July 1, 2018

"Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will." Romans 12:1-2

Living in humble grateful awareness of God's mercy is the preferred way for God's people to live. 

Imagine how much better our world would be if all of God's people lived in view of His mercy! Can you even fathom that?

But there is one more important truth to remember about the mercies of God. They have an expiration date.

His mercies are freely given and fresh every day. But they are not to be refused or abused forever. No where is that more dramatically portrayed than in the Genesis account of Noah's ark:

"In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, on the seventeenth day of the second month—on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights. On that very day Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, together with his wife and the wives of his three sons, entered the ark. They had with them every wild animal according to its kind, all livestock according to their kinds, every creature that moves along the ground according to its kind and every bird according to its kind,everything with wings. Pairs of all creatures that have the breath of life in them came to Noah and entered the ark. The animals going in were male and female of every living thing, as God had commanded Noah. Then the Lord shut him in. Genesis 7:11-16

For over a century Noah preached about the mercy of God and warned them of impending judgment. Noah urged them to turn from their sinful ways and seek God's mercy. But despite his pleadings his neighbors mocked him and ignored him until at last God shut the door of the ark. Once the door was closed the offer of mercy expired. Noah's family was shut in and the world was shut out. Judgment had fallen their fate was sealed.

As you live in view of God's mercy be aware that it has an expiration date. Live with urgency and warn others that today is the day of salvation.