Our Favorite Verses

I meet with several Christian men at our church on Thursday mornings to share and grow together and to hold each other accountable.  This past week, a very dear friend asked us all our favorite Bible verse.  Well, the verse I try to live my life by is 1 Peter 3:15:  “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every man who asks of you, a reason for the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.”  I hadn’t really thought about which is my favorite verse.

When my turn came to share, I shared the doxology that appears in the last two verses of Jude: “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 an power, both now and forever.  Amen.”

I teared up as I recited the passage, and my friend, Abott, asked me why it was so emotional for me.  There are three points here in verse 24 that leave me in awe.  First, that Jesus is able to keep me from stumbling.  He often times will remind me of His presence in a situation or even prevent me from entering a situation where I might fall and disrupt my relationship with Him.

Second, He will present me before the Father faultless.  Faultless!  ME!  Because of His great love, He gave His very life painfully so that He might have me appear perfect in the presence of the Father.  How wonderful that promise is to me.

Third is the point that Jesus will present me to the Father with great joy.  Great joy!  The person who loves me most in all the world is my wife.  We’ve been married over 47 years and know each other pretty well.  However, I know where all her buttons are.  If I decided to push all those buttons, I could no doubt get her to hate me in a very short time.  The thing is, I’ve pushed all of God’s buttons, yet He and His Son want me to spend eternity with them.  I can never get God to hate me.  There is nothing I can do to remove myself from His love, and neither can you.

Whenever I recite the doxology in Jude, I think of myself for the first verse but see the second verse as a thank you, as a praise to the God Who makes the first verse possible and true.  I hope you will too next time you read it.