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Posted on 11/30/2012 6:24:23 PM PST by SoFloFreeper
Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James,
To those who have been called, who are loved by God the Father and kept by Jesus Christ:
Mercy, peace and love be yours in abundance.
The Sin and Doom of Godless Men
Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints. For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.
Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe. And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their own home—these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day. In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.
In the very same way, these dreamers pollute their own bodies, reject authority and slander celestial beings. But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not dare to bring a slanderous accusation against him, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!” Yet these men speak abusively against whatever they do not understand; and what things they do understand by instinct, like unreasoning animals—these are the very things that destroy them.
Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain; they have rushed for profit into Balaam’s error; they have been destroyed in Korah’s rebellion.
These men are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm—shepherds who feed only themselves. They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted—twice dead. They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever.
Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men: “See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones to judge everyone, and to convict all the ungodly of all the ungodly acts they have done in the ungodly way, and of all the harsh words ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” These men are grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage.
A Call to Persevere
But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.” These are the men who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit.
But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.
Be merciful to those who doubt; snatch others from the fire and save them; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.
Doxology
To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy—to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.
But Scripture can speak to all men during any time in history, and today as I was reading the book of Jude I was struck at how dead-on perfect he was in describing our nation today in 2012.
The people Jude addressed were believers whose community had been infiltrated by false teachers. Jude warns them of history and reminds them to keep standing for the truth AND to stay in God's love (we cannot let our love for one another grow cold).
Only God can keep us from stumbling, so hold onto Him as we fight against the forces that want to destroy us.
To tell you the truth, reading this book today gives me some comfort...knowing men and women in ages past faced down similar evils in their time, and the faith survived.
Our God is with us.
Blessed be our Emmanuel! There is such comfort in the Scriptures. Thank you for reminding us of the timely message in Jude.
Note that Jude (who may have been named Judas—name changed so as to not confuse him with that other Judas who betrayed Christ) used a quote from the Book of Enoch —so the scriptures used by Jude and Jesus included this strange work. It was pulled from the Bible but rediscovered in Ethiopia—in their Coptic Bible. He was a Brother (or half brother if your a Roman Catholic) to Jesus but didn’t follow him until his death. Then became an apostle, with his brother James, he was mighty in the faith.
I also found comfort in these passages from Jude. I feel he is telling us to pray for God’s mercy.
This meaningful prayer was posted at The Daily Pen. I requested and received permission to share it with friends. Feel free to forward it to your email contacts. You may want to print a copy and post it next to your computer as a reminder to pray unceasingly for God’s Mercy. We have to take our country back.
A Prayer for Our Nation
Our Heavenly Father,
Please forgive us of our sins.
Have mercy and grace for our fallen ways and lift us up to fulfill the purpose You have for our lives. Help us, oh Mighty King! Please don’t turn away from us. We are oppressed under the lies of the powerful and hateful.
In Christ’s name, we give You praise and honor in faith knowing Your will shall be done in all things for Your glory and blessings upon those who love You. Thank You, Father, for this new day. Grant us peace and wisdom and strength with the provision of this day’s bread of Life.
Father, what shall we do without you? Please protect us! Set us free with the knowing of the truth, by the ransom paid with the shedding of blood of those before us. My God, my God…You are the only Father. If You do not defend us...who will? Why do You delay? Why are You withholding Your defense of Your children? In the name of Christ, our King, come Lord and shed light unto this dark place. Reveal the Kingdom power against deceptions of this hateful brood. You are our King! We repent and ask for Your forgiveness and mercy and Love and honor and help!
In Jesus’ name, Who is our King… Amen
http://thedailypen.blogspot.com/
Saving...
What a perfect time for me to come across your post, and read scripture that calms my anxious soul. I needed the reminder that we may have lost this election, and possibly this great country, but God is still in charge and cares about us.
“Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.
matthew 10:16
Thanks for the added information. We must all avoid living a nominal Christian life, but must “contend for the faith.” These are the times that try men’s souls. God’s desire is that we “build ourselves up in our most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit, keeping ourselves in His love as we wait for the mercy of Jesus to bring us to eternal life.” The Word of God never fails.
What's that mean? A blood relationship does not change by another persons religion.
I believe the original comment was meant to not be offensive or to start a flame war on religious beliefs on whether Jesus was an only child or hd half- or step-brothers. Or distant cousins, for tat matter.
I didn’t take it as offensive or flame bait. But the wording suggests relationships are changed by the observers religion. I would like clarification from the author.
Jude is also called Thaddeus in Matthew 10:3 and Mark 3:18.
He was a Brother (or half brother if your(sic) a Roman Catholic) to Jesus
Lower case brother to the linguistic literalist crowd. Scripture teaches, unambiguously, that Jude was the brother of James(the less) and Joseph and the son of Cleophas-(Alphaeus) and the other Mary of Matthew 27:56,61, 28:1 and John 19:25, not the Blessed Virgin Mary.
These men are grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage.Within the church!
We should all be alert to avoid both flattery and faultfinding. IMHO that takes diligence to notice the good things which can truthfully be said about others - and say them.
Check it out:
For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them into gloomy dungeons to be held for judgment;
if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others; if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly;
and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the filthy lives of lawless men (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)—if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for the day of judgment, while continuing their punishment.
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