ETERNAL LIFE...

Just the other day I was talking to God about a great many things from the scripture passage that I was reading in Isaiah. Concentration was difficult for me, because I remain deeply disturbed about the four Americans killed in Benghazi, Libya two weeks ago, and the ineptness our government to come together as one people during this crisis. Both Presidential candidates made a political football out of the loss of human life. "We the people," have no more hallowed ground...Everything is up for sale if you can make a buck or get a vote. We have replaced decency and dignity for our fallen with division, derision and dis-respect. Our chosen path is cluttered with our own man-made gods. We have a god of Wealth. We have a god of Power. We have a god of Deception. We have a god of War. We have a god of Sex. We have a god of Avarice. We have a god of Prejudice.  The list goes on, but you get the picture.

Out of this senseless tragedy, I see our great nation, once solidly founded on the principles of God, Family and Country, now flaying weakly in the wind, because we have abandoned all three of these principles. The one true God and Creator of Heaven and Earth, got thrown under the bus in the good old USA decades ago. The "One God" has been replaced by the many gods. We have excised our Creator virtually out of existence, because we chose, on our own, to worship elsewhere. God will not forget our 21st century idolatry, and will not forgive his rejection everywhere. I live in America, so I am particularly sensitive to my own culture, but this goes for all people from Sodom to Gomorrah and everyone in between.

Family value, family tradition, and family love is being replaced by Facebook, Google+, Kindle, iPads, iPhones, Email, Instant Messaging, Texting and Twitter. We have digitized and desensitized our children by trading in parental guidance and responsibility for You Tube and Reality TV. Discipline and Truth have been replaced by the new standards of modern life in the USA: Dollars, Votes, Hits and Clicks. All else is part of another ERA. If you are not pushing productivity by taking advantage of family, friends and acquaintances  you are "old school," or maybe "dinosaur" would even be more accurate. 

So where does this virtually extinct (pun intended) dinosaur come down on the subject of country? He literally has to hold back the tears, as he describes the country that once was...I suspect anyone who makes it into their 60's gains a modicum of knowledge and wisdom, no matter what country you live in at the moment. No matter what Glen Beck or Rush Limbaugh pound out every day about impending doom, don't believe all of it or be mislead by their supposedly "altruistic" intentions, anymore than you should believe ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX. Government and the power of the MEDIA have us in a vice, and they inculcate 300 million people everyday by telling them only what they want them to know, so that control and power remains in the same few hands. Our country runs in place very hard everyday without ever really solving the critical issues facing this economic and spiritual titanic.

If you are polarized on the left or the right, you have missed the 

point. The electoral process that was put in place long ago to assure fairness has literally put us to sleep, making certain that those in power remain entrenched, all the while burying us with information to the point of sheer lunacy. When will were understand that we get sold a bill of goods every time  and end up with nothing except the check. Now that check is so big, that even the largest economy in the world cannot pay for it... There is only one place to find pure, unadulterated truth. We have had parts of it for 5,000 years. The Word of God was written by men and divinely inspired by God. Look there for your answers. Look there for your guidance. Look there for your value system.

The world has 8 billion people alive and well as of this writing. Many billions more have died over the centuries of recorded history. Most likely more will populate this planet for the next millennia...All of them, past, present and future have one thing in common, and that is ETERNAL LIFE. Christians spend their time arguing about how and when you were saved. Catholics believe you must have final confession or absolution. Muslims believe that you must follow Allah and the teachings of Muhammad. Atheists belief in no after life, Hindus believe in re-incarnation. Well guess what, the truth is that all of mankind received this divine benefit of ETERNAL LIFE at the moment of your first breathe. You do not get a choice or a vote. It can't be bought, sold or rejected. Despite centuries of doctrine and division from all the scholars, the truth of it remains immutable.

So my friend, it was never about the after-life...It is guaranteed to all mankind. The only thing up for discussion is whether you choose to spend that after-life with God or without God. It does not matter if you choose not to believe or not to participate, wherever you live. When you take your last breathe in this life, you, your children and your grandchildren will enter an after-life. Stop listening to the pundits and talking heads, who want to debate the definition of your soul. In the end, it all comes down to you and you alone. Give God a chance and receive the only gift that lasts more than your lifetime. The next life is not "priceless" like the cute MasterCard commercials. Despite your sin and our collective sin, "His hand remains extended" at great personal sacrifice by our Lord and Savior.

God Bless,                                   

TDD 

HE IS SUCH A TOOL!!

Since I seem to get along with kids much more than adults of late, I have started once again to pick up their lingo...My daughter described a particular guy in her life "such a tool." Of course I am thinking hammer, crescent wrench or screwdriver, but she meant something totally different. He was an "idiot who had become dull, uninteresting and boring." How you get that from tool is kind of interesting. You see, it all started years ago with a phrase we all know. "He is not the sharpest tool in the box." It's kind of like, "a few cards short of a full deck," or better yet, "his stairs don't go all the way to the top."

No matter how you slice it, being a "tool" is derogatory and a current part of modern colloquialism. Personally, I get a kick out of following new, modern, terse statements that our youth use daily to add color to their descriptions of each other. However, in Isaiah 10, God used a very similar metaphor 2500 years ago. I guess the Scripture is correct when it says, "there is nothing new under the sun."

Most of this chapter is dedicated to the judgement and destruction of Assyria. Ancient Assyria had the current country of Iraq pretty much in the center of it, stretching to Egypt in the West to the Persian Gulf in the East. It stretched North and South from very close to the Black Sea to the southern tip of Egypt. Basically it was huge, swallowing modern day Israel along the Mediterranean.

God observed his people being abused by the Assyrians every day for years, and the beginning of Chapter 10 is where God says through His prophet Isaiah: "Woe unto those who enact unjust laws and oppressive decrees, depriving the poor of honest justice, making helpless widows and orphans a primary target." God has used Assyria to punish Israel once again for their faithlessness, because they had once again traded in the Almighty for power and wealth. Sound familiar? How many times a month in 2012 do we commit the same senseless sin? 

Isaiah further says that the anger of God is going to allow Assyria some additional time to plunder Israel while exposing us to what God was really thinking:

1. Don't these Assyrians know that I am using them to bring Israel back to himself?
2. Why don't they understand the they might be the hammer, or the saw, but El Shaddai holds all the "tools" in His and wields the true power behind them?
3. So Assyria, in fact, was not the sharpest tool in the box, but with the support of God, they accomplish His will, and then arrogantly boast of their strength.
4. This upsets our God, but not as much as there continued influence on the Jewish people. The Israelites continue to worship other gods and graven images...

The message here is simply, how many times does it take the Jews and the Gentiles (Assyrians), before they will accept the one true God as their maker, their master and ultimately their salvation? So now hit the fast forward button to 2012. "How many times, all you Jews and Gentiles in the modern world, will I have to chastise you in an effort to teach you genuine loyalty, fealty, and adoration. Down through the centuries before Christ and after Christ, we continue to disappoint our God collectively and individually. Thankfully, at the end of verse one, God says, "Even after all of this, including my wrath, my hand remains stretched out."

You see God's wrath or anger is always RATIONAL with a distinct purpose in mind. We may not understand, but "righteous

indignation" has a time and purpose in our lives. The problem is that when we get angry, irrationality pushes its way to the top, often before the next breathe. God is following a very rational plan for all people of this globe. We are the ones that invalidate that plan at every turn. God's wrath is delicately balanced with His grace. The line between them is perilously thin, and yet we ignore him, disgrace him and yes, even disgust him with the dark side of our lives. We literally disrespect our Creator, almost every day, and yet his hand remains stretched out to the all of his people, no matter your family heritage, geographic location, or current belief system. This offer was made global, long before we coined the word for modern usage. Return to the one true God with a humble heart, and then assist in making His message "viral."

God Bless,

TDD

GOD'S TWIST ON ORGANIC FOODS...

Solon Community Rec Center is where I spend a lot of time these days, because just like turning my back on God for 40 years, I did something similar to my family, my mind and my body. After replacing my family with global travel and the creation of wealth, my mind and body were not far behind. The priority in my mind became making money for my company and for me. I was all about growth, margin and profitability. I talked about organic growth (natural), but yearned for geometric growth more times everyday than I ever thought or communicated with my wife and children.

Organic growth is like organic food. It is certainly better for you, but generally it's one-half the size of its anti-biotic filled, steroid induced and pesticide laced cousin that was produced where only size, color and taste matter. Results became the order for every day, while careful nurturing and nature were replaced by combines, cherry pickers and drugs. Oh yes, and all of this we call, new and improved. In the business world this is called geometric growth, defined as taking the solid base of a company that has worked well for years, and injecting it with iron clad management, a plan to make more or do more with less with tons of insecticidal funds that guarantee you will be the first, the biggest and the best. The process sucks up all your time, all your energy and left without change, eventually your desire to live. You can take a $100 million dollar company to over $600m in 8 years and reap all the rewards. You are deemed a SUCCESS professionally. You beat nurture and nature six fold, and all you had to do was give up your family, your friends and of course, your heart...You see along the way you took one inoculation too many and your heart couldn't take the hype anymore, so it just turned to stone. Finally you attained financial nirvana. Finally you were the perfect size, the perfect color, the perfect texture, and the perfect taste. Only thing to do now was to create more perfection. God help all of the Christian businessman that get on the treadmill of greed and perfection, while pushing up the numbers for what started out honest and honorable. After many years these traits can easily become a distant memory from another lifetime, or so it seems.

The facade created by mega-hormonal growth (geometric) looks, smells and tastes like the real thing...The drive to be the best of class, best of breed or best of anything in of itself seems seems innocuous enough at first blush, but it is generally followed by accelerating beyond the "red line." If you think about it for a minute you will see that this mentality has taken over our American culture from its honorable, hard-working, caring society of yesteryear to a pack of wild animals all vying for the Alpha position. Modeling, makeup and beauty in a bottle have taken over the female mind in our society, from reading Cosmo to purchasing the lastest "snake oil" from Relvon to Elizabeth Arden. Professional women of all sorts and housewives all believe that to be the best, you must be a waif in a business suit, designer jeans or an apron. Push in this direction hard enough and long enough by society in general and specifically the media, the once organic female beauty gets transformed into media designed pawn of the parasitic world of information overload.

Men have been at this longer than women. For many centuries women stayed out of the fray, so that they could invest their time and enery into a family. Personally I believe this is the highest calling for a women, but today I am very much in the minority. Men were raised to be determined breadwinners from an early age. Competition among men has soared over the years, but whether you are a farmer in the mid-west or a wall street broker, your success is measured in dollars and cents. Do more to make more, and if you can't make enough, have your wife get a job. Men are pushed and pulled by the same media giants. For years men got by with a little after shave and some deodorant, but now most of us go through a similar ritual with colognes, hair gels, hair sprays, and talcum powder to go along with our coiffed hair, shiny nails and pedicures. Go down this road long enough and you soon forget your responsibility to family and friends.

But Jimbo (nickname from my dad), do you have a point here somewhere? Oh yes, and here it is my friend...Once you have been modernized and homogenized, you have made it in this world, because you fight the good fight every hour of every day to make your dream come true. You are convinced that it is all about you, and then slowly but surely, your perspective on this life begins to change from selfless to selfish, from contentment to resentment, from beauty to the beast, and finally from God to Mammon. Here is what God has to say about this change in his own people:

Isaiah 5:18-24

Ah, you who drag iniquity along with cords of falsehood, who drag sin along as with cart ropes, who say, “Let him make haste, let him speed his work that we may see it; let the plan of the Holy One of Israel hasten to fulfillment, that we may know it!” Ah, you who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! Ah, you who are wise in your own eyes, and shrewd in your own sight! Ah, you who are heroes in drinking wine and valiant at mixing drink, who acquit the guilty for a bribe, and deprive the innocent of their rights! Therefore, as the tongue of fire devours the stubble, and as dry grass sinks down in the flame, so their root will become rotten, and their blossom go up like dust; for they have rejected the instruction of the Lord of hosts, and have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.

Friends, I bring this to your attention, because Almighty God was not just talking to Jerusalem and Judah before Christ, but because He was talking to you and me, right here, right now! After living these verses personally for many years, and recognizing that many in our despicable digital world are also doing the same thing, I knew that God wanted me to write about it. When will you stop dragging your sinful baggage with you? Give that burden to your Heavenly Father, so that you can be a vessel He can use for humanity. We live in a world that now calls what historically has been evil, good! Think of what's happened to our criminal justice system. Not only do we have victimless crimes, but we also have crimes where the victim has NO rights. Light is being traded for darkness every day. Just look around you! Public schools have gone spiritually dark, which means our children now spend more time in the dark than the light. Godlessness has cast a thick cloud over the minds of young and old alike. It has also engulfed not only the sinners, but also the saints who have been misled by electronic and digital media. Or worse, they have been led astray by a charlatan who's only goal is to push himself up in the religious world of television's wealth creation.

Innocent people are being crushed by the weight of this evil godlessness. We think we are so smart and so shrewd, because we are under the misguided impression that if we trade in truth and righteousness, yeah, even our own souls, for 100 years of being at the top of your game, physically, mentally and financially, that happiness and contentment will have to catch up at some point. Satan got me to believe that lie. I almost traded in my birthright for power, money and all that comes with it. 

My goal here is today is to get you to think! Satan is selling geometric, unnatural growth worldwide. We all believe that more is better, and that more than your neighbor is best. To anyone in this world, we look younger, smell better, eat better, drink better and live better than ever before. We have "viagrasized" our minds to the point of not knowing the difference between good and evil, right and wrong, and true and false. 

Ever notice how fast weeks and months fly by these days? We are already in the last half of 2012, and yet I still write 2011 on documents and checks. Good thing we have erasers...Life used to be a walk-a-thon. Now it is a marathon that has most of the world lining up to race through their life. Time to stop and evaluate your priorities in this life, making certain that they are harmony with the next. Stop running and start living with fearless honor and love the God in your heart. The sands of mortality will run dry soon enough. There is no reason to rush this life, as long as you let our merciful and gracious God guide you, so that He can lift the clouds of ungodliness, uncertainly and fear. You will get immediate clarity and a sharpened focus that only He can provide, called wisdom.

God bless,

The Digital Disciple (TDD)

SIN AND SACRIFICE...REPEATEDLY

                                                      SECOND MOST QUOTED MAN IN SCRIPTURE
Most books of the Bible start out slowly...The true message or messages do not reveal themselves until later in each book. Born approximately 750 years before Christ, Isaiah's visions and prophetic communication lasted 64 years. If you add 20 years for his youth, you can estimate that he lived just over 80 years, dying in about 670 BC. This time frame is important so that we can approximate who his contemporaries were at the time. He had two sons, neither of which followed in his footsteps.

Most scholars believe that Isaiah did not write all 66 chapters of his book. Comparing the writing styles uncovers three distinct different methods, which ostensibly account for the opinions. I have read it several times recently, and frankly, it never crossed my mind that he did not write the whole thing. Whether or not there is some truth to the changes in writing style, the book has some amazing passages that we will be looking at for application in the 21st century. And Isaiah starts right out of the box in Chapter I...

Keep in mind that we are talking about Hebrew scripture written about 2800 years ago or the span of some fifty (50) lifetimes. When I contemplate lifetimes, I get a whole different sense of how long we are talking about. Today we think about the moment. We don't want to miss the Olympic games...We want to know the winner down to one thousandth (1/1000) of a second. We are clock watchers with second hands, so that we can see the seconds, minutes and hours tick off, all the time knowing that the sands of our personal time shrink every hour.

God thinks in lifetimes. If you talk about a generation of people, you are getting warm. You see, God's existence does not revolve around our sun or our moon. Our calendar by which we organize ourselves, ad nauseum, does not apply to our Creator. Generational thinking is not a usable format for us, any more than counting seconds and minutes is to Him. For example, we marvel at the fact that we turn away from Him for hours, days, weeks or months at a time, and yet, he is always there when we return. You may choose to ignore Him, but you can never be "away" from His presence. 

                                                                               ISAIAH THE MAN
Chapter 1:1 begins with a vision from God to Isaiah that spans four (4) generations, including the lifetimes of these kings, Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah. So this vision is not about last night, last week or last year. It's about 4 lifespans. God says that he nourished and brought up the Hebrew nation as "children." Despite that effort they continued to rebel against our Lord. This is a glance at the Hebrew people back then:

1. Not only was God a part of their history and heritage, but He was a household name that was used daily.
2. God speaks directly to them through Isaiah, and they know that what he says is true and righteous.
3. God nourishes both kingdoms (Judah & Jerusalem).
4. God protects both kingdoms from the non-Jewish kingdoms surrounding them.
5. With all of the above, "Israel doth not know, my people do not consider."

Despite God's judgement of the people for their endless iniquity, He steps back to lament the situation, because "their whole head is sick, and whole heart faint." They go through the religious motions by SINNING AND SACRIFICING, to assuage their own conscience, and the wrath of the Almighty. Isaiah says it best when he compares these Jews to Sodom & Gomorrah...Repeated sinfulness under God's protective cover is a dangerous place to live. That's what they were doing, and that's what most of us do as well. Think about your personal sin, and how you have gotten comfortable with it over time, because Christ has redeemed your soul. Initially, you were repentant and full of remorse, as you admitted to your Heavenly Father your transgression. 

                                                                  JESUS READING FROM ISAIAH

The Hebrew nation did the same thing...The more they sinned,  the more they sacrificed according to the Law of Moses. The bigger the sin, the bigger the offering. Initially, the Law worked in their hearts and minds, but eventually, like life in the 21st century, it got old and boring. If you committed adultery again and again, why not just keep killing all of the young bullocks to keep God happy? You get what you want, and God gets what he wants! Such a deal!! I like to call it The New Covenant method of sin and sacrificing or SAS. I admit to three (3) SAS's in my life. They are tough, they are ingrained, and what's worst of all, they are no longer painful. When you can sin and feel no pain, you are Stage #3 of spiritual ill, and the only effective remedy is to stand firm and cut it out of your soul and mind. If you do nothing the infection will spread, shutting down your access and relationship to God.

Only by slaying the SAS's in your life, will you live long and prosper with your Lord & Saviour.

The Digital Disciple

                                                             PENNING HIS GREAT BOOK FOR GOD

JONAH CHAPTER #4...A SPECIAL MESSAGE

                                                       Sailing From God To Tarshish

In the last post, the first three chapters of Jonah were discussed in detail, but Chapter #4 was purposely omitted, because it did not make complete sense to me. For the last 10 days I have been reading it repeatedly, while researching the Hebrew scholars, the original language issues and modern interpretation. Just last night with the help of the writing of John Calvin, Matthew Henry and light of the Holy Spirit, I finally get it. I get why Jonah was mad at God. I get why he did not want to go to Nineveh, and I even get why he built himself a, "booth," outside the city to wait for God's wrath.

So hear goes...Jonah was a prophet. He might have been a minor prophet, but he had a MAJOR ego. When prophets do their thing and prophesy (the verb), they predict future events. In this case he predicted the demise of Nineveh. The reason for all the stress and anger is simply his fear that his amazing description of Yahweh might come true. You see, in chapter 4:2, Jonah complains to God in prayer that He (God) was gracious, merciful, slow to anger, of great kindness, and often changed his mind when people were legitimately sorry for their sin. He thought the Almighty was setting him up for failure in his ability to predict accurately. Jonah was keeping score of the wrong game, just as we often do.

His preoccupation with his own reputation amongst the Hebrew nation made Jonah miss the whole point of being sent to Nineveh. He could not rejoice in saving 120,000 Gentiles from imminent death, so he did what he was told to do, and then immediately left the city. Just like a spoiled child, he made it clear to God, that it was His fault if his prediction did not come true. Just like a human father, God gave Jonah a plant for some shade, while he sulked outside the city gate.

                                                           Pouting Outside Nineveh

This clarity on Chapter 4 makes me smile from ear to ear! God Almighty was doting on his beloved Jonah, just like I have done many times with my own kids. If you now take the entire book and put it together, you get the gigantic irony as you finish the book. 

God has him tossed overboard, into a fish for 3 days. Then He has him spat upon the shore of Nineveh. What amazing patience and grace! Then when God does the right thing and spares the people, his immaturity continues to get the better of him, while he frets about his reputation. 

Sound familiar!! Look what God has done for us each day, and we still sulk and worry about our reputations and more. In all of scripture I cannot find a better description of the Lord we have chosen to serve. Despite His grace, despite His mercy, despite His temperament, despite his kindness, and despite His earnest desire to forgive, Jonah asks this same God to let him die because of his egotistical embarrassment. 

                                                           Prophesying to the King

This story has warmed hearts in Sunday Schools and Sabbath Schools for many years. May it warm all of us so-called adults with the corrected vision of our God. At the time I am sure Jonah had no idea that he was providing the world for thousands of years with an insightful look at our own Heavenly Father.

Commit Jonah 4:2 to heart, and you can never be led astray about the true character and genuine warmth of our Creator.


The Digital Disciple

SEFER YONAH...THE BOOK OF JONAH

                                                 OMG
The small or minor prophets in the OT are categorized that way not to minimize their importance or suggest that their physical size was in any way compromised. Instead, it means that they wrote "short" books that could be read through with ease, without taking weeks to complete. I will be concentrating on the small profits for the next few weeks, starting with every child's favorite, "The Book of Jonah." 


This popular Sunday School story at first blush might seem to many to be a waste of time and energy; however, as you have seen in prior in this blog, huge things can come in the tiniest of packages...Such is the case with the four chapters in this book. This miniature story about the great fish that swallowed Jonah whole, has little to do with the deep spiritual meaning surrounding this mixed metaphor...Do I believe that God changed the weather to scare the crew into giving up Jonah to the deep? Do I believe that God had a special fish ready to swallow him whole? The answer is an emphatic yes, but to miss the metaphor is like leaving in the bottom of the 9th inning when your team is losing. To savor the a hard fought victory with a walk off grand slam is the reason you went to the game in the first place. It is quite the same with the first 8 innings of Jonah's book. If you think the story is over too quickly, you miss the most important last three outs.


How many of us know from God the right way path for our life without hesitation? In my estimation, half of us know and ignore, and the rest don't care enough to know. Jonah knew exactly what God's plan was, not only for him, but also the people of Ninevah. This kind of certainty that can only come from the Word of God. We have that same unmistakable radar going on in our Soul everyday. For example, we know that we should not lie. We know that small lies are the same as big lies, but how often do we choose the path of convenience, justifying our sinful direction all the way. Jonah ran from what he absolutely knew he should do, because he had a built in prejudice against those terrible Ninevite's. Maybe ran is the wrong choice of words, because he actually tried to sail away from God. Imagine knowing the Almighty like he did, and then making bee-line in the opposite direction. Jonah did not delay, deceive himself, or pretend he did not hear God. He just went 180 degrees in the opposite direction, hoping that God would let him get away with it. 

So God made him wait in the belly of a fish for three days after being tossed overboard by the crew. I believe the lesson here is two-fold. One is that when God chooses to use you, and you head in the other direction, the elasticity of His grace will only stretch so far, before you are tossed into your personal sea of despair or chaos, reminding you that He comes first no matter what you think or where you go. It took Jonah only 3 days of this despair to get himself back on track with the Lord. Some of us take much longer...In fact, many are still running from that, "still, small voice," right now. If you believe you have ducked out of sight, you are only kidding yourself. Trust me, I did it for years!


Ever be so distraught, so afraid or so depressed that you made a deal with God right then and there? It went something like this..."Oh God, if you get me out of this, I will NEVER do this again, and I will donate more to the church, attend church, visit those less fortunate," etc. We have all made the deal, but only a tiny percentage of us keep the promise for more than a few days. Why do we only turn to Him in those great times of need? When we taste success, who do we turn from first? Jonah said it best with this statement, "they that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy." Sound familiar?

After being spit up on the shore, God told him what to do again...This time he bolted for Nineveh and preached to them all with such new gusto, that even the king of that land put on sackcloth and sat in ashes. They all repented...so much so that God changed his mind about destroying them. This is what this story is all about...It's about saving even ungodly, repugnant Gentiles before the birth of Christ. It may have been beneath Jonah to stoop to preach redemption and the law of God, including damnation for sin, but NOT so for our GOD. Here we learn, with zero doubt about it, that racism is not a part of God's vocabulary, but unfortunately it remains part of his creation's vocabulary even today. Our wonderful God's immutable  line in the sand for SIN has nothing to do with age, color, gender, gender confusion, gender partners or gender preference, just like Jonah learned about a hated, feared and misunderstood group called the Ninevite's. Men can hate many different parts of God's creation and feel self-righteous to boot...We can hate black, white, or red. We can hate gay, bisexual and transgender. We can hate the Republican, the Democrat, the Monarchy, the Socialist and the Communist. We can hate the mentally challenged, physically challenged and the spiritually challenged. We can hate the Muslim world and its terrorism, we can hate China and its Communism, and we can hate France and its Socialism. Each of these hated groups are no different than the Ninevite's in God's eyes. He loves all of His creation, all of the time and will do so for eternity; HOWEVER, He draws a crystal clear line that you can count on, kind of like death and taxes in the USA. You will NOT join the Creator of Mankind and the rest of his creation in your heaven or your paradise without strict obedience to His Law or forgiveness of sin through his son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ.


God bless and thank you for reading...


The Digital Disciple

HEY JUDE...

                                        Kiss of Judas Iscariot-The First Apostate
Jude the Apostle's exact family history is the subject of much debate. Catholics call him St. Jude, the "Patron Saint of Lost Causes." Some feel that he was the brother of Jesus. The issues that create this conundrum are that the Greek word for Jude and Judas is the same, and that the writers of the four gospels call him by completely different names. 


Despite all the confusion on the actual author of this Epistle, it is short, sweet and to the point. We know that he was one of the original 12 disciples of Jesus, and that he was the brother of James. James who, you say? Well, that's another conundrum for another day. In Jude, verse #1, he flashes all the credentials he needs, as follows:

1. Sanctified by God the Father.
2. Preserved in Jesus Christ.
3. Called.

Ever see a police detective or government agent flip open his credentials? Me neither, except on TV...It gives them instant credibility in our world. Jude's credentials give him dual citizenship in the spiritual world and in our secular world. He has two Passports, one for here and one for all things heavenly. The one that really counts was Purified by God the Father, Protected by Jesus and Proclaimed by the Holy Spirit! Put that on the back of your business card and at the bottom of your emails/texts...What a great way of identifying your relationship with God to all.

                                                                              Passport Please
After flashing his credentials, Jude immediately puts up huge warning signs, like those you see just before an incredible hair-pin turn in the mountains of West Virginia. This Biblical warning is about the word, apostasy...It comes from the Greek words, "APO" and "SYSTEMI." It means literally, "to stand away from," but in this context it means to stand away from the Word of God, while accepting false doctrine." Jude's entire writing is devoted to teaching the early churches the history of apostasy, so that they can begin to see the apostasy that has crept in around them. How about the Hebrew Nation in Exodus? With God leading them and supplying them with food and water every day, they still worshiped other gods and created false idols. How about the fallen angels who came to earth and took human wives, abandoning their creator and His law? Jude says that just as it happened before, it is happening right now!


If you take it one step further you can see that over the following 2,000 years this spiritual virus has infected many believers and unbelievers alike. It seems that all through the ages, we have all been exposed. If you have a terrific immune system built on the foundations of the truth of the Word of God and Prayer, you can protect yourself; however, there is no antibiotic for a this virus either, and Satan uses it sour the hearts of well-meaning souls everyday. Jude says, "PAY ATTENTION PEOPLE, APOSTASY IS AROUND THE NEXT CORNER OF YOUR LIFE."

                                                                                     Cell 666
He thought he was describing only his generation when Jude described apostates:

1. They are "evil dreamers" that fill their minds with unholy thoughts repeatedly, producing evil dreams.
2. They "reject authority" because in their minds they are above the laws of God and man.
3. They "defile their flesh" so often that they can now justify their actions in their polluted minds, and wonder why you do not join them. 

Jude could never have understood that his words through the Holy Spirit would be ageless. Think of how these apply today, and better yet, how they apply to YOUR life right now. So how do you recognize apostasy? Jude says the following:

1. They believe that they are always right, because they know everything...Sound familiar?
2. They follow in the "way of Cain." Remember when God rejected Cain's offering? It wasn't the offering that God disliked, it was Cain's heart full of pride and hate for his brother...Sound familiar?
3. They "ran greedily" in the "error of Baalam for reward." They are not just greedy. They let their lust for wealth and power become a carrot in front of them. They spend all their time chasing after this world reward, leaving little or no time for the pursuit of heavenly reward in service to our God and Savior. 
4. And finally, they "perish in the gainsaying of Korah." If you recall Korah rebelled against his cousin Moses in the desert. He became jealous and resentful, making an opposition group against the authority of Moses. This from a privileged Levite from the tribe of Reuben...Korah literally led an internal rebellion against Moses and his brother Aaron. The characters are from the OT, but the message about apostasy right in our ranks is crystal clear...

One of the reasons I am so enthralled by Jude's style of writing is because it is filled examples, stories and analogy. Some of this appears elsewhere in scripture, but after you read Jude five or six times, you get a glimpse of a man who was keenly able to express himself with language. It is my belief that the Holy Spirit was able to use his gift to communicate this biblical WARNING in a very special way, because of its extreme importance to every saint, no matter your age, IQ, or level of spiritual understanding. 

My final thoughts on this special passage are kindled by Jude's description of apostates. He goes into some very colorful analogies to bring home his point:

1. They are "spots in your feasts of charity." I never met a white shirt that I did not get a spot on, for more than 34 years; just ask my wife. That's exactly what Jude is saying here. You set up a great feast for those less fortunate, and even though you are unaware, the spots of apostasy are their pretending to blend right in. They may attend and eat while saying all the right things, but the truth of their everyday lives is not consistent with what they profess.
2. They are "without fear." There vision has been clouded by living a lie for so long, that they no longer see or feel the error of their way. The Greek word used here is, "APHOBOS." It is where we get phobia, as an example. The letter A or Alpha when used in front of a word means without or against. You put them together, and you get fearless or without phobia. Someone or something has pulled the proverbial, "wool over their eyes," making them incredibly more dangerous to all believers and useless to God's cause.
3. They are "clouds without water, carried by every wind." On the exterior they look like they are carrying the water of life, but in truth, they are nothing but wisps of vapor that move with every breeze. Strength and stability only comes from God. Without His influence you will be moved by every belief system that comes your way. True believers carry the water for God in their lives, 24/7. Its not just a Saturday or Sunday thing, it is an everyday thing. If you are not one of God's water boys or girls, you better did deep to find out why you have dried up. Its one thing to dry up and produce no fruit for a period of time. It's a completely different thing to produce no fruit and starve the roots to death. Jude calls it dying twice. 

The Epistle of Jude is filled with more than I have been able to share in this Post. It requires time, repetition and digging to get the whole truth contained in this scripture. Jude thought he was living in the "end times," just as many of us believe some 2,000 years later. I have no idea, and frankly don't care when Jesus decides to return. That is quite clearly beyond my pay grade and would be sheer speculation. What is NOT speculation is that Satan deceives believers and non believers every day. He is actively pushing this world away from all things godly. We can no longer pray in public schools, references to our Creator have been deemed illegal in all parts of our country. As disheartening as that my be, it should not be a complete surprise to any believer. 

                                                                               Carrying the Water

The real message from Jude is that we have believers that are impostors among us. They look like a duck, they quack like a duck, but they do NOT swim in the same pool of God's love and grace. They are hollow, and many do not even know it. If Satan can get you to become "twice dead," then he has won a tremendous victory. He did not win your soul, but he has guaranteed that you will bear no fruit and will never stand solidly for your God and Savior. 

Please join me in carrying the water of life...

The Digital Disciple