When you first took my hand on a cold Christmas eve

you promised me broadway was waiting for me...

This blog will, simply put, be a brain dumping of the theology threads weaving through my brain recently and giving me gut punch after gut punch of challenges as to how I live my life. I hope, if you read this, that some of it is coherent and it might challenge and bless you as it has me. Most of this comes from two sermons (one, two) by C. J. Mahaney offering reflections on Jude and you should check them out. I proceed by presenting the two passages gnawing on my heart like amyloid plaques on organs:

"Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James,
To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ:
May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you." Jude 1,2 (ESV)

"But you beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life." Jude 20, 21 (ESV)

As C. J. points out, Jude establishes the indicative in verses 1 and 2 that gives backbone and meaning to the imperative in verses 20 and 21. The indicative is that those who are called are kept for Jesus Christ by God. The imperative, then, is the command to keep yourselves in the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ. In many ways it seems a bit circular, but ultimately it reveals the calling, drawing action of God, but the responsibility of us to work out our salvation; to keep ourselves in Christ. In other words, while we do not work for our salvation, we work out our salvation.

What gut punches me over and over, though, is the three ways Jude lays out to keep ourselves in Christ: 1) build yourself up in your most holy faith 2) pray in the Holy Spirit and 3) wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. In my walk, I find that I gather the most strength, the most passion in what I have designated point 3. In short form, I am an eschatology junkie. A Christianity without hope in God righting all wrongs and redeeming His children along with the non-human world (which won't burn up, sorry to disappoint you, but the Bible told me so), is not a Christianity worth fighting for. And we fix our eyes on Jesus, whose death and resurrection provides the hope for the future resurrection of believers. I can't wait for, in the words of Mumford & Sons, when there will come a time with no more tears, and love will not break your heart, but dismiss your fears.

But this is just one building block of keeping ourselves in Christ. The other two are integral as well. And, oh, how I need to preach the gospel to myself daily (check out this resource for expansion on this idea). And, oh, my prayer life needs a kick-start....almost all the time. So, if making disciples of ourselves and our brothers involves developing habits, developing spiritual disciplines, God (through Mahaney) has gut punched me yet again, yet encouraged me in such a rich way. Where is the encouragement you may ask? In the steady, unwavering love of God. Check out the closing verses:

"Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen." Jude 24, 25 (emphasis mine, ESV)