Monthly Archives: October 2016

Once For All

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Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints.

Jude 1:3

I am currently studying in the book of Jude with my friend Brenda. As I was reading through this small letter preserved in the Word of God, the Lord pulled out verse three for me. I missed it the first time I read through the letter. I missed it the second time I read through the letter. However, on my third read through, it was as if the Lord said, “Nicole, did you notice this?” At which point I stopped and double underlined the phrase, “once for all handed down to the saints.”

The phrase once for all speaks volumes. According to thefreedictionary.com it means: finally, permanently, completely and finally. Freedictionary goes on to describe the phrase to mean that if you do something once and for all, you finish doing it so that it does not have to be dealt with again. It is a settled matter, finally, permanently. In the original Greek the phrase is the word, hapax, and it means: what is so done as to be of perpetual validity and never need repetition.

The work of Christ is finished. Salvation in, by, and through Him alone is settled. The faith that saved the thief on the cross is the same once for all faith that saved me and will save my children’s children. It has not changed. It cannot change. To change it, to add to it or take away from it, makes it not the once for all faith that was handed down, but makes it a strange gospel; a gospel that we are repeatedly warned about throughout the Word of God. 

If we contend for anything outside or beyond this once for all handed down faith we become fools. When we use our once for all handed down faith to pronounce judgment instead of extend mercy then we look like the enemy of the cross, not the friend of God. In Jude 1:9 we read that,

But Michael the archangel, when he disputed with the devil and argued about the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce against him a railing judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!”

The archangel Michael stood before Satan himself and did not dare pronounce a judgment against him. He did not dare prove himself to be so bold as to stand in the face of another and declare what only God Himself can declare for fear that he would blaspheme his God. If this was a faithful warrior angel’s response to the father of lies, the beginning murderer, the one who deceived and deceives the world then who are we to try and stand in the place of God and pronounce eternal condemnation on those who are held in his chains?

Yes, we are to contend for the once for all faith, but we are not to contend through railing judgments. We are to remember who we were when we too were blind and dead. We are to remember who we were before we received the sight and life of the gospel of Christ. We are to remember what Jude reminds us in verse ten,

But these men revile the things which they do not understand;

Jude 1:10

In verses ten through nineteen Jude goes on to describe all the actions of these he declares as the ungodly of the earth. I can just hear the questions of those he addresses. I imagine they are the same as we hear today; But do you know what they are saying? Do you know what they are doing? How can we not stand over them and pronounce their judgment?

Jude answers them (and us) by reminding them that this should not be a surprise to them (or us). God has been warning us from the beginning. Jesus warned us when He walked among us and He sent His apostles to warn us after His ascension. He has protected His words of warning and encouragement in the Scriptures for thousands of years. We should not be shocked, but prepared.

The Greek word used for “contend earnestly” is epagónizomai and it means, properly, to contend (literally, “struggle upon, appropriately“), i.e. with skill and commitment in opposing whatever is not of faith (God’s persuasion). There is a right way to contend for the faith and there is a VERY wrong way. Sadly, here lately, because the church is so very ignorant of the Word of God, our world sees a lot of the wrong way– and well, the wrong way gets a whole lot more attention because that is what the ruler of this world (1 John 5:19) chooses to promote.

So what are we to do?

Jude answers that question as well…

But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life.  And have mercy on some, who are doubting; save others, snatching them out of the fire; and on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh.

Jude 1:20-23 (underline is mine)

What are we to do?

  1. Build yourself up on your most holy faith. (your responsibility)
  2. Pray in the Holy Spirit. (this means His will, not yours)
  3. Keep yourself in the love of God (if you love Me you will obey Me)
  4. Wait anxiously for Jesus (He’s coming again, be ready)
  5. Have mercy (you know how bad judgment will be)

Three times the word mercy is used in that one passage of Scripture. Jude begins his letter by saying, “May mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you.” He knew they were going to need multiplied mercies, peace, and love to appropriately deal with what they were facing from these ungodly ones. This is what we in the faith need multiplied to us today as well.

People revile what they do not understand. They do not understand that they are deceived, for that is the nature of deception.

Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we received mercy, we do not lose heart, but we have renounced the things hidden because of shame, not walking in craftiness or adulterating the word of God, but by the manifestation of truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bond-servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves; we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death works in us, but life in you.

2 Corinthians 4:1-12

Always choose mercy. It is not for us to pronounce judgment… it is for us to proclaim the gospel of Christ. No, don’t be silent. Instead boldly declare the love of God with the kindness of God. Jesus showed us how to do it. So did Paul and Jude… and so did the one (or ones) who led you to Christ.

How Long Will The Lord Let It Go

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Though our iniquities testify against us, act, O Lord, for Your name’s sake; for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against You.
O You hope of Israel, its Savior in time of trouble, why should You be like a stranger in the land, like a traveler who turns aside to tarry for a night? Why should You be like a man confused, like a mighty warrior who cannot save?

Yet you, O Lord, are in the midst of us, and we are called by Your name; do not leave us.

Thus says the Lord concerning this people: “They have loved to wander thus; they have not restrained their feet; therefore the Lord does not accept them; now He will remember their iniquity and punish their sins.”

Jeremiah 14:7-10

I’m reading in the book of Jeremiah right now. I taught through this book a couple of years ago. The connection of the state of Israel and the current state of our nation is easily seen when you read the words of this prophet. The Lord is treated like a stranger in this land. Even those who sit in a church on a weekly basis do not know Him, because they choose to listen to the words of finite men and women instead of our Infinite God.

The distance of our wanderings is clearly seen when we examine our nation in the light of the Word of God. We are a people that loves to go our own way and play our own God, until disaster strikes and then we run to the God we turned our back to and beg Him to deliver. He does so, just to watch us prance off even further into the darkness the next time. “They have loved to wander thus; they have not restrained their feet…”

Look where our nation was as a whole when 9/11 happened and recall how we appeared to return and now look how far we are from that day… How long will the Lord let it go?

I think many of us who truly love the Lord and are seeking to serve Him and honor Him might arrogantly expect Him to protect our entire nation just to keep us safe. Perhaps that has been the false hope we have been clinging to just as Jeremiah clung to it. However, there will come a day when the Lord says enough is enough. He will only strive with us so long. His compassions do not fail and His love is never ending, but if we reject His compassion and His love we are left with the consequences of that rejection.

I am not going to pretend I have a clue what this election is going to do with the course of our nation. I am quite tired of reading blogs and posts about all the speculation and predictions surrounding the outcome. Each side predicts loom and gloom concerning the other. Each side is assured that we are going straight to hell if we vote for the other.

I am not going to claim which candidate has the most integrity and least amount of dispicability, because one thing I have learned in my short life here on this earth is that if I am not in the house and in the room and in the heart of someone I really cannot claim to have a clue. I am not close enough to any of our candidates to judge their fruit as to whether or not which one actually loves Jesus for real.

I know one’s life has been on public display forever and the others has been attempted to be carefully guarded forever. I know one has never cared what was exposed about them before and the other has been striving for this position for years and therefore would be trying to keep anything threatening of character hidden. I know that I only get to know what the media chooses to tell me and that being according to the perspective they most want me to see it.

Therefore, all I know for sure is that this election season has been very successful in creating an even greater division within the body of Christ.  One Christian attacking another because of which blog post they chose to believe and post. I just wish we fought this passionately hard for the lost and hurting and dying. I just wish we loved out as much as we lashed out. I wish we, as the body Christ, would remember that we are Christians before we are Americans. Our citizenship is in heaven not on this earth.

Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done…

 I just know that one day my Jesus will come again. I know that one day someone of integrity and righteousness will rule this nation and all nations… I’m going to stick with campaigning for Him.