MERRY MONDAY BY PARRIS BAILEY-
“Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy” Jude 1:24
Matthew Henry said, “Take heed of throwing yourselves out of the love of God to you, or its delightful, cheering, strengthening manifestations; keep yourselves in the way of God, if you would continue in his love.”
Years ago when I was such a young Christian and would watch movies like “Thief in the Night”, I wasn’t so sure I wouldn’t in the end take “the mark of the beast” or deny Christ category . I mean would I be okay getting beheaded? Even reading the true stories of the Martyrs I would get a chill up my spine. The good news is the more you read the bible you realize it’s never really been about you and your ability. THANK GOD!
When we become born again, a new nature comes inside of us. McClaren says, “God can and does touch and influence hearts that wait upon Him, so as by His Spirit and by His Word, which is the sword of the Spirit, to strengthen their feeble good, and to weaken their strong evil, to raise what is low, to illumine what is dark, and to support what is weak, we have not come to understand the whole wealth of possible good and blessedness which lies in the Gospel. This generation has forgotten far too much the place which the work of God’s Holy Spirit on men’s spirits fills in the whole proportioned scheme of New Testament revelation. It is because we believe that so little, in comparison with the clearness and strength of our faith in the work of Jesus Christ, the atoning sacrifice, that so many of us find it so foreign to our experience that any effluences from God come into our hearts, and that our spirits are conscious of being quickened and lifted by His Spirit!”
How refreshing to know that Christ is watching over His word in my life. My job is to reach out and grab His reigns. The Christian life is not a self improvement course but totally a supernatural life that never ends. If we have God’s help, the stumbling-stone will no more be a stumbling-stone, but a stepping-stone to something higher and better. For every temptation overcome brings strength to overcome the next challenge. When Christ prayed in the gospel of John he wasn’t praying for “those in the world” but the ones he chose. By the grace of God we responded to His voice and by the grace of God he will lead us home. Not only does He promise to keep us but to present us as the bride of Christ! Wow! Let your spirit be opened to this precious gospel. It’s a win win!