–Cliff Hudgins  (McNally Texas Ranger)

       “Thus, I will demonstrate my glory among the nations.  Everyone will see the punishment I have inflicted on them and the power I have demonstrated.”
                         –Ezekiel 39:21 (NLT)
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How to Live in a Pagan, Apostate, and Foolish World

Key Verse:  “We know that we are children of God and that the world around us in under the power and control of the evil one.”  –1 John 5:19 (NLT)

       It seems that Jude was compelled to deal with the problem of false teaching drifting into the church by false teachers.  Evil and misguided men were spreading destructive teaching.  The Epistles are full of warnings that we are to guard the truth, to adhere firmly to sound doctrine.  Jude sees that there is a breakdown of this among some in the church.  They are being deluded by the evil one.  Jude says that we must “contend for the faith.”  
       Foolishness abounds.  I saw that a group of people somewhere in Europe identify themselves as sheep.  They dress like sheep, act like sheep, and I’m sure that if they do not come to their senses they will be devoured like sheep.  I knew of a person who was part of the furry fetish–claiming to be a wolf.  They were so confused with their life they eventually took it.  Furries they are called–stupid, confused, deluded is what I call them.  Lost, and in need of Christ.  They do not want to accept the truth, but let me tell you, the truth has finality and is no subject to change.  There is no relative truth no matter what the humanists, postmodernists, and new agers say.  Jesus Christ is the Truth and that will not change; it will hold up through eternity.
       Beware!  Jude tells us that there are those who “crept in.”  This indicates a stealthy insinuations of something evil in society.  These people pervert the grace of God into an excuse for blatant immorality.  

               “For certain men, who were designated for this judgment long ago, have come in by stealth; they are ungodly, turning the grace of our God into promiscuity and denying our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.”
                              –Jude 4 (HCSB)

The NIV states it this way, “a license for immorality,” the NASB, “turn the grace…into licentiousness,” while the NKJV uses the term “lewdness.”  They teach one of two things but only with partial truth.  First, God in His grace will freely forgive all their sins, and therefore, second because of that sin magnifies the grace of God.  These people publicly do shameless things, they have ceased to care for any decency.  They flaunt their sins.
       So I will write again, Beware!  Do not be deceived, remember God is not mocked.  There is a holy justice, God though in His mercy also has a holy patience.  In this waiting period before justice is given we are to beware of our surroundings, beware of what teaching we listen to, beware of our practices and not compromise or become complacent.  The evil one is working hard, that is why Jude writes his little letter to encourage us to “contend earnestly for the faith.” (vs 3)

                    –Louis L’Amour  (Down the Long Hills)

 

       “He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.  And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.”

                    –Isaiah 53:3 (NKJV)

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               “To everything there is a season,

                     A time for every purpose under heaven:”

                             –Ecclesiastes 3:1 (NKJV)

 

This portion of Scripture, Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, is probably one of the best known to the nonChurch-goer.  They may only know a few snippets, but they are familiar with the first part of the first verse.  There are surely seasons of life, just as there are seasons of the year.  There is the sowing and the harvest time–a particular season.  Even in that season there is a time to cultivate, a time to fertilize, and a time to inspect.  After the harvest there is a time for the crop to be dormant.

       The words of Ray C. Stedman should sound an alarm for all of us.  He wrote, “Half of the problem of life is that we are constantly trying to run this schedule ourselves.”  We say I am going to do such and such a thing.  (That may be one of the things that makes God smile).  In life, timing is everything.  There is a time to begin to learn God’s Word, and there is a time to activate God’s Word in our lives.  There are those special times when God may use us in a special way, therefore, we need to have His Word hidden in our hearts for that occasion.  There is a time to learn God’s principles and cooperate with them.

       There is a time to kill, and a time to heal.  Oh my, there are those who do not like this verse.  Kill?  No, never, but there is a time.  In fact, many people are in the process of killing themselves and their children.  It is a slow death, and unless they come to the realization of Jesus Christ they will end up with the “second death” which is the Lake of Fire.

Someone has said that life seems fixed between a battlefield and a first-aid station.  There are those evil people in the world–the Mafia so to speak, and there are the Mother Teresas.  It has been determined that every seven years we are a “new person.”  Cells are dying every day.

       There is a time to break down and a time to build up (vs 3).  The demolition crew comes in followed by the construction crew.  Life is torn and life is rebuilt.  Stedman remarks, “Type gets smaller and smaller, steps get higher and higher, trains go faster and faster, people speak in lower and lower tones…”  I’ll add another, when falling the ground comes up faster and is harder.  

       Verse 4 calls to our attention, “A time to weep, and a time to laugh.”  One thing for sure, none of us are going to get out of this world alive (unless the Rapture occurs).  Death is a certainty no matter what science tries to do.  C.S. Lewis said, “Pain is God’s megaphone.  He whispers to us in our pleasure, but He shouts to us in our pain.”  The drunkard may laugh while he is partying, but the next morning a groan comes from his lips.  Pleasure is fleeting, but pain gets our attention.

       I will close today with some thoughts by Malcolm Muggeridge:

 

               “Contrary to what might be expected, I look back on experiences that at the time seemed especially desolating and painful with particular satisfaction.  Indeed, I can say with complete truthfulness that everything I have learned in my seventy-five years in this world, everything that has truly enhanced and enlightened my existence, has been through affliction and not through happiness, whether pursued or attained.  In other words, if it were to be possible to eliminate affliction from our earthly existence by means of some drug or other medical mumbo jumbo, as Aldous Huxley envisaged in “Brave New World,” the result would not be to make life delectable, but to make it too banal and trivial to be endurable.  This, of course is what the Cross signifies.  And it is the Cross, more than anything else, that has called me inexorably to Christ.”

 

Perhaps now, would be a good time to look back at your life.  Look at the “times” that have come your way.  Look at how you reacted to them.  Hmm, then look at how you should have reacted and perceived what was happening.  What is God doing in your life through the “times” that have come your way?

                    –Romans 5:3 (Amplified)
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                              “Sunrise, sunset, swiftly fly the years.
                               One season following another,
                               Laden with happiness and tears.”
                                       –Jerry Bock

People talk so much about inequality.  Racism causes inequality; wealth causes inequality, education causes inequality, environment causes inequality and on I could go.  However, there is one thing–everyone is equal in regard to time.  With time all mankind is equal.  Man has so many days and then life is over.  Everyone has the same amount of time–86,400 seconds.
       What is time?  I have written much in the Echoes/Paines over the years about time, but what is it?  Simply stated, the definition of time is “a stretch of duration in which things happen.”  We are given so much time on this earth by the Lord.  What we do with it is all-important.  God has a plan that embraces every human and all their actions in all times.
Issac Watts wrote, “Time, like an ever-rolling stream, bears all its sons away.”
       One thing that we simply don’t remember, or care to look at, or take for granted is that time is rare!  Read that again–Time is rare!  “I want to see that again,” no, it doesn’t happen in time, there is no instant replay.  Time is completely irretrievable.  You can never repeat it or live it again.  The philosopher Willian James said, “The great use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it.”  What are you doing in time that will outlast you?  As a Christian, what are you doing in time that will last through eternity?
       Another thing that all mankind has in common in regard to time is that time is temporary.  It is a speck in the scope of eternity.  Each day should be deemed as important.  Each day should be looked at as an opportunity.  Each day should be seen through the lens of eternity.

               “The man who has learned the secret of enjoyment as a gift from God will not become anxious over the length of his life.  He has too much joy living to brook over the impermanence of his mortal being.  Rather each day is taken as it comes, as a gift from God.”
                                  –Walter C. Kaiser, Jr.

       We should be conscious of time; how we spend it, how we waste it.  There is only so much time allotted to each of us so we should be using it to build the kingdom of God rather than the kingdom of self.  We should practice the appropriate actions at the proper time.  What is it that God would have us to do?  
         
               “Your eyes beheld my substance.  In your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed.”
                                  –Psalm 139:16 (NRSV)