Luke 23:32 Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. 33 When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified him, along with the criminals--one on his right, the other on his left. 34 Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing."

Luke 6:36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

37 Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.

Luke 6:41 Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 42 How can you say to your brother, 'Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye," when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.

I love the way music speaks to me... right to my heart. I heard a song today, about mercy and searching for it. I feel like that all the time. I look at this world, at the brokeness in my own life and those around me (and on the other side of the globe for that matter) and I think, "Jeez, I could go on searching forever and probably never find enough mercy." Welll, maybe that is true if I am dealing with people. I am so thankful that in my own life, all I need is the mercy of the Lord, and if I am remembering His mercies on me, then I (theoretically) will be able to extend those mercies to the people around me. I will be able to look into my own life and realize just how very much mercy I am in need of if I am to get through this life in one piece. I think of Jesus on the cross... and when He said, "Father forgive them..." He was talking about me. Forgive me, because before I knew Jesus in my heart, as my Savior, I surely did not know what I was doing. And even for a long time after that, it took me a long time to understand that my zeal for Jesus did not mean I should walk around calling others out on everything I thought was wrong in their lives. That is Jesus' job. My job is to love them where they are at, with mercy, grace, and kindness. And then, I will hope and pray that one day, they will come to know Jesus as their Savior and they will understand and be grateful for the great depth of mercy God has for His children.

I thought it was interesting that these scriptures were together when I went looking for those on mercy. It lead me back to thinking about my humanity and how inept I am at seeing things that might be obvious if I was an outsider looking in. Jesus is always outside looking in and He knew that we would need to be reminded of all the extras if He really wants us to be merciful. And He does want us to be merciful... so Luke put those words in his Gospel. Mercy is so hard to come by because we are selfish. We want life, relationships, circumstances to be on our terms. We want what we want, when we want it; without waiting for others to meet us in the middle or for God to work in our lives. We are unable or we just plain do not want to take a really hard look into our own lives to see the speck in our eye. It is painful to remove, no? But it is SO important that we do, because that is what takes us to being more like Jesus, full of mercy.

Matthew 5:43 "You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.'" 44 But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be sons of your father in heaven.... 46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Jesus... He calls us to some high standards. How many of us can say we did this today? How many of us can say, "I have prayed for those who have done me wrong"? Jesus is calling us to do just this. He knows that it is so hard to love those who we feel are treating us poorly. But two things I know: 1. Jesus loved me the whole time I treated Him badly and put him on the back burner and His grace and love were unconditionally there for me when I finally understood the depth of His love 2. We cannot call someone to a deeper degree of love and relationship if we do not love them and treat them with kindness despite how we feel about them.

My goal is to give grace. Jesus gave me grace, now I must in turn give that "Jesus grace" to others. There is no one who lives up to Biblical standards better than the person sitting next to them. And so, I want to remember that I must first look in the mirror and worry ONLY about myself and how much love I am giving, how I am making people feel. If I am constantly concerned about how others are not living up to my standards I will miss the opportunities to love them where they are at and to grow in Jesus love (a love that is without condition).

Galatians 6:3 If anyone thinks he is important when he really is not, he is only fooling himself. 4 Each person should judge his own actions and not compare himself with others. Then he can be proud for what he himself has done. 5 Each person must be responsible for himself.

A while back I wrote that grace seems to be a recurrent theme in my life these days. I guess I should add mercy to the list. My pastor is currently doing a series on "The End" and this past Sunday he made me think about how Christ died on the cross for me so that I do not have to meet a sad end. Instead I get to meet my Jesus in heaven and be with Him for eternity. It might seem silly, but every time I think of that sacrifice tears still come to my eyes. I am grateful for the mercy and grace of Jesus.

I am also grateful for His desire to send me a Helper, to dwell within me. I believe it is this Helper, the Holy Spirit, that is able to give me the eyes to see people as Jesus does, with grace and mercy. And yes, I know how imperfect I am and that I fall off the wagon more than I would even like to admit. That being said, reading Galatians this morning reminded me yet again... I am undeserving of the grace and mercy of Jesus, and yet He offered Himself on the cross willingly anyhow. I am not that important in the grand scheme of things, but to Jesus, He would have come for me if I was the only one to come for. Talk about love.

This leads into the next part of the scripture. Now that I know Jesus on the inside, I should be demonstrating His love on the outside. I have the choice... This scripture, about judging my own actions, reminds me that I should be loving others no matter what their lives are like or what they have done to me. The only person I should be judging is myself. And I do not even mean harshly, but just taking a real look into my life and heart and seeing where I need to change my own self. I have got to let Jesus work on others. It is my job to offer them grace and mercy, not to change them or make them into the person I think they need to be, although there is a caveat to this for the believer.

I am responsible for me, and only for me. In heaven, I will be answering for how I loved others while I lived, not how I felt about how they treated me. I will have to tell God that in the hard spots I was able to control myself and be kind despite my desire to do the opposite. I want to be able to tell God that I offered grace and mercy to those in my life so that they might get a glimpse of Jesus in me and want to know Him. Building the kingdom of heaven... we are all able to take part in that.