Paul McKenzie

Memory Verse, Monday, February 2, Matthew 5:7

"Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy." (KJV)

When I was born again as a teenager of 17, I lived in relief that I knew God had mercy on me. Yet, I don't think I truly understood mercy until in my late thirties.

In my twenties, I went through a period of "self-righteousness". I saw the "wishy-washiness" of so many believers, and became quite judgmental and arrogant. In that "self-righteous" time, I was choosing my own path though I did not realize it. It was my first step over "by-path" meadow, with lots of Scripture in my head, and little in my heart. The only thing truly turned up toward heaven was my arrogant nose.

But then I went into a period of self-justification and compromise, and turned away from God, choosing my own path. For a while, God left me to myself, though I sensed the grieving of the Holy Spirit within me all the while. When I finally lifted my eyes out of the slop of the pigpen and reached out, He walked me painfully back.

The one passage that always comes to mind, and you hear me repeat it over and over is Luke 18:9-14, which I hope you will patiently read here:

"He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: "Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee standing by himself, prayed thus: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.' But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast saying, 'God be merciful to me, a sinner!'

"I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted."

In my teens, I was just a relieved sinner saved by grace. At one point in my twenties I was the Pharisee. Then at one point in my thirties, I was the Prodigal. Then in the mid-thirties, I was the weeping tax collector. And there I learned what mercy was about.

There are many Christians like me. They understand grace, being forgiven and becoming a child of God, but they don't understand mercy, for they actually think they are better than they are. Churches contain many Pharisees. We are blind to the depth of our sin, especially if in outward appearance we seem to be better than others.

We immediately weigh ourselves before others worse than us. We get that from Adam and Eve, pointing to anything but themselves. Even Peter, when forgiven in John 21, immediately looked to John, saying "What shall this man do?" And he was immediately rebuked. "What is that to you? Follow me."

Peter learned. You can see it in the letter he wrote: "Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you." (1 Peter 5:5b-7)

Self-righteousness comes from not understanding the true meaning of mercy, and getting grace mixed up with it. Mercy is the realization of what one deserves. And they are judged by the standards of the Perfect, Almighty God, not by others.

God granted mercy repeatedly to people who have never placed their faith in Him. That's why Paul warned the arrogant Corinthians to "Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? —unless you indeed fail to meet the test.!" (2 Corinthians 13:5)

There is a "common grace", where God displays His love to all mankind. But there is another grace, a grace given to those who fall upon the mercy of God and cling to Christ as their Savior. This is the Titus 3:4-7 grace, for those who understand that "he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit."

I must stop. Yet there is so much more…for when you understand fully His mercy to you, you can't help but be merciful for others.

Today if you hear His voice, harden not your heart.

Memory Helps

"Blessed are the merciful:
for they shall obtain mercy." (KJV)

Another easy verse to memorize. I use "Myrrh-C" as a word picture for "mercy". Myrhh is an "essential" oil, and given to Jesus at His birth by the wise men. So I picture here one of the wise men giving the oil to Him in a bottle curved like a "C". I add all the other memory links as before, and add him to the list. To remember verse 7, since 7 is the number of Perfection in the Bible, I might have Mary say "This is just "perfect!" All kinds of ways to remember, if you put your imagination to it.

Well, if you have been following my "memory characters" for long, you know that I use a famous Montreal Canadian hockey player of my generation, "Guy" Lafleur to represent 7 (hard G for "Gee", with vowels fillers. 7 is the phonetic K or hard G) So, he is the "wise man" carrying the "Myrrh-C" on his hockey stick. There is a big green Mat in the house and Joseph is happily patting him on the back with a rather large 5-fingered hand for chapter 5. That way you can link Matthew 5:7.