Delbert McClinton with Changes
Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy Jude 24 NASB
Blameless – The English translation comes from a combined Greek word (amomous) meaning without spot or blemish. There are connections between this word and non-Christian sacrificial rituals, but in the biblical context, the word is a metaphor for the absence of any internal imperfection. In the apostolic writings, it is used to describe the sacrifice of the Messiah as the Lamb of God. It is also found in legal contexts implying that the one who is blameless is legally innocent.
In this verse, the word is applied to God’s children, followers of the Messiah. It is important to note that this verse places the power and agency in God’s hands. In other words, we who follow the Messiah are not found blameless because we earned that status by believing. We are blameless because God takes the active role in sustaining our right standing before Him. Just as God counted Abraham righteous, so He counts us righteous.
Everyone who has experienced the life changing power of Yeshua HaMashiach knows the truth of this verse. Blame is a word that describes how we felt over and over while the sin ruled our lives. Blame is the secret game of the yetzer ha’ra. Blame is self-directed fodder for complacency and rationalization.
Blameless describes a condition that is a gift to us. But it is not our doing. If we think that once we accept the lordship of Yeshua we somehow get an injection of more willpower to put ourselves on the straight and narrow, we will soon discover failure again. If Yeshua is to be our antidote for sin, we will have to take the dosage daily, hourly, even moment by moment. We do not maintain our walk because we take control of our sinful behavior. That is the pathway to relapse and destruction. How many times did we think that all we needed was another prayer or a renewed commitment? The yetzer ha’ra loves religious fervor. Zealous for improvement is not the same as zealous for the Lord. Now we see that we were still trying to tell God how He should fix the problem. We had not given Him the right to control life even in the middle of our religious posturing.
We are kept purified because we have allowed God’s grace to keep us from stumbling. We have surrendered to His will and it is by His will that we can stand forgiven and free. Submission and surrender mean that we stop telling God how to fix us. We just let Him do what He wants.
Topical Index: amomous, blameless, Jude 24
……..thy kingdom come, thy will be done…..
Wow, great TW Skip!
I was just having a conversation about how I always make it a point, to ask HaShem to go before me, to make my way straight, to guard me, keep me, and protect me, to make the words of my mouth and the actions of my being, honor Him, bring glory to His Name and Yeshua Messiah, every time I leave my home.
Then when I arrive back home, before I even get my seatbelt off, I reflect on how much I completely failed in most all the above, that which I did or didn’t do. What I said or didn’t say.
But, bless His Name! He continues to be faithful, to keep me, to sustain me, to give me breath for yet one more day. To be made aware of the incredible gift given to be able to go before Him, confess my failures and shortcomings, to humble myself and praise Him, knowing that my strength comes from Him, through what He’s done and will do.
But, most importantly, at least in my way of seeing thing’s, He continues to give me the greatest gift I can think of in this current world, Shalom/Peace.
The Natives Are Restless
Isaiah 57:20, 21 “But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. (There is) no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.”
Einstein tried so hard to find a place of absolute rest in the universe from which to view reality, but there was none. I guess he suffered from Greek thinking…
Jeremiah 17;9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, and who can know it?”
Extrapolation: if there is no peace, than there must be some wickedness going on. We have been promised rest; order INSTEAD of chaos, but the wicked must suffer from the linear thinking of the Greeks, for they keep trying to create rest by linear progression: by attempting to work themselves from that chaos out of that chaos. I know kept trying to ‘fix’ everything, so that I could rest. Never worked.
We are not promised peace FROM chaos, which would be some version of “ordo ob kao”, where the chaos got straightened out somehow, but peace IN the chaos. The world starts from the chaos, for it has no power to superimpose another reality, but faith has no such constraints.
Here is the peace that goes way beyond our ability to understand. This peace is strength IN the storm. This peace does not strive to solve the problem; this peace REDEFINES the problem. This peace does not originate from us, or from any order to be found in this universe, for this peace lines us up(!) with the peace of heaven. “A little heaven on earth”. Thy Kingdom come.
There are many accounts of the battle fronts during the last major wars at Christmas where the soldiers on the front lines would call spontaneous, mutual cease fires so they could all get together to sing and celebrate Christmas together. For 24 hours, they overrode the ‘orders’ of this world, and superimposed the order of heaven.
We are not called to shovel ourselves out of our holes by the shovels of our own will and determination: we are called to surrender those shovels and get ourselves out of problem entirely, for heaven’s answer to the chaos of sin is obliteration. This is no temporary cease fire; this is amnesty for all eternity. Halleluah!
that was simply……..awesome!
As a friend of mine says, ‘all right now’ or to use a famous person’s quote, “alright, alright, alright”! ?. I’m feelin’ ya, Dr. Skip. Thanks
Him. His-story. Our Him-Book. The long-promised Messiah has come. And (?)
He ever lives to make intercession for us.
[Ever-always-only] [not a glance, but a gaze] “Looking unto Jesus, [Behold, the Lamb -Son of God and God the Son] [Truth and Love Incarnate] the Pioneer and Perfecter of our faith… [It is] He [Who] is LORD, for He has been given a Name which is above every name —and tHis Name is Wonderful!
Friend, Blessed IS the Name of the LORD!!
This was a blessing to me today, thank you! “We are blameless because God takes the active role in sustaining our right standing before Him.” Last night I was lamenting my sin before Him, mourning over how I just keep failing, every day. Feeling wretched… I opened up my bible needing to read the word…any part of it..Isaiah 6 is what I opened it to and tears fell as I realized how much I related to Isaiah’s words in His Presence, “woe to me…I am ruined” …then even more fell when I got to God’s response…HIS great act of atoning for Isaiah…wow. How full of grace is our God…humbled and so blessed to know How much He cares for us. How much he has done, and does every day for us. Through Yeshua. Through waking me up today, As Mark Randall said. The list goes on. Praise Him.
Ok…I needed this song by Delbert today LOL….. exactly how I’m feeling …
SOMEHOW … I’m giving it all up …. and He can do what HE wants with me ….. I’m tired of trying to FIX ALL THAT C**P left inside 😉 …..
have a good one y’all!
Austin Texas Baby!!