March 25th 2024
Have You Joined The Saints Team Yet?
Jude 1:3 (NIV)
Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints.
I performed a word search on my NIV Bible files for “saint” and received the message that there is NO reference to the word saint in the NIV New Testament. Then I searched for the word “saints” and received 45 verses in the NIV New Testament that contain the word saints. This grouping of individuals is exactly how we should view Christianity! Although, each person must make their individual commitment to become a follower of Jesus Christ, we immediately become a member of the Christian faith! We become children in the family of God! We are now one of the saints!
Jude went on to write how when you become a follower of Jesus Christ you no longer agree with anyone who does not become a believer, AKA a saint. In this cursed world there are only two types of believers, the saints follow Jesus Christ, and everyone else follows a god or gods of this world, which are being influenced by Satan! So, the only the saints are influenced by the Holy Spirit that Jesus left behind for us!
Following is the selected verse in context as Jude wrote it!
Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints. For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord. Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe. And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their own home—these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day.
After reading what Jude wrote it seemed to indicate how people today are not very different now than they were in his day. In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire. In the very same way, these dreamers pollute their own bodies, reject authority and slander celestial beings. (Jude 1:3-8).
Many people today want to have the freedom to have sexual activity, and if such activity may result in the formation of a human embryo, they want to be able to kill the forming human baby, as they do not want it, and they did not plan for a pregnancy to occur. They just wanted to have sex as a form of pleasure for themselves, and possibly for the other participant.
Paul wrote to the church in Galatia about how people are changed in a positive way by becoming followers of Jesus Christ. Before accepting our salvation, we would be guided mostly by our sinful nature. The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. However, after being born again we are changed and now we become guided to produce fruit by the Holy Spirit! But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. (Galatians 5:19-24).
Paul wrote to the church in Ephesus about the plans Jesus has for His earthly churches. He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.) It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fulness of Christ. (Ephesians 4:10-13). This describes the plans Jesus has for supplying leaders for His earthly churches.
Are you fulfilling one of these leader positions at the church of your choice?
Your brother in life through Adam, your brother in eternity through Jesus,
Bob Moak
Jude 1:3 (NIV)
Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints.
I performed a word search on my NIV Bible files for “saint” and received the message that there is NO reference to the word saint in the NIV New Testament. Then I searched for the word “saints” and received 45 verses in the NIV New Testament that contain the word saints. This grouping of individuals is exactly how we should view Christianity! Although, each person must make their individual commitment to become a follower of Jesus Christ, we immediately become a member of the Christian faith! We become children in the family of God! We are now one of the saints!
Jude went on to write how when you become a follower of Jesus Christ you no longer agree with anyone who does not become a believer, AKA a saint. In this cursed world there are only two types of believers, the saints follow Jesus Christ, and everyone else follows a god or gods of this world, which are being influenced by Satan! So, the only the saints are influenced by the Holy Spirit that Jesus left behind for us!
Following is the selected verse in context as Jude wrote it!
Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints. For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord. Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe. And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their own home—these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day.
After reading what Jude wrote it seemed to indicate how people today are not very different now than they were in his day. In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire. In the very same way, these dreamers pollute their own bodies, reject authority and slander celestial beings. (Jude 1:3-8).
Many people today want to have the freedom to have sexual activity, and if such activity may result in the formation of a human embryo, they want to be able to kill the forming human baby, as they do not want it, and they did not plan for a pregnancy to occur. They just wanted to have sex as a form of pleasure for themselves, and possibly for the other participant.
Paul wrote to the church in Galatia about how people are changed in a positive way by becoming followers of Jesus Christ. Before accepting our salvation, we would be guided mostly by our sinful nature. The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. However, after being born again we are changed and now we become guided to produce fruit by the Holy Spirit! But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. (Galatians 5:19-24).
Paul wrote to the church in Ephesus about the plans Jesus has for His earthly churches. He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.) It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fulness of Christ. (Ephesians 4:10-13). This describes the plans Jesus has for supplying leaders for His earthly churches.
Are you fulfilling one of these leader positions at the church of your choice?
Your brother in life through Adam, your brother in eternity through Jesus,
Bob Moak