September 30

The Lord is far from the wicked: but he heareth the prayer of the righteous.   Proverbs 15:29

I have a confession to make; sometimes I think not so nice thoughts about people. I know, I profess to be a Christian and try my best at all times to live out the Philippians 4:8 principles, but sometimes I do slip and fall/fail.

In football currently there is a topical and heated debate concerning whether the England and Manchester United footballer, Wayne Rooney, should be stripped of his club captaincy because he was sent off for a calculated foul on an opposing player. I listen to the radio to and from work and people, most of whom I suspect have never met the man, have divided and often laughable opinions on the matter. How so much debate could be generated over an incident in a game of football shows the power of modern media to influence the masses. With the ability to slow things down, have instant replay, multiple angles and the power to view this from smart phones and portable devices, I suspect gives everyone the illusion that they have an informed opinion.

I shudder to think what my family, my friends, work colleagues; people in church would think about me should my life be under so much scrutiny.

One of the most stressed points is not about the foul but rather people are saying that the footballer is being a bad role model, as his actions were seen by young footballers worldwide.

Imagine if a loss of temper and the resulting action in my life - your life, was beamed all over the world?

Back to my confession, when I tuned in to this radio discussion I initially thought ‘so what? Serves him right. What has this got to do with me? Wrong. It has everything to do with me - us. Reading the key text, without thinking I put myself in the righteous bracket and momentarily felt smug. Then came the realisation that I had not adhered to the teachings of Jesus in the Beatitudes, specifically Matthew 5:7 which reads,

“Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy”

The truth is, it only takes a second, a momentary lapse of spiritual concentration for us to take our eyes off Christ and give in to the evil one. Aren’t you glad that we know a God of second chances, who does not replay our sins on the big screen nor does he leak them to social media. Rather

“…he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their (OUR) sins into the depths of the sea. Micah 7:19

 

Remember, it is not about football or whether we feel personally involved or not. It's about the mercy we were shown when we did not deserve it.

⁶ For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷ For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— ⁸ but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:6-8

Let our prayer today be that God will give us a double portion of patience and understanding.

The song for today is "Mercy said no" by Cece Winans. Please click on the picture to listen.

       

     Housekeeping details for you

     The point of this short blog will become clear if you decide to use this reading in the way we intend it. Netherfield Seventh-day Adventist Church believes in healthy churches. You can see what that means if you head to the relevant Healthy Churches page of the website. We also want other churches to be healthy. That means you can join in our campaign to create healthy churches, with healthy people serving the people in those churches.

     A healthy church is one where Jesus comes first. A healthy church is one where the people work together to put Jesus first. One thing we are doing is to join people together to spread that news. I would like you to look at our prayer partners page. This will explain how we want you to use this short devotional. Very basically we want you to find a like-minded Christian friend who you will join with to : choose to pray together every day, decide together on a way to serve other people together, to help them grow as Christians - and to invite the Holy Spirit into your life every day. This blog that you will receive every day simply gives a common spiritual purpose. If you are a newcomer and want to join the blog with this object in mind click here