"For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who...deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ." (Jude 4)
Denying Jesus is not standing up and saying, "I deny Jesus." It is marginalizing Him, i.e., not declaring to the nations that this God of Whom we speak is not some distant, non-present, Deistic, Islamic, Hindu, Buddhist, New Age, nameless God. He is the God of the Universe Who has revealed Himself solely in Jesus, the One Who said, "Before Abraham was, I Am." If we speak of God and have no reference to Jesus Christ, the world can easily think that "we all worship the same God."
The ancient Creeds focused on Jesus, because Jesus is, "to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness;" nothing has changed. Now you may say, "Wait a minute. Isn't that reference to the Cross?" Yes, but it is the Cross of Jesus, and the Cross is not the stumbling block; it is the Jesus of the Cross Who Is the, "stumbling stone and rock of offense"(Romans 9:33). We proclaim Jesus as, "Immanuel, God with us" (Mt. 1:23), not God Whom we have to "invite," or, "welcome," or worship in, or pray in. Jesus is God Who is our, "very ('abundant') present help...." Jesus, my friend, is "there," wherever "there" is before we are!
So we proclaim Jesus as declared in John 1, "In the beginning was Jesus. And Jesus was with God, and Jesus was God." One again may say, "Wait a minute; that text says, "In the beginning was the Word." Of course it does; and Who Is, "the Word"? Revelation 19:13-16 speaks of Jesus, "He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The word of God." It is good to keep in mind that everything we read of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Bible is, "in the beginning," as Micah 5:2 prophesies of Jesus, "His goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity." The Jews may not realize it, but when they speak of "The Eternal One," it is of the Living Triune God they speak, He Who Is, "Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.., Immanuel.., the Word."
I pray today that this short "honoring" of Him Who does not need us to honor Him, but Whose Honor is, "from everlasting to everlasting," will be a strength and encouragement to you as you live in a world who thinks this is all, "foolishness----- but to us who are being saved it is the power of God"!
Father, in Jesus' Name, I thank You than in Jesus I can know You and am presented, "faultless," before You. Amen.
When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, on that day he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"
"Looking unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2
"Looking unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2
