Did you know God is in the recycling business?
A few examples: His love, mercy, forgiveness, kindness, etc.
Here’s how it works. God first gives us His <blank>. He is the initiator. Eventually we receive it (a free gift). We did nothing to deserve it or earn it. So once we receive this gift, it touches us deeply. God is happy. The recycling process has now begun. Then we enjoy it and realize how much God loves us. We worship…more recycling. God is pleased.
Now let’s plug in the <blank> with forgiveness for an example. We are overwhelmed that God would so freely forgive us of such a deed of selfishness and hatred. That causes worship to come forth along with thanksgiving and blessing. Our loving heavenly Father is happy we received His gift and accepts our thanks and worship.
But the recycling is not over. Now God wants us to give that forgiveness away. What we have freely received, enjoyed and been blessed with needs to be shared with another unworthy recipient. We may struggle and argue or try to reason with God, but eventually He wins 
. Now God gets the glory. We know it was nothing of ourselves. We could have NEVER forgiven that person had we not been forgiven and blessed of God first.
I believe this is our calling. We need to live out what God gives us so that others will be touched by God through His children. That’s what keeps the recycling process going.
Charlie
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I woke up the other morning with this thought. It’s an upgrade on the “golden rule.”
DO UNTO OTHERS WHAT GOD HAS DONE UNTO YOU.
When I got home I put this “Recycling” post on the blog.
Charlie
Charlie,
Your thought brings up something for me. Scripture says that “where sin abounds, that is where grace much more abounds, and of course that means “more recycling” takes place. Here is the problem. Many of us who grew up in Christian homes, have never strayed from our upbringing and have lived pretty upright, moral lives, have very few tangible actions to remind us of our depravity. There really must be “a revelation” of our depravity and of our falling short of the mark of God’s righteousness. Some of us, maybe many of us, need to pray and seek God for this revelation. It is the only way we will become renowned “in the recyling business”. Gary
Hi Gary, I’m sorry to say I never had that problem
..but you are right. I’ve known lots of people that find it difficult to admit they need a savior because they are morally upright. Sin is not limited to moral issues, as you well know. You do make a good point Gary.
I like your example of recyclng and God’s grace. I find it very interesting that you mentioned this, cuz I almost added a closing line on my comment about asking for other examples of recycling. We must be on the same wave length or just maybe we are one spirit, one to another
.
Who else has an example of recycling?
Charlie
I think something that can only come from God – and then be passed on to others is mercy. Defintely a recycled virtue. You just don’t see it much. To me, it separates the ‘men from the boys’ in the religious world today.
Mercy comes only from a broken heart – one that has been accepted by God even in its brokenness. I don’t think you can even begin to give mercy to others until you do what you guys have talked about above: been down on your knees because of who you really are, and learn that God has loved you through it all and has just been waiting on you to come to Him so he can show you.
The person who doesn’t show mercy, can be generally found gossiping about others problems. They might meter out a bit of pity toward the poor bloke’s sinfulissues. Pity differs from mercy in that pity is the whispered, distant shaking of the head as we marvel at how in the world so-and-so got themselves in that difficult situation. It’s pretty much a “be warmed and filled” deal, because we surely don’t want to muddy our white robes with their dirty business.
Mercy, on the other hand, comes from a person who has been honest with themselves to admit to the struggles and failures that are part of their past – and their present. How can they begin to look down on someone else, when they are so marred by the beam in their own eye? We are filled to over-flowing with the mercy God has shown us in our weakness, and it just flows from us onto those around us.
Definitely a trash-to-treasure story.
Alice
Hey y’all, wanna know what I find so encouraging about all this blogging stuff? It’s how so many posts written by different folks with different strokes share thoughts that resonate with us so often. Yet each comes from a little different angle in their presentation. That is sooo kule!
In fact, today I was thinking about mercy being an example of recycling. I’m glad Alice ended her post with “trash to treasure story.” Remember Jesus saying, “store up treasure in heaven?” I was thinkin about that. I was thinkin that when I stand to give an account before God, I’d like to have a LOT of mercy sent ahead of me and stored in a big treasure chest waiting for me on that judgment day.
So, how do we store up mercy? By giving a lot out NOW. It first begins with God extending mercy to us. We gladly receive it and He freely gives it. So shouldn’t we now gladly give it to others? Sounds simple, but it ain’t easy!
Mercy is often confused with what many Christians call God’s grace. The truth is, they are not even close. Mercy is an act of abounding kindness extended to someone who is absolutely
GUILTY! Mercy actually violates justice. Mercy is offered to the totally UNDESERVED. It is an exception to the rule. Does that fit God’s grace? I don’t think so.
As Alice pointed out, mercy is not easy to offer to others. Brokenness must come first before we can truly extend mercy to another, cuz in our minds, “it just ain’t fair!” We have been offended by this “jerk” and after what that “blankety blank” did to me, I wanna see some heavy duty retribution (which is just a nice word for revenge)!
The unique thing about mercy is that it comes from God. It is part of His nature. He enjoys showing mercy. So we have to spend a lot of time soaking in God’s nature (like in our “worship moments”) before we even think of, or dare to extend mercy to anyone.
Mercy must be recycled like every gift God offers. Since mercy originates with God, it must also emerge from Him, but in the recycling process it now comes forth from God IN US to others. It takes a lot of “worship moments” in His presence and deep touches of God’s love to allow mercy to flow out to other undeserving recipients.
Bottom line is: if we want more mercy – We gotta first receive mercy with thanksgiving, joy, and worship; then, we gotta start giving a lot of mercy away.
Thanks Alice for reminding me
. Let the recycling continue!
Charlie
When our faith is stretched, it will
never go back to its original shape.
Charlie,
Wanna know what I find so amazing? Is that we all hear the same voice. That’s because we have One Shepherd.
I was reading a Catholic Charismatic Renewal site the other day where they were all in favor of God pouring himself out on people. But then fear kicked in and they began talking about people who didn’t believe they needed priests or the popes anymore and how the church must immediately step in to take charge lest people get “off” and draw others away.
Now notice that every group goes to the same kind of lengths. Someone is miraculously touched of the Lord, gets into some “gift”–real or imagined–and goes off on a tangent based on the gift or on some revelation. People DO get off into individualism…but the opposite is just as evil–that of quenching the Spirit in order to bring things under control (whose control?).
If the Spirit operating is really the Lord, why would anyone want to censor it? or control it? Why would they oppose the Lord and why would the Lord allow someone to get “off”?
But what we all need is to hear the teaching of the Spirit..how does that reconcile? Simply this: that ministers of God have one purpose–and that is to turn the hearts of believers back to the Source which is Jesus Christ. A heart turned to its true Source never draws others off, never remains for long in error, and is easily corrected by the inner anointing. Many hearts turned to the same Source do not become individualistic, because they all hear the same speaking in the inner man.
This is what an Army looks like moving as one man. The world (and the worldly church) does not understand.
sorry to get on a sidetrack, but this was interesting.
Mercy and Grace….wonderful things to ponder on. These things are “lovely”. They bring “good reports”. They are things that are “just” – Philppians 4:8
Another version of definitions:
Mercy = God withholdingfrom us what we deserve
Grace = God blessing us with what we do not deserve
Have a blessed day!
Gary
That is so true Gary – now the trick is . . do we value the ‘lower intestinal’ folks of the body (and outside) enough to provide both mercy and grace to them?
Alice