“Beloved, while I diligently tried to write to you of the salvation we have in common, I found it necessary to write and appeal to you to contend for the faith which was once delivered to the saints.”

— Jude 3

Jude tells us why he wrote his epistle in verse 3. Initially, he had planned to frame a general epistle perhaps something along the line of Romans, which would contain an overview of all Christian doctrine.

But as he was giving all diligence to do this, something had suddenly come up that made it necessary for him to exhort them and to write them about a particular problem, which needed their earnest attention. So we see that the rest of this Epistle of Jude is not what he set out to write in the beginning. But God had other things in mind—he was to remind them and us of a particular error, which was springing up into the church.

The gist of this error is that certain false teachers have crept into the church, “who pervert the grace of our God into immorality and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ” (verse 4).

Their coming had not been noticed; the ungodliness was not observed, but now they are in the church and now they are turning the grace of God into liberty to sin. Therefore, he contends earnestly for the faith, which was once delivered unto the saints. God has called us to liberty. But it is wrong to turn that liberty into a license to do whatever our sinful heart desires to do.

Lord, give me strength for today to never take Your grace for granted. Free us from false teachers who preach that sin is permissible and without consequences. Help us to take sin seriously…

BY GOD’S STRENGTH,
WE CAN RECEIVE GOD’S GRACE.

“I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ.”

— Philippians 1:6

Jude is one of the shortest books in the New Testament, but it has much to say. For example, even in the opening, after identifying himself as the author, Jude speaks of those to whom he is addressing his letter: “To those who are sanctified and called by God the Father and preserved in Jesus Christ…”

We see that when we are Christians we have been called by God, by His Holy Spirit unto Him. This is that effectual calling, which by the Spirit, combining with the Word, quickens a person from the deadness of sin and brings them into a condition of saving faith and repentance. They also have been preserved.

Here is the perseverance of the saints—we are preserved by God. We are kept, as Peter says, by God. It is good to know that we are saved by Christ, we are saved by His grace, but we are also kept by that same grace.

The very same grace that saves us, keeps us, and holds us. At this point in my Christian life, after decades of following the Lord, it is more astonishing to me that He has kept me over all of these years than that I was converted in the first place. And when I think of all of the ways that I have failed Him, and have come so far short of what He would have had me to be, I am astonished that He preserves me in the faith. What the Lord has started, He promises to finish.

Faithful Father, thank You for keeping us in the faith. Thank You for upholding us by Your mighty hand and thank You that You will complete the work You started in us…

BY GOD’S STRENGTH,
WE ARE KEPT FOR ETERNITY.

“For to me, to continue living is Christ, and to die is gain.”

— Philippians 1:21

This statement from Paul should be engraved like an intaglio upon the heart of every Christian. However, there are many cheap substitutes that clamor for our attention that we must eschew. To live is…

… NOT PLEASURE

“For me to live is pleasure,” cry a whole host of voices today. For surely the Bible says that sin has its pleasure for a season—then come the consequences.

… NOT MONEY

There are others who would replace Christ with “money.” “For me to live is money.” They spend most of their waking hours, energy, and thoughts, trying to gain money. But to what ultimate end?

… NOT FAME

Others would say: “For me to live is fame.” They give their whole lives to its accomplishment. Perhaps they rise to the top of the ladder, but where are they then? They find themselves saying, “Is this all there is?” How many realize that the ladder they have sold their soul to climb is leaning on the wrong building?

… BUT CHRIST

To live for Him is the secret of life. He goes on to say, “…and to die is gain.” Consider the other substitutes: For me to live is pleasure/wealth/fame/etc., and to die is an unutterable tragedy; it is the loss of all I spent my whole life working for. How sad it is that so many do not find until they are at the very brink of eternity that they have spent their lives foolishly.

Lord of wisdom and power, give me strength for today to not accept cheap substitutes. Allow me to experience the true riches found in You. Help me to be eternally grateful for Your sacrifice for me. When I come to my own death, let it be my eternal gain…

BY GOD’S STRENGTH,
WE LIVE AND DIE.

“So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed only a few days to him because of the love he had for her.”

— Genesis 29:20

We are all familiar with Mel Gibson’s film, The Passion of the Christ. But turn the words around, now that we are saved, Christ should be the passion of our lives.

Someone said that one man with a passion is worth a hundred men with an interest. There are a lot of people here who have an interest in religion, but, alas, I am afraid very few who have a passion for Christ. I have had the joy of knowing a few, and they stand out in my mind. They, indeed, are stars that flash through the heavens.

As the Scripture says, “Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament, and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever” (Daniel 12:3 nkjv). They will not suddenly be eclipsed or fade away. They will shine forever.

Is Christ the passion of your life? Jesus came with a heart full of passion. He said, “As the Father has sent Me, I also send you” (John 20:21 nkjv). So, too, should our hearts beat with a love for Christ.

In Genesis, we read that because Jacob so loved Rachel, the days flew by as he worked for seven years to become her husband. He was a man with a passionate goal, motivated by love.

Who or what are you passionately in love with? What do you long for and love to do?

My Savior and Lord, give me a new passion, a deeper love for You. If ever my love for You grows cold or old, bring me back to the cross and show me anew Your love for me. Thank You for loving us first…

BY GOD’S STRENGTH AND LOVE,
WE LOVE ALSO.

“To them God would make known what is the glorious riches of this mystery among the nations. It is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

— Colossians 1:27

Christ is the power of my life. The Bible says that Christ will come to dwell in our hearts—that we can be strengthened with His might in the inner man and be able to accomplish many wonderful things through His strength.

We had a number of folks come over to our house one time for some fellowship. Later in the evening, one of the young men said, “I have a question.”

I said, “Yes. Don’t make it too hard or I will have to go and ask my wife. What is it?”

He said, “How do you do it?”

And I asked, “Do what?”

He replied, “How do you do all that you have to do over there? Do you have unlimited energy?”

I just started laughing. I can’t think of anyone who naturally has any less energy than I do, or any less strength than I do, but I have discovered a wonderful secret— the secret Paul had discovered, when he said, “I can do all things because of Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13).

Have you discovered that secret? I know from my own experience that Christ is the power of my life, because I know that I have done innumerable things that I was absolutely certain I could not do before. He has enabled me to do them. Christ is the power. We can be strengthened with might in the inner man to do things we never dreamt we could do because Christ lives in us.

Almighty God, You are the all-powerful one. Give me strength for today to see my weakness and physical limitations, and my spiritual shortcomings. Thank You for being the strength of my life…

BY GOD’S STRENGTH,
WE ARE STRONG.

“For to this you were called, because Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps.”

— 1 Peter 2:21

Christ has left for us an “example.” The Greek term hupogrammos is an interesting one that means, literally, an “underwriting.” This is a reference to that which was done in the Greek schools at the time when the teacher would very carefully write out the letters of the Greek alphabet for the primary students. Then the students would write over them in their own feeble attempts to reproduce and imitate the example the teacher had left.

Many years ago, I visited one of the Hebrew classes at our Knox Theological Seminary. The students were doing what I clearly remembered doing some 50 years ago, and that is, carefully trying to copy those Hebrew letters.

Christ has also given us an alphabet of life. He has given us an example—an underwriting by His life for us to follow. He is the great exemplar. He is the perfect person to imitate. Would you like to know what life is supposed to be like? Look at Jesus Christ; He embodies it all Himself—the perfect example of goodness and truth and love and kindness and firmness and righteousness and justice. Of course, no one can live up to His example. But after we receive His salvation, His Spirit gives us the grace to live in a way that pleases Him.

He is the pattern of our life as well as the purpose and parent of our lives. Therefore, He is our life.

Lord Jesus, give me strength for today to follow in Your footsteps. Help me to follow Your example: Your patience with Your disciples, Your compassion to all, Your kindness even to the outcasts, Your concern for Your Father’s house…

BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE CAN
WALK IN JESUS’ FOOTSTEPS.

“That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”

— John 3:6

The Scripture makes it plain that as we are born by nature, we are merely flesh—flesh that is corrupting, decaying, and dying. That which is flesh is flesh, and it goes the way of all flesh. We need to have a new birth from above. Jesus said we must be born again in a new and glorious and never-dying life.

I remember one time being interviewed by a reporter who said to me, “Are you…Are you one of those…those ‘born-again’ Christians?” I got the very distinct impression that he was under the impression that “born-again Christians” constituted some new denomination that must only recently have come into existence.

I said to him, “Having studied the doctrines of all of the great denominations of Christendom, I am very definitely under the opinion that there is no other kind of Christian than a born-again Christian. According to the creeds and doctrines of every Christian church, it is absolutely essential that one must be born again.”

To put it bluntly, and let me state it categorically: Unless, you are a born again Christian, you are no kind of Christian at all, for there is no other kind. Furthermore, you will never see, said Christ, the inside of Paradise. But if Christ has become the parent of a new and imperishable life, that is a life that is spiritual in nature.

Dear Lord, thank You for giving me a new birth, for bringing me into Your family and making me Your child. Thank You that I am no longer a stranger nor a guest, but a child in Your home…

BY GOD’S STRENGTH,
WE ARE GOD’S ADOPTED CHILD.

“But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, so that through me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear. And I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.”

— 2 Timothy 4:17

March 17 is actually “Sinner Patrick Day.” But though he was a young and rebellious youth, he was to be finally overtaken by the “Hound of Heaven.” This young man from England was captured by pirates. At age 16, living as he did on the beach of the western coast of England, just south of Scotland, he and two of his friends had spent the day in the breakers in the ocean. Suddenly, they looked over here and they saw a whole group of “freebooters”—Irish pirates.

Fast forward years later, after a horrible time as a slave of the Irish, Sinner Patrick became Saint Patrick as he drew close to Jesus Christ. Eventually, he got his chance to escape slavery and escape from Ireland.

But he returned to the place of his humiliating slavery as a missionary of the Gospel after theological training. What an effective ministry he had.

His accomplishment was absolutely gigantic. No one had ever gone to convert a nation outside the rule of Rome, but Patrick did. Every day of his life he was in mortal danger. He was in the midst of some of the fiercest, cruelest people the world has ever seen—the Druids. But he trusted in Christ for his protection as he prayed regularly for the protection of Christ, “Christ before me, Christ behind me….” By the power of the Gospel, he changed that entire nation.

Lord of the nations, thank You for the example of Your servant, St. Patrick, in proclaiming Your Gospel to people who so desperately need You…

LORD, GIVE ME STRENGTH FOR TODAY
TO SPREAD YOUR KINGDOM.

“…I count everything as loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord…”

— Philippians 3:8

Tragically, many people are essentially wandering around in life, aimlessly. For all practical purposes, they are marking time. They are like the proverbial man in jail with marks on the wall, representing how many days, weeks, months, or years he has fulfilled. Many are living as if they are just waiting to die.

But when Christ changed my life, I can now say He is the purpose of my life. Is everything you do done for Christ? From now on, everything is for Christ. I believe I can honestly say that is the ordinary purpose of everything in my life, whether it be to get up or to go to sleep, to exercise or to rest, to eat or to fast, to study or to work, to do anything at all. The great over-arching transcendent purpose of everything I do is for Christ. For with Paul I can say, “For me to live is Christ.” He is the purpose of my existence.

He is so, for if any man is in Christ, he is a new creation with a new purpose, new desires, and new wants to please Christ. I suppose almost every young person going through school goes on that quest in which he tries to answer the questions: “Who am I?” “Why am I here?” Where did I come from, and where am I going?” “What is my purpose for life?” Living for Christ answers all those critical questions.

El Shaddai, You are all sufficient. Thank You that there are answers to the basic questions of life. Thank You for giving meaning and purpose to life. Thank You for revealing the answers…

BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE LIVE
LIVES FULL OF MEANING.

“But what things were gain to me, I have counted these things to be loss for the sake of Christ.”

— Philippians 3:7

During the decade of the 1950s, a bright and brilliant star flashed across the cinematic and recording sky. It was a star that belonged to a young man with a magnificent voice. The name of that young man was Mario Lanza. But suddenly, unexpectedly, inexplicably, he died—a man who some said had, perhaps, the greatest voice ever.

His records sold more copies than any record ever had until that time. His lifetime goal was to portray the life of Enrico Caruso on the screen, a man he most admired. That dream came to pass in the mid-fifties.

My wife, knowing that I enjoyed his singing, bought several of the few motion pictures for me that he had made. One of them, The Toast of New Orleans, was a story about a rough-cut and unkempt young fisherman, at a bayou in Louisiana. When his talent for singing was discovered one day, the man gave him money for a suit and a haircut.

That astonished the young man. He said, “A haircut? …for singing?”

Then the impresario said something I will never forget. He said, “From now on, everything is for singing.”

When I heard those words, I thought: What a beautiful description of what it means to become a Christian. To become a Christian, very simply, is this: From now on, everything is for Christ. Every thought, every motive, every desire, every action, everything we do is to be done for Christ. Thus, our autobiography could well be called “Christ, My Life.”

Jesus Christ, You are my life. Give me strength for today to be single-minded, to keep in mind that I am not my own. I belong to You. Let all I do and say and think today be pleasing to You…

BY GOD’S STRENGTH,
WE CAN LIVE FOR CHRIST.