The Fellowship of Saints

   While it is true to a degree that God is willing to look at the intent of the heart when we make mistakes or sin, there is an important principle that we cannot ignore in order to obtain this grace from God.

   What is the most important thing Christ said that we must obey? Is it to love God with all our hearts and to love others as ourselves? The defining factor of loving ourselves is our ability to give ourselves a second - actually, unlimited - chance and to always hope for a better day. No matter how long we down ourselves for failures, we ALWAYS eventually show ourselves mercy.

   God is more than willing to show us mercy when we confess and repent... but we must obey at least this one rule of His: we must first show mercy to others... is there anything fairer than this? Anyone who says that Christians can't live a life of mercy and must fall on the cross to obtain mercy is deceiving themselves and others.

Every one of us has the capacity to live a life of mercy and we must live it, and if we don't we are not in favor with God and we will be chastened by Him until we learn to show mercy. We must be on the right side - the positive side - of reaping what we sow - which is good for good. We do not want to be on the negative side, which is bad for bad, and since we will not always be able to do this, it is imperative that we show mercy so that God can show us mercy.

Only one thing breaks the negative spiral of sowing and reaping - one thing only, and it's showing mercy to others, though we are not
bound only to the the famous "seven acts
of mercy."

It is a cruel deception (albeit
unwittingly) by ministers to say that God
honors intentions, but to then leave this all
important stipulation out. Doing so gives the
sheep a false sense of well-being with God.
Calling out "Lord, Lord" doesn't cut it -
we must do what He says to do. The cross
supports what Christ said - it does not nullify
it.

Christ didn't say, "Remember everything I
said? Well, I know you can't do it, so just forget it all -
confessing me as Lord is enough - my blood will cover it." There are many things we can't ever seem to do, but this one thing we can do, and it's the most important thing that helps to overcome the other things. God's mercy toward us depends upon this. Does this mean that we must work to gain favor from God?

We are saved by grace and not of works, but we must work to enter heaven. How can this be? Look at it this way - there is nothing about a wild bear that encourages any of us to want him in our house. The bear must be tamed to trust us and trained to live in our domesticated domain. This bear's righteousness is as filthy as rages to us. Though he is a good bear within his domain, he is not within ours. Imagine a bear in a china closet? Would the bear worry about running around breaking everything? Would we? Now, in the case of a bear, it would be probably better to leave it alone, but understand what I mean.

We are but... but... butterflies... in the hand of God... butterflies that He has granted to have a relationship with Him... a relationship that is totally impossible unless God makes it so - and He has. We must stand in respectful awe of such a thing and bow to Him in humble submission. The works of our righteousness convinces God to let us enter His domain about as much as a bear's righteousness convinces us to let a bear in our house simply because it's a good bear in the wild. The bear has to be tamed and then trained to live in our house or it simply will never enter.

   On top of all of this, even if the bear wanted to domesticate itself to enter our domain it wouldn't have the abilities to get the job done. Only a person can prepare an animal for domestication. In the same way only God can train us to live in His house - or we will simply never enter, because no matter how hard we try we cannot comprehend God's domain enough to be able to successfully enter by domesticating ourselves.

   That's the message of Christ. The good news is that God is in the business of transforming us into His image - if we show others mercy as God has shown us mercy. If the sheep know this and put faith in God's processes, then they will be trained to live in the domesticated kingdom of God. Faith pleases God.

   It was said that God will not give mercy if we do not show mercy, and that needs clarification. A father would rather not spank unless he has to, and when he does spank, doing so is a type of mercy in itself; God always shows mercy. But what type of mercy He gives us is in our control, not His.

The church portrays the "seven acts of mercy" in a very dramatic way. While these seven acts truly represent the mercy Christ asks of us, listing them this way, with grand pictures and all, can be a little misleading. What about the pregnant teen? Will you think of her as loose? The cigarette smoker... will you think of him as fowl smelling? The drunk... will you think of him as lazy and useless? The woman wearing the short dress... will you think of her as unworthy to enter church?

While all seven acts are things we should be doing, the church's mercy list is not as down to earth as it could be. Simply said, we must all deal virtuously in the sphere of our influence. It's enough said to simply say that we need to give those around us the same chances we give ourselves when we fail and to wish them a better tomorrow, and to do so in deed and not word by providing them with a better tomorrow, if we have the resources to do so.

If we show mercy toward others and have faith in God, then God will smile and break our negative cycle by giving us more mercy and faith! Otherwise we learn from the... other... kind of grace! We are fooling ourselves to think otherwise.

Though much can be said as to how we are to live our life on earth, Kingdom Domestication cannot be easily described any more than a domesticated dog could describe his life to a wolf (not that I'm writing to "wolves," but still, understand my point.) When we have it, we know it, but even so we have it only in part because transforming into the image of Christ is a life-long process.

The only thing that really can be said is that God honors faith and trust in what the blood and cross of Christ says to us and that we must love God enough to try our best to be responsible in life and show mercy to others and to depend upon His Spirit to guide us in life. Doing this makes our ground fertile so that our seed can grow into a great tree. Nothing else can really be said that will explain Kingdom Domestication -salvation- any better than this. If we read carefully, we will find that Jesus and the Apostles said little more than this also.

Should I be able to describe it better? Eye has not seen nor ear heard what God has prepared for those who love Him. God will get us there; we must have faith... and He even gives us this.

As was said on the homepage, God will change us into His likeness. The death, burial and resurrection of Christ guarantees it. Ultimately, it is God's act of patience and forbearance - so vividly portrayed by Christ on the cross - that saves us. It truly is the blood of Christ that cleanses us from all sin. Without God willing to go the distance - and even "shed His blood" - to reach us there wouldn't be forgiveness of sin. He didn't have to be this patient with us, but He is. This is our God and He wants us to know it.

Christ came to show us His Father.
Do you see Him on the cross
as Christ portrayed Him?
Do you see the Father as He did?
If you do... be humble... have mercy
and He will give mercy and reveal
Himself to you.

It is God on the cross that tells us
that he suffers personal affronts and abuse from us and will go to great lengths to reach us, but He will also go to great lengths to avenge His little ones.
All His children on earth are His little ones... don't be their enemy.
Listen to Christ and obey. Show mercy.