his week’s New Testament book is Jude. It’s a brief letter, often harsh in tone, and mostly devoted to encouraging Followers of The Way to “contend for the faith that was once entrusted to the saints.” (verse 3)

The short story is that some of the folk Jude was worried about had been treating faith like Jesus was a free ride; they were confusing liberty with license, and avoiding accountability rather than following Jesus as their savior and as guide to a “New and Living Way.”

BENEDICTION: Strident tone regardless, the last two verses in Jude comprise one of my favorite benedictions; they are exactly the kind of words I’d choose to leave with the people I love if I were writing my final post:

“Now to him who is able to keep you from falling, and to make you stand without blemish in the presence of his glory with rejoicing, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.”

Because it’s Jesus who keeps us standing, and it’s Jesus who restores us to the marvelous presence of God with such joy; it’s as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

I am so grateful to Jesus for his generous love, for his uncompromised glory, for his life-charged power, for his absolute authority, and for his regenerative spirit that reaches beyond any limitation – including time, and space, and my unworthiness – in order to bring each one of us the possibility of new life.

– DEREK