A friend of mine recently stated: “God’s mercy is infinite, but there is an end to his patience.”

The bible says that as Moses stood before the Lord on Mt. Sinai to receive the commandments “…the LORD passed before him and proclaimed, ‘The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth,’” (Exodus 34.6) The Lord wanted us to know that He is holy and his law is holy but that he is a patient and merciful God.

“But You, O Lord, are a God full of compassion, and gracious, Longsuffering and abundant in mercy and truth.” (Psalms 86.15).

God is longsuffering because he loves sinners and wants to bring them to repentance rather than to bring them into condemnation. “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3.9).

It is interesting that God is described as “longsuffering” but not as “ever suffering” and not as “all suffering.” “'The LORD is longsuffering and abundant in mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression; but He by no means clears the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation.' (Numbers 14.18). What does he mean that he “by no means clears the guilty”? You might say, “I thought that is what God’s mercy is all about – to clear away our guilt. After all, doesn’t the bible say ‘As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us’”? (Ps 103:12) Yes, that is true. This is what God’s mercy is all about. He truly does clear away our guilt, but God does not just “look the other way” from our sin. He doesn’t just ignore our sin, it must be punished! Here enters Jesus Christ, the God-Man, who left heaven to take care of some most important business down here on earth. He came down to take the punishment of sin on our behalf. All who place their trust in him will be saved and fully forgiven. But make no mistake about it! If we are guilty of sin, God will not just look the other way! Someone had to die for that sin for us to be forgiven and that someone was Jesus!

This is why God’s longsuffering for us was essential. What about that period in our lives before the new birth? We would have been sunk – eternally lost without Christ. So Peter writes “…and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation.” (2 Peter 3.15)

A good example of God’s longsuffering was the world in the days of Noah. For 120 years Noah warned his generation of coming judgment but there came a time when the patience of God would come to an end. “…when once the Divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water.” (1 Peter 3.20).

God, out of love and mercy, gave them the occasion to repent of their sins, but when they would not, he brought judgment, destroying the whole world by flood – all except the family of Noah who were safely inside the ark.

Now, let me ask a question of a different subject – yet the same. Does God also run out of patience with his children?

Christian, have you ever marveled at why God didn’t just let you die because of your sometimes rebellious heart? God certainly is patient isn’t he? But the bible says there are consequences for sin in the life of a believer. God won’t always just be patient. “For whom the LORD loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives." If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten?” (Hebrews 12.6-7).

God is not so patient with his redeemed children that he will just ignore our rebellion. There will be consequences.

It is true! “God’s mercy is infinite, but there is an end to his patience.” Wouldn’t you like to get in on his mercy right now before he runs out of patience?”

Your Brother in Christ;

Steve

Remember Jonah? How did he ever end up getting swallowed by the whale in the first place?

Well, it started with not being thankful. He wasn’t thankful for the calling God had placed on his life. God told him to "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me."

“But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. He went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid the fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.”

You know, that must have been a dark, wet, gruesome kind of a place. Have you ever ended up somewhere like that because of unthankfulness for what God was doing in your life? Have you wound up in a fish’s belly because of your disobedience to the calling of God in your life?

God is calling each one of his children to something. He is calling us to him, calling us to salvation, calling us to worship, calling us to peace, calling us to serve, calling us to his light, calling us liberty in Christ, calling us to witness, maybe even calling some of us to glory soon.

When he calls do you say as Samuel, “Speak, Lord, for your servant hears”? Do you say as Isaiah, “Here am I, Lord, send me”?

Jonah went through the disciplinary hand of God. When he was on the ship to Tarshish running from God, during a gigantic storm he actually told the sailors to throw him overboard. Tthey figured he was running from his “god” and that the storm was his fault anyway. So they obliged him – they threw him overboard!

This doesn’t sound like a blessing, but it was. Along came a whale and swallowed him whole! How is that a blessing? But for the whale, he would have drowned! Thank God for whales!

While there, he had time to think. “Maybe God was not so unreasonable to ask me to go to Nineveh and preach repentance to those heathen.”

Jonah was in that “fish” three days and three nights. Now he would pray.

“Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the fish's belly. And he said: ‘I cried out to the LORD because of my affliction, And He answered me.’ Out of the belly of Sheol I cried, And You heard my voice. For You cast me into the deep, Into the heart of the seas, And the floods surrounded me; All Your billows and Your waves passed over me. Then I said, 'I have been cast out of Your sight; Yet I will look again toward Your holy temple.' The waters surrounded me, even to my soul; The deep closed around me; Weeds were wrapped around my head. I went down to the moorings of the mountains; The earth with its bars closed behind me forever; Yet You have brought up my life from the pit, O LORD, my God. ‘When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the LORD; And my prayer went up to You, Into Your holy temple. Those who regard worthless idols Forsake their own Mercy. But I will sacrifice to You With the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay what I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD.’ So the LORD spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.” (Jonah chapter 2)

Have you ever prayed from the fish’s belly? If you did, oh blessed day! What a wonderful sanctuary that fish’s belly becomes to you!

“I will sacrifice to you with the voice of thanksgiving” He says.

Can you thank God for the big fish that has swallowed you up? God can use this to bring you back into his fellowship again and reaffirm his calling upon your life that you have fled from. Oh, happy day!

Steve

“Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven” is what Jesus taught us to pray.

Sign in front of church: “Trip to heaven? Details inside.” While taking a trip to heaven is exciting to most of us, we still have to live out the daily grind. The “Sweet by and by” is appealing, but it’s the “Nasty now and now” that occupies most of our minds.

Life on earth should be heavenly, but for many of us it is anything but. In fact, many say, “Life is hell.”

Interestingly, Jesus taught us that if we want a life that is heavenly, that it would have to be found in the will of God, the heavenly Father. In heaven the will of God is done perfectly. There is no heaven outside the will of God.

Many are trying to find heaven in a human relationship, and while relationships are a beautiful thing, there is no perfect relationship – not even in a family, nor even in the love between a man and a woman.

Certain ones say that heaven is a piece of homemade pie. Most who believe that will have to give it up whenever they get on the scales or the doctor tells them their cholesterol is probably going to kill them. Just a little too much heaven for our own good!

Others are looking for heaven in excitement and thrills. They go through life waiting for the next buzz, hoping to find a heavenly experience. Many turn to alcohol or drugs to get it but they find out, sometimes too late, that the end result is anything but heaven. The disappointing discovery may come the next morning – hugging a toilet with a headache, but can come years later when all the late nights and abuse of body and mind begin to take their toll.

A lot of folks get absorbed into their jobs. It seems they find fulfillment there, but life is short and if they ever get to the point that they can no longer work, their bubble is popped. Oh, what a thin layer is the surface of that bubble!

We were all created for God’s glory (Isaiah 43.7) and for His pleasure (Revelation 4.11). Joy in life is found in being in God’s will. Believers in Christ are not yet in heaven, though we one day will be. We can experience heavenly living today. How? Not in faster cars or longer trips. Not in nicer clothes or diamond rings. Not in thrills, chills and spills. Where then?

Heavenly living is found in God’s will. God’s will is found in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ can be found right where you are.

But the righteousness of faith speaks in this way, "Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’" (that is, to bring Christ down from above) or, "‘Who will descend into the abyss?’" (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart" (that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.(Romans 10.6-10)

Steve