Jude 12-13<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0These people are blemishes at your love feasts,\u00a0eating with you without the slightest qualm\u2014shepherds\u00a0who feed only themselves.\u00a0They are\u00a0clouds without rain,\u00a0blown along by the wind;\u00a0autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted\u2014twice dead.\u00a013\u00a0They are\u00a0wild waves of the sea,\u00a0foaming up their\u00a0shame;\u00a0wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever.<\/i><\/p>\n
Philippians 1:9-11<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0And this is my prayer: that your love\u00a0may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight,\u00a010\u00a0so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ,\u00a011\u00a0filled with the fruit of righteousness\u00a0that comes through Jesus Christ\u2014to the glory and praise of God.<\/i><\/p>\n
\u201c\u2026\u00a0eating with you without the slightest qualm\u2014shepherds\u00a0who feed only themselves.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/i>Matthew 26:14-16, 25, 47-50, 27:3-5<\/b>\u00a0reveal that even sharing the company with Jesus was the one who would betray Him.\u00a0\u00a0Judas Iscariot had no qualm about living with Jesus, about being counted as one of Jesus\u2019 twelve Apostles, eating with them, and being taught with them, and yet, he never fully gave his heart to Jesus. Among the people of God there have always been dark souls, empty of the things of God, who come for their own benefit to take what is not theirs.\u00a0\u00a0We should know that these fakes exist among us.<\/p>\n
Acts 20:29-30<\/b>\u00a0\u201cI\u00a0know that after my departure\u00a0fierce wolves will come in among you,\u00a0not sparing the flock;\u00a030\u00a0and\u00a0from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them.\u201d<\/i>\u00a0\u00a0The other eleven apostles did not know that Judas was to betray the Lord, but Jesus did. (John 6:70-71, John 13:2<\/b>) From the beginning there has been tares among the wheat, charlatans who care nothing for the flock but only care about themselves.\u00a0\u00a0The Lord allowed, and allows, that to be. (Matthew 13:24-30<\/b>)\u00a0\u00a0Yet, He is not outwitted by the evil one, but allows all things to work out for our good. (Romans 8:28<\/b>)\u00a0\u00a0Our discernment and spiritual strength grows the same as muscles which need resistance to become strong. We become strong as we learn to trust His strength for us rather than our own.\u00a0\u00a0When the charlatans cause hardship, trials, temptations and heartbreak we discover how weak we are and how omnipotent He is.\u00a0\u00a0We learn to rely on Him and not on ourselves.\u00a0\u00a0Therefore let us daily look for reasons to continually thank Him.\u00a0\u00a0Let us not be sparse with gratitude toward God, but let gratitude pour out to Him for all things.\u00a0\u00a0Make sure we do not deny Him the gratitude that He so richly deserves.\u00a0\u00a0Instead for our own good, we need to continuously acknowledge and give Him our gratitude and by doing that, our faith grows.<\/p>\n
So there are always wolves among us.\u00a0\u00a0They come from without as people come who proclaim they are someone greatly used by God but in fact they are not even one of His.\u00a0\u00a0These empty vessels not only come over the horizon, but also from within.\u00a0\u00a0(2 Corinthians 11:13-15<\/b>)\u00a0\u00a0From within are those who grew among us but never loved the Lord and yet, are at our services and events.\u00a0\u00a0Sometimes they seek and get positions of honor.\u00a0\u00a0They learn how to play the game, they learn where to get the right education, and yet, their souls are dark.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0From without and within the deceitful are with us.\u00a0\u00a0Yet, as they are found out, we learn to discern. We grow wiser.\u00a0\u00a0And our faith becomes increasingly an impervious bullet proof vest.<\/p>\n
As Jesus warned us\u00a0\u201cBeware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.\u201d<\/i>\u00a0\u00a0<\/b>(Matthew 7:15<\/b>)\u00a0\u00a0Though final judgement belongs only to God, the Lord has given us His Spirit and His Word to discern between wholesome and rotted fruit.\u00a0\u00a0We must be slow to judge, but ready to discern, as the Spirit guides us.\u00a0\u00a0We must remember that the false preachers and teachers are everywhere and surely that means there are some in most every congregation.\u00a0\u00a0But we are not sheep without our Shepherd.\u00a0\u00a0He is always with us to guide us, to protect us, and to provide for us.\u00a0\u00a0We must make sure we know His voice so that we will follow as He leads.\u00a0\u00a0We help each other, but it is imperative for us to know Him and His voice.\u00a0\u00a0We have no need for a human mediator or guide (between us and Jesus) because our God Himself is our everything.\u00a0\u00a0(1 Timothy 2:5, Hebrews 10:19-20<\/b>)\u00a0\u00a0God Himself, by way of His Spirit and the Word, will give us discernment, guide us and protect us.\u00a0\u00a0Love and trust each other, but hear His Spirit and know His Word so that we will be safe.\u00a0\u00a0Finally, Family and Friends, it is better to be cheated than to cheat, and it better to not judge at all than to judge wrongly.\u00a0\u00a0(Exodus 23:1, Leviticus 19:16<\/b>) Be wise, let love rule, and follow the Spirit.\u00a0\u00a0Praise God!\u00a0\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n
Psalm 150:6<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.\u00a0 Praise the Lord!<\/p>\n
Micah 7:7<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0But as for me, I watch\u00a0in hope\u00a0for the\u00a0Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear\u00a0me.<\/p>\n
Micah 6:8<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0He has shown You, O man, what\u00a0is\u00a0good; And what does the\u00a0Lord\u00a0require of You but to do justly, to love mercy, And to walk humbly with Your God.<\/p>\n
Numbers 6:24-26<\/b>\u00a0\u201cThe\u00a0Lord\u00a0bless you and keep you; 25\u00a0the\u00a0Lord\u00a0make His face shine on you and be gracious to you; 26\u00a0the\u00a0Lord\u00a0turn His face\u00a0toward you and give you peace.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jude 12-13\u00a0–\u00a0These people are blemishes at your love feasts,\u00a0eating with you without the slightest qualm\u2014shepherds\u00a0who feed only themselves.\u00a0They are\u00a0clouds without rain,\u00a0blown along by the wind;\u00a0autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted\u2014twice dead.\u00a013\u00a0They are\u00a0wild waves of the sea,\u00a0foaming up their\u00a0shame;\u00a0wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever. Philippians 1:9-11\u00a0–\u00a0And this is my prayer: that your…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192],"tags":[82,129,2257,104,100,2188,2454,101,94,1874,1871,17,10,2036],"class_list":["post-2400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotion","tag-acts","tag-corinthians","tag-exodus","tag-hebrews","tag-john","tag-jude","tag-leviticus","tag-matthew","tag-micah","tag-numbers","tag-philippians","tag-psalm","tag-romans","tag-timothy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2400"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2400\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2401,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2400\/revisions\/2401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}