It’s Friday night and you and your friends have dinner plans on a busy weekend. When you get to the restaurant you can expect to have a wait. After your hostess shows you to your dining table you can expect the hostess or your server to start you off with a beverage – at a minimum a glass of water is expected. Depending on how many tables your server has you expect him or her to return to your table to ask if you’re ready to order or need more to time to look over the restaurants menu selection. Once your order is placed there’s an expectation of your bread and butter or dipping sauce to either already be on the table or precede the appetizer, soup, and salad to arrive to the table before the main course. Your expectation is that the food will be delivered as pictured on the menu with any specifications you requested and at the appropriate temperatures. During your dining experience you expect your server to check on your table and ask if you have any additional request and to make sure your drinks are refilled all in a effort to provide you a quality dining experience.
You and your spouse are ready to upgrade the old clunker. As you walk onto the dealership lot you can expect to be greeted by a salesman prepared with varying sales tactics for you to earn him that commission. You can expect him to show you the insides and outsides of vehicles he believes might interest you and tailor the conversation to demonstrate the vehicles you’ve seen will not only meet but exceed your needs. He starts with the best, then second best, and the least best of styles with very little differences outside of size because he knows once you’ve seen the best you won’t want to settle for less. As you take to the test drive in the “best” he adjust the seat, sets the radio station settings to your favorites, and mirrors so it’s all set for you to become the proud new owner. Plus, you’ve worked hard and deserve the best. This will also be one of your biggest debt.
Once you’ve tasted and seen a relationship with the Most High God’s Son Jesus Christ you’ve tasted and seen the best and won’t want to settle for less. The payment for this costly debt is your death. However, knowing you couldn’t pay this debt God cancelled it by sending His one and only Son to die on the cross for YOU! When God created us, He said it was good and gave us dominion over the birds of the air, the beast and critters that roam the earth, and the fish of the sea. He’s expectation of us is to enter into an honest relationship with Him through His Word placing our security in all God has planned for us. For He first loved us. To know that our love is real God gave us free will to make the choice to follow Him or not, to do what we ought to or not. Yet we place greater expectation among men when God can meet and exceed our expectations waiting to give us the best there is. So let him satisfy your expectations and dream big.
The Mercy Table 