Jude – Whistle Blower
Sin runs rampant but that doesn’t mean we are helpless against it. Anything goes with sexual encounters, money, power, and the lust for more and more to try to satisfy our insatiable desires…but we don’t have to fall for it. Jude relates in his day what is happening and it is a parallel to what continues to happen today. HOWEVER, Jude closes his letter with hope, encouragement with wisdom to counter what is thrown in our faces as believers daily….read to the end. God wins.
Jude, The Message
Lost Stars in Outer Space
5-7 I’m laying this out as clearly as I can, even though you once knew all this well enough and shouldn’t need reminding. Here it is in brief: The Master saved a people out of the land of Egypt. Later he destroyed those who defected. And you know the story of the angels who didn’t stick to their post, abandoning it for other, darker missions. But they are now chained and jailed in a black hole until the great Judgment Day. Sodom and Gomorrah, which went to sexual rack and ruin along with the surrounding cities that acted just like them, are another example. Burning and burning and never burning up, they serve still as a stock warning.
8 This is exactly the same program of these latest infiltrators: dirty sex, rule and rulers thrown out, glory dragged in the mud.
9-11 The Archangel Michael, who went to the mat with the Devil as they fought over the body of Moses, wouldn’t have dared level him with a blasphemous curse, but said simply, “No you don’t. God will take care of you!” But these people sneer at anything they can’t understand, and by doing whatever they feel like doing—living by animal instinct only—they participate in their own destruction. I’m fed up with them! They’ve gone down Cain’s road; they’ve been sucked into Balaam’s error by greed; they’re canceled out in Korah’s rebellion.
12-13 These people are warts on your love feasts as you worship and eat together. They’re giving you a black eye—carousing shamelessly, grabbing anything that isn’t nailed down. They’re—
Puffs of smoke pushed by gusts of wind;
late autumn trees stripped clean of leaf and fruit,
Doubly dead, pulled up by the roots;
wild ocean waves leaving nothing on the beach
but the foam of their shame;
Lost stars in outer space
on their way to the black hole.
14-16 Enoch, the seventh after Adam, prophesied of them: “Look! The Master comes with thousands of holy angels to bring judgment against them all, convicting each person of every defiling act of shameless sacrilege, of every dirty word they have spewed of their pious filth.” These are the “grumpers,” the bellyachers, grabbing for the biggest piece of the pie, talking big, saying anything they think will get them ahead.
17-19 But remember, dear friends, that the apostles of our Master, Jesus Christ, told us this would happen: “In the last days there will be people who don’t take these things seriously anymore. They’ll treat them like a joke, and make a religion of their own whims and lusts.” These are the ones who split churches, thinking only of themselves. There’s nothing to them, no sign of the Spirit!
20-21 But you, dear friends, carefully build yourselves up in this most holy faith by praying in the Holy Spirit, staying right at the center of God’s love, keeping your arms open and outstretched, ready for the mercy of our Master, Jesus Christ. This is the unending life, the real life!
22-23 Go easy on those who hesitate in the faith. Go after those who take the wrong way. Be tender with sinners, but not soft on sin. The sin itself stinks to high heaven.
24-25 And now to him who can keep you on your feet, standing tall in his bright presence, fresh and celebrating—to our one God, our only Savior, through Jesus Christ, our Master, be glory, majesty, strength, and rule before all time, and now, and to the end of all time. Yes.
What do we learn?
–SIN stinks to high heaven!
–Be soft on the sinner but not with the sin that destroys. Help the sinner out of it. Go after them. Remember Jesus story of the shepherd who left the 99 sheep to go after the one who was lost?
–God, our Father, keeps us on our feet, standing tall, in His Presence, clean and full of worship, celebrating to our ONE God, our ONLY Savior, through Jesus Christ!
–Pray in the Holy Spirit to stay in the Center of God’s love.
Dear Heavenly Father, We are sinners saved only by Your grace. As we see those close to us pull away from You, our hearts go after them with passion to help them return to you. Please intervene as only You can, even today, for those lost family members who are on our mind. Keep our minds focused on You all day long and through the night. Thank you, Lord for these words of encouragement and wisdom.
In Jesus Name, Amen
My grandpa was a carpenter. He used a level in his work as a cabinet builder often. A level is a hand tool used by carpenters to determine a horizontal or vertical plane or line. The level is a wood or metal bar about 2′ long with four spirit levels set into it. What are “spirit levels”? Sounds religious, doesn’t it? This is a device used to set an instrument to true horizontal or true vertical, consisting of a glass tube nearly filled with liquid so a traveling air bubble is formed. When the bubble is right in the center, you know your object is set level. SO, when we say, tongue and cheek, that a person or thing is “a bubble off center”, that means something is not right, they are missing the point of the conversation, or just don’t get it.
