Category: Devotions

“Weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning” (Psalm 30:5)

You can face today for you will live in a joyful tomorrow.

You may be uncertain about today but you already have the certainty of eternal joy so you can face tomorrow.

You may be wondering where life is taking but you know it is to the place of great joy so you are not afraid.

“To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— ²⁵ to the only God our Saviour be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.” (Jude 24-25)

He’s not only got you but He will be with you till the end when He brings you into great joy!

These are some of the most important words for those today who are uncertain about what they should be doing, where they are going and how much time is left. Lean into the truth that you are going to be brought into great joy!

What the enemy of your soul tries to take from you is immaterial. What your fiercest critic says about you matters not. Even what you might say in your self-condemnatory life does not count. The prognosis may not be good if all there is what is in this world. But for those who follow Jesus we will all be led into an eternal experience of great joy!

If today was your last day on earth it is okay you are safe. There is no need to worry. Your future is secure because your present, today, is full of joy!

Since the first lie in the garden the enemy of our soul has been continually working at telling us we are not good enough for the world we live in and for God.

Every bereavement he has exploited; every accusation he has magnified; every mistake he has echoed; he has continually worked at reminding you of what you don’t have and who you are not; you have fallen short and do not make the grade; you are not acceptable to God or to anyone. This is the work of the father of lies. As you read this you can remember the voice that has tried to destabilise you, blind you and bring you down.

It is time that we stopped listening to such lies.

“To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— to the only God our Saviour be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.” (Jude 24-25)

He will not only keep you from falling; He’s not only got you; He will be with you to the end and will present you faultless before His glorious presence. You make it. You are not only acceptable you are presentable!

When people (or you!) say you are not what you should be then remind yourself of this promise. When the voices of doubt say you need to perform and prove yourself in order to be accepted by God then it is a complete lie. Do not listen to that lie. It is a falsehood. Ignore it.

You are complete in Him; you are alive in Him; you are free and not afraid; you are a child of God and belong to Him; you are without blame within His love; you have peace with God and the peace of God in your mind; you have the Spirit of God hovering over your life and dwelling in you; you have the Spirits wisdom and understanding for every situation you face; you have the powerful strengthening enabling to be and do whatever needs to happen; you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you; you are chosen by God for this moment; you have everything you need for this life because you have Him; you are a temple of the Holy Spirit; cleansed, forgiven and set aside for a holy life; you are saved by the grace of God. That’s who you are! It’s all because of Him. He’s got you and He will get you there!

As we come to the end of this amazing letter where Jude in no uncertain terms calls out the false teachers and the ungodly and says they will be punished we close with this famous and inspiring doxology.

“To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— ²⁵ to the only God our Saviour be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.” (Jude v24-25)

To those who wonder if they’re going to make it. Will you also fall away into heresy? Will you finish the race? He’s got you!

To all you Church planters who are labouring in difficult situations: God is able to keep you from stumbling.

To all you Pastors thinking of giving up: God is able to keep you from stumbling.

To all you today going through the most testing time of your life: God is able to keep you from stumbling.

Today may be small and there may be some feelings of trepidation. But put it in the hands of the One who is able. The One who established the world and everything in it is the One who is holding you and your dream! In this world which is being shaken to the core you are going to be just fine because He’s got you!

This letter from Jude pulls no punches as we have seen. We need this letter today as much as when it was first written. For centred around the Christian faith are those who by their choices to be whoever they want to be and do whatever they want to do are harming what was passed down to us generationally. We must continue to stand up for the truth given to us. Jude has told his readers to remember what was spoken to them by all the apostles and not just him.

“They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.” These are the people who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit. But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. Be merciful to those who doubt; save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.” (Jude v18-23)

I have kept this instruction to the last because I believe it to be crucially important in these days.

“Poverty-stricken as the Church is today in many things, she is most stricken here, in the place of prayer. We have many organizers, but few agonizers; many players and payers, few pray-ers; many singers, few clingers; lots of pastors, few wrestlers; many fears, few tears; much fashion, little passion; many interferers, few intercessors; many writers, but few fighters. Failing here, we fail everywhere.” (Leonard Ravenhill)

The greatest need for the Church today is not to move into the digital world but to move into the world with prayer.

The world is not waiting for the Church to become modernised and slick in front of a camera but it is waiting for the Church to discover the ancient paths of being in front of God.

Great communication is only successful if there has been communication with a great God. Jude instructs us not to pray with our intelligence but to pray in the Spirit.

The Bible clearly reveals the Holy Spirit as a person, describing the Spirit’s personal characteristics, involvement in personal actions and His personal relationships.

He is called, ‘another Counsellor’, who’s the first? Jesus. The Holy Spirit is a person not a power. He lives with you and in you. He is a teacher and a witness in his own right. He has intelligence. He has love and affection. He can be grieved. He has emotions. He can be lied to. He prays and intercedes for us. He speaks. He gives commands. He works miracles. The Holy Spirit is not some reality less than God or other than God, He is God. The Bible says the Father begets the Son and the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. In their operation it is the Father who sends and then operates through the Son and the Father and Son together who send and operate through the Spirit. There is no conviction, regeneration, sanctification, gifts and power without the Holy Spirit.

We must pray in the Spirit. This is a battle we are in and we need to fight with prayers in the Spirit. Paul tells us in Romans 8:26 that the Spirit helps us in our praying. He gives us the right words to say and even prayers without words and prayers that are the gift of tongues. But pray we must and we must learn to pray far more in the Spirit than in our intellect and own desires.

This letter from Jude pulls no punches as we have seen. We need this letter today as much as when it was first written. For centred around the Christian faith are those who by their choices to be whoever they want to be and do whatever they want to do are harming what was passed down to us generationally. We must continue to stand up for the truth given to us. Jude has told his readers to remember what was spoken to them by all the apostles and not just him.

“They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.” These are the people who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit. But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. Be merciful to those who doubt; save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.” (Jude v18-23)

Jude tells us that we do not have to be like those who follow mere natural instincts’ they have natural insights, their whole focus on life is from the natural, feeding their own ungodly and selfish desires, if it feels good, if it is for gain, if it is for me, my and mine then grab at what is before you.

Instead we should hate “even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh” v23.

Hate is a strong word but that is how we should view all kinds of sin even anything that comes in touch with it. Attitudes and motivations, desires and behaviours, the outward that is seen and the deepest recesses of our heart that no one sees, hate the sin.

If we love humanity and if we ‘keep ourselves in God’s love’ then it means we will have to hate the sinfulness of humanity.

On Sunday as I began to preach I told a story from the time I visited the east side of the DRC. It was only an illustration coming from one of the most evil places in the world where the UN say is still the rape capital of the world with the highest rates of sexual violence than anywhere in the world brought about by armed militia groups. We don’t hear anything in the British news of what is happening every day to women and girls there. Maybe that is because of it being a French colony or simply ignorance. But after the service a few women came to me, they were from the DRC and they knew the pain, I could see it in their eyes. They thanked me for mentioning the plight of their nation. The hate of the sin was in their voices and they expressed in no uncertain terms the evil that their people were suffering.

The world’s largest displacement crisis is still Syria 11 years on from when it started. More than 13 million people have been displaced. Do we hate this?

Do we hate when bullies bully, killers kill, rapist’s rape and abusers abuse?

Do we hate the selfishness around us; the consumerism and greed in our society; the family breakdown in our neighbourhood; poverty, violence and racism; the list goes on; evil is here. There is evil and there is good. It isn’t what we call it. It already exists. It was there before we were born and it will be there after we die. In order to demonstrate love then get involved with both. With the evil abhor it. Call it what it is. Take it on. Detest it enough to defeat it. Hate even the clothing stained by the corrupted flesh.

Who is causing the division within the Church today regarding belief and behaviour? Is it those who have held to the position of their forefathers and who passed the baton to them? Or is it those who want to change the construct of the Church in order to demonstrate love?

This letter from Jude pulls no punches as we have seen. Centred around the Christian faith are those who by their choices to be whoever they want to be and do whatever they want to do are harming what was passed down to us generationally. These people divide the Church but Jude instructs us to keep ourselves within the love of God. Jude has told his readers to remember what was spoken to them by all the apostles and not just him.

“They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.” These are the people who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit. But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. Be merciful to those who doubt; save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.” (Jude v18-23)

Jude leaves no doubt. These are ‘people who divide you’ but we don’t have to be like them. Instead….

• Align yourself with God who is good and out of this goodness love flows. That’s the right order.
• Do not condemn those who disagree with you and do not crush anyone who is doubting what you believe.
• Do not turn your back on those who turn their back on you. Keep working to reach them. If you see someone about to fall into a fire what will you do? Act like that.
• Do not remove the fear of God when showing mercy to those who are false leaders and teachers dividing the Church.

This letter from Jude pulls no punches as we have seen. We need this letter today as much as when it was first written. For centred around the Christian faith are those who by their choices to be whoever they want to be and do whatever they want to do are harming what was passed down to us generationally. We must continue to stand up for the truth given to us. Jude has told his readers to remember what was spoken to them by all the apostles and not just him.

“They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.” These are the people who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit. But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. Be merciful to those who doubt; save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.” (Jude v18-23)

Yesterday morning a lady messaged me to say thank you for the encouragement I gave her to pack her things and move out of the house with her children and with the support of her Pastors to leave her serial adulteress husband who believed God had given him licence to abuse his vows to her. In the afternoon I sat with a friend listening to how he is trying to carve out a new path after seeing his wife walk away from their marriage simply because this is what she wanted to do. Yesterday was a day seeing the impact of ungodly desires.

In 2023 all around us and within the Church, from pulpit to pew, the ‘ungodly’ are following ‘their own ungodly desires’. Jude encourages us not to be like them but instead ‘build yourselves up in your most holy faith’ v20.

These are not just the last days but they are days of evil. Not only do the scoffers mock the Coming King they scoff by their behaviour the Lordship of the King. Look around you and see what is happening to the Church. The scoffers with their behaviour scoff at the Lordship of Jesus and they do it from within the Church. These ungodly desires are simply themselves taking the place of Jesus by becoming the central figure of their life.

But this is not you! Jude tells us to take responsibility for our journey as a Christian. I encourage the Pastors that I care for to have a ‘mentor/friend’ a ‘spiritual director’ or whatever the title but someone they regularly turn to in order to help them on this journey. However this does not negate the fact that each and every one of us are responsible for our own spiritual growth. We cannot hand this to anyone else. We have to grow upon the foundations of our faith passed down to us. This means we are not the most important person but Jesus is.

Today you can decide to be whoever you want to be. There is nothing quite powerful than a person’s own will. And that’s the problem as well as a blessing. We see distortions all around us from the truth handed down to us.

The worship leader, Sean Feucht recently confronted publicly Matthew Blake (a former worship leader who now performs as a drag queen) over his sexualisation of young children. Blake accused Feucht of being a ‘hater’ and not one who spoke with love. The distortion from Blake outweighed the love for the children from Feucht, in Blake’s mind at least.

This letter from Jude pulls no punches as we have seen. We need this letter today as much as when it was first written. For centred around the Christian faith are those who by their choices to be whoever they want to be and do whatever they want to do are harming what was passed down to us generationally. We must continue to stand up for the truth given to us. Jude has told his readers to remember what was spoken to them by all the apostles and not just him.

“They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.” These are the people who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit. But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. Be merciful to those who doubt; save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.” (Jude v18-23)

There are scoffers. “But you, dear friends …” v20

The last days will contain scoffers. Since the ascension of Jesus Christ the world moved into the last days. During this last 2,000 we the ‘dear friends’ or ‘the beloved’ exist alongside those who ridicule the faith, the ‘scoffers’. It was always going to be. Just because they exist and ridicule this belief doesn’t change the fact that Jesus is returning soon.

We must remind ourselves who we are. We are in direct contrast to the scoffers. The word ‘dear friends’ sounds weaker than ‘beloved’ for it is the word for when the Father calls Jesus ‘You are my beloved’ in the river Jordan. You are not of the sceptics, the cynics, the scoffers. You are the beloved of God. Jude is appealing emotionally for us to not only know we are different but to be different.

But you …. The beloved, dear friends … But YOU! You don’t have to be like them.

Jude was going to write about salvation but something bothered him so much he felt compelled by the Spirit to stand against the falseness of certain leaders that had crept into the church. They were defying spiritual leadership, giving licence to all kinds of behaviours which abused grace and denied the Lordship of Jesus. They carry their own grievances; they chase after personal gain; they are uncontrollable. 

“But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold.” (Jude 17)

BUT you, remember!

You are different to whatever you are seeing or hearing. You don’t have to follow the same way. You can live differently.

The answer to the stealth which impacts the Church from within today is still the Bible. Hold on to it. Teach it. Live by it. The words of Jesus and the apostles who wrote of what Jesus said is vitally important for 2023 as it was for Jude’s day. You are different!

Jude is bringing some final advice about ‘these people’. He spots a common link amongst them all. Basically it can be summed up with this: listen carefully to these people and you will see their falseness because they are always speaking!

“These people are grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage.” (Jude v16)

Grumblers – listen to what comes out of their mouths. They are people who undermine other leaders.

Faultfinders – listen to what they are actually finding fault in. It can be the teaching from other preachers.

Follow evil desires – listen to what they are going to gain from what they are seeking.

Boast about themselves – listen to what they say about themselves and what they have done.

Flatter others for their advantage – listen to what they say of other people and if they stand to gain from the ones they praise.

We can spot a lot by just listening!