Jude Guard That precious priceless faith

Scripture selections are taken from the Rock Church Daily Bread Reading schedule for each month. “Lena’s Journalin’” are Lena’s comments on the specific passages from her Daily Journal.

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Jude 1:1-25 -
Greetings from Jude
1This letter is from Jude, a slave of Jesus Christ and a brother of James. I am writing to all who are called to live in the love of God the Father and the care of Jesus Christ.
2May you receive more and more of God's mercy, peace, and love.
The Danger of False Teachers
3Dearly loved friends, I had been eagerly planning to write to you about the salvation we all share. But now I find that I must write about something else, urging you to defend the truth of the Good News. F1 God gave this unchanging truth once for all time to his holy people. 4I say this because some godless people have wormed their way in among you, saying that God's forgiveness allows us to live immoral lives. The fate of such people was determined long ago, for they have turned against our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
5I must remind you—and you know it well—that even though the Lord F2 rescued the whole nation of Israel from Egypt, he later destroyed every one of those who did not remain faithful. 6And I remind you of the angels who did not stay within the limits of authority God gave them but left the place where they belonged. God has kept them chained in prisons of darkness, waiting for the day of judgment. 7And don't forget the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighboring towns, which were filled with sexual immorality and every kind of sexual perversion. Those cities were destroyed by fire and are a warning of the eternal fire that will punish all who are evil.
8Yet these false teachers, who claim authority from their dreams, live immoral lives, defy authority, and scoff at the power of the glorious ones. F3 9But even Michael, one of the mightiest of the angels, did not dare accuse Satan of blasphemy, but simply said, "The Lord rebuke you." (This took place when Michael was arguing with Satan about Moses' body.) 10But these people mock and curse the things they do not understand. Like animals, they do whatever their instincts tell them, and they bring about their own destruction. 11How terrible it will be for them! For they follow the evil example of Cain, who killed his brother. Like Balaam, they will do anything for money. And like Korah, they will perish because of their rebellion.
12When these people join you in fellowship meals celebrating the love of the Lord, they are like dangerous reefs that can shipwreck you. F4 They are shameless in the way they care only about themselves. They are like clouds blowing over dry land without giving rain, promising much but producing nothing. They are like trees without fruit at harvesttime. They are not only dead but doubly dead, for they have been pulled out by the roots. 13They are like wild waves of the sea, churning up the dirty foam of their shameful deeds. They are wandering stars, heading for everlasting gloom and darkness.
14Now Enoch, who lived seven generations after Adam, prophesied about these people. He said,
"Look, the Lord is coming with thousands of his holy ones.
15 He will bring the people of the world to judgment. He will convict the ungodly of all the evil things they have done in rebellion and of all the insults that godless sinners have spoken against him." F5
16These people are grumblers and complainers, doing whatever evil they feel like. They are loudmouthed braggarts, and they flatter others to get favors in return.
A Call to Remain Faithful
17But you, my dear friends, must remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ told you, 18that in the last times there would be scoffers whose purpose in life is to enjoy themselves in every evil way imaginable. 19Now they are here, and they are the ones who are creating divisions among you. They live by natural instinct because they do not have God's Spirit living in them.
20But you, dear friends, must continue to build your lives on the foundation of your holy faith. And continue to pray as you are directed by the Holy Spirit. F6 21Live in such a way that God's love can bless you as you wait for the eternal life that our Lord Jesus Christ in his mercy is going to give you. 22Show mercy to those whose faith is wavering. 23Rescue others by snatching them from the flames of judgment. There are still others to whom you need to show mercy, but be careful that you aren't contaminated by their sins. F7
A Prayer of Praise
24And now, all glory to God, who is able to keep you from stumbling, and who will bring you into his glorious presence innocent of sin and with great joy. 25All glory to him, who alone is God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Yes, glory, majesty, power, and authority belong to him, in the beginning, now, and forevermore. Amen.

~ Lena’s Journalin’~
What is this life and the warfare of it about? It is about faith, having faith in God our Father, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. THAT is what natural and eternal life are about, for our God is the God of faith, faith moves God, faith pleases God and nothing is impossible to him who believes by faith in His words.
Faith is the substance of things hoped for (hope here means - expectation of good) and the evidence of what is not yet seen.
Everything we now see was once invisible to our natural eyes, even you were once invisible, but were made visible, framed in by faith. Some things were put here by God’s own faith, and some things He had men form by their faith in His world, the principles of His world, the elements of it, and the operation of His word and the elements of it. When we bring unseen things out into our visible world this is pleasing to God because we are acting, being and creating, just like Him.
So, again, what is the enemy of God after? Our faith. Now if you knew you had an enemy and you knew he was on his way to your house, what’d you do? Prepare, get on guard, take up weaponry, etc.
There is an enemy of our souls roaring about and seeking whose faith he is able to devour. Is that faith as precious to you as say the things in your own house? It is to God. If we lose faith, especially faith in God, where are we but lost, eternally lost?
So we are to be on guard. Jude gives us plenty of awareness, almost like a briefing of what is coming against and after our faith, how it shows up, what form it takes on, what masks it wears, then he says one way to keep your faith strong enough to win this battle is to pray in the Holy Spirit! Amen.
Ya know there are many ways to pray. Jude knows that even prayers can be in error and be ineffective in guarding our faith. Ineffective prayers are prayers offered in the flesh or in the soul. Like begging or wishing prayers. Begging and wishing with God does not go very far. Remember it is faith that moves God. Now if we know that begging and wishing cause absolutely nothing to change, and all they do is cause us to feel a tiny bit less pressure, for we vented off some steam, then would we not want to pray in a more effective way to get the “job” done? Jude has given us Divinely natured instructions for a more effective prayer life.
Let me ask you, why prayer anyway? Well as we teach our children, prayer is talking with God for the building of relationship. There are many different kinds of prayers. Some petition, some intercede, some are for conversations sake. There is another that declares into the seen realm that which has not yet been seen by human eyes.
Such as, your son or daughter leaves home pre-maturely, goes off in the prodigal way, is feeling their “oats”, headed down a wrong pathway, headed for destruction. You see that, they think they are having fun, no biggie. In order to reverse the direction they’ve decided to head, you tell them they should take another roadway, they pretty much laugh in your face telling you they know full well what they are doing and don’t plan to take “your” road, thank you. In order that they are not destroyed, for you as a parent see the pathway that leads to destruction, for you yourself may have gone that way before, you “see” it ahead, but you do not want them to continue that way. Talking to them did not change the situation. Prayer will, if it is the prayer of the faith of a very insistent parent.
This parent-intercessor must “see” the desired path and through faith call that unseen (for now) directive into the seen world. Usually only God’s power can bring this person “home” to the place of a wholehearted faith in Christ and into eternal life’s security, so we summons that power, we call for His strength, we call for help, reinforcements in the spirit, even angelic hosts as ministers for those who are destined for salvation to come rally to this cause. If we cry and whine, we may as well plan to watch them fall into a few holes, for only our faith in what God has already said about the situation will change the situation! We search to find words of destiny from God’s word, like “our children are not brought forth for trouble”, or “all of our children will be taught by the Lord and their (eternal) peace will be great”….etc. Speaking how we feel about it does nothing for it, but declaring their desired godly end by the power of the words of God which formed our very world, will. Even the worlds were framed by the words of God! Faith in the word of God will frame our world, in fact even faith in other things frames our world! What’s your world looking like? Time to change the picture, make it a picture pleasing to the Lord, change what is or seems to be, to be what He wants it to be, through faith.
FOOTNOTES:F1: Greek to contend for the faith. F2: Some manuscripts read Jesus. F3: The glorious ones are probably evil angels. F4: Or they are contaminants among you, or they are stains. F5: The quotation comes from the Apocrypha: Enoch 1:9. F6: Greek Pray in the Holy Spirit. F7: Greek mercy, hating even the clothing stained by the flesh.
Copyright Statement: Holy Bible, The New Living Translation
And you beloved building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost! Jude 20 NKJV

Daily Repetitive Verses -
John 17:15 I'm not asking you to take them out of the world but to protect them from the evil one.