"Have you come here for forgiveness?  

Have you come to raise the dead?  

Have you come here to play Jesus to the lepers in your head? 

 Did I ask too much...more than a lot

You gave me nothing, now it's all I got.  

We're one but we're not the same.  

Well we hurt each other and we do it again.  

You say... love is a temple, love the higher law

Love is a temple, love the higher law. 

You ask me to enter, but then you make me crawl 

But I can't keep holding on to what you got, when all you've got 

is hurt.  

One love, 

One blood, 

One life 

You've got to do what you should. 

One life with each other, 

Sisters, 

Brothers.  

One life but we're not the same, we get to carry each, carry 

each other. 

ONE, ONE, ONE, ONE

"One" - U2

Mercy.  It is the cornerstone of our relationship with our Savior, Jesus Christ.  Without mercy, we would have no hope of redemption.  We would walk through this life unforgiven, and separated from God.  We would come into this world as sinners and would die condemned to the lake of fire. 

God has no obligation to offer us anything.  If He condemned us all to hell, we would deserve it…but God loves us beyond human comprehension.  That’s why He showed Mercy on us by sending His Son, Jesus to die as the sacrificial lamb on the cross at Calvary.  On that day, Jesus was God, was His Mercy.  Jesus Christ became the physical manifestation of God’s Mercy.  

Without His Mercy, there could be no forgiveness, no salvation, no redemption, no hope, no faith and no love because these things are only of God.  Satan offers none of these.  Satan is the anti-thesis to all things God.

Sounds like basic, Christian Mercy 101 doesn’t it?  So why is it then that we Christians have gotten it so wrong?  If the collective Mercy within the Church was put onto a piece of paper, handed to God for Him to grade and then returned to us, I believe we would see a huge “F” written in the blood of Christ at the top of the page. 

Mercy wasn’t a theme, an idea or a concept that Jesus spoke of during His days.  It was the Spirit of God put into action.  Jesus healed with Mercy, He offered forgiveness with Mercy, He taught with Mercy, He raised the dead with Mercy and He lived with Mercy.   He didn’t tell us to give Mercy, He gave Mercy and He showed us how to have mercy on a lost world.

So why doesn’t the church offer more mercy to those lost and in need?  We talk about it a lot but are we really showing Mercy to those around us?  Would people outside of God’s Church say that Christians are merciful?  They might but my guess is that the majority of unbelievers, and even a lot of Christians, would say “No.”  How can we be seen as merciful when we boycott funerals and yell judgmental hatred to those family and friends that have lost a loved one that may have been homosexual, etc?  How can we be seen as merciful when we refuse to go to other nations, and refuse to support international missions because we tie up our money and resources into trivial ministries and business pursuits?  How can we be seen as merciful if we tell people that have just lost ALL they owned to a catastrophic hurricane that they deserved it because they were living in sin and it was God’s punishment?  How do you tell an AIDS patient that he deserves to die a horrific death because God is punishing Him for his gay or drug addicted lifestyle?  On and On I could go with examples of a Christians “mercy”. 

What are the reasons then?  First, I believe that we have a lot of hypercrites walking our church aisles that are no more a follower/disciple of Christ than satan himself is.  Secondly, I believe it’s because we have been taught that Mercy is a spiritual gift only given to some, while not others.  During our Sunday service, our pastor spoke on the gift of Mercy.  At the end, we could take a survey (10 questions, 5 pts. each) to see if God had given us this gift.  If you scored less 30 pts., the survey stated to basically ”forget it”, you don’t possess this gift and you should pray for sensitivity.  I understood what he was saying but how many Christians will withhold mercy from someone and then rationalize their disobedience by saying, “Oh, I don’t have the gift of Mercy. Sorry.  You’re outta luck because God didn’t bless me with that one.” 

Granted, I do believe that someone can be given the gift of supernatural mercy but if you have Christ truly living within you, then Mercy should be second-nature for us.  Christ was Mercy!  Therefore, if he is truly in me, then I will be merciful.  All Christians are called to merciful and have no excuses for not showing someone mercy.  Only God can save, redeem or forgive someone’s soul.  But we can show Christ-like Mercy and show people the way to Christ. 

This world is hurting and it’s lost.  It needs our mercy, our grace and our love more than ever.  We have to lead this dark world in showing mercy to those that are crying out for just an ounce of mercy.  We have to stop giving them nothing because for most, it truly is all they have.  We have to give them something, someone to build their hope around. 

That something is the Mercy of God and that someone is Jesus Christ.