God Is in the Circumstances -- Amos 1:3-5

Amos 1:3-5


This is what the Lord says: ‘For the many crimes of Damascus, I will punish them. They drove over the people of Gilead with threshing boards that had iron teeth. So I will send fire upon the house of Hazael that will destroy the strong towers of Ben-Hadad. I will break down the bar of the gate to Damascus and destroy the king who is in the Valley of Aven, as well as the leader of Beth Eden. The people of Aram will be taken captive to the country of Kir,’ says the Lord. (NCB)

Amos begins, in chapters 1 and 2, with the Lord indictment of Israel’s neighbors. God may use unbelievers to correct His children, but He always will have vengeance on those who harm His chosen.

We are always beloved!

Even in the midst of chastening, God loves us. Even when He allows us to be persecuted, we are not abandoned. He walks with us, taking care of those things behind us, and preparing for those things ahead of us.

"But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed—always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So then death is working in us, but life in you." (2 Corinthians 4:7-12 NKJ)

We are always beloved!

And as the beloved, God is always on our side! Even when we feel He has abandoned us, He hasn’t. He is working everything for our good (Romans 8:28) and will have His vengeance on our enemies at the time of His choosing.

That being said, there are lessons we can learn even from the enemies of God because He is not only concerned with our relationship with Him, but also with our choices, our actions. And when we do that which is displeasing to Him—when we sin—He will deal with us, not in retribution, but in chastisement so that we will make better choices in the future.

The crime of Damascus was anger. They were very angry with Israel and were determined to overcome them, to overpower them, to harm them so much that Israel would have no option except to capitulate. "They drove over the people with threshing boards that had iron teeth."

A threshing board was a farm implement made to help separate the wheat from the straw. It would commonly be a board, or several boards fastened together, possibly with metal teeth underneath that would cut the wheat plants and help release the wheat kernels from the stalks. As you can imagine, if this implement was dragged over a person, it would be torturous.

The implication in Amos isn’t that this literally happened, but that this is a word picture of the extreme torture (either physical or emotional) that Damascus used to try to punish and manipulate Israel. The question then comes to us, have we ever used such tactics with others?

Of course we have. In anger, in frustration, in fear, we have used whatever tactics we thought necessary to escape, to survive, to fight back. We have used harsh, hurtful words. We may have even used physical blows.

Galatians 5 describes the comparisons of the natural or flesh life and the spiritual life:

"Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another." (v. 19-26 NKJ)

Let’s look at several of these in comparison to each other:

hatred contentions outbursts of wrath (anger)

longsuffering (patience) kindness gentleness

The truth is, there is no middle ground. Either we are living the fruit of the Spirit or we are living the works of the flesh. That’s the one thing that can make living as a Christian easier. We simply have to focus on living the fruit of the Spirit all the time and we will avoid the works of the flesh. While in practicality it’s not necessarily easy, in functionality it is! We simply ask ourselves if we are being patient, kind, and gentle? We know what those things look like. The opposites are hateful, contentious, angry. And while our emotions may pull us into a direction we shouldn’t go, we aren’t animals unable to control our lusts. The Holy Spirit Who lives within us is constantly wanting for us to live out His fruit in our lives. All we have to do is stop, pray, and obey. Let Him take care of those we are hurtful to us. God will have His vengeance! We need to trust Him.

His job is to take care of the circumstances and the people in them. Our job is the live the fruit of the Spirit while we are in those circumstances.

© 2014 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved.

For permission to copy, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com

The Lord Roars -- Amos 1:2

Amos 1:2


And he (Amos) said: "The Lord roars from Zion, and utters His voice from Jerusalem; the pastures of the shepherds mourn, and the top of Carmel withers." (NKJV)

"The Lord roars."

God’s warnings are often not soft nor silent. He warns loudly and persistently that we might hear what He has to say. But even with the loud roar, He is often ignored.

"There is no God."

"God is love. He would never be angry with me."

"Everyone has their own definition of God. Mine doesn’t include such restrictions."

It doesn’t matter what the justification. God is ignored by many, regardless of how loudly He warns, how mightily He demonstrates His power, how pervasively He shows His love. And there was never a communication so loud, so mighty, so intense as Calvary.

Jesus taught this parable:

"A man planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a place for the wine vat and built a tower. And he leased it to vinedressers and went into a far country. Now at vintage-time he sent a servant to the vinedressers, that he might receive some of the fruit of the vineyard from the vinedressers. And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. Again he sent them another servant, and at him they threw stones, wounded him in the head, and sent him away shamefully treated. And again he sent another, and him they killed; and many others, beating some and killing some. Therefore still having one son, his beloved, he also sent him to them last, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But those vinedressers said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ So they took him and killed him and cast him out of the vineyard.’ Therefore what will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the vinedressers, and give the vineyard to others." (Mark 12:1-9 NKJV).

While this parable, on one hand, was addressed to the religious leadership of Israel, it can also be addressed to those to whom God has sent His beloved Son.

God sent His Son . . . His Son to teach, His Son to show the Father, His Son to love . . . His Son to die.

There is no louder, no more mighty "roar" in all of eternity than the Lord Jesus’ death at Calvary. There is no excuse that we can give for failing to fall on our knees in abject obedience, gratitude, and love. God never roared louder . . . and that roar continues throughout the ages. "I gave My Son for you."

"The Lord roars."

There is also another aspect to this verse in Amos. The Hebrew word sha’ag translated here "roar" also means a cry of distress. The Father takes no joy in condemning those who reject Him. He constantly longs for everyone to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). This isn’t, for God, a matter of winning, of being right. He has no need for those kinds of confirmations. He is already God, Creator and Master of the universe. No one—regardless of their beliefs—can change that or take that away from Him. He is the Almighty, the Everlasting, the King of all kings, the Lord of everything. Rather, His longings are for each and every soul to come to repentance, to reach out for salvation, that none may be lost. His is a cry of mourning, of distress that the sinful have taken such a stand as to have to come to the place of punishment. And His punishment isn’t about retribution. It’s about trying to compel the rebellious to turn from their sin. Everything God does is about that!

"The Lord roars."

He roars loudly throughout the land. He roars in mourning as He watches those He loves sin again and again and again. "The Lord roars."

The question is . . . are we listening?

© 2014 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved.

For permission to copy, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com

Just a Sheepherder, Just a Woman -- Amos 1:1

Amos 1:1


The words of Amos, who was among the sheepbreeders of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel, two years before the earthquake. (NKJ)

Amos grew up, like many of us, probably not anticipating that he would become a prophet for the Lord. He didn’t attend any of the "prophet schools," but rather was trained as a sheepherder. According to some of the commentaries I read, there is the possibility that he was a wealthy herd owner, but more likely that he was a poor sheepherder who lived in a very rural town that consisted mainly of nomadic families who followed the water. The town, Tekoa, was in the hills above the Dead Sea. In the winter and spring, there were fields in the area suitable for grazing, but as the warmer summer months approached, the herders would take their flocks further east, closer to the Dead Sea, in order to find adequate foliage for their animals. This was likely the kind of life that Amos lived . . . until God spoke to him. It was a quiet life, a life focused on the day-to-day care of his sheep, a life of quiet and simplicity.

And then God spoke.

In fact, Amos says that he saw the words, rather than heard them. It may have been that he saw the vision and wrote it into words; it may be that he was literate and God showed him the words in actual writing. It may be that God supernaturally gave him the ability to read what he was shown. Regardless, God spoke and Amos was receptive not only to hearing from the Lord but to obeying it.

And isn’t that the point of it all?

As contemporary Christians, we may be those which fill our lives with the "word of God," through TV programs, through the Internet, through listening to CD’s, through even reading the Word. But none of that is important if we fail to act on what God has shown us. I actually am coming to believe that we can drown ourselves in Christian-speak and still be spiritually starving. Do you know that it’s possible to drown in water and yet be dehydrated? When the water is allowed to do what it’s not supposed to do (go into our lungs), it can kill us! I think that many Christians are spiritually starving while they are simultaneously immersing themselves in Christian stuff. Why? Because they are failing to apply what they are hearing. In fact, we can sometimes hear too much. It becomes overwhelming. We don’t know where to start and so we fail to start at all.

That happens to me. I want to change my diet, but when I do research and am bombarded with the many, MANY options, I end up not doing any of them. I’m afraid to choose the wrong one, so I choose none.

I think that, as Christians, we can hear too much Christian-speak, become confused about what to actually do in our lives, and end up walking back into the lifestyles that we have previously had, not making any changes and never becoming more Christlike. Perhaps the problem is that we’re allowing ourselves to listen to "just anybody" rather than seeking the message of the Word for ourselves. Perhaps also we are listening to teachers whose lives we’ve failed to investigate. (Not everyone who says they’re a Christian is truly following the Lord.)

Amos listened to God and God alone. Amos was willing to step outside of his comfort zone and respond in obedience to the Lord. I’m sure there were times he totally regretted God choosing him for this assignment. But perhaps the one reason God did choose him is because the Lord knew Amos would be obedient and do what God wanted him to do. Perhaps God hasn’t yet chosen us because we aren’t yet willing to be obedient regardless of what’s asked of us. Perhaps we fill up our time with Christian TV, CD’s and books because we think by doing so, we are putting in our time. Perhaps we really don’t want to hear from God. What if He asked us to move outside of our comfort zone? What if He asked us to do something that was really hard . . . or painful . . . or difficult? And yet, we can do all things through Christ! Do we believe that . . . or not?

I know that I’m no more than a sheepherder in this society. I’m not famous. I’m not wealthy. I’m not powerful. I’m simply a woman who wants to follow the Lord.

Perhaps that really is enough.

　

© 2014 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved.

For permission to copy, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com

Sacrificing Children -- Ezekiel 16:20-21

Ezekiel 16:20-21

"You took your sons and your daughters, whom you had borne to me, and these you sacrificed to them to be devoured. As if your whorings were not enough! You slaughtered my children and delivered them up as an offering to them." (NKJ)

There are cultures that have sacrificed children to their gods, literally taking the children to an altar and slitting their throats or bashing their heads in. In those cases, it was done in order to appease the gods and to make life more comfortable, more doable. There are cultures in this world now that leave their babies along the roads to die or who put them into garbage dumps in order to make life more doable.

America is one of those cultures.

But we do far worse than that for we also sacrifice our living children, believing that as long as we are granting them life we are doing something wonderful for them. And yet we refuse to protect them while they are alive, also in the name of having a life that is more comfortable. How do we do that? We send them to public schools.

Several years ago, I was at a Christian university in the South talking about the changes that were coming to California public schools. This was long before transgender students were allowed access to either restroom or before the LGTBQ agenda was being fully promoted in California. And I warned the Christian teachers/parents at this university that abrupt culture changes were coming to all public schools in America. I warned them to get their children out of the public schools and into either Christian private schools or homeschooling.

They all laughed and ignored me. In one voice they told me that such changes weren’t in their public schools and would never be there. Unfortunately, I was right and they were wrong. I take no thrill in knowing I was right. But I grieve for the children.

The American Church had the opportunity, more than 100 years ago, to influence public schools. It was after the Scopes Trial in 1925 that American Christians had an opportunity to make serious changes in public schools . . . and it never happened. Most Christians these days don’t even know what the Scopes Trial was and that’s the shame of it because when we lose our history, we also lose where we are today or how we got there.

The Scopes Trial eventually determined that evolution could be taught in public schools. But it wasn’t just a matter of scientific theory; it was a matter of culture. The Scopes Trial was the beachhead and Christians surrendered. How, you might say? We surrendered because we continued to send our children to public school rather than to pull them out en mass and demand that the government respond to what we knew to be true. And that was the beginning.

Everyday, Christian parents surrender their children to public schools, which is to say they surrender them to the schemes of Satan. Public schools are no longer even responsive to voters, to the will of the majority. Public schools are now the instrument of those who hate Christianity. Everyday our young, impressionable children are sent into an environment that hates the Lord Jesus, that teaches against Christian values, and that is determined to own the minds and wills of the students within the school doors. And everyday we lose a little bit of our children until eventually we have lost them entirely.

There is no way to fight against this except to remove our children. How long we will have even that option is questionable. So many lies are believed even by adult Christians about what "proper" schooling is. The Church has lost and in that loss, we are losing the next generations. It is a culture change that seems impossible to thwart. Is it too late?

No, but the battle is arduous and the costs will be high! We have to ask ourselves if we are willing to fight for our children and our grandchildren. We have to ask ourselves if we are willing to sacrifice ourselves so that our children will not be sacrificed.

So what can we do?

We must reevaluate what it means to be a disciple of Christ. It can no longer be that we simply live a "good" life and hang out at church on Sunday. Christianity was never meant to be a once-a-week activity. It must permeate all of our lives, all of our choices, all of our decisions. Here are some things that we must seriously consider doing:

• Turn off the media. That means canceling the cable TV, stop going to movies, limit significantly what we see and interact with on the Internet. Why? Because most of it, as innocent as it seems, is deadly to our spiritual lives.

• Set goals to spend much more time in the Word and in prayer. "Much more" means at least an hour a day to start and more as we develop the discipline to do so. As a culture, we are much more concerned about physical health than spiritual health. The apostle Paul wrote:

"Spend your time and energy in training yourself for spiritual fitness. Physical exercise has some value, but spiritual exercise is much more important, for it promises a reward in both this life and the next. This is true, and everyone should accept it." (1 Timothy 4:7b-9 NLT).

• Rethink everything about your resources, financial and otherwise. Figure out the way to either homeschool your children or send them to a private Christian school. If you are a grandparent, think about how you can help your adult children with this. We don’t need two cars; we don’t need cable TV; we don’t need expensive smart phones. What we need are Christian young people who are learning about how to serve the Lord in a pagan society.

Right now we are sacrificing our children so that we can go to the gym, drink Starbucks, have a second job (to pay for the TV, the phones, the vacations, the larger homes), save for retirement. Think about why you are doing what you are doing. Are your children’s future really worth it? My children are adults and I failed them in many ways. I wish that I had known then what I know now. I would have made such different choices. As a Church, we need to rethink what we are doing. Do we really need so many staff pastors at our churches rather than having a Christian school that is tuition-free? Why doesn’t every church have a Christian school or cop-op with other churches to have one? Why isn’t homeschooling taught from every pulpit? Christian public school teachers won’t be insulted. We know what’s going on inside the schools; we’re there! (I’m there as a missionary, not because I think public schools are where our children need to be.)

Jesus loved the children! He told His disciples not to keep the children from Him. But we are doing just that! Aren’t you ready for a change? I am!

© 2014 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved.

For permission to copy, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com

Who's in Charge? -- Jude 25

Jude 25


"To God our Savior, Who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen."
I’d like to say that, as Americans, we have trouble with submission, but the fact is, as human beings, we have trouble with submission. Since the first sin in the Garden of Eden, we have wanted to be wiser, more powerful, and more in control than God. It’s just that simple.

"Then the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’ So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate" (Genesis 3:4-6 NKJ).

"You will be like God."

The Father had already put Adam and Eve into the perfect living conditions. They ruled over all the animals that had been created. They lived in a garden where they could simple pluck and eat. They communed with God everyday. There was no sin, no sadness, no pain, no sorrow, no problems.

But there was one thing. They were presented with the idea that they could be like God and that sounded good. For some reason—like all the rest of us—they didn’t trust God completely. And rebellion felt so good.

Notice that Eve doesn’t evidence any of the characteristics that we would normally associate with rebellion. She isn’t screaming or being abusive. She isn’t acting outrageous or demanding her own way. But one thing she does; she refuses to believe God. This is the heart of rebellion.

Jude tells us this: God alone is wise. But more than that, God alone deserves the glory and majesty. God alone had all dominion and power. God is God. He is Creator, Master, Ruler. He’s the boss! And not only the boss, but He is the only One who really understands what’s going on and has the insight and power to do something about it.

How many times have I jumped the gun, trying to manipulate the people around me or control the circumstances, only to discover that I can’t? In fact, even though I’d like to think I can, what I end up doing is simply making more of a mess. God alone is wise and rather than trying to put my own imprint upon a situation, what I should do is pray, pray, and pray some more. Then, if God tells me to do something, then do that! Otherwise, I already know what to do because I’m always to live out the fruit of the Spirit . . . in every situation. That’s my responsibility. Everything is God’s. To Him is the dominion and the power because He alone is wise.

And Jude emphasizes this with "now and forever." God doesn’t ever stop being God. He has the bases covered, not only for today, but for tomorrow and all the tomorrows including the tomorrows we spend in eternity. Always and ever God is in charge . . . and He has the wisdom to do so.

Aren’t you glad? I am.

© 2014 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved.

For permission to copy, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com

He Is Able to Keep Me from Stumbling - Jude 24

Jude 1:24


"Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy"
He who is able to keep me from stumbling.

How?

Notice that it doesn’t say, "Him who will keep you from stumbling." It says, "Him who is able to keep you from stumbling." There is a difference.

The Greek word translated here "keep" is phulasso and has as a connotation the idea of "stressing personal interest in the action" (Vine’s). In other words, I need to want for God to keep me from sin. I need to participate in the process by aligning myself with His will, His desires, His heart. I believe this is strongly related to mercy, or in the Greek charis, which has as a meaning "the divine influence upon the heart, and its reflection in the life" (Strong’s G5485). In other words, there is an interactive component about God’s keeping me from stumbling.

I need to want Him to do it. And that’s more than a feeling. It’s an attitude that determines my actions and once that’s in place, He will keep me from stumbling. But I have to want to not stumble.

There is also a longer-view piece to this. This phrase is attached to another phrase:

Him who is able to keep you from stumbling –> present you faultless before His presence

When are we presented? On the last day, after we die or after we are raptured. This is the long view. While our Father is concerned about even the smallest day-to-day issues in our lives, His concern is against the backdrop of eternity. We often concern ourselves with day-to-day issues as they affect our desires (our lusts), but God is concerned on how they will affect where we spend eternity!

I’m a school teacher. Often during the last quarter of school, the students (and, to be honest, the teachers) are so tired of the push in school. Students just want to play and it doesn’t matter where. Soon, during that quarter, discipline can become such a chore because even the best students are simply done! They want to be out in the sunshine with their friends, not cooped up in the classroom learning very uninteresting stuff like how to punctuate dialogue. But as a teacher, it’s important that I not only get them ready for next year, but that I get them ready for life. If I am to do my job with excellence, I need to have a long view of each child’s education, including the fact that time is so limited and there is so much to learn! So during spring days, I have to find better ways to teach, better ways to engage each student, better ways to convince them that they do need to learn this or that.

The Lord is often like that with us. We are so enmeshed in the feelings of the moment we fail to see the much larger picture of eternity. But the Lord sees it! And He does everything necessary to convince us that we need to obey Him in all situations in order to be presented faultless before His presence. That doesn’t mean we earn our salvation, but we must work with Him in the acceptance of our salvation. God will never foist it on us; we must embrace it. His mercy is interactive. It is His "divine influence on my heart" and it is "the reflection of that grace in my life."

He is able to keep us from stumbling, but we must trust Him! We must look to Him, obey Him, cling to Him, love Him above all other things. If we do that, He will present us faultless before His Throne of Grace.

Have I Done My Best?

By Audrey Mieir

Have I done my best for Jesus

After all He’s done for me?

Have I proven my devotion?

Have I served Him faithfully?

When I meet Him up in heaven,

His approval I shall see.

If I have done my best for Jesus,

He will do His best for me.

 

© 1958 Manna Music.

 

© 2014 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved.

For permission to copy, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com

Build Yourselves Up - Jude 17-23

Jude 1:17-23

But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; they said to you, "In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions." It is these who set up divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit. But you, beloved, build yourselves up on your most holy faith; pray in the Holy Spirit; keep yourselves in the love of God; wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And convince some, who doubt; save some, by snatching them out of the fire; on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. (RSV)

Scoffers. Some versions use "mockers."

I think of mockers as someone who makes fun of something, like a stand-up comic. That’s not what’s meant here. A scoffer or a mocker is someone who has an open dislike or disrespect, often mixed with indignation. "How could you possibly believe that?" "Why can’t you be open-minded and accepting of others?"

Sound familiar?

"There will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions." Don’t be misled into believing this is only about one group of people. Those who have a disrespect, a dislike, of God’s narrow view of righteousness, who mix with that an indignation that their rights have been violated by God’s standards, also set up divisions; they are devoid of the Spirit.

Just this week I watched part of a video posted online by a Southern Baptist pastor. This pastor has asked his church to embrace the LBGTQ community and their lifestyle. (You can watch the video here if you wish: http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2014/06/03/3444241/southern-baptist-pastor-changes-view-on-homosexuality-accepts-gay-son/). While I personally feel that the American Church has moved far beyond the constraints of the gospel in their approach to sin outside of the Church, the fact is that this pastor is only one of many who are setting up divisions. And while this pastor makes a passionate case for his decisions, as believers we need to ask ourselves: Who deserves our loyalty?

If our loyalty is to those around us, then this pastor is right in reaching out his hand to embrace every soul he meets. However, if our loyalty is to God, then we must maintain that God’s love—evidenced by the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus on the cross—is enough to overcome every sin, every selfish desire, every lust of the flesh.

So what are the steps to holding ourselves pure and holy, loyal to our Heavenly Father? Jude outlines:

• Building yourselves up on your most holy faith
• Pray in the Spirit
• Keep yourselves in the love of God
• Wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life
• Convince some of those who doubt
• Save some
• On some, have mercy with fear

Building yourselves up on your most holy faith.

A recent article came to my attention about Biblical illiteracy (http://www.thepropheticyears.com/comments/Most%20who%20call%20themselves%20evangelical%20Christians%20are%20biblically%20illiterate.htm). Illiteracy is the inability to read or write, but Biblical illiteracy is the state of not knowing what the Bible says. When I was growing up, you could walk into most Protestant churches, particularly evangelical and Pentecostal churches, and the vast majority of folks would have their Bibles, not only on their laps, but open, reading along with the pastor. Pastors were taught to say the scripture references three times and wait until everyone had their Bible open. Then, I think, as more and more English versions were published, people stopped taking their Bibles to church because it was too hard to follow along if you had a different version than your pastor. After awhile, folks stopped reading their Bibles altogether, just relying on the little bit of Bible teaching they got in the hour on Sunday morning. Churches stopped having Sunday School and Children’s Church became more about entertainment than teaching. Midweek services went to cell groups which became more about discussion than study.

We have stopped building ourselves up.

It’s not enough to simply "get saved." We have to continually work at being the disciples of Christ. The Greek definition of "building up" is: "To finish the structure of which the foundation has already been laid, to give constant increase in Christian knowledge and in a life conformed thereto." (Strong’s G2026) Jude said to "build yourselves up on your most holy faith." Our faith is holy. It sets us apart to God. It also sets us apart from the world. But in order to have that faith, we must work to build upon our initial salvation experience. And that means study. Hard work and study. We have to turn off our TV’s, turn off our devices, and sink ourselves fully into the Word through study and prayer. We need to turn away from the reality shows and turn back to the books written by godly men and women (not just the best sellers on the Christian book list). We need to be discerning about the teachers we embrace, to look at their lives first to make sure they can be trusted, rather than simply to read something because it’s popular.

We need to build up our faith.


Pray in the Spirit
This is more than just praying in tongues and more than just praying. In fact, rather than just blurting out what we think we want to say to God, perhaps what we should start doing is asking Him what we should pray for.

A number of years ago I did a study on The Lord’s Prayer. I found it interesting that when the Lord Jesus taught us to pray, His prayer was much more about worshiping God and aligning us to His will than about my telling God what He should do for me. The fact is, God is much more able to take care of me than I am able to take care of myself. My job is the live out the fruit of the Spirit through His power and trust Him to do everything else.

When we pray in the Spirit, we pray God’s will back to Him. The purpose of our prayers becomes about His changing our lives, rather than His becoming our purchasing agent. The apostle James writes: "You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions." (James 4:3 RSV). The KJV says "pray amiss" (or wrongly). We pray and don’t receive, so we become discouraged and stop praying. We begin to doubt the Lord has the power to do anything and we turn away, refusing to question that maybe the problem isn’t God. Maybe it’s us! We need to learn to actively and daily pray in the Spirit, praying the way He wants (and has commanded) us to pray. Then our prayers will be successful.


Keep yourselves in the love of God
Keep yourselves. Guard yourselves. Prevent from escaping.

There is, within us, a free will which can decide at any moment to cling to our Savior or to walk away. His love, while extended to the world through salvation, is reserved for His children, those He has adopted as His own. Any who choose to accept His offered gift are adopted and granted the privilege to call Him Father. All others will be judged on the last day.

We can stay . . . or we can go. Jude admonishes us to keep ourselves in that love. After study, after prayer, we still have a choice.


Wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life
We don’t wait well. We are a society that wants it now and bemoans that we might have to wait a few seconds to have our lusts gratified.

Christianity, on the other hand, is always and completely about waiting. Waiting on God. Waiting for heaven. Waiting for answers to prayer. Waiting, waiting, waiting.

God has the long view. He understands that everything we choose and do in this life affects eternity. We, on the other hand, like to ignore consequences, living in the lust of the moment. Think about it! When you go into a restaurant, what’s one of the first questions you ask yourself: "What do I want to eat? What sounds good? What looks good? What do I feel like eating?" All questions based on the lust of the flesh, rather than what’s actually good for us. The Father, however, always thinks about consequences because there are only two: eternal life or eternal hell. And because He loves us so much, He wants us always to have eternal life. He works constantly toward that end. That’s why He sent Jesus to die. That’s why He sent the Holy Spirit to live within us and teach us. That’s why He gave us His Word. And if we are going to be successful about living as He wants us to live, we are going to have to learn how to wait on Him.


Convince SOME, save SOME, and on SOME, have mercy with fear
Ministering to others is always going to be about approach and then about success and failure. Not everyone we minister to is going to accept the gospel. Not everyone is going to respond to us.

That makes sense. Not everyone responds to God . . . and if they won’t listen to Him, why would they possibly listen to us? But our efforts should always be outward, reaching, teaching, ministering. SOME will be convinced. SOME will be saved. SOME will respond to mercy.

Why mercy with fear? Because when we extend mercy to sinners, we have to be so careful that our mercy doesn’t become tolerance or acceptance. Sin is sin and our efforts should always be to gently compel people back into the Father’s arms. In doing so, we must be so careful that we love the sinner, but refuse to approve of the sin. We are all sinners. We all sin. In approaching someone else’s sin, we must be careful that our motives aren’t selfish. And we must always watch that we ourselves don’t sin in the process.

The onslaught of culture change has swiftly come on America, but not so swiftly as some would presume. The change in culture from "Christian" to post-Christian came many years ago before many were born and it came from within the Church itself. We were always strong against the onslaught from the outside, but we were defeated from within. Jude isn’t talking about non-Christians in this passage; he’s talking about those from within the Church itself. We, as a Church, have allowed this because we became lazy, complacent, and preoccupied with things that don’t count. We have traded family worship for sports, private prayer for TV, Bible study for the Internet. We all do what’s important to us. Perhaps it’s time we looked at our lives again to decide whether or not our focus is on what’s important in this moment or what’s important for all eternity.

© 2014 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved.

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