"We do justice and God smiles."
They knew that Jesus was guided by compassion for the weak and broken and not by some hard-edged interpretation of the law.
"Jesus walked the earth rehumanizing the dehumanized and cleansing the unclean. Why? Because his heart refused to sleep in. Sadness confronted him in every town. So wherever he went, whenever he was confronted with pain and longing, he spread the good contagion of his cleansing mercy. Thomas Goodwin said, 'Christ is love covered over in … Continue reading Quote of Note #192: Love in Human Flesh
“Almighty God, you have taught us through your Son that love is the fulfilling of the law. Grant that we may love you with our whole heart and our neighbor as ourselves; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.[1] Luke 10:25-37 (NIV)25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he … Continue reading Pastor Note #134/Bible Note #55: Love of Jesus, Love of Neighbor
In my youth, which took place in those dark days before the existence of computers and apps on mobile devices, it was very difficult to say definitively how often, if at all, a given phrase appears in the Bible. These days, of course, it is a matter of a few moments of thumb typing, and … Continue reading Pastor Note #132: Anger and Following Jesus
photo by GAC "A so-called free society has never been remarkable for its feeling towards its casualties. It is invariably richer in charity than in compassion, probably because charity is tax-deductible whereas compassion is merely time-consuming." Peter Ustinov, Krumnagel. New York: Little, Brown, & Co. 1971, page 152.
Photo by GAC "Time and again it is the morally disgusting, the socially reviled, the inexcusable and undeserving, who do not simply receive Christ but to whom Christ most naturally gravitates. He is, by his enemies' testimony, the 'friend of sinners.' (Luke 7:34)." Dane Ortlund, Gentle and Lowly: The Heart of Christ for Sinners and … Continue reading Quote of Note #114: “The Friend of Sinners”
"If God is compassionate, then certainly those who love God should be compassionate as well. The God whom Jesus announces and in whose name he acts is the God of compassion, the God who offers himself as an example and model for all human behavior. "But there is more. Becoming like the heavenly Father is … Continue reading Quote of Note #91: Loving Others the Way Jesus Loves Us
"There are people who are known to be very liberal [generous], yet they never give without scolding or pride or even insolence. We are sunk to such a depth of calamity in this awful age that scarcely any alms are given, at least by the majority of men, without haughtiness and contempt. The corruption of … Continue reading Quote of Note #61 — Generosity and Compassion
Job is a tricky book to use. The book is a debate among Job and some friends over how to understand suffering and what God is doing in the midst of that suffering. We should not assume that everything that Job or the others say is correct. The only one who speaks infallibly in the … Continue reading Bible Note #35: Compassion for the Weak — Job 29:14-17
Gary Chorpenning's Notebooks 