Walking in The Light / An Original Work / November 16, 2011
Based off 1 John 1-2
When I lift up my voice, and
Sing praise unto God,
I will fellowship with my
Lord and Savior, King.
In Him there is no darkness.
He is in the light of truth.
If we walk in His light,
From sin He purifies.
If we repent of our sins,
He’ll forgive us now,
When we humble ourselves, and
Before Jesus bow.
The man who says, “I know Him,”
But does not obey His truth,
There is no truth in him.
In darkness still he’s found.
Do not love the world of sin,
For it is hell bound.
If you follow the world, you’ll
Not in Christ be found.
The world and its desires
Will not last; they’ll expire.
The one who does God’s will,
Receives eternal life.
See that what you have heard from
Christ remains in you.
Then, you’ll remain in Christ, and
In His Father, too.
This is what He promised us –
His eternal life with God.
So, continue in Him, and
You’ll receive a crown.
http://youtu.be/wS6ljsF6aV4
Jude 8-13 (NIV 1984):
In the very same way, these dreamers pollute their own bodies, reject authority and slander celestial beings. But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not dare to bring a slanderous accusation against him, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!” Yet these men speak abusively against whatever they do not understand; and what things they do understand by instinct, like unreasoning animals—these are the very things that destroy them.
Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain; they have rushed for profit into Balaam’s error; they have been destroyed in Korah’s rebellion.
These men are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm—shepherds who feed only themselves. They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted—twice dead. They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever.
My Understanding: Jude said that there were certain men who had secretly slipped in among the saints of God (the church). They were godless men who changed the grace of God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord. Then, Jude gave several examples of those in the past who had suffered the judgment of God’s eternal fire, and among them were Sodom and Gomorrah. From that point, he then said, “In the very same way, these dreamers pollute their own bodies…” So, Jude was linking the judgment of God on these false teachers with the examples of God’s judgments on his people who did not believe, even after he had delivered them out of Egypt, with his judgments on fallen angels, and with his judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah.
These false teachers were described as those who “pollute their own bodies,” i.e. this is a picture of moral decay, sexual immorality in excess, self-love, self-gratification, and perhaps even a reference to homosexuality (Sodom). They are dreamers because they live in a fantasy world, either a reference to sexual fantasies and/or to denial of truth concerning their own sin. They are also those who speak abusively against whatever they don’t understand, which I believe has to do with spiritual matters that must be spiritually discerned, because they are of the Spirit of God, and cannot be understood with carnal minds. Since they are not able to discern them, they mock them instead. And, they reject the authority of Jesus Christ in their lives. They are shepherds who feed only themselves (self-love), and do not spiritually feed the sheep of God. Blackest darkness has been reserved for them because they have rejected the truth of God and have followed a lie.
Write: Blessed
So, I inquired of the Lord as to what message he had that he wanted to share with me here since I had just recently written on this passage of scripture. I knew he had woken me for a reason, so I inquired of him as to the reason for waking me with this song and scripture. And, then I heard him say in my mind (from Revelation 14:13):
“Write: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.”
“Yes,” says the Spirit, “they will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them.”
Just prior to this, in chapter 14, John stated that an angel proclaimed the gospel throughout the earth. The angel said in a loud voice, “Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come. Worship him who made the heavens, the earth, the sea and the springs of water.” Then, a second angel followed and said, “Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great, which made all the nations drink the maddening wine of her adulteries.” A third angel said that if anyone received the mark of the beast that “he, too, would drink of the wine of God’s fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath.” Then, John stated that this called for “patient endurance on the part of the saints who obey God’s commandments and remain faithful to Jesus.” It was right after this that John heard the voice from heaven say, “Write: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.”
I believe the Lord is making a direct connection here between these false teachers described in the book of Jude who polluted their own bodies with sexual degradation, in reference to those existing today, and this judgment on Babylon the Great which made all the nations drink the maddening wine of her adulteries. I believe this is a call to come out of the darkness and into God’s wonderful light, to endure patiently, to obey God’s commandments and to remain faithful to Jesus, because we who die in the Lord Jesus from this point (following the judgment on Babylon the Great) on will be blessed.
This world is not my home. I have a home in heaven with my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and I am looking forward to being with my Lord in heaven one day when he chooses to take me home to be with him in glory. As I prayed concerning all of this that the Lord had just shown me in connecting the passage in Jude with this passage in Revelation and with the song “Walking in the Light,” and I was prayerfully considering this passage in Revelation about those who die in the Lord from that point on (following the judgment) as being blessed, the Lord brought to mind yet another song, “I Would Be Like Jesus.” This is the prayer of my heart. I pray it would be yours, as well.
I Would Be Like Jesus / James Rowe / Bentley Ackley
Earthly pleasures vainly call me
I would be like Jesus;
Nothing worldly shall enthrall me
I would be like Jesus:
He has broken every fetter
I would be like Jesus;
That my soul may serve Him better
I would be like Jesus:
All the way from earth to glory
I would be like Jesus;
Telling o'er and o'er the story
I would be like Jesus:
That in Heaven He may meet me
I would be like Jesus;
That His words "Well done" may greet me,
I would be like Jesus:
Chorus:
Be like Jesus this my song
In the home and in the throng;
Be like Jesus all day long!
I would be like Jesus.
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