Well today I want you to see 2 things that is 1st the beauty of the Irish sunrise, yesterday if you remember I had a picture of an Irish sunset and now the opposite today. "It's always blackest just before the dawn" me mither use to say [Conas ta tu?] (How are you? in Irish)
We are well underway in the "Last of the Great moves" (at least for me I used to move myself when I would change Pastorates (I'd rent a truck and my step-father who worked for the U.S. Government and was in charge of all types of things {see my memory is going, what's next my ability to taste coffee?} (parish the thought!!!)
We would pack things so tightly that one time one of the kids got blocked in the truck and we had to feed them through a straw for thee days until we unloaded the truck! (That's a joke dear Reader, don't send me all those letters from the S. P. C. C. !)
The other thing that I want you to see is a warning Lets turn in our Companion Bibles to the Little Book of Jude! Only one chapter 25 lines (or verses) and the they warning to Believers (Christians) non Christians won't read this so this is just between you and me Gentle Reader, Shhhh! Jude tells us he was the brother of James--who was more widely known as bishop of Jerusalem and "brother of the Lord" (that is, either cousin, or stepbrother, being son of Joseph by a former marriage; for ancient traditions universally agree that Mary, Jesus' mother, continued perpetually a virgin). Jude therefore calls himself modestly "brother of James."
He is writing to those who are preserved in Jesus Christ--"kept." Translate not "in," but as Greek, "FOR Jesus Christ." "Kept continually by God the Father for Jesus Christ," against the day of His coming. The reason why he felt it necessary "to write with exhortation," he states in the 4th verse "For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.
Then Jude gives us 3 examples of what has already started with the community of believing Christians the first example is that of men (I think both men and women) who were joined together with the fledgling churches)
His first example is that of those who came out of Egypt (but were destroyed by God in the desert (Verse 5) Why? simply because "Light can have no fellowship with darkness" Turn on a light and the dark cannot stay like the bugs that come out at night but turn on the light and they scurry away.
The 2nd example that Jude gives us is that of the "And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day; although we are not certain it could be that he is referring to the angels that were talked about in Genesis 6 (interesting study) it seems that Jude is talking about Sodom and Gomorrah and all that entailed.
And close on the heels of that statement is that of Jude's reference to perhaps the apocryphal book of Enoch or Josephus, or "The Assumption of Moses," ( "Yet Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil, when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, "The Lord rebuke you!" (Verse 9)
He goes on gto point out that these types of people are within the churches of the time in which he wrote and so Gentle Reader, they would be even today within your fellowships. So a warning is in order, When you hear a preacher or anyone talk about The Bible don't let the dust of that old book remain undusted get it out check it out for yourself! Don't let some self styled person tell you what to believe! You check them out! Why even the Apostle Paul was subject to the close watchfulness of believers.
But these are easy to spot he equates and compares their conduct with the wickedness of three of the worst Old Testament apostates: Cain, Balaam, and Korah. The reason for the selection of these three was also probably that of their sins being similar to the sins of the wicked Gnostics. Like Cain, they were innovators with a fierce hatred of any who rejected their ideas. Like Balaam, they were greedy, covetous, and willing to do any dishonorable thing whatever for the sake of money. Like Korah, they rebelled against God's appointed authorities, the sacred apostles, prophets and teachers of the new covenant, just as Korah had rebelled against Moses.( they come into your fellowship and to to wreck your sweet fellowship, They wish to divide one against another. Why do we have believer against another (Perhaps one is not a "real " believer!) Perhaps one is an apostate [apostasy= the abandonment of a former loyalty]
Does that mean then Gentle Reader that we should not have compassion on those who set themselves against themselves. No! not at all but when you are reaching out to an apostate Be careful that you are not taken in with them!
Pray for all the lost, strayed and stolen people in the world. For they have been stolen by Satan.
As they use to say on "Hill Street blues "Lets be careful out there!"
Denis
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