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Saturday, December 3, 2022

JUDE—An Illustrated Summary of Life Applications from Every Chapter of the Bible by G. Campbell Morgan

"On every page of the God-breathed writings are many thoughts that stretch out like long, clear arms of light across the darkness, discovering things otherwise hidden and illuminating wider areas than those of the immediate context. They are searchlights. I have selected one in each chapter of Scripture, for at least one central thought in every chapter should arrest the mind and affect the life," wrote G. Campbell Morgan, a skilled, wise, warm-hearted Bible teacher who conducted a classic 3-year study called Life Applications from Every Chapter of the Bible. Here is the fruit of that research—summarized, illustrated, and amplified with useful details—on all 66 books of the Bible.



Jude 1:24 "Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless." The short Book of Jude is addressed "to those who are called, beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ" (verse 1). That beautiful description of believers is meant to encourage, as is the exquisite ending doxology, which begins with the highlighted verse. The body of the text between those two bookends describes the perils of unbelief and apostasy in the form of ungodly people who seek to divide and conquer. The entire New Testament unveils in many ways and various applications what Jude describes as "the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints" (verse 3). To deny that faith is to perish. It is denied not only by intellectual dissent, but also by practical disobedience. Jude seeks to bring this home to us with his vivid writing and biblical examples. The peril is very real, insidious, and corrosive. How shall we guard against it? How shall we seek to be true to the faith in the face of forces that seek to destroy it? The answer is here at the end: There is One who is able to keep us from stumbling: "the only God, our Savior" (verse 25). He is the One in whom our faith is centered. He is our faith. Then the final responsibility is the initial activity. We must still live by confidence in Him. Jude says, "But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life" (verses 20-21). As we do so, He will keep us from stumbling and present us blameless before the presence of His glory with great joy.

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