How is your grip?

Hebrews 10:23

Let us hold our grip on the hope we
confess, for He who promised is faithful.

Berkeley

I love this verse. I can see a strong muscle type guy gripping with all his might onto me, keeping me from falling to my death. I am not depending upon my puny strength, I am depending upon His. I am holding on as best as I can, but He is the one keeping me from falling.

There are several movies that come to mind, one in particular. Can't remember the name of it, but Kevin Costner, I believe, and Ashton Kutcher are in it. It is about "Rescue Swimmers" of the Coast Guard. In a couple of scenes the rescue swimmer is holding onto someone he has saved from sure death in violent waves and winds, they are flying to safety under a Helicopter and the man who needed rescuing is holding on with all he has to the "Swimmer" That scene, a very good one, is embedded into my brain. God is trying to rescue us, He is doing most of the work, all we have to do is Hang On. The violent waves are rolling, roaring below us, the wind is howling all around us, the boat we had been on is going down, rocking and rolling on the waves,got the picture? But God's hand is holding us, as he takes us to safety. There is NOT a stronger hand we could ever hold on to, there is not a safer place we could ever be, then in His hand.

Many times when this scene is played out in Hollywood, the bad guy is the one holding on, and the good guy as hard as he might, cannot keep his grip, and the villain falls to his death. God will never let us go, regardless of what we do or what we have done. We will, however let go of His hand. Yes, there are consequences to our sin, yes we will have to confess, but He will NEVER let us go. We may tire of holding on to His hand, we just don't have the strength, but He does. All we have to do is rely upon His strength, not ours. You know kinda like that song: "Don't Worry, Be Happy", realize He has everything in control, and we just need to acknowledge that.

Who's hands do we trust? Not ours. Who has all things under control? Certainly not us. Who gave up EVERYTHING to save us? Jesus Christ, that's who. Who's hands are we safe in? Only His. Have you ever arm wrestled? I used to be pretty good at that. I grew taller and stronger then guys my on age, but they caught up and passed me fairly quickly. But during that time when I was in the lead, I was a little stronger then most of my friends. I could beat them at arm wrestling. I could also run faster, do more pull ups and stuff like that. This lasted for about 1 month, it seems. :) But I learned in arm wrestling the key is the grip. The better the grip, the more you can control the other guy. Strength has it's part, of course, but a weaker person can beat a stronger person by having a better grip. Can you imagine the grip God has? He will hold onto us forever. Never losing strength, never tiring, never letting that grip slip. Forever and forever and forever if that is what it takes. He will hang on to us as long as we need Him to.

Notice the first line, though, in the above scripture (Hebrews 10:23): "Let us hold unwaveringly our grip on the hope we confess.............."
According to Websters the word "Waver" means:: to weave or sway unsteadily to and fro " Therefore to hold on UNWAVERINGLY would mean just the opposite, NOT TO weave or sway unsteadily to and fro" as the Lord Jesus Christ is holding on to us, hanging from that Helicopter and keeping us from falling. We have to choose to let Him grab us in the first place, to save us from sure death. He will hold us, He will never let us go, He will do whatever it takes to keep us from falling, BUT we need to NOT weave or sway because we are trying to figure out if we made the right choice, should I have let Jesus grab me by the hand and hold me here, or would I have been better off in my sin, a sure death? Yeah, that is swaying, that is doubting, that is weaving. God will not let go, but sometimes we act like we sure want to.

I want to clear up something here: God, will never let US go, BUT He will if we let Him go. This is not to say He abandons us, it is us who abandons Him. BUT the "Helo" is flying right
above us as we fall deeper and deeper into our sin, waiting for us to call out and ask Him to help us again. Many times as we are falling deeper into our sin, we look around and think how fun this is;. "Wow, look at all the pretty lights, all the money, all the women, the nice clothes..............not even realizing we are falling at the speed of light to a hell made for satan and his demons. We WILL hit bottom, all the pretty stuff WILL disappears and we will be left with nothing but trouble. EVEN THEN Jesus is with us waiting for us to grab onto His hand and take us up to safety

I believe when you pray for someone who is not in the family of God, that He sends extra angels to watch over us and cause us to see the things of God. Prayers work like a "Shield", you know, like from Star Trek, " Shields Up". Yes these "Shields" will protect, but they will not make the decision that needs to be made for a relationship with Jesus Christ. ONLY YOU can make that decision. You cannot get to heaven by Knowing your Mom prayed for you her whole life, or Knowing Billy Graham personally, or Giving whatever amount of money to whatever christian organization. There is only ONE way to get to heaven: Ask. Yep that is it, ask Jesus Christ to forgive you of your sins and to become new and clean through the power He did on the cross. That's it, just ask. Why is that so hard? You don't have to stop doing anything, you don't have to donate all your money your belongings everything to the church and live wearing white clothes, and work on a farm............you just have to ask. If your sincere, if you listen to what He would have you do, if you trust Him, if you continue to want Him more then sinful things, then He will make your life wonderful, and you WILL go to Heaven.

Remember the GRIP of God? He will NEVER let you go, He will hold onto you through, well you name it. Grab onto Gods hand, He is holding it out right now. Ask. Tell His son Jesus, that your a sinner you have done wrong, that you have not believed in Him. Tell Him you want to live for Him, and do right, that you KNOW He died on the cross for YOU> He will grab on to your life, and He will change it. Just ASK. It's free, nothing down nothing per month, I mean totally, completely, actually, FREE. This is something, I believe, is very hard for us to understand. How could He love us so much that He is willing to do this for us for FREE? What's the catch, How many payments do I have to make, How many doors must I knock on and tell people about my church? No catch, no money, there are NO Works we can do to earn our way into heaven. The work was already done for us.

Take hold of God's hand, He is reaching down as you read this. He has so many good things in store for you, you have no idea. Grab on with all your might, don't worry there is NO WAY your going to hurt His hand, He has strength like 100 Stallone's and 100 Arnold's and 100 Chuck Norris' and 100......................But He is much gentler. Go ahead, take His hand, please.............