According to Jude "there would be mockers in the last time who would walk according to their own ungodly lusts" (Jude 1:18b). Do you know anyone like that? Don't we see and hear these people every day? They mock any idea of God or the Bible and they live a lifestyle that flaunts God's laws. How do we feel when we encounter someone like this? Revulsion? Condemnation? Or do we love and pity them?
I was one of those people, not just a mocker but a committed one! So you would think that I, perhaps more than many, could see someone like that with love and forgiveness. But alas, I also struggle with judgmentalism. We must fight this "natural inkling" and instead see those "enemies of the faith" for what thy are: deceived and blinded by Satan. We need to tell them the Gospel and pray for them. After all, even Paul says "although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man; but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief" (1 Timothy 1:13).
Because sometimes the mockers become believers.
Grace and peace be yours in abundance!
Bruce
(I will be on vacation for the next two weeks, so you likely won't be hearing much, if anything, from me.)
Father, like Paul who desired that his kinsmen not be destroyed by their sin of unbelief, we too bear a burden for our fellow man that they come to repentance and find salvation through Christ Jesus our Lord.
Jude warns us that there will be mockers in the last time who walk according to their own ungodly lusts.
We see it with our eyes and it is evident in the news every day.
But we are encouraged in our witness knowing that salvation is available to any mocker or unbeliever who turns to you in repentance.
Jesus is the only name under heaven by which we can be saved so we proclaim Him who lived among the people, was sacrificed for our sins, was buried and rose on the third day.
How we pray that the life of Christ might resonate through our lives so that others might see Jesus in us.
It is in Jesus’ name that we pray for a plentiful harvest in declaring the gospel through our witness and our lives.
Amen.
(http://adailyprayer.wordpress.com/2012/07/30/a-prayer-for-faithful-impact/)
Jude warns us that there will be mockers in the last time who walk according to their own ungodly lusts.
We see it with our eyes and it is evident in the news every day.
But we are encouraged in our witness knowing that salvation is available to any mocker or unbeliever who turns to you in repentance.
Jesus is the only name under heaven by which we can be saved so we proclaim Him who lived among the people, was sacrificed for our sins, was buried and rose on the third day.
How we pray that the life of Christ might resonate through our lives so that others might see Jesus in us.
It is in Jesus’ name that we pray for a plentiful harvest in declaring the gospel through our witness and our lives.
Amen.
(http://adailyprayer.wordpress.com/2012/07/30/a-prayer-for-faithful-impact/)
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