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         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 Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen. (Jude 1:24-25)

 

            Obviously, the Him involved is God. But consider what’s being said about Him. He is able to keep us from stumbling. Jude is writing about spiritual stumbling, but let’s consider physical stumbling. I stumbled walking through the door the other day. The only damage done was that I spilled coffee.  Yes, that was slightly traumatic, but I survived. About 18 months ago, I stumbled and cracked a tooth. It cost more than a thousand dollars to fix it, and it could go bad. I know more than one person who stumbled and broke an arm, or a tail bone, or a hip. Jude tells us that God can keep us from stumbling – from having that moment of panic in which we either only spill a little coffee or potentially do major damage to ourselves Even if God only ever prevents spiritual stumbling, it’s still a huge benefit to have Him point out uneven places on the floor or ground, stuff that’s sticking out or up, our untied shoelaces, etc., whether we’re talking about the material or the spiritual realm. My prayer is, “Yes, Lord. Keep me from stumbling.”

            The next thing He can do is present before His glorious presence without fault and with great joy. The “without fault” bit is obvious. Our sins have been paid for. We’ve been redeemed. But what do we make of the “with great joy”? Whose joy? If it’s our joy, again that’s obvious. How could we not be joyful? But what if that’s not quite what is meant? What if it’s Jesus’ joy? What if this refers to Jesus saying something like, “This is God, My Father. Let Me stand with you for an hour, or a century, and marvel at His glory, majesty, power, and authority. I can understand why you might feel tongue-tied for the first millennia or so, because He really is as amazing as He seems.”

            Then He’ll turn to His Father and say, “Hey, Dad! Let me introduce (insert your name here). He/She’s really a great person You’re going to love him/her!”

            This isn’t the sort of official introduction I tend to expect. Oh, the first part will stay the same, but I tend to expect the second part to be more like, “Um, Father, this is Karen. I know she doesn’t look like much, and she didn’t try half as hard as she should have, but I coaxed her with some kibble and she followed Me home. Can I keep her? I promise I’ll give her a bath and brush out all the fleas and burrs. I’ll feed her, walk her, and train her every day and make sure she learns to go outside to pee, and everything.”

            This passage in Jude is another of those that we should memorize and keep in our battle Bibles, because it’s easy for us to fall into the “She’s doesn’t look like much” thinking instead of presenting us to His Father as a prize He’s won.

 

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