It ain't easy.

But these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively. Woe to them! For they walked in the way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam's error and perished in Korah's rebellion.

Jude 10-11

The thrust of Jude's little letter is to persuade the church to reject false teachers. The brief description of false teachers and their resultant blasphemy is a reminder that should still warn us today. False teachers buy into and also sell swarmily an easy, intuitive theology. They want things easy, as is evidenced by Jude deriding them as "unreasoning animals". They are destroyed by their lack of thinking.

When Jude says they blaspheme by following their instincts, he is making it clear that by do doing, their doctrines are rooted in sin and error. It is our sinful natures that are instinctive to us. God calls us to apply ourselves to thoughtful belief and actions based on His revelation that comes from outside us, not from within. But false teachers always claim to have an easier route to salvation and a happy life. They will twist God's revelation, but always with an instinctive bend towards sin. They are unreasoning animals. They thus avoid biblical theology altogether.

These practices lead false teachers to emulate three of the Old Testament's really bad blasphemers. They are like Cain, who disobeyed God by not offering his best sacrifice, and when confronted chose to rebel against the revealed truth by killing his own brother. They are like money-hungry Balaam who sold his prophetic talents to the highest bidder with no regard for God's holiness or the truth. They are like Korah who defied Moses and God's leadership and led a portion of Israel into his rebellion, only to have the whole lot of them be swallowed up alive in a sinkhole that bottomed out straight to hell.

So Christians need to be on guard. False teaching is so easy, and often so attractive. Biblical theology is rewarding but requires diligence and sometimes mental effort. Always be cautious of the broad and easy road, of any "Christian" teacher who claims to have found something nobody has every seen or taught before. Beware of sermons that contain "secrets" for living. Jesus said this easy road leads to destruction, and his half-brother Jude agrees with Him, reminding us that their are on-ramps to that broad and dangerous road even from the church.

The Bright City

And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there.

Revelation 21:23-25

I journey to the City of Light

  where the Holy Lamb of God is bright

    and in His glory there is no night

I journey to the City of Light

There in one eternal day

  awaiting me there on my way

    I believe what my Savior did say

there is one eternal day

I will live in the light of the Lamb

  eternal God, Savior, great I Am

    singing again backed by an angel band

I will live in the light of the Lamb

A City of Light is my final home

  with kings and angels and loved ones I'll roam

    lovely streets of crystal gold

a City of Light is my final home

There is no more darkness there

  in the home my Savior did prepare

    just joy and light and springtime air

there is no more darkness there

My journey leads to a good end

  Jerusalem reborn, around life's bend

    with my Savior there, eternal friend

my journey leads to a good end

can't buy me love

Many waters cannot quench love,

neither can floods drown it.

If a man offered for love

all the wealth of his house,

he would be utterly despised.

Song of Solomon 8:7

So it appears that the Beatles were only echoing Solomon when they sang, "Can't Buy Me Love". Here at the end of the epic love song that Solomon penned romancing his Shulammite bride, he acknowledges both the power and the rare value of true love. It is a priceless part of human experience. It has a sustaining power unmatched by other human relational commitments. We are right to extol the joys of love and romance as we do as long as we are careful not to worship human love.

True love is an abiding, warm fire that cannot be easily extinguished. It is how I know love with my bride. It felt that way as we prepared to marry so long ago, and now, almost thirty years later that fire has not burned out. All it takes is some time with her to know the comforting warmth of love's blaze. Even when floods of tears and hard times have seemed to overwhelm us, the fire never dies. It burns on, lifted above the flood line by the grace God has given us to wholly commit holy to each other.

I can't place a value on that. Literally all I am and all I have in my life is tied to my precious wife. There is no way to describe what profoundly "is" for us. But I know what we are achieving. It is "oneness". It is what God made marriage between one man and one woman to be... two as one flesh. Those who know it are the wealthiest and strongest people they can be.

praise and sword

Let the high praises of God be in their throats

and two-edged swords in their hands,

Psalm 149:6

Now here is a quite manly portion of Old Testament poetry! It calls for men of God to be both shouters of God's praise and instruments of God's justice. I think it is hasty and an immature hermeneutics that sees the "two-edged sword" of Hebrews 4:12 (the Word of God) as the focus of this psalm. Instead, the literal reading is preferred. The two-edged sword is a weapon of war. It forces God's vengeance and punishment (Psalm 149:7), it helps take prisoners captive (Psalm 149:8), and it is used to bring God's decreed judgment upon His enemies (Psalm 149:9).

David was a warrior King and if he is the author of this psalm, then this image makes perfect sense. God had called him to praise Him by leading well and judging wrongdoing as the king and commander in chief of Israel. God gave David and Israel victory by military conquest over the enemies of the nation. God called the king to capture foes and bring vengeance on those who hated Israel or threatened the throne. And he did all these vital tasks of governing and protecting the nation with the praises of God on his lips.

For David, a commitment to the worship of Yahweh was also a commitment to protect the nation. And the way to protect and lead Israel involved not only power and military authority, but most importantly, wielding those things while worshiping the Lord. He would fail as a leader if he did not do both. Spiritual integrity had to be matched with civil authority.

I may not literally go into my day with a weapon on my hip (though many good people do so as members of law enforcement or the military), but I do take away from this psalm the necessity of heartfelt praise to go with me in whatever I do today. May the high praises of God be in my throat as my battle cry today!

remember and celebrate

And Mordecai recorded these things and sent letters to all the Jews who were in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, both near and far, obliging them to keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar and also the fifteenth day of the same, year by year,

Esther 9:20-21

God turned a threat of death into a feast of celebration. The big celebration at the end of the book of Esther is a victory feast. The Jews were saved by God's sovereign placing of wise Mordecai and gracious, obedient Esther in the right positions of power to courageously end the threat of genocide against the Jews that Haman had elaborately plotted. And at the Persian King's own command the Jews were able to destroy all their enemies over two days. And thus was born the feast of Purim.

God turns the table on sin and death. And that is something worth really partying about! It is what Christians do every time we worship. We are celebrating the victory of Jesus over sin and death with each new convert we baptize, with each time we meet in the Word and worship, with each time we break bread at His table. We are celebrating our Savior and our salvation when we worship.

True worship celebrates salvation. And that is what Purim did for these Jews. I'll remember that when I am gathered with the saints for Lord's Day worship and when I come to my Lord for daily worship in His Word and prayer.

the last song of Moses

The Rock, his work is perfect,

for all his ways are justice.

A God of faithfulness and without iniquity,

just and upright is he.

Deuteronomy 32:4

A last song from Moses to the nation of Israel before his last look at the Promised Land and death upon Pisgah is given to Israel in the last book of the Law. It is a song of warning. It extols the perfect worthiness of God to be worshiped, yet spends most of its meter and rhyme warning the nation of the dangers of disobedience and chiding them for past rejections of God despite His continual faithfulness to them. It is a song of warning.

As such, it is a prophetic epic poem. For Israel was entering into one of her most faithful epochs under Joshua as he followed Moses as leader. Israel would enter the Promised Land and receive blessing as they destroyed the various peoples of Canaan at God's direct command. But they would also fail to obey God completely, setting themselves up for a low point in their history under the rule of judges. There a cycle of sin, suffering, supplication, & salvation would mark them as Moses' song echoed over several generations

From there God would lead them under a monarchy, and again a cycle of unfaithfulness would mark the nation until the prophecy of Moses' song would be most vividly realized when the nation rejected God at His temple and was taken from the land into captivity in Babylon. Even after that, Israel would return to the land and continue cycling into unfaithfulness.

Finally, they would rigidly dig into self-gratifying legalism and largely reject God whose "ways are justice" when Jesus came to them "without iniquity, just and upright", only to be crucified by a crowd of screaming Israelites calling for the death of their God. Moses' last song was a vivid warning of what would be, but even in that warning, salvation has come to those who believe.

when in Rome

And when we came into Rome, Paul was allowed to stay by himself, with the soldier who guarded him.

Acts 28:16

Paul's ministry dream has come true. He longed to preach the gospel in Rome, the seat of the Roman Empire and the center of Paul's culture. Paul had been to a lot of big Mediterranean cities. From Jerusalem, he had brought the gospel to places like Antioch, Ephesus, and even Athens. But Rome was the top of the world in terms of strategic importance as a city. And Paul is there, unhindered to boldly proclaim the gospel while awaiting his appointment with Caesar under house arrest (see Acts 28:30-31).

The journey to Rome was arduous, pushing endurance as it involved arrest, beating, long imprisonment, ping pong trials before a variety of officials, and an eventual appeal to Caesar by Paul who as a Roman citizen was able to thus procure a free journey by sea to the center of the empire. Aboard ship Paul endured storm and shipwreck, all the adventure any Mediterranean sailor of ancient times could have imagined. But once in Rome, he was able to relax, still a prisoner, but in a rented room, under minimum security with a Roman guard, fully allowed for two years to preach the gospel as his case slowly ground through the system, moving up the docket to Caesar.

Reading the last two chapters in Acts, I notice that there are seasons of ministry frenzy punctuated by rest. There are storms and wrecks, fears and unknown difficulties. There are also fires on the beach, and personal prayer times. There are new islands onto which God washes people ashore. There are miracle healings and snake bites. There are new believers and stoic soldiers like Paul's Roman guard who just keep witnessing the gospel and its power firsthand, but seem unfazed by it. It's a lot of life that is true to our own experiences today.

Paul in Rome, though allowed to finally rest, doesn't seem to want to do so. Instead, even under the terms of a house arrest, brings a stream of visitors in to his home in order to proclaim the gospel and advance Christ's kingdom. The gospel never takes a vacation!