Two Bookends : Fear of the Lord & Being Kept in His Love.Sample

Though the Christian life is amazing with opportunities to lay hold of the promises of God, there is something we must do. You must exercise faith. You must flee from evil. Is that a work-based gospel?

You may say therefore it is my effort that keeps me in God’s love. Not at all. The only reason you are standing is that HE has kept you from falling. We are kept by His grace. He will keep you strong till the end. His power is made perfect in our weakness. It is His loving kindness that draws us to repentance.

All the promises in Jesus are YES and AMEN BUT a lot of the promises are conditional. If you abide by His word the promises will prove true in your life. You might argue with that and says it’s not fair!!! What is fair is that we pay for our sins.

Everything we have and enjoy is the sheer MERCY & GRACE of God. There are conditional promises in the Old Testament and the New Testament (a total of over 8000). God said if you keep my commandments all will go well with you (Joshua 1:8), and there will be blessings for 1000 generations, but if we fail to keep them, we will come under a curse.

Now Jesus took every curse upon Himself and broke its power over us and has set the captive free, by the blood He shed on the Cross. However, even Jesus says If you love me, you will obey my commandments. If any man will take up his cross and come after me. There are many such “Ifs” in the Bible. The curse is self-inflicted. God is not going to violate His character for your sake or mine. If you live in disobedience, you will reap the fruit of that which is not a blessing.

Two thousand years ago Jude was warning the people against false gospels, the gospel being mixed with worldly philosophies, etc. that even denied the deity of Jesus! Isn’t that happening today as well? Let us look at the Doxology closely tomorrow.

REFLECTIONS

·Thank God for the many promises we have in Jesus.

·Are there some things going wrong in your life because of wrong choices you have made? Repent and set it right and enjoy the favour that comes from walking in obedience.