- Jul 20, 2006
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The Four Questions…
In the prison minstry group I have been blessed to be a part of for the past year our leader, who has been involved in prison minstries for over 25 years, has developed four distinct questions that seemingly turn the thought process of typical criminals around to a better understanding of the nature and character of God and His government.
Here are the four questions that we ask. Answer them as honestly as possible and compare them to how God may answer them.
1.) What if I told you that your youngest child was murdered? Would you want mercy or justice for the perpetrator?
2.) What if I told you that the murderer was your oldest child? Would you want mercy or justice for the perpetrator?
3.) What if I told you that you are guilty of the murder of the only begotten Son of God? Would you want mercy or justice as the perpetrator?
Last question:
4.) What if I told you that you had a daughter, your only daughter, the apple of your eye, who has never given you a moment’s grief. Tonight, you have your tux hanging in the closet, because tomorrow you are scheduled to walk your daughter down the aisle and give her away to someone whom you approve. If you’re the mother, you have your new dress hanging next to the gown that you have been planning and preparing for since the first time she held her in her arms. But tonight, your daughter is at a bachelorette party with her peers and they talk her into having “one-for-the-road,” the first ever in her life. Two, three, four, five, six, seven (drinks) later, while on her way home, she wipes out a school bus full of little children on their way to camp. Everybody aboard the bus dies in a fiery inferno, but you daughter survives.
Do you want mercy or justice for your daughter (?) and what do those that are related to those who were on bus want?
The moral of the story is…
The carnal heart has an ingrained sense of justice as long as it doesn’t apply to them or theirs. That is self-righteousness and hypocrisy! Furthermore, Satan knows that God will only forgive us according to our willingness to forgive others. The irony of the whole thing is – “we’re all family.”
As we have received God’s mercy – so are we to bestow the same mercy towards others. “Freely you have received, freely give.” We can hate the sin, but we must love the sinner for “we war not against flesh and blood, but against powers and principalities in high places.”
Micah 6:8
He hath shewed thee, O man, what [is] good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?
In the prison minstry group I have been blessed to be a part of for the past year our leader, who has been involved in prison minstries for over 25 years, has developed four distinct questions that seemingly turn the thought process of typical criminals around to a better understanding of the nature and character of God and His government.
Here are the four questions that we ask. Answer them as honestly as possible and compare them to how God may answer them.
1.) What if I told you that your youngest child was murdered? Would you want mercy or justice for the perpetrator?
2.) What if I told you that the murderer was your oldest child? Would you want mercy or justice for the perpetrator?
3.) What if I told you that you are guilty of the murder of the only begotten Son of God? Would you want mercy or justice as the perpetrator?
Last question:
4.) What if I told you that you had a daughter, your only daughter, the apple of your eye, who has never given you a moment’s grief. Tonight, you have your tux hanging in the closet, because tomorrow you are scheduled to walk your daughter down the aisle and give her away to someone whom you approve. If you’re the mother, you have your new dress hanging next to the gown that you have been planning and preparing for since the first time she held her in her arms. But tonight, your daughter is at a bachelorette party with her peers and they talk her into having “one-for-the-road,” the first ever in her life. Two, three, four, five, six, seven (drinks) later, while on her way home, she wipes out a school bus full of little children on their way to camp. Everybody aboard the bus dies in a fiery inferno, but you daughter survives.
Do you want mercy or justice for your daughter (?) and what do those that are related to those who were on bus want?
The moral of the story is…
The carnal heart has an ingrained sense of justice as long as it doesn’t apply to them or theirs. That is self-righteousness and hypocrisy! Furthermore, Satan knows that God will only forgive us according to our willingness to forgive others. The irony of the whole thing is – “we’re all family.”
As we have received God’s mercy – so are we to bestow the same mercy towards others. “Freely you have received, freely give.” We can hate the sin, but we must love the sinner for “we war not against flesh and blood, but against powers and principalities in high places.”
Micah 6:8
He hath shewed thee, O man, what [is] good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?
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