CAN MERCY AND JUDGMENT COEXIST? 3

GodThoughtsWired!                         New Year's Eve, 2010 Evangelizing the Church in the Age of Delusion

You are subscribed as %%emailaddress%% CAN MERCY AND JUDGMENT COEXIST? 3 "For judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment." James 2:13 Yesterday I said, May I suggest to you that judgment is an extension of God's love! (see Hebrews 12:5-11). And may I also suggest to you that,  in this illustration (see yesterday's GT), righteously judging the criminal would have extended mercy to both the victims parents...AND the criminal. And then I asked the question, "How could it be possible that judging the criminal righteously would be "merciful?" Well, let me give you my answer in the form of a true story from my old "youth pastor days:" "When our youth ministry grew to several hundred students, I needed to hire a security officer to be on campus.  One night, I caught one of our own students attempting to sell drugs.  I severely reprimanded him and then assured him that if I ever caught him again, I would call the police, right there on the spot. Sure enough, a few weeks later I caught him again!  And can you guess what I did? That's right!  I did what I told him I would do...I CALLED THE POLICE!  It was a terrible scene right there on our church grounds.  The police arrived and handcuffed the student and halled him off to Juvenile Hall." Initially, the experience was AWEFUL!  I felt TERRIBLE!  Everyone in the church felt bad.  The boy's mom approached the Elder Board demanding that I be fired immediately!  As you might expect, the boy, along with his family, never returned to our church. However, one day, about a year later, I received a phone call from the young man that I had "called the cops on" a year earlier.  He was calling to thank me! He said, "You were the first person in my life to ever do what you said you were going to do."  He further told me that "That experience changed me.  I was headed down a bad road, and God used you to change my direction." How could it be possible that judging the criminal righteously would be "merciful?" I believe I just answered that question. "For those whom the Lord loves, He disciplines..." Hebrews 12:6 For more information about the GodThoughts Ministry, click here. For more information about the author of GodThoughts, click here. PLEASE prayerfully remember GodThoughts with your year-end giving (click on "donate" button below). The cost to provide this FREE Ministry world-wide in 2010 was $40,700.00 (see Annual Report for full details).