Weekly Update – 11th June

Hello All,

I will admit that this week’s newsletter has been a bit of a struggle and was written well past the set deadline! It’s been a busy week and I didn’t want to just repeat the things that I will be using at the Oasis Café service on Sunday morning or even the online service on Facebook/website….so I have had a lot of different ideas going around my head but nothing that I could commit to paper. However, after reading and reflecting on the set Gospel reading for this Sunday (Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26) and seeing the different people that Jesus interacted with, in their different situations, without any questioning on His part, I have a question that I thought I would share with you….

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MERCY AND GRACE? ARE THEY THE SAME?

Ponder that a while and see what conclusions you come to!

In the reading from Matthew, Jesus shows great compassion in 2 of the situations and is merciful in the first one, would you agree? The people in the reading showed great faith in the power that Jesus has to transform lives by their trust in Him. Do we have that same trust and faith in His transformative power in our lives today?

My thoughts on mercy and grace are that by God’s grace we can show mercy to others. In other words mercy is our gift to give to others but grace is God’s gift to us so that we can be merciful. Mercy therefore is an outworking of God’s love and grace for us and how we show God’s love to others. Mercy is doing, Grace is being and both are revealed in Jesus’ death on the cross.

Fiona