Book excerpt: For Jesus, truth and mercy went hand in hand. Where he preached he also healed. He didn't outsource one or the other to biblical scholars or nonprofit ministries. He presented the truth of the gospel through his words and his actions, and he did it all in a hands-on, relational way. And the reaction was the same wherever he went--people were amazed. Today we seem to have lost this powerful pattern of self-giving love, focusing on truth at the expense of mercy or on mercy at the expense of truth, and often failing to build genuine, lasting relationships with the people around us. In The God Impulse, Jack Alexander helps us recover Jesus's model, showing through biblical and modern real-life stories that God's first impulse toward us is mercy. He then sets forth a pattern for us to follow--to see, go, do, and endure--that not only spreads truth and love to those around us who are suffering but also causes them to gasp in amazement and consider the claims of the gospel for themselves.