Tea Party With Jesus

This morning has been SO fun. I braved church last night - successfully! - since I hadn't run a fever all day, and so I could rest this morning in case my body continued to lack the energy I so desperately desire. My body won out this morning and I didn't make it to Sunday School. But my pride is telling my body that Jesus simply had other plans. Take that, body!

Back to my Tea Party: Allow me to set the stage for you, as the title "Tea Party" may be misleading. Replace tea with a bottle of water. Replace the pretty dress with my pajamas. And replace the nice, china tea set with a few Bibles and close to ten of my favorite Bible study materials. And there you have it: My Tea Party with Jesus. Probably sounds more like an all-nighter, college study session, but Tea Party just sounds better. I digress. Moving on...

Thanks to LPC's Catalyst, I've been in and out of the book of Jude the past few days. Jude has been a welcomed NT relief from my "read the Bible in 90 days," which by the way is not on schedule as it has taken me 20 days to get through Exodus. Our God is a God of details, which is reason #23958723 that He is God and I am not. Okay, back to Jude: Today I finally had the energy to really dig in to His Word and see the goodness God gave Jude. Before I reveal said goodness, I want to share the road I traveled this morning that opened my eyes to the goodness. It started in an email from Cheryl asking me to research Hinduism since the children we'll work with in a storying session this week have a Hindu worldview. The article she sent me lines up with the beliefs a dear NYC Hindu friend has shared with me the few times I've been able to pick his brain about Hinduism. What I found fascinating in the article were their 3 paths to salvation through YOGA! Yeah!! YOGA!!! Three different kinds of yoga "give" Hindus salvation, or so they think.

That leads me to the goodness I found in Jude:

"Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints. For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord." (Jude 4-5)

Jude's writing to a group of believers whose church had become infiltrated by false teachers. He's urging them to fight for the Truth. NASB & KJV translate my favorite part "...to contend earnestly for the faith..." (italics mine). I love that! Contend earnestly. John MacArthur's comments on this verse, "... Jude wrote this urgent imperative for Christians to wage war against error in all forms and to fight strenuously for the truth, like a soldier who has been entrusted with a sacred task of guarding a holy treasure." (The MacArthur Bible Commentary, Bold mine)

Jesus! Toss me my Sword! I'm goin' in! AH! Doesn't that just get you all rowled up inside!? We've been entrusted with - according to Strong's: "delivered something... to keep, use, take care of..." - God's Word. As His saints, it is our duty to guard His Holy Treasure, to make sure others know that JESUS is THE Way, THE Truth, and THE Life. No one can get to the Father except through Jesus (John 14:6). No Yoga, no Buddha, no good works... Only Jesus.

I am so excited by the fact that God has entrusted you and me with His Holy Treasure, His Kingdom Secrets (Matthew 13:11). We may not know all the secrets, but we sure do need to tell the ones we do know!

"How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, 'How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!'" Romans 10:14-15