ECHOES OF MERCY

Contents of the book “ECHOES OF MERCY”.

Acknowledgments
Author’s Note
Foreword by Cal Thomas
Foreword by Gloria Gaither
Introduction: Catching the Vision
1. The call
God’s hand on my life
2. Growing frustration
Work for the government
3. Step Out With Faith | 59
The beginning of multiplied mercy
4. By divine appointment
The realization of the vision
5. The transformation process
An inside look
6. My heroes.

7. Bread of Heaven
Ministry Support
8. The Army of the Lord
How God Recruits Workers
9. The ripple effect
The restoration of one brings restoration to others
10. Against the gates of hell
The purpose of the Church
11. To the Ends of the Earth
The future of mercy multiplied
12. Nearly twenty years later
Open doors and overflow
13. Mercy multiplied
Expanding our reach
Conclusion: Where do we go from here?

Excerpt from the book “ECHOES OF MERCY”.

America is confronted with so many problems—economic, political, moral, and social—and they seem to be growing at such an alarming rate that the average person feels powerless to deal with them. Most
of us look only for protection from the creeping monsters that seek to consume us. Too many of us retreat from the cities into the suburbs to avoid crime and into apathy and coldness of heart toward those who most need our help. We pretend that if we can only put such problems out of sight, or at least no closer than the television set or newspaper, we can put our obligation to address them out of our minds.

However, the command of Jesus Christ is to act as a preservative in the culture. The purpose of a preservative is to slow down the process of spoilage, which eventually leads to rotten meat. Those of us who read and believe the Bible know that the earth in its present condition is spoiling and will eventually rot. It would ultimately be destroyed were it not for the intervention of Jesus Christ who gives to it (and us) a new, transformed, and unending life, free of physical death, pollution of the environment, and moral decay.

In the meantime, each of us who are children of God through our acceptance of Jesus Christ and repentance of our sins is commissioned to act as a preserving agent. It is a commission and a command. It is not an option. Why are we to do this? It is so that the gospel might have freer rein to be shared to the uttermost parts of the earth, because God is not willing that any should perish, but that all might come to Him through His Son.

As a journalist for more than three decades, I am convinced that the moral, social, and political problems that confront this nation are the result of individual believers who have lost their “saltiness.” Too many are like that sodium-free stuff people use who must avoid real salt for health reasons. It looks like salt, it tastes like salt, but all of its preserving qualities have been removed. A 1992 Gallup Poll found that only 10 percent of Christians have what Gallup called “transforming faith.”

*Nancy Alcorn is among that 10 percent. Her enthusiasm for Christ is that of a young girl who has fallen in love for the first time. Her compassion for those who are lost and for those girls and women who are saved, but have strayed, is as deep and real as anyone I know. Mercy Multiplied is aptly named. It extends the love and mercy not judgment of Jesus Christ to every person it touches. It is doing the work of God, not only in Nashville, but also by example and reputation to others who have heard of it and have met Nancy, and some of the women who have entered its doors, women who have left with a new purpose for living and a changed life.

At the end of our lives it will not matter at all how much money we made, how many famous and powerful people we met (or whether we became famous and powerful ourselves). It will matter a great deal what we did with the knowledge and power and grace and, yes, mercy God has extended to us.

A little verse I learned in Sunday school years ago said, “Only one life, ’twill soon be past; only what’s done for Christ will last.” Nancy Alcorn and Mercy Multiplied America are doing the work of Christ, which will multiply and last beyond Nancy’s own life. This book “ECHOES OF MERCY” is the story of Mercy Multiplied, but it is more than that. It is also the story of what one person who is sold out to God can do. My hope is that it will serve as a testimony to others who need to be about the business of Christ and be done with lesser things.

Cal Thomas

Read free extracts from the book “ECHOES OF MERCY”.