God's Grace and Mercy

Gracious: showing kindness, full of compassion, to bestow God blessing upon us

Merciful: full of compassion, favor, tender mercy, pity

As you may know, names speak of nature. By "nature," I mean one's own character or type. "Merciful" and "Gracious" always work together to bestow God's nature and blessings upon us. Friends, that's just who God is; He's not some mean God who sits on the throne just waiting to beat us over the head when we do something wrong. No, the God we serve was merciful before sin; He is merciful during sin; and He will still be merciful after sin. He is the same today, yesterday, and forever.

Exodus 34:5-7 tells us, "And the Lord descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation."

The Lord stood by Moses and proclaimed the names of the Lord. He wanted Moses (and He wants us) to learn and get familiar with His names or His nature, so that when we are in the midst of our storm, we can just call on the name. When we need God's mercy, we must call on His merciful name - in Hebrew, that's Jehovah Khaw-oom. When you do, His mercy is going to show up and keep those things back that I so rightly deserve. When we need grace, we should call on His gracious name - Jehovah Khan-noon - and He will show up and graciously give us what we don’t deserve. If you are not familiar with His Hebrew names, just call on "mercy" and "grace," God knows His names (even if we don't). However, we must call on His name with believing-faith and He will show-up and show-out on our behalf!

Let me share with you a testimony of my own: my formal pastor went to the doctor with his daughter, who wanted to have a specific procedure done that day. The nurse at the doctor's office said, "no, we can't do that procedure today; you'll have to wait another month." He and his daughter left, but while they were on the elevator he asked his daughter if she really wanted to have the procedure done that day. Of course she said yes. Guess what they did next? They called on the merciful - Jehovah Khaw-oom - and the gracious - Jehovah Khan-noon - names of God. When the elevator reached to first floor, he told his daughter, "let's go back up." So, they did just that - they went back to the doctor's office and told them again what she wanted to have done. You better believe that the second time the nurse said, "Can you come back this afternoon? We will do it today." That's what I mean about "believing faith." God's names are powerful; all we have to do is use them. They are full of compassion and tender mercy!

With all that said, let the Church say Amen… and AMEN!

We Need One Another!

Another: Additional; but of the same character.

We live in an age that has nearly lost a generation, because of the notion that you can be a Christian and not go to Church. There are those who have actually grown up with the misguided notion that they can have their own Church right where they are and as a result, Church attendance is unnecessary.

How tragic it must be to be satisfied with a religion predicated on isolation. Time and time again, scriptures affirm our need for one another. Not to mention, Hebrews 10:25 tells us, "Not forsaking or neglecting to assemble together, as it is the habit of some people."

Minister Hicks wants to share a few reasons why we need each other via the following scriptures:

1. Colossians 3:6 - to Admonish or warn a person to correct a fault


2. Romans 12:16 - to be of the Same Mind toward one another; i.e. to live in harmony with one another


3. Galatians 6:2 - to Bear or Endure one another's burden


4. 1 Corinthians 12:25 - to Care for one another; so there is no division or discord among God's people


5. 1 Thessalonians 4:18 - to Comfort one another or to encourage one another in meekness and love


6. Romans 14:19 - to Edify (benefit and enlighten) one another


7. Hebrews 10:25 - to Exhort or strongly advise one another to do something


8. 1 John 1:7 - to Fellowship with one another; to ensure friendly relationships between people with common interests


9. Colossians 3:13 - to Forgive one another. Keep in mind that the Lord has freely forgiven us, so we must return that favor to one another.


10. James 5:16 - to Pray for one another.

This is just a small sample of the scriptures that remind us that we need one another (and of course, most importantly we need Jesus), so let's make sure that we get out there and make sure that we are engaging within our respective church homes!

With all that said, let the Church say Amen... and AMEN!

We Are Not Our own!

Own - Belonging to oneself

Contrary to popular belief, we are not our own - we were bought with a price, and that price was the precious blood of the Lamb, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. For us, when we go to buy something, we reach into our pockets and look for some sort of money. On the contrary, when Jesus bought us, He had to reach MUCH deeper, for it cost Him His life! Hopefully that helps shed a little light on why we are not our own. If not - consider the fact that He is our creator. The word tells us in Isaiah 43:7, "Even every one that is called by my name; for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him." With that in mind, we are not our own - we belong to our creator.

Is it only me or does it seem like bad things tend to happen at a time that's not pleasing to us? It always seems like it's an inopportune time - we have this or that going on and at the time, we feel like it's only our agenda that counts. That's often the time that we experience sickness, a loss of a job, or our children start acting as if they were not raised by us. These situations can cause us to lose our focus on what we have going on and that may irritate us - but let me tell you, things happen when they happen and how they happen because God allows them to. Often, so that we can get our focus back on Him, because we are not our own and we are not calling the shots. We belong to Him, and as such, our thinking should be, "I'm thine, and thine art mine," and "You are the creator and I'm the creature." It's not about us - it's all about Jesus.

Take Jonah for an example. God wanted Jonah to go to Nineveh and preach, but he didn't want to go. He had clearly forgotten who the true boss was, but the Lord quickly humble him. Jonah 2:2 tells the story of how Jonah prayed and cried out to the Lord out of the belly of hell. You see my friends, we are not our own. Let's learn from Jonah's experience and not make the Lord show us exactly who is in control.

Revelation 4:11 says, "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created." So when "...a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself" (Galatians 6:3). We are not our own; we belong to God and thankfully, He loves us - we just have to stay in our place and stay focused on Him.

With all that said, let the Church say Amen... and AMEN!

As We Reflect On 2016...

Happy New Year Friends!

Thank God for another year, for 2016 wasn't promised to us, but God saw fit to keep us here and gave us the opportunity to see 2017 and for that - I am most grateful.

Is it just me who feels as though time has sped up?? Of course, I know that it hasn't, but time is constantly moving, so we must use it wisely and not take it for granted. Today, I just want to reflect on a few things we talked about in 2016.

My daughter tells me all the time how we need to let Jesus take the wheel, so as we talked about last year, let's be mindful to continue to trust in and on Him. We already know that we don't know what the future holds, but we know who holds the future! I'm sure that each of us probably came into 2017 with a lot of concerns - whether that be financial, health, or career-related - but let's not magnify these concerns. Instead, let's stand on our faith and magnify the One who can change and fix them. When those worries and concerns get too heavy for us, let's trust in God. He might not put the fire out, but if He doesn't, we can be assured that He will get into the fire with us.

Friends, remember to pray without ceasing as the Word tells us that "the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Elias was a man subject to like passion as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain" (James 5:16-18). Did you catch that? God withheld the rain for THREE and a HALF YEARS based on Elias' prayer! And when he prayed again, God allowed the heavens to open and the rain to fall again. How powerful is that?! Equally as powerful is the knowledge that the Lord will do awesomely, amazing things for us, just as he did for Elias. All we have to do is - we must have faith in our prayers and trust and believe in God and He will be faithful to answer.

Let's also remember to rest in the Lord, for there is nothing like being one of His - just a sheep in the pasture, we don't have to worry about providing the way or about what's going to happen tomorrow, we can just turn it all over to the Lord and rest as we walk along with Him.

As we trust, pray, and rest in the Lord in 2017, my prayer for each of us is that He will allow us to experience His peace in an abundant way - which is much more wonderful than the human mind can understand or even imagine. His peace will keep our thoughts and our hearts quiet and at rest as we pray and trust in Christ Jesus!

With all that said, let the Church say Amen and... AMEN!