One of the things the Lord said to me at the start of this ministry, many years ago, is not to worry about how people will react or respond to the messages that He inspires me to write. Well this morning I was quite disobedient. Worrying that maybe folks would not appreciate having received a message last night and then another one this morning, instead I tried to post it on Facebook. Which promptly rejected it! As it is wont to do sometimes when I try to post the gospel on it. So here is what I ought to have shared with you in the first place. Hallelujah, as I write it’s now on :
How does one spell mercy? The reading in the worldwide Anglican Church for the fourth Sunday of Lent, next Sunday, has in it the most famous, the most popular, passage in Holy Scriptures. Which is all about mercy! The mercy of the Creator God. God Almighty!
The Gospel
John 3:14-21
Jesus said, “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.
“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.”
And then we Jon with Helen Baylor and sing ( all together ) “ If it had not been for the Lord, on my side, where would I be”.
https://youtu.be/Hg4k1itIkjk?si=z7etbhPiwxZ249BX
There’s a song I want to do right now, that reminds me of my grandmother
And you’ve heard me tell my history how she prayed me through
When I got saved, when I got delivered from drugs and alcohol, my grandmother, she told me
She said, “There’s a sound I want you to learn
And when you come back to my church, I want you to sing it”
If it had not been for the Lord on my side
Tell me where would I be? Where would I be?
If it had not been for the Lord on my side
Tell me, where would I be? Where would I be?
He kept my enemies away
He let the sun shine through a cloudy day
Oh, he wrapped me in the cradle of his arms
When he knew I’d been battered and torn, so
If it had not been for the Lord on my side
Tell me where would I be? I wanna know where would I be?
Said if it had not been for the Lord on my side
Tell me, where would I be? Where would I be? Oh, yeah
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! For it hadn’t been for the Lord, where would we be?
Hallelujah!
Good and gracious and merciful Lord, we thank Thee for thy mercy and grace in Christ and him crucified. And pray Thee that in and through the gift of the Holy Spirit, as church we may be renewed and share the gospel so that more and more people will come to fully know, if it had not been for Jesus, there would have been no hope and and no salvation story.
In obedience ( this time)
Shalom
LWJ
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