November 30, 2023 - Jude

“To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ” (1). Just a portion of Jude’s greeting and easily passed over. But, wow, what encouragement and assurance! We are called by God; he has intentionally and deliberately come after us and brought us to himself. We are beloved in God the Father; he loves us and we are his dear children. And we are kept for Jesus Christ. Jesus paid such a great price to redeem us. The Father will never allow us to fall away. We are kept for Jesus, and one day, we will all be presented as trophies of his grace.

Now, Jude has some other things about which he is writing. He is particularly concerned about false teachers who have crept in and ungodly people and scoffers. He warns about these. But he comes back, in the closing, to this wonderful truth of God's preserving keeping grace: “Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy . . .” (24). We are his, and he will keep us, and he will present us in heaven, one day, blameless and holy for all eternity!

Children of the heav’nly Father,

safely in His bosom gather;

nestling bird nor star in heaven

such a refuge e’er was given.

God His own doth tend and nourish;

in His holy courts they flourish.

From all evil things He spares them;

in His mighty arms He bears them.

Neither life nor death shall ever

from the Lord His children sever;

unto them His grace He showeth,

and their sorrows all He knoweth.

Tho’ He giveth or He taketh,

God His children ne’er forsaketh;

His the loving purpose solely

to preserve them pure and holy. --Carolina Sandell (1855)