Stand part 5
I'm not saying you should never make a stand. Quite the opposite in fact. I'm simply saying you should stand FOR something, instead of always being AGAINST every and any thing. And I'm saying, if you ARE going to make a stand... stand on the Rock. Stand in grace. Stand in love. I want to use one of my favorite memory verses to close out this Rant series. And I've noticed two things recently: 1. Even though almost all of the memory verses in the Bible are my favorite... my absolute favorites--like the one about how those born of God cannot sin, for example--are ones that I NEVER hear preaced. 2. This is one of those. Jude 1:24, "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." It seems like we've built a theology on the art of picking ourselves up. And there IS something to be said about that. My Bible case proclaims, "God allows U-turns." And I always like to add that not only does He allow them, but I think He encourages them. Another way to say that is, "Its never too late to correct a mistake." Which is important because it seems like sometimes we make that mistake, and then we build on it. Like a snowball rolling downhill it just gets bigger and bigger. Worse and worse. Like when you lie to cover up something you did wrong. And now the wrongs are just piling up. And we see this over and over and over again in the Old Testament. The people of Israel would mess up, God would "punish" them (and I put that in quotations because generally speaking it was the natural consequences of their actions that they were blaming God for), and then they would turn back to Him when things got unbareable. But its like prayer. We want to use prayer as last chance instead of first choice. We wait until we're in the thick of things to cry out for help. And listen, I'm not saying you shouldn't cry out for help. If you need help... cry out. Don't suffer in silence. But what I'm trying to say is, if we hadn't waited so long to include God in our plans maybe we wouldn't need Him to rescue us. Another way to say that is: "Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass" (Psalm 37:5). Or, again, having faith in the One who can KEEP US FROM FALLING. Isn't that an awesome concept? Because we've already been reconciled to Him. We don't have to keep falling so that He can keep picking us up. He WILL keep picking us up. But how much better--what a more excellent way--to just let Him HOLD us up? And, by the way, that's how we make a stand. Because when Jesus is holding you up, nothing can drag you down. When we lay aside the sin and the weight that so easily besetts us, that's when we can walk in newness of life. When we stand firm, with our strong foundation of love holding us up, that's when we can be who we really are. That's when we can let other people be who they really are... and still love them. And when you love someone even when they're not doing what you want them to do... man... that's what love IS. That's what Jesus did when, even though we were sinners, He died for us (and as us) on the cross. He showed us love. He showed us HOW to love. He holds us up, and that's how we stand!