Commissioned

Peter and Jude has brought a who new and different revelation on the love of the Father for His children and the love He requires of us. Jude has shown us that God has made it possible for us to be protected in our spiritual journey so that we can truly love, worship and praise Him.

Like He does in positioning angels to protect us, He also will position them to strengthen and uphold us when the enemy sends temptation our way. God will rejoice over us because of His pure love for us. We will be presented to God by the sacrificial Lamb that was instrumental in bringing reconciliation of man to God. We are blood washed and saved by the blood of the sacrificial Lamb.

"keep yourself in God's love" means to consistently stay in obedience to the word of God. So every command that tells us to love, worship, praise, commune, etc. with our God; these keep us in God's love. To strengthen my relationship with God I do all that was just mentioned and spend time fasting. More time alone with Him would help bring me closer to Him Amen!

God make us responsible to "build up" your own Christian faith because it is built and strengthened as we read the word of God. As we read the word of God we come to know God, who He is, and our relationship with Him grows To maintain this, on a regular basis communion and dwelling in the Word of God is the answer. To build up the relationship, more dedication to the presence of God must be foremost.

Of the three privilege, I am most captivated by the fact that Jesus Christ the King of Kings has set a guard around me, to keep me in all ways meeting His will. This is special to me because as I carry out God will I can rest knowing that in every effort His protection will carry me through. This builds my faith in a faithful, mighty God.

A belief in Christ's return and coming judgment gives me hope. An underemphasis on Christ's return cause a Christian to live his life without the blessed hope in view.

Our culture resist the ideas of sin and repentance because it lacks full acceptance of such sin will lead to eternal damnation. There can be no salvation without repentance. There was a time when repentance was difficult for me. It was difficult because I enjoyed the sin even though it was damaging to my body.

According to Peter, Christ's coming is seen to be delayed because God measures time different than we do. This teach us that God's ways are higher than ours and in the time to Christ coming He is making a way for many to hear the gospel message so that none would perish.

It is important for us to understand what it means to "perish" because there is no return from the point of perishing. You are lost forever. These truths are under-emphasized in our day because the coming of Christ i not seen as imminent, at any moment. Many have become slothful. We can get an understanding of judgment into proper balance in our churches and teaching by a proper study of the Word of God and listening to those with revelatory knowledge.

Reminders are so important for Christians because they keep us in a perpetual examination mode and keep us on the right path. I remind myself of God's promises by meditating on His Word. I remind others by bringing the Word of God into our conversation.

Open sin is spiritually dangerous, and some churches have stopped talking about it because they want to be welcoming to all and they want to be relevant to the climate of society; but what they're really doing is masquerading as Christians but exhibiting hypocrisy.

Flagrant, defiant sin can enslave a person through continued participation; the person's conscience becomes seared and eventually sees no wrong in what they are doing. The way out of these sins is repentance and transformation with a renewed mind, the Holy Spirit working in the soul of the individual. We can truly love the sinner and hate the sin by embracing them into the fellowship and teaching them the path to righteousness. We can steer clear of a quick judgmental attitude toward those who sin by exhibiting/demonstrating agape love.

Sexual sin deny Christ because it denies the very teaching of Christ. Christians have become complacent about overlooking persistent sexual sin it in our culture for fear of appearing to be judging someone else's rights to live as they will.

We "must contend for the faith" to bring the pure Word of God to the people of God and to those who are coming into the faith so that they may know the gospel that was entrusted to the Apostles. The danger in not challenging the doctrines of false teachers is a doctrine that is perpetuated from generation to generation' and i every succeeding generation will move farther and farther from the truth and further and further into sin. The danger inherent in challenging false teachers is not doing it from a place of love. and making them an enemy instead of having them accept truth. We can keep the correct balance by speaking truth with love and allowing the Holy Spirit to lead the confrontation.

The Scriptures, "breathed" by God draws us to God because we too are of the breath of God. God "breath" is so important in helping us to understand Scripture because the Scripture is of God. Our understanding of the Scripture is an understanding of God. The Spirit of God gives us understanding of the Scripture.

A person can be speaking as God is speaking, he speaks what he hears from God. The image of the ship being moved by the wind help you understand this because the ship is visibly moving by an invisible force of the wind.

The Old and New Testaments act as "a light shining in a dark place" because there are numerous questions of life, present and future, I would not understand if it were not for the scriptures. The darkness represents ignorance of the true fact. Whereas the light gives full understanding through the Spirit of God for my growth and development.

Our culture avoid talking about death because of its finality away from family and friends. Describing your earthly body as a "tent" might be considered as freeing and motivating because you see it as eventually an outer garment to be cast aside before entering a more permanent one. The significance of Peter referring to his death as a "departure" or "exodus" gives us an understanding of his thoughts towards death and that it is only a transition from one place to another.

Christian character is an essential indicator of being saved or rescued by Christ because it shows a life that has been renewed and transformed; no longer gravitating towards the old ways. The Biblical assurance of salvation that can be offered to the fruitless, barren "believer" is found in Acts 2:21, 'But everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved.'

With agape love there is no baggage to deal with, whereas the hurt is remembered when the church member is present. If we avoid church because of our hurts at the hands of church members, we remove ourselves from the opportunity to grow spiritually. In Christ we love as Christ loves and obeys His word not forsaking the assembly and gathering of the body of Christ.

A disciplined devotional life is important because it brings maturity. When I forget or don't have time I sense that something is missing. To open my spirit to God's Spirit I shut in to worship and praise of the Trinue God.

Of the four virtues stated the easiest for me to move into is goodness and the hardest is self-control. I battle with procrastination. Lord help!

Strong desires erode our faith and corrupt our lives causing us to sin and become enemies of the cross. Strong desires that can build our faith are similar to the Apostle Paul's, 'I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death'. Such desires build our faith and strengthen our relationship with God. A strong desire for God brings us to studying the word of God so that we have "knowledge" of God, and "knowing" God we know how to please Him. God's promises and evil desires at odds with each other because they take you into different directions. Evil desires take you away from God and erode our faith while a desire for the knowledge of God draws us into seeking Him more.

To be personally called "by his own glory and goodness"means that God has specifically structured a unique path for me that will bring Him glory and will usher in the completion of His grand plan for the church. God's glory and awesome Presence brings me into the place where I am reminded of His promise to never leave me nor forsake me and I can trust Him in all His ways. God's goodness and moral excellence gives me the confidence that God is omnipotent, omnipresence, omniscient, and faithful. I can trust my God.

This verse says that everything that we need for this life and the life to come has been provided fr us through our knowledge of Him. God has tied our seeking Him, getting to know Him to the gift or present and future promise of an abundant life.