JUDE

"... I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once and 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 out God into license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord."  ( Jude 1:3,4  NIV)   * The book of Jude has no "3:16"

Jude, brother of James, and half-brother of Jesus, wrote this short but powerful book of the Bible.  His message:  warning against apostasy -0 the turning away from God's truth by embracing false teachings.  This warning was appropriate when Jude wrote it ;and,  it is even more appropriate today! We need to be wary of the "feel good" preacher.  If he tells us that everything we do is acceptable,  we need to quickly find a different source of leadership. God wants us to be happy, but not at the price of righteousness. He doesn't want us to go around with long faces and heavy hearts.  But, substituting worldliness and/or possessions for righteousness is NOT the answer.
 (" ...the love of money is the root of all evil."  I Timothy 6:10)





God does bless many Believers with prosperity.  But, we need to take care not to allow possessions to become the focus of our lives.  I love pretty things.  I love color.  I love arranging flowers, painting , embroidery, pottery... well, you get the picture.. But, first I must seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness; then, these things will be added into my life.  (Matthew 6:33).
Here is the prophet Ezekiel's vision of what will happen to those who listen to false teachers:  "They will throw their silver into the streets, and their gold will be an unclean thing.  Their silver and gold will not be able to save them in the day of the Lord's wrath.  They will not satisfy their hunger or fill their stomachs with it,  for it has made them stumble into sin.  They were proud of their beautiful jewelry and used it to make their detestable idols and vile images.  Therefore I will turn these into an unclean thing for them.:  (Ezekiel 7:19,20)



So, beware of godless men who pose as men of God.  Beware of wolves in sheep's clothing, who,  like Satan,  come to steal, kill, and destroy.  Rather, remain steadfast in Truth.

"Thomas said to him, 'Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?'  Jesus answered, 'I am the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.'"  (John 15:5,6)

ECCLESIASTES 3:16

     " And I saw something else under the sun: In the place of judgement - wickedness was there, in the place of justice - wickedness was there."     (NIV)

     This verse, along with several before and after it, is an expression of utter emptiness and negativity.  The author is Solomon.  If the readers continue further into Ecclesiastes they will discover that Solomon not only expressed how empty the world is; but, also that satisfaction comes only from knowing the Lord.  Earlier  in Solomon's life,  God asked him what he gift he would like.  Solomon answered that he would like to have wisdom.  God was so pleased at Solomon's answer that He granted him not only wisdom, but also, wealth, fame, power, and prestige.
     But looking back on his own life, Solomon realized that the only meaningful experience he'd had was in knowing God;  all else was nothing.  So Solomon wrote Ecclesiastes to teach his people that while success and prosperity are nice during our short stay on earth, they are meaningless when compared with eternal values.





 In  chapter 17 of Deuteronomy God gave certain commands for future kings.  One such command was that each king must write a copy of the Torah (the first five books of the Bible).  Writing the Torah included, of course, the specific "do's and don'ts" for a king of Israel.  Part of this reads: "Only he shall not multiply horses to himself... Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart not turn away; neither silver and gold."  (Deuteronomy 17: 16-17)  But Solomon, when he wrote his copy of the Torah, changed one letter.  One letter!  In the original language of the Bible- Hebrew- the word was "yarbeh", meaning "he shall not multiply".  But, Solomon changed it to "arbeh", which means "I will multiply".  Solomon thought that he was wise enough that he could increase all these things in his life, and not give in to temptation.

depiction of Solomon worshiping false god

The reason God said,  "Neither shall he multiply wives unto himself," was to prevent the many wives' different pagan practices from creeping into Solomon's beliefs and practices, pulling him away from the One True God.  Solomon thought that his insight would prevent this...  But, here is what the scriptures say: "For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart to other gods".  (I Kings 11:3)  To paraphrase Ecclesiastes 2:12,  Solomon ended up saying: " Because I thought of myself as wiser than Torah, because I persuaded myself that I fully understood Torah, and because I thought I could change the words of Torah,  all my understanding and knowledge turned out to be folly."

  



      Nowadays we have so many evil influences in our lives... TV, movies, the news, magazines... almost all the media is telling us that sin is okay.  Our legal system often seems to protect the bad guy and punish the good guy. It seems as if justice has lost out to wickedness.  But we, like Solomon, need to look at the larger picture.  We need to look back to Torah.  God has the perfect plan, and He gave us a copy of it!  We do not and can not have the vision He has... Eternity is a long time.
     Are you living with eternal values in mind?