what are people saying

• In this book, Jonathan works hard to bridge the gap between our intellectual knowledge of God and our lived experience with God. And the result is a simple, practical, and powerful read with great tools for leading you toward a deeper, whole-hearted love of God.

  Dhati Lewis, lead pastor of Blueprint Church and vice president of the Send Network, North American Mission Board

• Jonathan Parnell is one of the most thoughtful and interesting young writers in the evangelical world today. If you haven’t yet read his writing, Mercy for Today is a great place to start. It is a theologically sturdy, pastorally sensitive, well-written devotional text. Highly recommended.

  Bruce Riley Ashford, provost and professor of Theology & Culture, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary

• One of the most basic truths of Christianity is that we are always in God’s presence. The challenge for many of us is to come awake to that reality. Of the many ways that I’ve been blessed by my friend Jonathan Parnell, this is at the top of the list—he helps me to feel the realness of Jesus. Whether it’s pressing home the fact that I can actually praise God, or helping me to own the fact that my main problem is my distorted heart, or making me to feel the earnestness of David’s prayer for God’s presence, or reminding me that joy is at the center of the Christian life, Jonathan has a remarkable way of connecting God’s truth and my experience so that I walk away with a greater sense that Jesus is real and God is merciful.

  Joe Rigney, Assistant Professor of Theology & Literature, Bethlehem College & Seminary, Minneapolis

• A timely invitation to step away from ourselves, and who we think God is, to discover a deeper and richer mercy than we have imagined. This is a great little book to jumpstart a cold heart, and warm the affections for a greater God. Who doesn’t need that?

  Jonathan K. Dodson, lead pastor of City Life Church, author of Gospel-Centered Discipleship, Here in Spirit, and Our Good Crisis.

• Jonathan Parnell offers a moving pastoral reflection on Psalm 51. The key to this prayer is that it is addressed to a God who is outside of us, radically other than us, but communicates himself to us by his saving presence. Parnell is after the “lived sense” of this reality. He invites us to appeal to this God for mercy, to thirst for our joyful experience of his presence. The oceans of God’s mercy are more satisfying than the splash pads of self-justification.

  Matthew LaPine, pastor of Theological Development, Lecturer, Salt Network School of Theology

• God’s pursuit of his people is relentless; his call to seek him is clear. The Christian’s greatest joy is God himself. But oh how we falter in our pursuit while the God of mercy awaits us daily! Jonathan Parnell offers a clear, helpful path through Psalm 51 to daily seek the God who will be found.

  Ming-Jinn Tong, pastor for Neighborhood Outreach, Bethlehem Baptist Church

• Mercy. It’s not just something nice. It is the foundational need for every person on planet earth that, by God’s amazing grace, realizes they are a sinner. Jonathan Parnell’s book, based on Psalm 51, will once again open your eyes to this wonderful, necessary and not often talked about topic. Read the book! Allow God’s mercy to utterly transform you!

  Steve Treichler, senior pastor, Hope Community Church, Minneapolis, MN