It' Time to Show Mercy, Don't You Think?

This morning I was reading the bible and I came across a scripture that I just could not get pass. No matter how hard I tried, I just kept reading that scripture over and over again. It was a bit of a weird experience for me. I don't ever recall it happening to me to this magnitude, but it did today. Probably because God has been dealing with me for a while about this subject matter and I guess everything just came to a head and this scripture exploded inside of me. It's kinda like, somebody tapping you on the shoulder for the past several months and pointing out the same thing over and over again, to make sure you have it. So when I read this scripture, it was like a culmination of the whole teaching, or transformation, or I should say "renewing" because He was renewing my mind, building His case for this new way of thinking, for this new mindset. So when I read this scripture, I just wanted to scream, ALRIGHT I GET IT! I tell you, my Heavenly Father really knows what He's working with. I am always amazed at my amazement of His patience, His mercy, and His grace with me. I am sure I should have known this already, and I often wonder how I got so off course, but my Father, so rich in His Grace and Mercy towards me, continues to work with me until I am exactly prepared for His use. And I gotta tell you, there is absolutely nothing at all compared to being in His perfect will, being used for His glory, and pleasing someone you love as much as I love my a Heavenly Father, who, by the way, is the only father I've ever known. However, I see I've regressed. I was talking about the scripture I came across today. The scripture was Matthew 12:7. But you would not have condemned my innocent disciples if you knew the meaning of this Scripture: ‘I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices.’ (Matthew 12:7 NLT). I became focused on just the last part which says, "I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices." Is that not powerful? That scripture is so powerful to me! The scripture gets to me because it strongly confirms what I've been learning about the church, which is we have become so busy being religious that we have totally shut out' alleviated, dismissed God's business of showing mercy, demonstrating God's love. We want to condemn others for the fruit of sin, when we ourselves have completely missed the boat. Just like in Matthew 12, where the religious people were so busy focusing on Jesus breaking the Sabbath, that they missed the boat. They completely missed that the disciples were hungry. They had a need. Instead of meeting their need, the Pharisees condemned them for breaking the rules. We do the same thing in church. When we get people in church who have not been recycled from another church, but someone who really needs Jesus, we condemn them for not having the proper attire, or following the correct church protocol. Or we school them in church attire and protocol, but never meet the need, which is introducing them to Jesus. I am sure it's not all churches. I hope it's not most. We need to focus on God's mission, inside and outside the church walls. We need to focus on healing our land by allowing the love of Christ, poured into us by His Holy Spirit, to be shed abroad by the Holy Spirit in us. We need to practice a life of mercy and grace towards others. Grace is God's unmerited favor. So, we need to show the same grace to others that God shows to us EVERYDAY. We need to show people love and mercy they don't deserve. it's like the bible says, showing love and mercy to people who have shown it to you is nothing worth merit. Even the sinners do that. To be like Christ, we need to show love and mercy to those who do not show it to us or others. It's not a suggestion, it's why we are here. We are His representatives, we are His vessels of honor, we are His children. It's time we start acting like Him, don't you think?