The God we serve
This week's study is on Jude 1:24-25:
Sometimes we forget the character of the God we serve, and these verses seemed to me to summarize it quite well. He's not just a shadowy figure who sends lightning at people doing wrong, or some kind of floating Santa Claus figure who dumps prosperity out on people who buy certain Christian books. Who is our God?
God is able to keep us from stumbling. Stumbling is when you don't see where you're going and you trip over something that was in your way. It's also when you're being careless. So if God is able to keep us from stumbling, and we stumble and fall, whose fault is it? It's not God's fault. We can ask God for help, because he is able to help. In that there is freedom. If you could drive a car that couldn't crash, wouldn't you get places more quickly? (And no, before the lawsuits begin, there is no such car.)
God presents us before himself without fault and with great joy. Given how flawed we are, how is that possible? Surely everyone has stumbled at least once, maybe even fallen. How can we then be presented without fault? Is it only perfect people Jude is addressing here? No! God loves us. Our faults are forgiven when we repent and come to him. He doesn't stay angry. Sometimes he doesn't even get angry. He knows we're the way we are, but what matters is that we're his and we're willing to change. So God is glad to know us, and his acceptance and love for us is not related to our faults, but to his forgiving character.
All glory, majesty, power, and authority have been, are, and will continue to be for God alone. Do we want some flawed person to have glory more than God? Is there anyone more majestic than God? Do we want to trust power in some selfish person's hands to the exclusion of God? Do we want any shortsighted person to have authority to overrule God? Nobody has the love and wisdom God has. Nobody's ultimate goal is to fix us and accept us like God's is. So would we want the glory, majesty, power, and authority to be in anyone's hands but his? It would be like giving a loaded gun to a five year old. At best it's useless, and at worst it would be tragic.
God is our savior, and that saving grace comes through the sacrifice of Jesus. It wasn't free. His authority is made perfect through that sacrifice. God always has had power over everything, but never was it so clear that he is the best to wield it than when he used it to his own loss and our gain. Or more to the point, to our mutual gain instead of to his exclusive gain and our loss.
Two verses say more about God's character than some hour long sermons. It may be good for us to remember them.
To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.
Sometimes we forget the character of the God we serve, and these verses seemed to me to summarize it quite well. He's not just a shadowy figure who sends lightning at people doing wrong, or some kind of floating Santa Claus figure who dumps prosperity out on people who buy certain Christian books. Who is our God?
God is able to keep us from stumbling. Stumbling is when you don't see where you're going and you trip over something that was in your way. It's also when you're being careless. So if God is able to keep us from stumbling, and we stumble and fall, whose fault is it? It's not God's fault. We can ask God for help, because he is able to help. In that there is freedom. If you could drive a car that couldn't crash, wouldn't you get places more quickly? (And no, before the lawsuits begin, there is no such car.)
God presents us before himself without fault and with great joy. Given how flawed we are, how is that possible? Surely everyone has stumbled at least once, maybe even fallen. How can we then be presented without fault? Is it only perfect people Jude is addressing here? No! God loves us. Our faults are forgiven when we repent and come to him. He doesn't stay angry. Sometimes he doesn't even get angry. He knows we're the way we are, but what matters is that we're his and we're willing to change. So God is glad to know us, and his acceptance and love for us is not related to our faults, but to his forgiving character.
All glory, majesty, power, and authority have been, are, and will continue to be for God alone. Do we want some flawed person to have glory more than God? Is there anyone more majestic than God? Do we want to trust power in some selfish person's hands to the exclusion of God? Do we want any shortsighted person to have authority to overrule God? Nobody has the love and wisdom God has. Nobody's ultimate goal is to fix us and accept us like God's is. So would we want the glory, majesty, power, and authority to be in anyone's hands but his? It would be like giving a loaded gun to a five year old. At best it's useless, and at worst it would be tragic.
God is our savior, and that saving grace comes through the sacrifice of Jesus. It wasn't free. His authority is made perfect through that sacrifice. God always has had power over everything, but never was it so clear that he is the best to wield it than when he used it to his own loss and our gain. Or more to the point, to our mutual gain instead of to his exclusive gain and our loss.
Two verses say more about God's character than some hour long sermons. It may be good for us to remember them.
I usually don't ask for Gods help...I wind up begging!
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