# Be Ready - Monday, 2025.12.15 My post on 2025.12.09 discussed Gabriel's greeting to Mary, “Greetings, favored woman! The Lord is with you.” {Luke 1.1.28} In that post, I concluded that a better paraphrase could be, "Greetings to the woman who has received LOTS of grace from God." This is the only grace related passage in Luke 1. On the other hand, there are five occurrences of "mercy" in Luke 1. What are grace and mercy? Anyone who has been to Sunday school for a number of years probably has heard the quip: - Grace is getting (a gift) what I don't deserve - Mercy is NOT getting (the punishment) what I DO deserve In our narcissistic society today there is too much talk about getting what you deserve. A few examples: - McDonald's: "You deserve a break today" - Harrell & Harrell (law firm): "Don't settle for less than you deserve" - Paul Mitchell: "Do you deserve a little treat?" - William-Maine (real estate agent): "You deserve a home you love" Each of the above are lies! The only thing any of us deserve is to spend eternity in hell, separated from our Creator! Although there are many other verses with a similar message, few say it as succulent as Romans 3.23: "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." ## tl;dr - Each of us, to include me as well as Mary the mother of Jesus needs mercy to avoid receiving the punishment we DESERVE - Each of us, to include me as well as Mary the mother of Jesus needs the gift (grace) of salvation to enter into God's presence ## So What!?! - Each of us must receive the mercy and grace offered by Jesus instead of trying to be reconciled to God by our own efforts - "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" {Romans 6.23 (BSB)} ## Prove me wrong - Using nothing but the Bible)