True Happiness

Happy are those who reject the advice of evil people, who do not follow the example of sinners or join those who have no use for God. Instead they find joy in obeying the Law of the Lord, and they study it day and night. They are like trees that grow beside the stream, that bear fruit at the right time, and whose leaves do not dry up. They succeed in everything they do. But evil are not like this at all; they are like straw that the wind blows away. Sinners will be condemned by God and kept apart from God’s own people. The righteous are guided and protected by the Lord, but the evil people are on their way to their doom.
Psalms 1:1-6

Lies and Deceit Part 2

Jude 1:3-25
My dear friends, I was doing my best to write to you about the salvation we share in common, when I felt the need of writing at once to encourage you to fight on for the faith which once and for all God has given to his people. For some godless people have slipped in unnoticed among us, persons who distort the message about the grace of our God in order to excuse their immoral ways, and who reject Jesus Christ, our only Master and Lord. Long ago the Scriptures predicted the condemnation they have received.

For even though you know all this, I want to remind you of how the Lord once rescued the people of Israel from Egypt, but afterward destroyed those who did not believed. Remember the angels who did not within the limits of their proper authority, but abandoned their own dwelling place: they are bound with eternal chains in the darkness below, where God is keeping them for that great Day on which they will be condemned. Remember Sodom and Gomorrah, and the nearby towns, whose people acted as those angels did and indulged in sexual immorality and perversion: they suffer the punishment of eternal fire as a plain warning to all.

In this same way also, these people have visions which make them sin against their own bodies; they despise God’s authority and insult the glorious beings above. Not even the chief angel Michael did this. In his quarrel with the Devil, when they argued about who would have the body of Moses, Michael did not dare condemn the Devil with insulting words, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!” But these people attack with insults anything they do not understand; and those things that they know by instinct, like wild animals, are the very things that destroy them. How terrible for them! Them have follows the way that Cain took. For the sake of money they have given themselves over to the error that Balaam committed. They have rebelled as Korah rebelled, and like him they are destroyed. With their shameless carousing they are like dirty spots in your fellowship meals. They take care only of themselves. They are like clouds carried along by the wind, but bringing no rain. They are like trees that have been pulled up by the roots and are completely dead. They are like wild waves of the sea, with their shameful deeds showing up like foam. They are like wandering stars, for whom God has reserved a place forever in the deepest darkness.

It was Enoch, the seventh direct descendant from Adam, who long ago prophesied this about them: “The Lord will come with many thousands of his holy angels to bring judgment on all, to condemn them all for the godless deeds they have performed and for all the terrible words that godless sinners have spoken against him!”

These people are always grumbling and blaming others; they follow their own evil desires; they brag about themselves and flatter others in order to get their own way.

But remember, my friends, what you were told in the past by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. They said to you, “When the last days come, people will appear who will make fun of you, people who follow their own godless desires.” These are the people who cause divisions, who are controlled by their natural desires, who do not have the Spirit. But you, my friends, keep on building yourselves up on your most sacred faith. Pray in the power of the Holy Spirit, and keep yourselves in the love of God, as you wait for our Lord Jesus Christ in his mercy to give you eternal life.

Show mercy toward those who have doubts; save others by snatching them out of the fire; and to others show mercy mixed with fear, but hate their very clothes, stained by their sinful lusts.

To him who is able to keep you from falling and to bring you faultless and joyful before his glorious presence- to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, might, and authority, from all ages past, and now and forever and ever! Amen.

Lies and Deceit Part 1

1 Timothy 4:1-5
The Spirit says clearly that some people will abandon the faith in later times; they will obey lying spirits and follow the teachings of demons. Such teachings are spread by deceitful liars, whose consciences are dead, as if burnt with a hot iron. Such people teach that that it is wrong to marry and to eat certain foods. But God created those foods to be eaten, after a prayer of thanks, by those who are believers and have come to know the truth. Everything that God has created is good; nothing is to be rejected, but everything is to be received with a prayer of thanks, because the word of God and the prayer make it acceptable to God.

2 Peter 2:1-22
False prophets appeared in the past among people, and in the same way false teachers will appear among you. They will bring in destruction, untrue doctrines, and will deny the Master who redeemed them, and so they will bring upon themselves sudden destruction. Even so, many will follow their immoral ways; and because of what they do, others will speak evil of the Way of Truth. In their greed these false teachers will make profit out of telling you made-up stories. For a long time now their Judge has been ready, and their Destroyer has been wide awake!

God did not spare the angels who sinned, but threw them into hell, where they are kept chained in darkness, waiting for they Day of Judgment. God did not spare the ancient world, but brought the flood on the world of godless people; the only ones he saved were Noah; who preached righteousness, and seven other people. God condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, destroying them with fire, and made them an example of what will happen to the godless. He rescued Lot, a good man, who was distressed by the immoral conduct of lawless people. That good man lived among them, and day after day he suffered agony as he saw and heard their evil actions. And to the Lord knows how to rescue godly people from their trials and how to keep the wicked under punishment for the Day of Judgment, especially those who follow their filthy bodily lusts and despise God’s authority.

These false teachers are bold and arrogant, and show no respect for the glorious beings above; instead, they insult them. Even the angels, who are so much stronger and mightier than these false teachers, do not accuse them with insults in the presence of the Lord. But these people act by instinct, like wild animals born to be captures and killed; they attack with insults anything they do not understand. They will be destroyed like wild animals, and they will be paid with the suffering for the suffering they caused. Pleasure for them is to do everything in broad daylight that will satisfy their bodily appetites; they are a shame and a disgrace as they join you in their meals, all the while enjoying their deceitful ways! They want to look for nothing but the chance to commit adultery; their appetite for sin is never satisfied. They lead weak people into a trap. Their hearts are trained to be greedy. They are under God’s curse! They have left the straight path and have lost their way; they have followed the path taken by Balaam son of Beor, who loved the money he would get for doing wrong and was rebuked for his sin. His donkey spoke with a human voice and stopped the prophet’s insane action.

These people are like dried-up springs, like clouds blown along by a storm; God has reserved a place for them in the deepest darkness. They make proud and stupid statements, and use immoral bodily lusts to trap those who are just beginning to escape from among the people who live in error. They promise them freedom while they themselves are slaves of destructive habits- for we are slaves to anything that has conquered us. If people have escaped from the corrupting forces of the world through their knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, and are again caught and conquered by them, such people are in worse condition at the end than they were at the beginning. It would have been much better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than to know it and then turn away from the sacred command that was given to them. What happened to them shows that the proverbs are true: “A dog goes back to what it has vomited” and “A pig that has been washed goes back to roll in the mud.”

1 John 2:18-29
My children, the end is near! You were told that the Enemy of Christ would come; and now many enemies of Christ have already appeared, and so we know the end is near. These people really did not belong to our fellowship, and that is why they left us; if they have belonged to our fellowship, they would have stayed with us. But they left so that it might be clear that none of them really belonged to us.

But you have had the Holy Spirit poured out on you by Christ, and so all of you know the truth. I write you, then, not because you do not know the truth; instead, it is because you do know it, and you also know that no lie ever comes from the truth.

Who, then, is the liar? It is those who say that Jesus is not the Messiah. Such people are the Enemy of Christ- they reject both the Father and the Son. For those who reject the Son reject also the Father; those who accept the Son have the Father also.

Be sure, then, to keep in your hearts the message you heard from the beginning. If you keep that message, then you will always live in union with the Son and the Father. And this is what Christ himself promised to give us- eternal life.

I am writing this to you about those who are trying to deceive you. But as for you, Christ has poured out his Spirit on you. As long as his Spirit remains in you, you do not need anyone to teach you. For his Spirit teaches about everything, and what he teaches is true, not false. Obey the Spirit’s teaching, then, and remain in union with Christ.

Yes, my children, remain in union with him, so that when he appears we may be full of courage and need not hide in shame from him on the Day he comes. You know that Christ is righteous; you should know, then that everyone who does what is right is God’s child.