Jude was warning the Church that they had allowed false teachers to infiltrate the Body of Believers. These men were called Libertines, and their corrupt doctrine suggested that Christ’s grace released them from all authority or restraint. They believed in absolute freedom without any control by God’s moral law. Their creed was, “Our souls are saved by grace, so whatever we do with our bodies, which will perish anyway, doesn’t matter! So we can do whatever we want, whenever we want to.” But Jude saw it as blaspheme and corruption both morally and spiritually…and likened them to wild animals… without conscious or control.
Tag: eternal life
Psalm 56:8 ” Record my lament; list my tears on Your scroll – are they not on Your record? “
The Lord hears and puts down in writing all my mourning and outcries. He keeps a record of every tear I have shed and places them in His wine-skin…or some translations say places them in a bottle. We may think that our grief and weeping goes unnoticed…but it’s never beyond the compassionate eye of God.
Job 17:11 “My days have passed, my plans are shattered, and so are the desires of my heart.”
Time waits for no one. With each passing day, we are a little older and unfortunately, the hopes and dreams we have a little less likely to happen. When we’re young, we look at time and the future as something with limitless possibilities…but when we’re older, or disease overtakes our body…time suddenly becomes very precious. Each one of us has been allotted a certain amount of time here on the earth…time we can choose to use productively or rashly. So how are you managing your time today? Are you using it to forward God’s Kingdom…or are you aimlessly pilfering it away? Time is getting short…make the very most of it today.
Romans 2: 28-29 ” A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man’s praise is not from men, but from God.”
Circumcision of the heart is what the Lord is calling all of us to. Deuteronomy 30:6 states, ” The Lord your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants so that you may love Him with all your heart and with all your soul and live.” This circumcision of the heart is literally a removing of the flesh…our fleshly self, our carnal nature, to show loyalty and obedience towards our Lord. This inward work of the Holy Spirit is then outwardly manifested…apparent and plain to all, as the love of God shines forth in our life.
Romans 9:20 ” But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? “
I’m not accusing anyone of flagrant disrespect towards the Lord…for we’d all be quick to deny it. But what I’m asking is more about the covert and secretive disrespect we show the Lord…the brashness that no one seldom knows of. The sin of omission is simply not doing what God wants us to do. It’s apathy and neglect on our part, but also thinking we know more than He does. Now we’re not brazenly telling God we refuse…we’re just quietly ignoring it…hoping it’ll just go away. But one of the most glaring signs of covert disrespect we can show God is to declare to Him, ” I can’t do that!” So as the verse asks…just who are you to talk back to God?
I Corinthians 15:3 ” For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures…”
That life-changing encounter with Jesus was the start of your journey as a Believer. You marveled at the grace, mercy, and loving kindness that was extended to you… a sinner that only deserved death. You became a recipient of the greatest gift ever…the free gift of eternal life. But for many of us we stop there, never sharing this Good News with others. We instead hold tightly to this gift refusing to share…desiring to just keep it to ourselves. But Paul tells us in this verse that first we are a receiver, but then we become a messenger… an ambassador for Christ, telling others about Him. Paul goes on in I Corinthians 11:2, ” I praise you for remembering me in everything and for holding to the teachings, just as I passed them on to you.” How can we keep such wonderful, life-changing news to ourselves? The Lord wants us to pass it on to others. So today, tell someone how Jesus is working in your life.
Ephesians 2:3 ” All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts.”
All of us do it…we daydream. Pleasant fantasies that transport us from the drab and boring into over the top imaginings. But if we indulge in these musings more and more, they will soon take over our life…for the real world can never compete with fantasy. And it’s here in this verse we’re warned about willful pleasure-seeking thoughts. As humans living in a sinful world – ungodly thoughts are going to drop into our minds…thoughts that can even shock and embarrass us. Like, “Where did THAT come from?!!) But it’s at that moment we have to take captive that thought and make it obedient to Christ. (II Corinthians 10:5) For if we give in and allow these thoughts to have their way in our mind…our vivid daydreams will lead us farther and farther from God into disobedience.
Hebrews 12:3 ” Consider Him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”
Most of us don’t know what it means to be persecuted for the Gospel…to suffer for our beliefs…enduring hardship for the sake of His name. Most of us have never persevered under threat of bodily harm…or death, in order to reach others for Jesus. So why then do we lose heart and become offended so easily when we meet opposition? Suddenly it’s not fun anymore and we don’t like how we’re being treated…so we quit. Galatians 6:9 tells us, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” Not giving up means surrendering our life under the Lordship of Jesus Christ and looking to Him as our example of righteous tenacity.
II Samuel 7:22 ” How great You are, O Sovereign Lord! There is no one like You, and there is no God but You, as we have heard with our own ears.”
Verbal histories from our elderly family members give us insight into just where we come from. Those precious stories are filled with important events, human struggles, and surprising accounts of things we had no prior knowledge of. Within those verbal histories, we hear bits of wisdom, sage advice, personal warnings, and lots of humor. With our own ears we listen as important information is given to us about the past. But have you ever thought about how important it is to give a “verbal history” to your children or grandchildren about God’s influence in your life? A once I was… but now I am… testimony showing the Lord’s redemptive power over sin in your life is more important than any other story you could share with them.
I Timothy 4:12 ” Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the Believers in speech, in life, in faith and in purity.”
The Apostle Paul was encouraging Timothy to stand up for himself as a Pastor, even though he was considered young for the position. Paul admonished him to behave in such an exemplary way, with integrity and confidence, that no one within the Church would question his assignment. Timothy was to lead by example…his way of life on constant display for others to imitate and follow. I would then challenge all of you who are also considered “young”…don’t think being youthful is an excuse to not set a good example. Just because you’re young doesn’t mean you can’t influence others for Christ while modeling God’s love to the world.
Safetypinlove 