Let a person examine himself. 1 Corinthians 11:28 Make it your regular practice to give your soul a thorough examination to see if there is anything displeasing to God hidden inside you. There are several ways of doing this. As you read the Bible, note anything that displeases God and ask yourself, “Do I see any evidence of this in me?” Don’t ask vague questions like “Are there any sins in my soul?" Go hunting for specifics. Here is a checklist of some sins that could easily infect you: taking G...
Sep 25, 2024•3 min
To others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh. Jude 23 When you reach out to others in ministry, you need to be very careful that you do not end up falling into sin yourself. Jude uses the word “fear.” You need to have a healthy fear lest you fall into the same sins as somebody else you are reaching out to. The Bible speaks of two kinds of fear. There is an unhealthy kind of fear. You should not be afraid of your enemies or of danger or of those who kill the body, ...
Sep 24, 2024•3 min
Save others by snatching them out of the fire. Jude 23 Those who can see that they’ve been burned know what the fire can do, and they reach out to others in the flames. That takes courage. You can’t do ministry without being burned. There is no pain-free ministry. There is an old story about an African village. One night there was a fire in a wooden building, and the whole family who was sleeping there died, except for a tiny baby boy. As the fire flared up, a stranger rushed in and carried the ...
Sep 23, 2024•3 min
Save others by snatching them out of the fire. Jude 23 If you’re going to be useful in ministry, you need to have a proper understanding of yourself and what God has done for you. Sin has damaged us all, but the Bible makes it clear that sin has done deeper damage to you and to me than staining our lives. It’s changed our nature. Like wood that's been in a fire, sin burns. It consumes. The Bible makes it clear that we’re sinners because we sin. It also teaches that we sin because we’re sinners. ...
Sep 22, 2024•3 min
Have mercy on those who doubt. Jude 22 Those who doubt would include those whose faith has been undermined and those whose faith has not yet been fully formed. There are many people like this today. How are we to minister to folks who are confused about their faith? Jude says, “Do this with great compassion.” There’s a big difference between the child who struggles to do what’s right and the child who refuses to do what’s right. And there’s a big difference between the person who struggles to be...
Sep 21, 2024•3 min
Have mercy on those who doubt; save others by snatching them out of the fire. Jude 22-23 If you want to live a healthy Christian life, you need to learn to wait. The obvious question is, What does God want us to do while we are waiting? The answer is that we are to give ourselves to ministry. God calls us to ministry. There are people in need all around us. So, from now until the day when Jesus comes or calls for us, we are to give ourselves to the work of ministry. Jesus said, “My food is to do...
Sep 20, 2024•3 min
Wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ... Jude 21 The people who bring menus to your table at a restaurant are called waiters or waitresses. They have no other agenda but to wait on you. They take your order, bring your food, and then make sure everything is okay. Some people think God exists to wait on us, but the Bible tells us that our calling is to wait on Him. The purpose of our lives is to make ourselves wholly available to Jesus Christ, the guest of honour, who has come into this wor...
Sep 19, 2024•3 min
[Wait] for the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. Jude 21 When Jude talks about waiting, the obvious question is, Don’t we already have God’s mercy? Yes. Don’t we already have Jesus Christ? Yes. Don’t we already have eternal life? Yes! If we’ve already received these things, why does Jude tell us to wait? This is teaching us something important: All that you can experience in the Christian life is only a taste of what Christ has in store for you. The Holy Spirit is a depo...
Sep 18, 2024•3 min
[Wait] for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. Jude 21 Patience is what you need when things have not worked out as you hoped. Somewhere deep within every heart there is a dream of life as we want it to be. That dream is placed in your heart by God. The word “wait” reminds us that the dream will never be fulfilled in this life. Our first parents were driven out of the garden of Eden. Paradise was lost and the dream can no longer be fulfilled here because this world is ...
Sep 17, 2024•3 min
Keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. Jude 21 Once you see how important the theme of waiting is in the Bible, you’ll have new motivation to exercise this neglected area of the Christian life. Here are five passages on waiting: Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him. (Ps. 37:7) I wait or the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I hope. (Ps. 130:5-6) They who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength. (Is. 40...
Sep 16, 2024•3 min
God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. Romans 5:5 In one of Garrison Keillor’s books about Lake Wobegon he describes a rather awkward teenager growing up in a small town. The lad gives a speech at his high school graduation, and afterwards somebody comes up to him and says, “Nice speech!” But he can’t receive a compliment. “Oh no,” he says, “I was just rambling. I didn’t know what I was talking about. I was just glad when it was all over.” He couldn’t receive a compl...
Sep 15, 2024•2 min
The Son of God… loved me and gave himself for me. Galatians 2:20 Some time ago, a minister from England went to India to deliver a series of evangelistic messages. When he arrived, there were posters hanging all over town advertising the evening meetings at which he would be speaking. The posters were supposed to read: “The visiting minister from England will bring the evening messages.” But instead, there was a typo, and the posters actually said: “The visiting minister from England will bring ...
Sep 14, 2024•2 min
This is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 1 John 4:10 One way to work God’s love into your mind is through the Lord’s Supper. At the very centre of Christian worship, God has given us this exercise to keep us in spiritual shape. We come to a table where we receive bread and wine. They direct our attention to the cross, where Christ’s body was broken, and His blood was shed for you. God uses the supper to tell us that He lo...
Sep 13, 2024•3 min
Keep yourselves in the love of God... Jude 21 The Bible talks about the love of God in a number of ways: Providential love is God’s kindness to His enemies as well as His friends. God’s enemies will come under His judgement, but right now they receive good gifts from His hand. Why do good things happen to bad people? Answer: God’s providential love. Saving love is God reaching out to us: “God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have e...
Sep 12, 2024•3 min
[Pray] in the Holy Spirit… Jude 20 Another way to pray in the Spirit is by using the Lord’s Prayer (Mat. 6:9-13). Martin Luther structured his entire prayer life around the Lord’s Prayer: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. (6:9) Luther prayed that God would be honoured in his own life, and in the church, and in the nation where he lived. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. (6:10) He prayed for the advancement of God’s kingdom, and he prayed for what is tr...
Sep 11, 2024•3 min
[Pray] in the Holy Spirit… Jude 20 The Bible contains some marvellous prayers that were breathed out by the Spirit of God. You will find many of them in the book of Psalms. The whole Bible was written as men were carried along by the Holy Spirit and as you fill your mind with God's Word, you will begin to think God’s thoughts after Him. If you learn to form your prayers from the Bible, you will be praying in a way that reflects the heart and mind of God. You might like to begin with the Psalms: ...
Sep 10, 2024•3 min
We do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. Romans 8:26 Imagine a teenage computer geek writing software in his basement: “How can I get this in the hands of the people at Microsoft?” He doesn’t know anyone there, and he has no idea how to introduce his ideas to them. Who knows how many requests they receive in a day. One day there’s a knock at the door, and a short middle-aged guy with reddish hair and glasses is stand...
Sep 09, 2024•3 min
[Pray] in the Holy Spirit… Jude 20 Once you’ve grasped that there’s one God, and that He’s not whoever you want Him to be, the next question is “How do you come to Him?” That depends on what you want to receive. The Bible uses the picture of a throne to help us understand. There is one God, but more than one throne. That’s easy to understand for those of us in the United Kingdom. We have one King but he has several thrones, and each throne relates to a different function. Likewise, there is one ...
Sep 08, 2024•3 min
[Pray] in the Holy Spirit… Jude 20 Imagine meeting with your minister at church. He places a number of envelopes in front of you and says, “We can talk about anything you want. But here are some envelopes with questions written on them. Go ahead and pick one.” The topics range from faith to spiritual growth to fellowship, but you choose the envelope on prayer. The question on the envelope reads: “How would you describe your prayer life?” and inside there are a number of cards with various words—...
Sep 07, 2024•3 min
[Look] to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith... Hebrews 12:2 Faith grows by looking at Jesus. Faith becomes strong as you fill your mind and soul with how trustworthy He is. Imagine yourself as a younger child, attending a professional sporting event with your family. Your parents get tickets about twenty-five rows from the game. The people are packed in like sardines, and they’re standing in front of you, so you find it very difficult to see. You eventually find a solution. Instead o...
Sep 06, 2024•2 min
[Build] yourselves up in your most holy faith... Jude 20 Faith is like a muscle. It grows strong when it is used. If you want to develop a particular muscle, you pull or push against a weight. Faith grows when it has to push against a great burden. That’s what happens when God allows trials in your life. You lose your job, a relationship ends, or the bottom line of your business is the wrong colour, and suddenly you’re in the gym. This is the moment. God is handing you the weights. When God allo...
Sep 05, 2024•2 min
[Build] yourselves up in your most holy faith… Jude 20 Jude is talking about the same faith here that he mentions in verse 3: “The faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.” You can build up your faith by affirming what you believe. That’s why Christians throughout the centuries have recited creeds in their worship: “I believe in God the Father, maker of heaven and earth…” C.H. Spurgeon preached to vast crowds in London over a hundred years ago. When the time came for him to enter the...
Sep 04, 2024•3 min
[Build] yourselves up in your most holy faith… Jude 20 There will be times when you seem to be making little progress, and you wonder, “What’s wrong with me? Am I a Christian at all?” Jude says, “You need to build up your faith.” How do you do that? Satan loves to point out how puny, pathetic, and embarrassingly small your faith is. You should counter by recognising the faith you have—however small—is a miracle, a gift from God, and by giving thanks for it. When you begin to thank God for what h...
Sep 03, 2024•3 min
I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith… Jude 3 Evangelicals often emphasise spiritual life and the importance of the new birth. We rejoice when people give testimonies of how they came to faith in Christ. But spiritual life is no guarantee of spiritual health. You may be spiritually alive, but are you spiritually fit? We know what it’s like to be out of shape physically. What does it look like when we’re out of shape spiritually? Here are some symptoms: Loss of v...
Sep 02, 2024•3 min
But you, beloved, [build] yourselves up in your most holy faith. Jude 20 Jude’s message is very simple: Keep yourself in spiritual shape. It is also very practical, because Jude breaks this down into seven workouts for a healthy Christian life. You may be committed to some kind of fitness programme. You may work out with a personal trainer who gives you an exercise routine to help you get in shape. A good exercise routine will get you working on different muscle groups: “This one is for your abs...
Sep 01, 2024•3 min
God… pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant. Micah 7:18 Micah preached this message to all the people of Israel. The sad fact is that to the vast majority of people, what Micah said didn't make the slightest difference. Life went on exactly the same as it had before. Another day, another pound (or shekel). The vast majority of people in Micah’s day were still caught up in their old sins, they had no defence against future temptations, and God’s anger remained on them. ...
Aug 31, 2024•3 min
He will tread our iniquities underfoot. Micah 7:19 If hurling your iniquities into the depths of the sea refers to God’s deliverance from past sins, then treading your sins underfoot must refer to temptations that still lie ahead of you. Here you are going out into another week, and Satan has already set some snares in your path. Every one of us will face specific temptations this week. And you will be tested at the point where you’re most vulnerable. Here’s the good news: God is walking with yo...
Aug 30, 2024•2 min
You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. Micah 7:19 This is a marvellous picture: God hurling your iniquities into the depths of the sea. A pastor once said: “When God throws your sins into the depths of the sea, He puts up a big sign that says. No fishing!” When God forgives. He takes the past with all of its guilt, and it is gone. But there is something else here that comes fresh from this passage. This phrase about God “casting” something into the depths of the sea refers back t...
Aug 29, 2024•3 min
He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love. Micah 7:18 It's hard to think of any issue that causes more difficulty in the minds and hearts of so many people than the anger of God. We tend to suppress the idea of God’s anger or deny it. You’ve likely heard someone say, “I grew up believing in an angry God, but now I believe in a loving God.” What do you do with the passages in the Bible that speak of God’s anger? Many Christians live with an underlying feeling tha...
Aug 28, 2024•3 min
I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him, until he pleads my cause and executes judgement for me. Micah 7:9 All of our experience indicates that we seem more under God’s judgement than His blessing. Our culture is falling apart. Families are breaking up. God is hiding His face from us. We have sinned and we are under the wrath of God. Where do you go from there? Micah’s hope in the darkness is that this same God whose judgement we have brought on ourselves will c...
Aug 27, 2024•3 min
