The Lord is Good.. and His Mercies Endure Forever!!

The Lord is good and His mercies endure forever!

You know how at football games the cheerleaders rally the fans to cheer on the players??? They lead the fans into chants that rally the players and lead them to victory… well on North First Street today… there was victory!!  Jesus Victory!!!   Today the food line snaked its way down to the sidewalk and across to make a huge “L”… Keith ran up and down the line of people leading them in a chant…”The Lord is good!!!! And they would reply…”The Lord is good!!!”…. “And His mercies endure forever!!!”… and they would reply “And His mercies endure forever!!!!  It was a beautiful site seeing the huge line of North First Street Friends shouting out to the Lord that even on a cold, overcast, muddy fall day… “The Lord is Good!!!” and yes… His mercies do endure forever… We are proof of that every week.

This week I felt extremely blessed as I did last week.. A wonderful group of women who all attend bible study together put together what had to be 15-20 crock pots of stew for us today. Wow!!! God heard my prayer a few months ago that I didn’t know how I was going to be able to meet the growing need on my own… He brought beautiful loving hearts who wanted to bless us with a meal for 200.   Thank you Jesus… for showing us your amazing mercies…they do endure forever. 

We had all of the stew, numerous platters of homemade cookies- (thank you Tracy! :0) … hot dogs, rice and beans, apples, ….soap cut and bagged (thank you Diane P. :0) ….Our need for more hands to help serve food… sort and serve clothes…. have been met… new volunteers have come to us from Selah…West Valley….East Valley…people from Kiwanis… people from a variety of churches… people who have a heart for the lost… a heart for the less fortunate.  Older people… younger people… all tied together because of their love for people.  A young boy selflessly served stew today with the most beautiful heart, “Have a good day!”  It is so beautiful to see how the Lord is growing us and stretching all of us every week. 

Our merciful God is chipping off the callous attitudes… the hard hearts… the judgmental ways…”The Lord is Good and His Mercies Endure Forever!!!”  It is never our job to decide “Who deserves Jesus… and who does not…. Who deserves mercy… a hand out… and who does not.”  My heart is bursting with such a mixture of feelings…. My heart feels broken for the people who believe that God is only for “the deserving”… you know.. the people who have their lives together… the people who live “a respectable life”… you know those people… the people who finished high school… the people who are not “addicted”…. The people who wear “clean clothes”…. the people who speak English…. Yes… I said it…My heart breaks for them because they are missing the point… they are going through the religious steps… but they are missing the heart of Jesus!! It doesn’t have to be serving our ministry… it has to do with serving all people throughout their lives… whomever they run into…. It has to do with seeing people with Jesus eyes…. With a Jesus heart…..but just as Jesus extends his mercy on North First Street… Jesus extends His Mercies to us….

Our merciful God continues to chisel away at my own heart…He allows me to grow  and He stretches me farther than I would have ever expected… I think the more that I allow God to step in and reach out to others… the deeper I experience Who God is and get to know more of His attributes.  I feel such deep sorrow…joy….compassion….love….trust…. thankfulness…… and humility… the more I serve the least of these… the more I see how alike we all are than how different… this in turn shows me how much Jesus sacrificed and how undeserving we all are… in the end I feel so grateful for how good the Lord is… and how His Incredible Mercies Endure Forever!!!  Lord please help peel the layers from my eyes so that I can see the world with eyes more like yours… with a heart more like yours…and with mercy more like Yours!!! (P.S. thank you Tina for the awesome Turkey and stuffing… that will be our food for next week!! You blessed us so much!!  I pray that you can feel a fraction of the joy that you will be giving next week!)  (And for our faithful friends who drop off toilet paper and water every week…please know that you are making a difference… people may not be dropping to their knees and claiming healing every week, but week by week – layer by layer… the Lord is infiltrating their being…healing hurts…providing triage where necessary… and long term care for others… Thank You Jesus for Your Sweet Mercies…They do Endure Forever!!! :0)