All tagged goodness

Godlike Sympathies; I was touched this morning by how incredibly merciful, loving, and sympathetic God truly is. I thought of Jesus nailed to the cross and my eyes filled with tears; not so much for the suffering He endured (which always brings me to tears) but for the love, mercy, and sympathy that He and His Father have for mankind, and the grace that they continue to pour out on us. We saw it on Calvary, and we continue to see it every day in our own lives. Does it make us want to be like them?

If someone says or does some little thing wrong, uses an incorrect word in a sentence, or slips up in some other trivial way, do we feel obligated to immediately correct them? Do we look forward to arguing, or defending our point of view until we have won this point, or contest of wills, at all cost? Is our adherence to this obsessiveness in our nature so overwhelming that we come across as harsh, mean spirited, or bitter? Well this is not the nature of Christ, nor is it how we as Christians should behave. We are transformed in Jesus, not into some pious person who believes himself to be perfect, or who is intolerant, and intransigent, but into a gentle, and forgiving, person who is able to teach of Jesus Christ, and win souls to God without driving them away. So let’s honestly ask ourselves whether we win souls to the Lord through quarreling over minor points of theology, and biblical interpretation, or whether we gently win new believers by teaching of the kind and virtuous nature of Jesus.