When our eyes are opened through the Lord's Faith Love and Hope, it makes our sin more plain to us, and makes more obvious, perhaps, but also staggering, the breadth of His gift of righteousness to us.
"...I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ..." -Paul in the books of Romans.
"By one tree we were cursed, but by another tree we received mercy."
-Creflo Dollar
Indeed, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil set mankind back a lot, but not too much for our God and Deliverer.
The next tree was the cross in which Jesus was given for the sins of mankind, which granted us all mercy, if we only believe and ask.
If you've found mercy, or received mercy,
don't you think it feels too good--its too pleasant--
to just keep to oneself?
Share it.
Share the blessing.
Be a blessing.
Just as the Pentacostals look for a move of the spirit, or other denominations might look for a code of conduct, or prayerfulness, or an appearance of meekness, contemplatives look for that prayerful meditative state, and in that, God is revealed in things all around the believer, in the everyday minutia, and Christ in all details, from the most important to the smallest of things.
In the opening Psalm, David says that those that meditate on God's law are blessed, but how many of us are simply given a few lifestyle edicts to act on, and that at most?
Could we not only ever do more, but be mindful of our own fallen sin state, and the continual need for God's grace and mercy.
We could do more still in the practice of love, and I say that, everyone, not pointing to anyone other than myself, but meditating on that too, the overgrowing practice of love, contemplation of God, good deeds that happen not out of necessity, but grow from a Christian heart.
