THE JOY

 He will present us faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy...

THE REASON

We always think of and pray for God to give us joy.  In fact we seek it so often, that we rarely ever stop to ask ourselves, 'What brings God joy?', and in short, the answer is: Dying for us.

Let me splain....Hebrews 12:2 says, '...looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.'  Jesus was able to endure the cross and the price He had to pay, because He understood the good that would come of it.  He saw the result. Jesus went to the cross obediently knowing that His death & resurrection would make a way for His creation to be with Him forever. 

THE WAY MADE

Romans 6:23: 'The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.'

We have talked about this before in a previous post (here). We have sinned (missed the mark of God's Holy standard), the price of that sin is death or causes death.  There is no way around this.  Sin separates us from the source of life (God).  So how is the gift of eternal life ours through Jesus? 

2 Corinthians 5:21 states: 'God made Him who had no sin--to be sin for us, so that in Him--we might become the righteousness of God.'  

Read that again.

Jesus is sinless. He took on our sins and died in our stead as if our sins were His own sins.  And He did it with JOY. Knowing that He would raise from the dead on the third day, and in doing so conquering death and opening up eternal life to all of those who believe in Him.

When we are finally in His physical presence, He will present us faultless (because of the blood that He shed on our behalf) WITH, exceeding JOY. 

IT WASN'T EASY

It was horrific. 

Not only the violence Jesus endured, but also the shame.  The accusation of blasphemy, the mocking, the crown of thorns, the robe. He despised it all, yet endured through it to victory.  David Guzik's commentary on blueletterbible.com states "One of the most prominent elements of the torture of the cross was its extreme shame.  The shame of crucifixion  is a significant trial. Daniel 12:2 says that shame will be an aspect of the terrors of hell: 'And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting contempt.' Jesus bore this hellish shame to accomplish our redemption. 

HE WAS ABLE, AND STILL IS

Hebrews 7:25: 'Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.' 

Just like a tree that grows in the middle of a rocky dry land, Jesus makes life grow in the rocky, dry, sinful part of our heart, renews our life and saves us from death by forgiving us of our sins, if we only believe and ask Him to.

Admit you are a sinner. We all are. No one is special here. We are all sinners in need of a Savior.

That Savior is Jesus Christ. Believe He is who He says He is, and believe that God raise Him from the dead and you WILL be saved!

Call on Him! You can say a prayer.  You can just call out to Him and ask Him to show you the truth.  He will.  Invite Him into your life. 

You are here, on this website, reading this for a reason. 

Hear that?

For study resources: blueletterbible.com, https://www.gotquestions.org/, https://www.jdfarag.org/

One of These Days

One of these days we will meet Him. 

This is what will happen when we do, if we have put our faith in Him (Jesus). 

"...And to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy." ~Jude 24b 

Jesus will present each of us faultless before the presence of GOD's glory with exceeding joy! 

'But Rebecca', you might say, 'I am a good person, I don't need Jesus or anyone to present me faultless before God...if there is a God'. 

DON'T BELIEVE THE LIE

That is a lie my friends.  There is a God and none of us are good people.  We are all innately self-centered, 'I want mine' human beings who need God to cover us and forgive us of our sins. 

Have you ever lied? (liar) Have you ever stolen anything? (thief) Have you ever used God's name as a swear word, or used it as something common? (irreverent/slanderer) Have you ever looked at someone else with lust in your heart? (adulterer) Have you ever wanted what your friend or neighbor has for yourself? (jealousy) 

Then you are a sinner, in need of a Savior. God's standard is so high, that we cannot keep from sinning on our own.  To 'sin' means to 'miss the mark'. It is an archery term. If you have shot your arrow even a little off of the bullseye... you have sinned, or missed the mark.  Even if we as humans have repeatedly hit the bullseye, but have missed the mark one time, we have sinned. So, even if you told just a little white lie...you have sinned and have missed the bullseye of God's perfect high standard. That is why we needed someone who hasn't sinned, God's only Son, to take all of our sins...all of the times we have missed the bullseye, on His shoulders and pay the price for them. What price? Death. Romans 3:23 says, "For all have sinned; all fall short of God's glorious standard." Romans 6:23 says "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord."  

The second part of Romans 6:23 gives us Hope! Hope my friends! "...BUT the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord." WHAAAAAA?????? 

Free?

Yes Free.

What's the catch?

There is no catch.

What do I have to do?

Didn't you catch it the first time? It is a GIFT. If you did something to earn it, it wouldn't be a gift then would it? There is nothing...NO THING...we can do. Believe & that is all. Even the power to believe and trust in Him, comes from Him. We have sinned, and we need Jesus, who NEVER sinned, missed the bullseye (EVER), to take our place for us.  

Ephesians 2:8-10 says "God saved you by His special favor when you believed. And you can't take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so that we can do the good things he planned for us long ago."

Romans 10:9-11 says "For if you confess with your. mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, YOU WILL BE SAVED. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved. As scriptures tell us, 'Anyone who believes in him will not be disappointed'".

SAVED? SAVED FROM WHAT?

Eternal hell.  A place where there is no escape from. A place so entirely horrific, that you cannot imagine it.

A place without love, peace, mercy, forgiveness, joy, comfort, gentleness, music, smiles, sunshine. None of it... 

If you do not choose one, then you choose the other.  There are only two choices. God is love, and He is a gentleman.  He will not force you to choose Him. But if You do not, then He will let you have your way and give you over to what you choose: 

Romans 1:20-25~ "For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man--and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen."

And yes. It is unfortunate, but inevitable that if man does not choose Love, Peace, Forgiveness, Mercy, Jesus... and we are left up to ourselves, uncleanness will take over our lives. Humans are destructive by nature.

BLESSINGS

I wish you blessings...in doing your due diligence to search out the truth for yourself.   If you don't know the Bible, you'd better know why.  Read it before you say you don't believe it. Try and prove Jesus is not the truth before you go along with the flow and think He isn't.  Seek the Lord while He may be found!

HEAR THAT?

Free Fall

Jude 24: Now to Him who is able to keep you from falling...

Ever feel like you are in a free-fall? No net to catch you, and you have no idea what is happening next? I have been there a few times in my life. There is a book that tells us what is going to happen next. But it is hard to believe in something if you don't understand the source from whence it came. 

THE SOURCE

Jude is a book in the Bible.  It has 25 whole verses and is to an audience that was vulnerable to lies, false religion and temptations toward immoral living. Verses 24 &25 are the closing of the letter, and a salute to to God our Savior who is able to keep us from falling, present us faultless to God with exceeding joy.  He alone is wise (for He is where wisdom comes from), Majestic, all powerful, worthy of all the Glory and holds dominion over what He has created both now and forever.

THE NET

He offers forgiveness of sins, salvation from eternal death and the torment of hell. He loves us so much that He died in order to be with us. No other god has EVER done that. He is the only One. He offers life, hope, love and to live in paradise forever with Him.  He is a Father to the fatherless, He speaks for those who cannot speak, He is the mercy to the poor and needy, the renewer of the mind, lover of a sinner, and a net to those who are free-falling.

Who wouldn't want that? It has been man's goal to live forever in a peaceful paradise since day one. The only name to call on is Jesus' Name. It can be all ours forever.  We as individuals need to give up just one thing. Ourselves. We can't be the creators of it, we can't be the center of it. That position is already taken. To Him and Him alone. And we will meet Him one day. 

Hear that?