Hello All

This Saturday we will finalize our journey through Jude's powerful
Pastoral Letter. This was a two study book, however its power and
spirituality belies its length.

We also finished with all of the Pastoral Books. The only book between
here and the end of the Bible is Revelations. Candidly, I am not
certain if I am ready to go there.
From here we will take a detour to apply what we have learned and
apply that to a study series on Christian Culture. We will look at a
number of cultural, contemporary
issues and apply scripture to them. Prayerfully that will give us
guidance and encouragement as we go about our daily lives wherein we
observe various levels of hostility
toward our Christian faith.

Please use that introduction
Please join us, our Zoom Link and Bible Study notes are below for this
Saturday's session at 8:00 AM PDT 03/22/2025. I pray you and yours are
well.

Please remember that you bless us with your presence, and may the Holy
Spirit bring you His comfort and His peace. Join us!!!

Zoom Link:
For Study, Prayer and Fellowship - 8:00 AM PDT on 03/22/2025:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82968961343?pwd=LzcwVjJKcWVESDRURlhDcXlNV0JUdz09

Meeting ID: 829 6896 1343
Passcode: 77299ere:

Study Notes:

03/22/2025 – Prologue – Prayer to the Holy Spirit [v. 20b]- Oh Giver
of all supernatural gifts, I beg You to visit me with Your grace and
Your love and to grant me the gift of holy fear, so that it may act on
me as a check to prevent me from falling back into my past sins, for
which I beg pardon.

As we complete the epistle of St. Jude, we end our study of the
Pastoral Letters. This has been a holy journey. Let us try to know
Jude. He is the son of Mary, married to Clopas, and she is a cousin of
Mary, Jesus’s mother. He was one of Jesus’ twelve, but some opine he
was a non-believer until the resurrection. We do know he is the patron
saint of hope and ‘lost causes.’  He preached the Gospel with great
passion, often under difficult circumstances. Through the power of the
Holy Spirit, he made profound differences in people's lives as he
offered them the Word of God. The Gospel tells us that St. Jude was a
brother of St. James the Lesser, also one of the Apostles. They are
described in [Matt. 13:5; Mark 6:3] as, "brethren" of Jesus. After the
death and resurrection of Jesus, St. Jude traveled throughout
Mesopotamia, Libya, Syria, and Persia with St. Simon preaching and
building the foundations of the early Church. St. Jude was killed,
with an axe, c. 65 AD, near modern day Beirut, and died a martyr's
death for his unwavering faith. His body was later brought to Rome and
buried in a crypt under St. Peter's Basilica. The famous children’s
hospital is named for him because so many children, with cancer, were
initially brought there because they were ‘lost causes.’

[Jude 17-25] – Rescued by God’s Power – Often a quick burst of
Biblical text catches a sharp truth. After many generations when the
Jews had gone from bad to worse under a series of sinful kings, God
sends the prophet Elijah to tell it straight. [1 Kings 18:17-18] King
Ahab asks, “Is it you, troubler of Israel?” Elijah responds, “It is
you and your father’s house, leaving YHWH’s commands and following
Baal’s.” The corollary today would be bickering groups within
churches. Each calls the other divisive/causing trouble. For Elijah it
was ironic or hypocritical for the King to be accusing him while
allowing wickedness going unchecked. Most people do not want to make a
fuss, do not want to seem out of line, so they say nothing. Finally,
when the courage to speak out finally delivers action; they are called
divisive. Thus, in Jude [v. 19] he uses, “… people who cause division”
Other teachers may say it was Jude himself, by dragging them back to
old fashioned morality; based on ‘odd’ stories in the OT, rather than
the freedom they had discovered in God’s grace that caused the
distraction. Jesus had warned: scornful persons will come, mocking you
and your silly rules, eager to follow whichever desires happen to be
current at the time. Jude, warns that those folks do not have God’s
spirit, in spite of their claims. They live on a human level. However,
after all the warnings and denunciations along come the words, we need
to hear: strengthening, promising and filled with holiness. We must do
this to be prepared and braced for the shock caused by discord.

Jude puts his ideas together quickly, to help us build our faith, our
prayer and to keep ourselves in God’s love and waiting for Jesus’
ultimate mercy and His return. [v. 20-21] 1) Build yourselves up in
‘your most holy faith’. This is the faith referenced in [v. 2], that
this would be a hard struggle. The ‘faith’ meaning: a body of teaching
and a heart-level commitment to the faith. It is seeking to stand on
firm ground and there stand tall. 2) Pray in the Holy Spirit. Prayer
remains a mystery, but it is the mystery to which we must totally
commit, as Christians. One of the most important tasks of the Holy
Spirit is to call out prayer from the depths of our hearts. What do we
really need to heed in this letter? On one hand a prayer of lament and
on the other a prayer for protection. It is God’s lament that we share
as we gaze upon the sorrow of human wickedness and arrogance as it
invades the church. It is God’s protecting power and love that we draw
upon us as we pray by His spirit in the midst of turmoil. 3) Keep
yourselves in the love of God. Strange? Odd? Is it not God’s job to
keep us in His love? True! But it is also our job not to wander away.
The Good Shepherd does not lock us up - night or day. Key – He wants
us to learn to follow Him because we love and trust Him. Do not give
Him added work by getting lost. 4) Be patient in waiting for the mercy
that leads to God’s new age and the promise for new life. This will be
revealed when Jesus is revealed. All Christian discipleship has this
forward look. NB: We mostly see moral and religious disarray. Pray for
mercy for ourselves and our church. This will come!

Fortunately, unity will come, in smaller measures during times of
healing and renewal, in advance of that final day. Jude delivers
simple, powerful steps we can take today. Jude does not say pick up an
axe and fight these false teachers to the ground, their ground. He
simply wants us to learn two things: be aware of the danger(s) we face
and learn the heart-habits of genuine Christian discipleship. With
these two oars we will weather the tempests. [v. 20-21] From our great
spiritual need, Jude turns to pastoral needs. [v. 22-23] Have we
arrived at a momentous train wreck? Are we rescuers? All kinds of
people are in trouble. Triage? This is to be done by those who are
firm in their faith; they need to go to the rescue. For them Jude has
three pieces of advice. 1) Look carefully to determine the condition
of the people and apply God’s mercy as appropriate. 2) We note people
who have been carried away by strange teachings which may be moral or
immoral. They need rescuing. Some may even be on the verge of moral
collapse. Do not sneer, nor degrade, show them mercy. The mercy we
expect from Jesus. And finally 3) Some are already aflame. They too
need rescuing. But they may be enjoying the warmth of the flames. It
is necessary to make the effort. Be cautious, they are deeper into sin
and they have been marked by sin, stained by sin. Be merciful, but
beware not to transfer the stain to self.

Jude does not end here. His instincts as a writer flow from his
instincts as a Christian: Whatever joys or sorrows come to pass, all
must be gathered up in praise to the one, true God. The form Jude uses
in the ending praise is found in [v. 24] and is powerful. The God who
deserves all praise is ‘the one who is able to keep you standing
upright.’ Some translations are negative, ‘keep you from falling.’
Read them again - sense your bodily and emotional response to,
‘standing upright’. God will keep you from tripping, but more
importantly He wants you upright. Your walk is going to a definite
destination – when we are presented before God’s glory - undefiled and
joyful! This letter has been a gloomy discussion, in part, using
defilement, wickedness, murkiness, licentiousness, Jesus-denying. If
that is where we focus, it will be a kill-joy religious journey. Our
journey should be about glory, purity, gladness and celebration. For
thus, we were made! Jude then gathers it all together in a burst of
Christian praise. Let it flood your heart – the knowledge of God in
Jesus and the rescue He has completed. [v.25] “… to the only God, our
Savior, be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ
our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore,” Amen!
                     So ends our Pastoral studies.
            03/17/25, Words 58,243

Love, hank

Hank Hohenstein, OFS
Land Steward
161 Osprey Vista
Shady Cove, OR 97539
Cell: 541-973-5442
hankhohenstein@gmail.com