Truth is Mercy

Truth.It is such a privilege to have God's Word clearly and accurately explained and applied. It brings real devastation when it is not.I was thinking about that as I sat with a young man yesterday who was in a real crisis. He has a wife, two children and has been without a job for the past three months. He is skilled, fairly educated and unable to find a job though he's been spending hours and hours working to do that every day. They are sleeping in the living room of their apartment, all four of them, with two other families staying there as well.We gave him a small food pack the other day and he was almost crying with thanks because of the fact he hasn't been able to provide food for his family to eat. So there's some mercy, I suppose but sitting with him, you know what impressed me was the tremendous mercy in helping someone better understand God's Word.He's in South Africa because a prophet told him he had to go. This is a normal kind of thing where he comes from, in fact, he told me he's never had someone really work their way through the Scripture with him the way we are trying to at Living Hope and as he has begun to understand that he doesn't need to be looking to men and their opinions as if it was straight from God but instead needs to focus His attention on what God clearly has explained in His Word, you could see the relief and frustration in his eyes at the same time.Relief that things aren't nearly as complicated as having to do what everyone who says they are a prophet tells you to do, frustration that he's made these major decisions on the basis of someone's opinion, scared now about what to do with his future.Sweet opportunity though, because God's Word speaks directly to that situation, doesn't it?If ever anyone tells you that getting involved in mercy ministry will lead you away from the truth, you can respond by telling them that there is no such thing as real mercy ministry apart from the truth because the bottom line is, if I lose the truth, I am not showing mercy.Truth is mercy.