It may be that his mercy towards all of us is what impacted me more than all the rest of his wonderful qualities. For I was a young man who desperately needed God’s mercy. Preach never failed to extend it to me, even at some of my lowest points.

One of the things we have come to realize around here is – Our perception of God greatly affects our pursuit of Him. For instance, if I think God is mean and grumpy and condemning and always in a bad mood, then I will not very likely want to know and fellowship with Him, and spend my discretionary time with Him.

Our society has so watered down the reality of evil, and instead relegated it to only the worst among us (e.g. rapists, murderers, etc), that we have become desensitized to its prevalence. How easy it is to compare ourselves to such people (obvious sinners), and then deduct that we are sitting pretty well!

It was striking as I began to gather these passages that almost every book in the New Testament has at least one warning re: divisive people.

Nothing sucks the life out of the God given destiny on every family to be an instrument in God’s hands than this prevalent practice of turning a blind eye to obvious sin and evil and unrighteousness in one’s family or extended family.

God who sees, hears and knows all, and who sent His Son to set us free from all sin, is regularly examining the state of our heart, and regularly seeking to reveal to us what He sees.

This study is meant to highlight what the Psalms teach us about the reality of sin, iniquities and transgressions, God's plentiful mercy for such, and the call to holiness in the Psalms - all of which should be a significant part of the foundation of Christ's church in every city

Like so many other things in the kingdom, we tend to think we know this, and tend to be a bit simplistic in talking about it to others. May meditation on these purpose statements result in greater devotion to Him, and greater effectiveness in speaking of the cross to others.

In preparation for Holy Week, I sensed the need for a tool to help us in our meditations on the greatness of our sin that required and led to the greatness of His sacrifice. Very easy to overlook or take for granted the greatness of His salvation and deliverance from the greatness of our sin and lostness.

It is my conviction that God chose Esther and Mordecai primarily because they were available and useable in a time of history where the bar of spiritual vitality among the Jews was very low, but the stakes for their survival was very very high.