A Thought

"The price of freedom of religion, or of speech, or of the press, is that we must put up with a good deal of rubbish." Robert Jackson

En Puerto Rico

Well, we have arrived and we are getting ready to go see our 25th anniversary honeymoon house. We're looking forward to Cheree's graduation on Saturday and special times together here on the "Enchanted Island."

God is good.

On the Way to Puerto Rico

Bev and I are getting ready attend Cheree's graduation from the YWAM course "Preparation for Youth and Children Ministers" and to celebrate our 25 wedding anniversary, actually the date was May 22. We'll spend 5 days in Puerto Rico, some days just being together and other days with Cheree to celebrate her successful completion of the 2 YWAM courses.

Check out a new blog I'm posting with ideas from the 55 second radio reflections I do in Spanish. I am translating them and posting Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Each week is a sequence of thoughts, each day is a separate idea. The all stand alone, yet they work together to present the best one can a complete thought in less than 3 min... it's fun.

A Look in the Mirror - http://earlrutledgemirror.blogspot.com/

The same meditations are in Spanish at Mirándote al Espejo - http://mirandotealespejo.blogspot.com/

We'll see you there!

Truth and Mercy

Bev shared at church yesterday morning. Here are some of the ideas.

Psalm 25:10 All the ways of the LORD are mercy and truth. - Here we see that God and His ways are always truthful and mercy.

Mich 6:8 What does the LORD require? to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly before the LORD. - Here we see what God requires of us; justice, mercy and humility.

• do justice - action
• love mercy - something precious
• walk humbly - lifestyle

When we reject truth, we prevent His mercy from reaching us, our defense is removed.

Revelation of the truth, of how poorly we are doing, is so we can humble ourselves, repent and receive mercy. WE have the examples of Rehoboam and the prices of Israel in 2 Chronicles 12:5-7 who humbled themselves and saw God's mercy in their lives. We must also consider the Bad, bad king Manasseh that repented and sought God and received mercy during the last years of his life, 2 Chronicles 33:10-13. These kings responded to the truth revealed by God by humbling themselves and repenting. Because of their humility they received the mercy of God instead of the justice they deserved.

King Asa in 2 Chronicles 16:7-10 is the other example. He began trusting in man instead of God and the prophet came by to give him God's message. Asa rejected the truth and received justice instead of mercy.

Fortunately, God is slow to wrath and quick to show mercy, but still the best defense against having to live the complete justice we deserve is to be humble and acknowledge truth revealed in our lives.

Then we must take the application to our own lives and dealings with others. How do we generally deal with truth and offense in our own lives. Well, they did offend us, that is the truth and justice must be served. That is so common a response in our lives. One of the primary elements of mercy is forgiveness. Let us forgive and love those around us who have offended us as Jesus loved us. Romans 5:8 tells us that while we were still living in rebellion against God, He loved us and gave His life for US.

Yes, James 2:13 is true. Mercy triumphs over justice. Let us walk in the ways of the Lord. Acknowledge truth, walk in love and show mercy one towards another.

I Want to Finish Well

Reading 2 Chronicles these recent weeks I've observed the ups and downs of the kings of Judah. So many started well and end poorly.

Solomon - had various encounters with God, built the marvelous temple, experienced his manifest presence and then was lead away and worshipped foreign gods..

Asa - started off very well but in the end he trusted in man and persecuted the Lord's prophet.

And on and on. What a warning! So many of the kings started well, but finished poorly bowing to the god of pride and trust in man.

Today I read the account of Manasseh. I was surprised... How could it be that having seeing that story so many times I never remembered that after being such a bad, bad, bad king, he repented and"commanded Judah to serve the LORD, the God of Israel" [2 Chron 33:16].

I want to finish well.

Galatians reminds me that I'm not above any of the faults I see or have seen in others. Gal. 6:1b, "Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted" and 6:3 "if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself," serve as strong reminders that I have feet of clay and a very good ability to deceive myself into thinking that all is well.

Lord, I want to finish well. I want Paul's words to be my words, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith" [2 Timothy 4:7]. I'll keep another idea from Paul on my lips to help me stay faithful. Phil. 3:13b-14, "I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."

I want to finish well.