Today’s Scripture Threshings for Sunday, February 17 , 2019
Today’s Text: Titus 3:3-8
Key Verse: ”He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.” (vs. 5, NIV)
A high school basketball player’s mom passed away on the day of a game. He still made it to the game but very late. Putting a player that comes late in the game was a technical foul, and the other team would shoot two free throws. Knowing the situation, the other team refused to shoot the free throws. But the officials insisted on the rule. Therefore the other team showed mercy to this player and shared his pain by deliberately throwing off the ball as an acts of kindness. So they game was named mercy game.
True meaning of Divine Mercy is almost totally lost in our generation — our semantics only help a little. For the most times, we confuse the phrase as mere act of pardon. But the theology of mercy is deeper than that. It means far more than mere cancellation of punishment, it is admittance into fellowship with God, who reaches down to meet man’s needs and overcome his miseries.
The Bible in both Testaments demonstrates many faces of human miseries and God‘s infinite mercies in relieving them. One of most poignant images of such misery is our despicably unworthiness before the Holy God. The most righteous of us cannot stand guiltless before His bar — for our righteousness is nothing but filthy rags before the Lord.
Therefore, “not by works of righteousness” means that having been weighed in the balance of God, we all have been found insufficient and unworthy, in ourselves, of His salvation. The holiest of us is not capable of measuring up before the standard of God. That’s when the meaning, measure and message of mercy jumps out clearly at us. There was nothing in us to justify or qualify us — no hearts or acts of man deserved salvation; but it is out of this hopeless state that Jesus redeemed us, and put us into a state of worthiness before God.
We were that unworthy, but we are never worthless before God. Otherwise, Jesus wouldn’t have come. It’s the conspiracy of sin and satan that devalues us and makes us feel worthless. God’s word affirms our value long before creation came before the Cross. We were made valuable in Eden before the Fall, and that’s why God makes a plan to rescue us because of his mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit.
Quote for the Day: “The best of man is completely torn apart against himself, inside and outside: his ego always commanding one thing, and his envy and avarice always commanding another.” (Simon Olatunji)
Prayer: Lord, I thank you for counting me worthy of such manifold grace and mercy before you. But for your love and mercy I’d be lost and doomed. Please help me to daily walk worthy of such eternal investment, and be a veritable instrument of your mercy in the world. In Jesus’ most holy name. Amen.
With all my Love and Prayer,
Simon Wale Olatunji, PhD
The Darling Bishop (DaBishop),
2321 S Belt Line Rd., Suite 144,
Grand Prairie TX 75051 USA
Email: reachingout@hopeforallnations.org
BBMme: E3F988D2
[Today’s Scripture Threshings is a devotional guide of The House of Prayer Evangel Church USA. Feel free to use it in your family altar and personal quiet times; and to contact us for further enquiry, help and partnership.]
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