My last devotional on Jude and we end with Jesus Christ our Lord!
“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 Saviour be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.” (Jude v 25)
Can we just pause and not rush? Can we just slowly think of Jesus?
The world need to know who God is.
They need to know what Jesus has done.
They need to know who they are as a result of that.
They need to know how to live.
For that to happen they need to know who Jesus is.
They need to know the centrality and supremacy of Christ in 2023.
They need to know that when you look at Jesus you look at God.
- Jesus Christ is not a created being. He is Lord and He is God.
- Everything is about Jesus Christ.
- The enemy does not have free reign to do whatever he wants to you.
- Even your worst day, the worst attack from your enemy on your life serve Christ’s higher purposes and for His glory in your life.
- We were not created for our own plans and pleasures but for His. Life is not Christ living in our story but US living in His story.
- We don’t have rights to this life. We cannot demand that we live a long life on earth and become rich in every way. The majority of the world struggle in this life. Life was never meant to be fair. It is for Christ and He will bring us all home to a new heaven and new earth. This earth isn’t the ultimate. We are passing through.
You may wonder if God really cares for you or the world you live in. But on those days look again on Jesus Christ. Look on His sacrifice on the cross. Look how He came and walked this earth and got down into the dust and reached out to the lost, the last and the least. See how He cared. See what He said. See how He loved. He holds even the broken pieces.
No matter how broken our lives may become. Jesus is more powerful than whatever caused the hurt that you may be experiencing. You may think you will not survive this life that you are beyond fixing. Jesus created it all, sustains it all and can fix it all. He is holding you today.
He holds life and He holds death.
I may not be sure about many things but I am confident that my life and my death is in His hands. It doesn’t matter what I have or don’t have in this life. It doesn’t matter how long I live or whether I am cut off in the prime of my life. I am in His hands.
I may have many questions and few answers. I may be hard pressed, persecuted or in pain but I have a Person His name is Jesus.
I may journey on my own but I am not alone.
I may have desires unfulfilled but He is the greatest desire.
Spiritual powers may attack but they sit in His hand.
Nothing, absolutely nothing happens to me that He is not holding. He never drops me. He never lets go and He is never in a crisis.
Jesus Christ is Lord.
Do you feel life is unfair? Do you believe you are entitled to something more? Do you look at what others have and want it?
Remember Job? He lost his children, his livelihood, everything, even the respect from his wife.
What have you lost? If you lost everything will you still love Jesus? Is He enough?
If you never get married, if you never get that job, that house, those friends, that popularity, will you still love Jesus?
If He never answered another prayer of yours the way you want Him to, will you still love Him?
Jesus Christ is still your Lord.
This is a letter from a brother of Jesus who at one time refused to believe in who he was. He thought Jesus mad at least and certainly not the Son of God and he was not afraid to let that be known (John 7:5 – “For even his own brothers did not believe in him.”). But in the days preceding Pentecost he is in a prayer meeting (Acts 1:14 – “They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers”). Why the change? Surely it was the living proof of the resurrection of his brother who was indeed the Son of God. Whether or not Jesus showed himself to Jude/Judas he definitely met James (1 Corinthians 15:7 “Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles”).
We all have years of our lives where unbelief and periods of doubt dominated our walk with God. For some the knocks of life weakened our walk with God and perhaps we are not as strong as we used to be. Jude starts his letter by saying two words really, ‘Be confident’. False teachers had got into the church and he was having none of it. They were robbing the Christians and he wrote with clear description to oust these deceivers from the community. He wants the Church to stand firm and to be confident in Christ.
And Jude ends the letter by saying God will keep us through the Lordship of Jesus throughout time, the ages. He will keep you now and He will keep you forever. Amen!
Missions Paul 