Jude 1:24-25 - Grace and Glory

Today, Thursday December 09 Grace and Glory Jude 1:24-25 “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, And to present you faultless Before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, To God our Savior, Who alone is wise, Be glory and majesty, Dominion and power, Both now and forever. Amen.” For the past several days we have been focused on the glory of God! Glory is the sum total of all that God is and all that God does! Everything about God is glorious! One of my favorite verses in the Psalms that has both encouraged and motivated me to keep my eyes on the Lord over these past 50 years as a follower of Jesus is Psalm 84:11-12: “For the LORD God is a sun and shield; The LORD will give grace and glory; No good thing will He withhold From those who walk uprightly. O LORD of hosts, Blessed is the man who trusts in You!” Today, I would like to share a brief testimony of God’s marvelous grace. Today marks the 633rdstraight day that I have posted a Pastor’s Chat. When in March 2020 Covid-19 hit, and we were asked to isolate and cease going to church and even to work, I felt impressed to stay connected by doing this chat for five minutes every day to encourage especially our church members with a devotion from the Scriptures. I did the first Pastor’s Chat on March 16, 2020 in my office at Rainbow Forest Baptist Church using Psalm 46:1-2. It says, “God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, Even though the earth be removed, And though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea…”. I reminded us that despite how bad something might be we have a God who is still in control and we should have faith instead of fear! He is a “present help in trouble”. I posted this chat on Facebook and thought I would probably do these chats for a couple of months. Amazingly, the Lord begin to wake me up without an alarm every morning between 4 and 5am. And about that same time in March, I experienced my first bout with Covid-19 that left me very weak, fatigued, and achy and I lost my sense of taste and smell. But still every morning the Lord gave me grace to get up. More recently, I again have gone through another bout of Covid and for several weeks have been fatigued, weak, and achy. But the Lord continues to give me grace each morning to get up and do this pastor’s chat. For 633 consecutive days we have been able to post this chat with words of encouragement and that have hopefully helped and blessed others. Today I just wanted to remind us that the Lord is all that we really need. The LORD God is to us what the sun is to our universe—the source of life and light (Psalm 27:1; Isaiah 10:17; 60:19-20; Malachi 4:2). Without the sun, life would vanish from the earth, and without God, we would have neither physical life (Acts 17:24-28) nor spiritual life (John 1:1-14). God is our “shield” – provision and our protection. He is the giving God, and He gives grace and glory—grace for the journey and glory at the end of the journey (see Romans 5:1-2; 1 Peter 5:10). If we walk by faith, then whatever begins with grace will ultimately end with glory. God does not give us everything we want, but He bestows upon us all that is good for us, all that we need. “He withholds no good thing from those who walk uprightly…” And the Psalmist finished with, “Blessed or happy is the person who trust in Him”! Today we are guarantee His grace for whatever we face and in Romans 8:17-18 we are promised His glory in the future: “And if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” God bless!