Jump Start # 1459

Jude 24 “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy”

  Our verse today is found at the end of the little book of Jude. It reminds us of how great our God is and how much that He is a part of our lives and wants us to succeed spiritually. God is not on the sidelines of life just waving a banner and hoping that we will do well. He is “able to keep you” and “make you”. I feel that sometimes folks wish that God would do more. Look how much He is doing. Possibly it is God who wishes that we would do more on our part.

Stumbling happens. We have little grandchildren who are walking. They stumble around. I know many senior citizens who must use walkers and canes to keep from stumbling. The stumbling here is spiritual. It happens when one is not careful. We take our eyes off of the Lord. We get too close to the edge of wrong. We follow every new and radical idea. We get weary and want to stop. We get discouraged. We get caught up in complaining. We invite Satan into our homes and hearts. It is so easy to stumble. There are so many ways to stumble. Israel stumbled all through the wilderness, complaining and doubting God. Peter begins his second letter by listing what we call the “Virtues” of Christianity. He states that if those qualities are ours and are increasing, we will never fall. There are characteristics of Christian behavior and faith that can keep us from falling. God is able to keep you from stumbling.

Have you ever met someone that returned back to the far country? They quit being a Christian. It didn’t work out for them. They ended the journey before they reached the finish line. Something happened. They couldn’t keep the commitment. They often point fingers at the congregation that they were a part of. Maybe there is some blame there, but somewhere along the way they lost touch with God. God is able to keep you from stumbling. But He doesn’t do that without our part. We won’t stumble as long as we continue to worship, stay connected with God and grow spiritually. Staying engaged with God. Being active in the kingdom, those are the very things that make a difference.

A stumbling Christian isn’t a pretty sight. He sends the wrong message to the world and he must be the source of attention and help by the shepherds. Instead of putting efforts into saving the lost, many places must pour energy into keeping the stumbling Christians from going overboard.

The other activity that our passage brings out is that God will make us stand in the presence of His glory. What a great thought that is! The glory of God. Jesus showed His glory at the transfiguration. Peter, James and John, knew Jesus as a man. He know showed them Jesus as God. His face shone. His clothes were brilliantly white. They had never seen anything like that. The Bible says when Jesus returns it will be in His glory. He will look like God looks. In Revelation, when John saw Jesus, again, in all the glory, he fell like a dead man. Our verse says that God will make us stand in the presence of His glory. We won’t run and hide. We won’t fall in fear. We won’t turn away. We will stand. Stand because of God. Stand because of forgiveness, faith and hope. Stand in His presence.

God will keep us from stumbling. God will make us stand in His glory. Without God we couldn’t do it. Without God we would fall. Do you see how active God is in your life. He cannot do these things apart from our choices and will. He will not drag us kicking and screaming to Heaven. When we walk by faith, God will use the wonderful opportunities to keep us from stumbling.

Have you considered that starting your day by reading a verse and these Jump Starts, may be just one way God can help you? Have you viewed worship services, your connection with other Christians, as just one way God can help you? Have you thought that Bible classes, daily reading the Bible programs, your fellowship with others, is just one way that God keeps you from stumbling. Just as there are multiple ways of stumbling, there are multiple ways to keep from stumbling. All of them connect us to the spiritual side of life. They cause us to reflect, think and make adjustments in our priorities and in our hearts.

The way God helps us is not overpowering us. His mighty hand doesn’t reach down from the sky and grab us. Rather, there are simple, everyday things that touch our hearts and helps us to keep going. These everyday things, however, may be the very things that we ignore. Then we trip. We fall. We get into a real spiritual mess. And then we wonder, why didn’t God do something. He did. He was there all along. We just didn’t see it. We ignored the very things, such as worship and Bible study, that could help us and keep us from stumbling.

A stumbling Christian generally has unplugged much of his spiritual activity. His attendance falls off. His prayer life dries up. His study of God’s word stops. He no longer reaches out to others. He becomes consumed with self. He sees others with critical and judgmental eyes. He is not allowing God to keep him from stumbling. But the very opposite of these things, a Christian who attends services, engages with the work, is close to brethren, is growing, studying, praying, he’s not likely to stumble. I’ve known preachers and elders who have fallen. What happened? They unplugged themselves from God. They were going through the motions but they allowed their faith to die.

Will God help you? Yes, that’s Heaven’s promise. Will you help yourself? Only you can answer that. God can keep you from falling. Do you want that?

What a great God we have. He could have left us on our own. But He doesn’t. He cares. He loves. He wants you to spend forever with Him.

Are you still in the race or have you quit?

Roger

Jump Start # 1319

Jude 24 “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy”

  Jude doesn’t get a lot of attention. I suppose because it is such a short book, we often toss it in with other short books and have an odds and ends study of short books. There are great lessons in this book. The “contend earnestly for the faith,” found in verse 3, is probably the most famous verse in Jude. Many sermons have come out of that one expression.

I like our verse today. It is almost the last thing found in Jude. It shows what God does for us. God is mighty. God is active. God is engaged. God is wanting the best from us. God keeps you and God makes you

First, God keeps you from stumbling. The how of this is important, but before even that, the very fact that He does this shows that we might, we could, we can stumble. If we couldn’t stumble, never, ever, then there would be nothing for God to keep us from. We do stumble. We take our eyes off of Jesus. We listen to Satan. Temptation gets the best and most times, the worst of us. We can toss in our faith and we can be conquered by sin. It happens.

God is able to keep that from happening. The obvious question is, then why doesn’t He do it? It seems that some are always messing up. This is where the “how” comes in. God keeps us from stumbling, but it’s in conjunction with us. He doesn’t do it independent of us. He doesn’t keep us from harms way as we are kicking and screaming to jump into sin. In 2 Peter, when Peter listed the “virtues,” you remember, add to your faith…a whole series of adding to. That section ends with Peter promising from God, “as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble.” There it is. God is able to keep us from stumbling as we walk with Him. He warns us of dangers. He points things out to us. He strengthens us. This way keeps us from stumbling. It’s not the strong, but the weak that stumble. It happens when we turn off our spiritual radar, we back down from God, we start thinking more of self and Satan comes knocking. He is always knocking, but when we are not sharp, we open the door and invite him in.

Second, God is able to make you stand in the presence of His glory. Jesus said that He would return in glory with His angels. The presence of Jesus in all His glory is enough to make all of us hide. He is so holy and we are not. He is always right and we are not. He is so God and we are so human. His glory will manifest what He is really like. He won’t look like the carpenter walking down the dirt streets of Judea. He will look like God. The transfiguration was a peek. There, the face of Jesus was as bright as the sun. His clothes were bright. He was manifesting His holiness and glory. Jude tells us that God will make you stand in the presence of His glory. This implies that God will remove fear that we may have. God will make things right. Come boldly to the throne of grace is what the Hebrews were told. Not hiding like Adam, not running like Jonah, not up a tree like Zacchaeus, but standing, standing in His presence.

Jude adds a couple of other thoughts. God makes us stand blameless. That means grace. That means forgiveness. That means hope. That means love, acceptance and faith. The guilty are no longer guilty. The wrong have been made right. The blamed are now blameless. This is because of Jesus. Blameless. No past. Not finger pointer. No wagging tongues.

Then, we stand, not just blameless, but with great joy. Not standing in fear. Not standing with tears running down our faces, but rather, standing with smiles. Standing with great joy. Not proud. Not puffed up. Not with a big head. Not because we are the poster children of Heaven. Standing blameless with joy because of the saving blood of Jesus. Having been washed with Christ, we now stand with joy. We stand justified, righteous, redeemed, and saved. We can stand because of Jesus.

Great joy because God says, “Well done, good and faithful.” Great joy because God invites us into His home. Great joy because the battle is over, the journey is completely, we made it.

It is God who is keeping us from stumbling and making us stand. This is God’s work with us. This is how our story ends, with Him, in His place.

God’s not retired. He’s busy. He’s doing things right now, for you.

Don’t fight God. Don’t walk away from Him. He won’t do these things without your cooperation. But, my what He will do for us, if we allow Him.

Great is our God!

Roger

Jump Start # 378

Jude 24 “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy”

  This powerful verse from Jude is filled with many interesting thoughts. It is found at the end of this short letter and it is addressed to God. It is God who is able to keep us from stumbling. We sing a hymn, “He is able.” The three Jewish boys thrown into the Babylonian fiery furnace knew that God was able to deliver them. He is able. Consider a few thoughts here:

• We can stumble. This letter is written to Christians. Some think that once you become a Christian, that you can never “lose” it. Not so. This passage alone shows that one can stumble and be guilty (the opposite of blameless). Paul said similar things to the Corinthians and to the Galatians. Our relationship and “standing” with God is based upon our walk with Him. It is a journey. We can’t stop nor quit. To do either, will lead to stumbling.

• God is able to keep us from stumbling. How? By the nature of His word. As we walk with God and please Him, we can not stumble. Peter said it this way, after listing the virtues that a Christian should add to their life, the apostle wrote, “…for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble” (2 Pet 1:10).  “These things” are the characteristics that Peter wants us to develop and grow and add to our life. Becoming more spiritual and following God is the means by which we will never stumble. It’s God’s plan. It’s God’s way. It is God who keeps us.

• These things will make us able to stand in His presence. What a powerful expression, to stand in the presence of God. Not to hide in fear of Him, as Adam and Eve did; nor to run from Him as Jonah did, but to stand. And how do we stand? Blameless and with great joy!

  These expressions from Jude remind us that God is working with us and for us. He wants you saved. He wants you in Heaven. He’s doing what He can to get you there. But we have to take responsibility and ownership of our own souls. And that is the problem. Too often we don’t. We don’t feed our souls the good food of God’s word. We don’t encourage and build up our souls by being in encouraging circumstances. We take care of our bodies, our minds, our pets, our homes, our kids, but our souls starve. They long to be built up. They need maintenance. They need fellowship and association with God.

  Intimacy with God is a wonderful concept that is expressed both in our song books and throughout the book of Psalms. Expressions such as, “I need Thee as a deer pants for the water” illustrate the soul’s desire for intimacy with God. Sunday church services are not enough. We need time to meditate, to grow, to talk with, and to be with God. Your soul needs it. My soul needs it. When it’s missing we tend to begin to stumble. We make choices that are not based upon the spiritual. We tend to ignore the spiritual side of things. We tend to live for now and we fail to remember God’s word.

  “To Him” as Jude addressed this verse is our help and our hope. To Him we must turn. To Him is the answer.

  Roger