Mercy

Mercy’s Gifts

/ pastorpete51 / 6 Comments 

It's a pint of blood needed
For folks we don’t know
 Or a handful of tissues 
When their tears start to flow

 A quiet embrace 
When their world falls apart
And a light at the door 
When they come after dark

 It's that kiss of forgiveness 
When we still feel the hurt
 Or a check in the mail 
When they’ve been out of work

 Angel songs after midnight 
When we’re up watching sheep
 And a Babe in a manger 
On a night that's so deep! 

Mercy's Gifts by Peter Caligiuri
Copyright 2020
 All rights reserved

Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy – Matthew 5:7 KJV

Hope in the Lord

/ pastorpete51 / 6 Comments

O Israel, hope in the Lord; for with the Lord there is unfailing love. His redemption overflows. He himself will redeem Israel from every kind of sin.
Psalms 130:7‭-‬8 NLT

Life has been so busy here planning for our upcoming trip, finishing and then promoting my book so my wife wholeheartedly agreed for a sunset tour of a nearby park we had never been to. What a blessing to take a little break from our daily routine and spend a few quiet moments watching the sun set over the Gulf. It is as if every evening, Jesus takes His artist’s brush and paints a message of hope just before the darkness settles in.

Maybe He is telling each one of us individually to recall His faithfulness to forgive, by painting the ocean red. There is the place that He has promised to cast our sins if we repent and turn to Him when we stray. There under the waves, all our own actions and anxieties that have robbed the lives of ourselves and our families can be forgotten and forgiven because of the Cross. How glad I am of that new hope available for me!

So here are some photos of last night’s quiet sunset. They are just a few samples of the masterpiece of God’s mercy and hope for anyone who is looking. Where is your hope today?

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The DNA of God

/ pastorpete51 / 1 Comment

Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?     Mark 2:7 ESV

When I was a young boy, I got in trouble a lot during summer vacations. My usual transgression was getting caught for wading in the pond on the other side of the creek from our home. See it wasn’t so much that I enjoyed getting wet, I just loved catching polliwogs so that I could bring them home and watch them turn to frogs. Though I ended up countless times being made to sit on my bed for disobeying, it seemed that it was just in my DNA. No matter how often I was told to stop, it never took more than a couple of days for me to gleefully return to the pond.

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Jesus got in trouble a lot too, but the trouble that Jesus got in was because He forgave people of their sins. “Just who does He think He is?” the religious people muttered. But, if they had stopped for just a moment to think about His name, they would have known the answer. You see God told Joseph and Mary to name their miracle child “Jesus”, precisely because “He will save His people from their sins.” Matthew 1:21. You see, forgiveness was part of who Jesus is because He is God’s Son and forgiveness begins in the very DNA of God. We need that forgiveness every day, and the good news for us is that no matter how much the punishment Jesus had to endure He came to forgive us so we could become His people!