I was in my early thirties and we had taken on a chapel without a people to restore it as a place of worship and community outreach for a people that were lacking a chapel.
The place was as derelict as a derelict place could be.
The damp was astonishing, the dry rot beneath the floorboards flowed in drifts like heavy snow and the pews were growing fungus fruiting bodies like cabbages in a market garden.
We had the youth club up scaffolding with two pound hammers and bolster chisels hacking off acres of fluffy mouldy plaster.
We had men with no DIY skills cutting out structural floors with large electric saws, and making beam end repairs like you'd never believe.
And then we got in some muscle from boys that had avoided gaol sentences by consenting to community service orders.
Ah. That's where it got exciting. There were NO dull days with those guys around!
And THAT's where I saw the most mild mannered man execute the classiest brick-snatch I ever did see.
One of our community service boys was getting as lot of stick from another cock-sure young offender in the team, and one day it all got a bit too much.
In a flash the lad just picked up a brick and arced it back over his head ready to bring it forward at speed and down on his terrible taunter's head.
None of us was quick enough or strong enough to get there and wrench the thing out of his hand and his tormentor seemed a split second away from terrible trouble.
But behind the guy being taunted stood a quiet man from the church who took hold of the end of the brick on its arc as it was raised and with very little force, gently kept it moving on its progress upwards and snatched it away from the hand of the attacker.
It was quick minded genius as unexpected as the attacker's action, as the brick was snatched away to a place of safety.
A quick seize and snatch can be HARD to resist!
Now picture that incident alongside our Verse for the Day, and it will light up for you what the verse is going on about.
Jesus speaks of the firmness of the grip that holds His people safe from what would snatch them, in an instant, away.:
"I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish;
no one will snatch them out of my hand.
My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all;
no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.
I and the Father are one.’"
John 10:28-30
Jesus is doing three things here in three verses:
He is
- first of all stating a principle,
- before unfolding its consequence and
- then saying why this will always hold true.
i) Jesus gives His people eternal life.
(By definition - as it's eternal - it isn't going to be going away! So ...)
ii) Once in His hand no-one is able to be snatched out of it and away
iii) This is how it works because each of those people's given to Jesus by God the Father ... and God the Father "is greater than all." (John 10:29)
The Point
There's not a lot in life that's as certain as that, or that has as much authority behind it making it so.
And given that death is fairly certain and nobody's actually going to get out of this life alive (there are exceptions in the Bible but, you see the point?) then ...
... this stuff is pretty important.
Unsnatchable eternal life is there to play for, or to rejoice in if you've already met the criteria by placing your life in Christ's hand.
If you've turned your life around from sin to trusting fully in Christ and are following Him by living in His Way ... then this certainty belongs to you, and it's secured by the power of God.
You are in that case already one of the unsnatchables.
If you haven't quite yet done that then do not despair, because you quite easily could do so ... and then you would be.
The Takeaway
If you are one of the Lord's faithful unsnatchables, it shows up in your following Him along His Way.
Walk CONFIDENTLY, living by the promise of God ... you're someone who's living safely in the hollow of His hand, following the Lord onwards, heading on to a safe home in Glory!
What will that look like for you, in YOUR life, today?
If you are not quite there yet but you're open or interested in the idea, then get in touch with us using the form that's at the bottom here and we'll gladly help you.
And why would we so gladly do so?
Because NOTHING is as important as this.
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