Psalm 23:2-3

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

-Andy Gleiser

Isn't it obvious when two people like each other? They stand or sit next to one another. They talk to friends about the one they think about all the time. Can people tell that about you and your Shepherd? Is there something going on between the two of you? Is God more to you than an answer on a test or even the subject of Sunday school? How is your relationship with God? There is so much in these two verses we'll need to take them over two days.

Look closely at David's four statements about the Shepherd. "He makes. He leads. He restores. He leads." The emphasis is not on what David does but on what the Shepherd does. Though he was the king, David understood he was in the care of someone else.

The shepherd does all the work for the sheep. He finds pasture, food, and water. He finds the safe path. He protects, provides, leads, quiets, comforts, and searches for sheep that have wandered away. Were it not for the shepherd, the sheep would perish. Without him, they are disquieted, dissatisfied, and directionless.

Just like sheep, your life is dependent on your Shepherd. Were it not for the Shepherd dying for the sheep, all of us, like sheep, would stumble into hell. You need the Shepherd for salvation, but you need him for everything else! You need him for wisdom and comfort. You need him for power, rest, courage, and answers. Don't foolishly believe you can live independently of God.

But we sheep get ourselves into so much trouble because we do not trust our Shepherd. Even though our Shepherd stands just ahead of us and beckons us to come with him to quiet pastures and satisfying streams, we so often refuse to willingly submit to his leading.

Do you think if you follow God, he'll make you unhappy? Do you realize your Shepherd sees something you don't? Could it be you're a bit angry with God? He has allowed something bad to happen, and so you think, "If my Shepherd truly loved me, he wouldn't take me this way." So you close your heart to him. You don't trust him because he has let you down. You're going to trust how you do things now.

No matter how intelligent we are, we are still sheep. We don't get it. The Shepherd sees things we don't. Do you trust him with your life? Will you submit to his instructions? He will direct your paths when you lean on his understanding…not yours.

Food for thought: Has it occurred to you that God has bigger dreams for you than you have for yourself?

Psalm 23:1

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

-Andy Gleiser

What's going on in your life today? What weighs on your mind at night? What do you find strangling your soul? Do you have issues at home? Do you feel lost? Feeble? Fearful? The 23rd Psalm is what you need. You need a Shepherd. Jesus said in John 10:11, "I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep." As you read the Shepherd's psalm, remember it is all about Jesus.

If it is true Jesus is your Shepherd, what does that make you? A sheep! What are sheep like? I'm sorry…it's not too flattering! Sheep stink. Sheep are fearful. Sheep are stupid, weak, dependent, and have a strong desire to wander away. Surely, this couldn't be a picture of us! But wait… 

Can your attitude, behavior, or reactions stink? Check.

Do you ever worry over the future, your parents, your salvation, or even failing? Check. 

Have you ever done a foolish, stupid act of sin, going places physically or digitally you never dreamed you would? Check.

Do you lack strength to obey God and walk with him? Check. 

Do you need guidance for big decisions? Check.

Has there ever been a time when you drifted away from God? Check. 

Ouch! We are very much like sheep. What do sheep need? A Shepherd! And according to David, you have one, and his name is Yahweh. Yahweh is the One who was reigning when you went to sleep and when you awoke. Yahweh is the One who holds the universe together by the power of his voice. Oceans obey the slightest command of Yahweh!

But though he may be a Shepherd to millions, he is your Shepherd. Yes, Jesus is all-powerful. Yes, Jesus is special, perfect, and sovereign. Yes, Jesus is God. But Jesus is yours! Health, moods, plans, and family all change, but your Shepherd never changes, never leaves, never forsakes, and never sleeps.

But don't miss the end of the verse. Jesus is also your satisfaction. Because he is your Shepherd, you will not lack anything you need for today or tomorrow. This also means you will not crave anything. In other words, Jesus so satisfies you that you need nothing else. You don't need the approval of classmates; you have Jesus. You don't need a relationship with a boy/girl to make you happy; you have Jesus. You don't need more stuff to make you feel special; you have Jesus. Nothing satisfies like your relationship with Jesus.

Food for thought: You may know Psalm 23, but how well do you know the Shepherd?

Jude 20-25

But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And of some have compassion, making a difference: and others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.

Jude closes his epistle with an encouragement to not be simply spectators to the destruction of the disbelieving, disillusioned, and disobedient. All deserve the judgment and wrath of God. Many will receive it. But a loving Christian will not stand idly by and rejoice at the destruction of other souls, no matter how deceitful and how wicked.

This is the point of the gospel. Jesus, the sinless, saw the sinful in need and acted. In Ezekiel 18, God tells us that it is not a joy to Him to watch the wicked be destroyed. Romans 5 takes it a step further and says that we were enemies of God in our wickedness, but He was willing to reconcile us. He says, furthermore, that while we were sinners Jesus died for us.

He cared so much about our desperately lost situation that He was willing to die to accomplish our reconciliation. It didn’t matter that we were His enemy. Our sinfulness separated us from Him, but not so far that He would not lovingly engage us. Rather, God made Him who knew no sin, to be sin for us that we might have a chance.

We were hopeless, but Jesus brought us hope at the expense of His own comfort and safety. When we see those around us, and even those in the church whose willful disobedience to God disgusts us, we must remind ourselves of the fact that at one point when we were without the grace of God, we had our rough edges too. We must then with the mind and heart transformed by gospel truth, lovingly engage those around us.

Jude says “have compassion,” “live in the love and mercy of God,” “help them.”

Now, how will you lovingly engage those who at times frustrate you? How will you seek to reconcile those who are absolutely wrong in their assumptions and actions?  What will you do to further extend the grace of the gospel of Jesus to them so that they can be saved from the death that you have been saved from?

Those who have found hope must become agents of that hope. Those who have been forgiven must proclaim that forgiveness. The delivered must help deliver. The saved must help save.

Food for Thought: Who do you know that could use a little more compassion from you than judgment? What will you do about it?

Jude 12-19

These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots; Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever. And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaketh great welling words, having men’s persons in admiration because of advantage. But beloved, remember ye the words which were spoke before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts. These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not he Spirit.

In one of His last messages to His disciples, Jesus spoke of the day when all would be gathered in judgment. On one side of the Judge would be placed the “sheep.” On the other side would be placed the “goats.” Ironically, they would all be mixed together. There would be those mixed in with the sheep who ate grass and followed the flock around, but were never actually sheep. When they were all finally called in, the distinguishing eye of the Shepherd separated the ones He knew were His own sheep and cast the goats out.

The picture is one of Jesus sorting through all those who call themselves His followers. All come walking through the gate at judgment with a sense of confidence. Jesus matter-of-factly separates His true followers from the ones who had just been playing the game and living on false hope. It didn’t matter that they went to Sunday school, or attended every church function. Attendance did not ensure atonement. Dedication never accomplishes deliverance. Salvation comes through faith not faithfulness. Years of following the flock around, doesn’t transform a goat into a sheep.

Judgment day will come, and those who have spent their lives laboring to convince others of their own spiritual position will have their goat-selves cast into eternal punishment.

Jude sees these in the church. Many of them are polluting the accomplishment of the church and frustrating those who long to do right. They distract from the main thing. They worry about pew and carpet color. They love words like “fellowship,” and hate words like “evangelize.” They prefer to cause strife and mutter sarcastic attacks against those God has placed in charge instead of actively growing themselves and those around them in the truth. They don’t mind enduring a forty minute monologue, but will never do the hard work of listening to the truth presented. Just about every time they appear to have fruit, reality sets in and the underdeveloped outgrowth rots away.

Following this thought of the final judgment, Paul says in Philippians 2 that all who call themselves “Christian,” should “work out [their] salvation with fear and trembling.” If the goats will one day walk in the gate with self-deceived confidence, what blindness must control them! Sadly, blindness is a condition that leads to judgment, and can never be used as an excuse from condemnation.

Food for Thought: What are some of the word pictures Jude uses to describe those who are in the church, but are not truly Christian?

Jude 8-11

Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities. Yet Michael the archangel when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee. But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, those things they corrupt themselves. Woe unto them! For they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Korah.

Jude gives a character sketch of those who disregard God’s design. A lack of belief in the life of a person plays itself out in a number of ways:

“Filthy Dreamers” – These are the people who with a grotesquely vile mind fantasize and objectify those around them. They do not see people as eternal beings in need of truth and life, but rather as the very tools to accomplish their own lustful desires. They have completely missed the health, life and purpose that God has offered to them. The One Who knows them, and has designed and crafted them, offers a much better way for their mind. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy…mind…”-it was designed to be enamored by His greatness, not fleeting, hollow fantasy. No amount of gratifying fantasy can ever fill the depths of satisfaction offered through a mind set in Him and His truth.

“Defilers of the Flesh” – Romans speaks of those who do those things “which are inconvenient.” It doesn’t matter whether the internal devastation comes from a disease or from the more deep-set poison, shame, the flesh of those who disregard God’s designs rots and festers. With closed ears and open arms they embrace the self-destroying death of defilement, fully ignoring the truth of God’s warning. And when they ache, somehow they wonder “why?”

“Despise Dominion, and Speak Evil of Dignities” – “You don’t own me.” In an individualistic culture, the thought of being owned by anything is so repulsive, that these pride-slaves push against anything that seems to be in charge. They back-bite their teachers. They hate correction of parents. They despise being told what to do. They murmur about their boss. Their words are an open coffin with stench and rottenness about the President they want everyone to know they disagree with. They fail to believe God when He says He is in control of all authority, and instead of praying for their authorities, they vomit God-forbidden ridicule. They trade His desire, the perfect design of respecting and honoring authority, for their own desires, disrespect and disregard for those in charge.

Look in the mirror of God’s Word. Do you see yourself as obedient to God, or do you look remarkably like the ones who poise themselves under the promised destruction of a just and holy God? God help us to humbly accept the truth of God’s Word and to find the liberating life that it brings.

Food for Thought: Which of these descriptors would you say you struggle with the most? What will you do about it?

Jude 5-7

I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not. And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of that great day. Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.


God tells the truth. He only tells the truth. He always tells the truth. It is Who He is. When God says something, without a doubt, it will come to pass. He has never uttered something that did not come to pass. This is vitally important in understanding how He interacts with mankind throughout history.
At times, we see the drastic consequences of man’s disobedience, and somehow walk away with a feeling of “WOW! Really?!?!? Did God really just react that way!?!” It is as if we see God extend the punishment that He promised, and somehow it seems a bit over the top. We must not lose sight of the fact that while the consequences of sin are dark and sometimes startling, they are not poured out on the undeserving. As a matter of fact, a gracious God is always kind enough to warn those He would judge. He sends agents of truth to offer liberty to those who stand in opposition to Him. The only gracious, omnibenevolent God always tells the truth when He lovingly warns of the consequences to sin.
Jude plays out a reminder of three of these instances: the doubting Israelites who had been delivered from the Egyptian slavery; the fallen and, subsequently, judged angels; the Twin Cities of fornication, Sodom and Gomorra, that were obliterated by cataclysmic sulfur-balls.
God told the Israelites that He delivered to simply trust Him. He would help them conquer their baby-murdering enemies. After the angels had seen Him in His glory, they foolishly chose separation from Him, and earned their forgiveless banishment. Sodom and Gomorra proved to be the epitomization of the depravity of unbridled lust. None of them trusted Him, and when they leapt into the fire of His justice, they were consumed with its flames.
God lovingly had offered the way of truth, and they had foolishly rejected it. He was the One Who had told the truth. They preferred to close their ears to truth, and rather live in the lies of their own hearts and in the error of deceit-blinded peers.
Our reaction to the stories of Scripture that tell of a God of Justice, should not be one of recoil. We need not question His goodness, because He lovingly warns of the consequence long before it ever pours out on the heads of the disobedient.

Food For Thought: What is the proper perspective of God when we see the punishment of the wicked in their own devices? What did God do to liberate man from his bondage to this self-destructing cycle?

Jude 3-4

Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.

The “tink…tink…tink” of a hammer smacking a nail rang through the town and filtered through the beech trees of the nearby woods. A brown-cloaked monk stood at the large wooden doors on the front of the University Chapel of Wittenburg. Holding the paper with one hand and the hammer with the other, this truth-hungry monk had no idea what he was starting. It was late fall, a typically cool time of year, but more importantly than the weather, the coldness of the church-universal had finally reached a point of intolerability. The sale of purgatory-lessening indulgences had taken the church to a whole new level of unbiblical heresy, and this Bible-studying Augustinian could have no more of it.

Martin Luther was not looking for revolution, he was simply asking to debate the 95 points he had made against the sale of indulgences(Papal permission slips out of Purgatory). But reformation came like a flood, and truth-hungry friends in low and high places began to support this new mascot for biblical theology.

In his address to the young churches, Jude is encouraging this mentality in the church. Little truth-defending Martin Luthers should with boldness engage the heresy and deception that is creeping into the church. At times a church congregation can become like a lop-sided basketball team, with five all-stars (the pastor and deacons) who play all the time, and a whole room full of bench-warmers who view their purpose as just sitting the pew. It is seen as the job of the “trained” to engage others in truth, and the job of the “untrained” to remain unengaged from truth.

This just isn’t biblical. There is no reason that anyone, young or old, male or female, should not be engaging in active growth in and defense of the truth found in Scripture. It is not a job that is relegated to someone with the title of Pastor. It is the job of all who would take the title of Christian. Like the young monk of 1517, we each should take responsibility in our hand and choke up to the faith-contending duty to which we are called. It will only come with study. It will only come when we know the truth of Scripture. Now let us dive deep into the truth that God has given.

Food For Thought: What is the phrase that Jude uses to describe “fighting for what is right?”