end to an evil that man has deemed acceptable and legal. We must show these babies mercy. Because they are at the mercy of our morals, our laws, our convictions.  And regardless of how they were conceived, whether you deem it to be the right time in your life, or whether that baby is healthy or not, what man thinks as evil against us, God means for good.

I can think of another group of people deemed unwanted, unfit, and undesirable. Sinners. You and me. All it took was One Man willing to show us mercy to save us from a neverending, unceasing hellfire and damnation. Christ Jesus. He laid down His life and became our Interceder. He died so that we could have eternal life by simply believing on Him.

Let us intercede, let us show mercy to the innocent, the unborn. 

Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy.

The Gospel

Psalms 3:3 KJV 
But thou, O LORD, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head.

Psalms 62:5 KJV
My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him.

Today I viewed the funeral of a 17 year old young man, taken tragically and unexpectedly from his family. I witnessed the sheer amount of love for him and the staggering volume of lives that his had impacted. As his Pastor said, Eleck lived much in such a short amount of time. He lived much for his Savior and his passion and his testimony have brought a community together like only the shared love of Jesus Christ can do.

As I sat with my boys and watched the service, holding them tight and thanking God for another day with them, the Pastor quoted Eleck and said "The Gospel is not about what is being done, it's about what's already been done." The weight of those words hit me and new tears sprang forth. The Gospel is about what my Lord and Savior did for me on Calvary. I'm not awaiting trial with no defense, I'm not awaiting a midnight death row pardon, I'm not sitting in purgatory waiting to be prayed out and into heaven. It is finished. I have been forgiven. He willingly gave Himself as a sacrifice to pay my sin debt long before I even existed because He already loved me. He didn't have to wait until I was born, until I was already filthy with sin, He didn't have to wait until I made the choice to love and accept Him as my Savior. He had already made the choice and signed my pardon.

The Gospel isn't about anything I'm doing or you're doing. It's about what He did and has promised to do. He has promised to return to us with a shout, to meet us in the air. He has prepared for us a place and He is coming again to take us there. And until then our souls wait only upon Him.  We live in the expectation of His promises and His sacrifice, we live by our faith, we spread His Gospel, and we thank Him for His glory.

O Lord, thank you. Thank you for being my shield and my protector from all harm's way, thank you for your sheltering arms. Thank you for being my glory, my light, my purpose. Thank you for lifting my head when it hurts to even get out of bed. Thank you for lifting my head to cast my eyes upon your majestic face. Thank you for lifting my head so that I can see your love and your sacrifice. Thank you.
In Jesus Sweet Name I Do Pray,
Love You Jesus,
Amen

Living By Faith

I care not today what the morrow may bring,

If shadow or sunshine or rain,

The Lord I know ruleth o’er everything,

And all of my worries are vain.

Though tempests may blow and the storm clouds arise,

Obscuring the brightness of life,

I’m never alarmed at the overcast skies—

The Master looks on at the strife.

Living by faith in Jesus above,

Trusting, confiding in His great love;

From all harm safe in His sheltering arm,

I’m living by faith and feel no alarm.

I know that He safely will carry me through,

No matter what evils betide;

Why should I then care though the tempest may blow,

If Jesus walks close to my side.

Our Lord will return for His loved ones some day,

Our troubles will then all be o’er;

The Master so gently will lead us away,

Beyond that blest heavenly shore.

Living by faith in Jesus above,

Trusting, confiding in His great love;

From all harm safe in His sheltering arm,

I’m living by faith and feel no alarm.

The Beatitudes: Blessed Are Those Which Do Hunger and Thirst

Matthew 5:6 KJV
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.

This morning I woke up as normal. Bright and early to two beautiful blond, blue-eyed boys. We went about our morning routine: potty, breakfast, Annabelle's breakfast (the 6 month old eats-me-out-of-house-and-home German Rottweiler puppy that my boys adore even if she does dwarf them in size and weight), cartoon time and my time to catch up on all that happened in the 6 hours of sleep I was able to get. Nothing unusual this morning. I scrolled through Facebook, mentally noting the prayer requests I came across, silently asking God to do His will in the situations. Then my phone vibrated with a text message. Another prayer request for a local family who lost their 17 year old son in a fatal car accident this morning. I knew the family, though not well, but knew many people who were very close to the family and their son. My heart began to break for his family and loved ones. A tragedy such as this is unimaginable. I prayed for the Lord to comfort his family as only He can. 

I thought about them throughout the day and tonight as I prayed with my boys and tucked them into bed, I thought about the boy.

I thought about him and his Momma and how I would feel if I were in her place. And the thought came to me as I kissed my boys goodnight, that we never know what the morning holds, much less the next minute. And if I were in this Momma's place, the one thing I would want to know for certain is that my boys had accepted Christ as their Savior. I would want to know that I had done everything in my power to show them Christ's love, to walk in His righteous path, to live in the Spirit and to direct them to Him. I would want to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that they loved the Lord Jesus with all their heart and believed that He was crucified on Calvary for their sins. I would want to know that I had so hungered and thirsted after His righteousness that my boys hungered and thirsted too. I would want to know that when He filled me up it overflowed and filled my babies up too. If I had to trade places with that Momma and think for a single second that I had not done every single thing humanly possible to lead my sons to the Lord, if I thought that there was even the slightest chance they did not have the full pardon of salvation, I would not be able to live another day. 

Our number one priority as a parent should be to raise our children to know the love of their Savior. If we never did another thing right but to see our children accept Christ as their Redeemer, then we'd have done the most important thing right.

Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled.

Lord,
I pray tonight that you be with this family who has lost their son, brother, grandson, nephew, cousin, high school sweetheart, and friend. Lord I pray that they seek Your Face for comfort and for guidance. I pray Lord that they have the security in knowing their son was one of Yours, a Child of the King. I pray Lord that his death not be in vain, I pray that in seeking solace in this tragedy that some lost sinner may find You and Your Redeeming Grace. 

Lord I pray tonight and every night that you would take my hand and lead me, guide me, show me Your way. Show me how to be a godly Momma, wife, daughter, and servant. Show me how to raise my boys in Your glory and admonition. Lord I pray that when the time is right, when You prick their hearts and beckon them to come to You, that they not hesitate a single second. I pray Lord to always hunger and thirst after righteousness and to be filled by your presence in Heaven some sweet day with my boys by my side.

In Jesus Sweet Name I Do Pray,
Love You Jesus,
Aman

Child of the King

Once I was clothed in the rags of my sin,

Wretched and poor, lost and lonely within.

But with wondrous compassion, the King of all kings,

In pity and love, took me under His wings.

Oh, yes, oh yes, I'm a child of the King

His royal blood now flows in my veins.

And I who was wretched and poor now can sing

Praise God, praise God, I'm a child of the King.

Now I'm a child with a Heavenly home,

My Holy Father has made me His own.

And I'm cleansed by His blood, and I'm clothed in His love,

And some day I'll sing with the angels above.

Oh, yes, oh yes, I'm a child of the King

His royal blood now flows in my veins.

And I who was wretched and poor now can sing

Praise God, praise God, I'm a child of the King.

The Beatitudes: Blessed Are The Meek

Matthew 5:5 KJV

Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.

Ephesians 4:32 KJV

And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.

Titus 3:2-7 KJV

2 To speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, shewing all meekness unto all men.

3 For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.

4 But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared,

5 Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;

6 Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour;

7 That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

James 1:26-27, 2:1-13 KJV

26 If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain.

27 Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

2:1 My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons.

2 For if there come unto your assembly a man with a gold ring, in goodly apparel, and there come in also a poor man in vile raiment;

3 And ye have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him, Sit thou here in a good place; and say to the poor, Stand thou there, or sit here under my footstool:

4 Are ye not then partial in yourselves, and are become judges of evil thoughts?

5 Hearken, my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him?

6 But ye have despised the poor. Do not rich men oppress you, and draw you before the judgment seats?

7 Do not they blaspheme that worthy name by the which ye are called?

8 If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well:

9 But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors.

10 For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.

11 For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law.

12 So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty.

13 For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment.

Our Ministry is called Help the Hurt Ministry because that is exactly what we strive to do. We want to help those who are hurting, whether they are lost or saved, old time saints or backslid Christians, rich or poor. Because whether or not you find yourself on a bar stool or church pew, one fact is true: you are a sinner in need of a Savior. 

In the past week and a half, this fact has become glaringly obvious in my life. It is a fact that Brandon and I cannot seem to get away from. This obvious truth, that no matter our circumstances, we are all the same: wretched and vile sinners. Christ came to save each one of us. Not just those who are debt free and wealthy, not just those in designer clothes and expensive cars, not just those with mansions and perfectly manicured lawns , not just the beautiful, talented, and famous. He came to save me and everyone like me who is up to their eyeballs in bills and living paycheck to paycheck, wearing hand-me-downs and driving upside down gas-guzzlers, living in itty, bitty fixer-uppers with ain't-had-time-in-two-weeks-to-mow lawns, sleep deprived, can't sing a note, unheard of selves. For God so loved the WORLD. The world y'all! He didn't just pick the cream of the crop to give eternal life to, He picked us all and we only have to believe in Him. 

And if our Creator, our Father, our Lord and Savior, didn't just pick those He deemed worthy, because let's face it, none of us would have made that list, then we ought not to either. We don't get to pick and choose who to love and who not to love, who to share the Gospel with and who not to, who we deem fit to darken the doorways of our churches and who ought to go back to where they came from. We all have sin in our lives, each and every one of us. None of us are perfect and none of us can claim to be. There are people all over this world, dying and going to hell because Christians will not take the time to witness to them, to share Christ's love with them because of the clothes they're wearing, the color of their hair, the piercings or tattoos on their bodies. Somehow, we Christians have become Pharisees and we are driving away the lost and the hurting in hoards. 

Please note that I am not talking about the "wolves in sheep's clothing" that we have all encountered at some point within our churches, I am talking about the lost and dying, the Christians who are backslid and walking afar off, who are in need of our love, our help and our Savior. I am not so naive to think that everyone who sits on our church pews are there for help or to praise and worship our Lord. I know that there are dangers, that there are those who would come in to flaunt their sin and to mock us but I believe the Lord gives us the discernment and the knowledge to deal with these situations as they arise. 

The scripture says it all, says more than I ever could. Blessed are the meek, the kind, the humble, the loving, the giving, to all men, for they shall inherit the earth. Pure religion and undefiled is this, to visit the fatherless and the widows in their affliction. We must go to them, where they are, when they are hurting and cannot come to us. We've got to roll our sleeves up and get a little dirty once in a while. Sitting on a church pew service after service, never doing anything for God, never telling of His love and the blessings He has bestowed on you, causes a dangerous self-deception. When we do that we forget what we came from, we forget what God delivered us from, we forget that we are just as dirty and rotten as those we catch ourselves passing judgement on. We lose our meekness, our humbleness, our kindness, and our love for our brethren and for the world. We forget that we can be in the world, witnessing and sharing our Savior's love and still remain unspotted and not of the world if our faith and our hearts are where they should be. 

If we tear down the proud wall of judgement we've built around our hearts and we remember that in the end, none of us are worthy to be called His, that we've all been offered mercy and grace by the Master and King of Kings, then perhaps it won't be so hard to extend that same mercy and grace to those around us. 

Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth...

Revelation 21:1-8 KJV

1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.

2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

5 And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.

6 And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.

7 He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.

8 But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.