Abridged Post: A Message To The Church (Jude 1:3-4)
PLEASE CHALLENGE MY BLOG ENTRIES WITH PRAYER & TAKE THE TIME TO STUDY, RESEARCH, AND COMPARE MY WORDS WITH THE WORD OF GOD, THE BIBLE, TO ENSURE THEY ARE IN AGREEMENT.
Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. 2 Timothy 2:15
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| Musicerend gezelschap (Music company). School of Adriaan Brouwer. ca. 1620 and 1750. |
When the brother of Jesus wrote his epistle, he wanted
to talk about the glory of salvation in Christ Jesus, but something was amiss.
Something concerned him so much that he wrote Jude 1:3-4 (NKJV):
3 Beloved, although I
made every effort to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt it
necessary to write and urge you to contend earnestly for the faith entrusted
once for all to the saints. 4 For certain men have crept in among you
unnoticed—ungodly ones who were designated long ago for condemnation. They turn
the grace of our God into a license for immorality, and they deny our only
Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
Like Jude, I am witnessing people who confess to being Christians saying the most heinous and blasphemous things that are contrary to what Jesus said (e.g., Matthew 5: click here to read the chapter) on television, print media, and internet social media sites (e.g., YouTube).
In this abridge blog entry, I am going to concentrate
on the latter, internet social media sites. I have faith that if you watch and/or
read the news, you will be able to discern what I am referring to when I state,
“people who confess to being Christians saying the most heinous and blasphemous
things that are contrary to what Jesus said,” if you read Matthew, chapter 5.
For full disclosure, I am an avid watcher of YouTube
videos and not just of Christian content postings. I enjoy watching and
listening to music, movies, news reports, news commentary, science, and videos
I think are fun and funny.
But regarding Christian content videos, it bothers me
when I see a video tag that says something to the effect that they are going to
tell you a grand, arcane, esoteric (or any other adjective you can think of)
secret or some hidden message in the Bible they are privy to.
To be clear, nothing is hidden in God’s Word!
Everything God wants us to know is in Scripture.
I believe some of the sites use the adjectives I mentioned above to grab your attention to watch their videos. And for full disclosure, again, I am a subscriber to some of the channels that title their videos this way. But again, God has not hidden anything. If you do not know anything about what they are presenting, it is because of a couple of reasons:
1. You recently became a Christian
2. You do not study your Bible outside of the church
If you desire to know God on a deeper level, I want to
use an analogy and compare your knowledge of the Bible to math.
Before you can solve any math problem, you must first
learn numbers. Once you have mastered numbers, the next step is to learn simple
arithmetic – addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Once you have
graduated from simple arithmetic comes learning how to do algebra, geometry,
trigonometry, statistics, etc. And after that comes more complex mathematics.
Depending on how far you want to know, understand, and be competent in math, it
is up to you.
·
The Bible, God’s Word, is the same; this is
why the apostle Paul wrote to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:15 (NKJV): “Be diligent to
present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed,
rightly dividing the word of truth.”
·
Just like being in school when your teacher
assigns homework, God is doing the same. Our Teacher, in this instance, is the
Holy Spirit – “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My
name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things
that I said to you. (John 14:26, NKJV)”
·
The Bible is God’s Teacher’s textbook
edition. The answers are within the pages; you just have to take the time to
read through it. King Solomon described it
this way in Proverbs 25:2 (NKJV): “It is the glory of God to conceal a matter,
But the glory of kings is to search out a matter.”
·
Two other reasons for God doing this way are
so you will grow closer to Him and so that you can discern God’s truth from man’s
truth: “1 Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times
some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and
doctrines of devils; 2 Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their
conscience seared with a hot iron. (1 Timothy 4:1-2, NKJV).”
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| False Prophets, Revelation 1613, Queen Mary Apocalypse, England, c. 1300-1325 |
Remember: ALWAYS check to see if anything you hear or are told, even this blog entry, lines up with scripture; first, check to make sure if it does or doesn’t, and second, if it doesn’t – REJECT IT!
NOTHING IS
HIDDEN IN GOD’S WORD.
Here is a link to an excellent article - Mistaking
the Voice of Man for the Voice of God - I found on this topic by Dr. Brad
Klassen, Associate Professor of Bible Exposition & Bible Exposition
Department Chair at The Master’s Seminary in Los Angeles, CA.
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Here is the sinner’s prayer if you are moved to give your life to Christ, and please send me an email if you would like me to say a prayer for you –
“Dear Lord Jesus, I know that I am a sinner, and I ask for Your forgiveness. I believe You died for my sins and rose from the dead. I turn from my sins and invite You to come into my heart and life. I want to trust and follow You as my Lord and Savior. In Your Name. Amen.”
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Leni D. Anderson BA ArtH., MLIS, MA in Apologetics &
Cosmogony (ABT).
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