JUDE: Holy Crap!
Sometime in the late 1st Centuries AD, a Jewish guy decided to write a short 650-word letter to some friends. Bizarrely enough, that letter found it’s way into the world’s longest running best-seller of all time. 
Jude’s letter was then translated into 1798+ languages[a] and miraculously preserved for 19 further centuries, such that I can freely read it today. That so, then the first question on the mind of any thinking person has to be “Why?” Why would the Creator God put divine protection on a piece of paper that’s 15cm x 10cm (the size of Jude’s letter as it appears in my Bible), when so much of written history – especially from the powerful Romans Emporors during that same era – has been lost!
My Maker must surely have something to tell me from what this brother of Jesus wrote. So the first thing I spot today is that we need to be “called”. [v1] Most people think that a relationship with the Creator God is either a matter of birth, religious membership, or else it’s personal choice. But it’s actually much more privileged than any of these. My Maker has instead, reached out to this image of Himself that is called Kathy Knight, and has called me into a relationship with Himself. Now I’m one of a global group who are identified as “the called” or chosen. [v1] If called, then what am I called into and what’s my response? [b]
Jude’s letter can be split between two responses and, like most things in life, there’s the good choice and the bad choice. We can choose to search for our Maker and lay hold of His mercy, peace, and love that’s laid out in end-to-end His Guidebook for LIFE (the Hebrew Scriptures); making every effort to “contend earnestly” in the Faith that’s been handed down to us. [v3] 
Or, we can be like weeds in the garden.[c] Jude, a Jewish writer, uses several stories from Hebrew history to describe how sludge forms and what “crap” looks like, even so-called “holy” crap that I can try to conceal by clothing it in “righteousness”- though I am up to my neck in it every day! [v4-16]
There’s a lot of information between the lines in Jude’s cautions. It’s well worth taking your time to pick through his historic references, in order to get the full impact of his strong words. But what catches my attention from this short letter this morning, is that I’m loved by my Creator, Father God, who has sent me His help.[d]
Armed with nothing but a fishing net, Jehoshua ben Dovid (Jeshua,Isa,Jesus) took off His Royal robes, held His breath and plunged
headlong into the cesspool of humanity – and this in order to bring us up, and out, and into Eternal Life. [v21] His Presence in the midstream of human history, has now created for us a pure, freshly distilled, uncontaminated channel of Living Water[e] , and the Word of God is our daily filter. My job is simply to navigate in centre-stream[f] by accepting what He’s provided.
So the last half of Jude’s letter is about keeping myself in the Love of God. To do this, I need to remember the words that have been spoken beforehand. [v17] But how can I remember if I don’t read, and re-read, and then read again, my Creator’s Handbook – not picking bits that I fancy, but reading it end-to-end. I don’t want to follow after my ungodly lusts. [v18] I don’t want to be worldly-minded, devoid of my Maker’s Spirit. [v19] I want to be someone who is waiting anxiously, with “advent expectation”, for the mercy of God which is The Day I see with my own eyes Eternal LIFE. [v21] Until then, I need to work out how I can use my life now to help my Creator God’s Global MasterPlan for extending mercy to doubters, saving some, and snatching others out of the path of judgement. [v22]
Jude ends with a sudden burst of praise in his prayer for his readers – a prayer that’s survived time and is therefore still valid today. No doubt using imagery from the anicent prophet Zechariah’s vision[g], Jude tells me that I have an advocate by my side. Though I may stand in filthy rags at times – splattered with the muck of life – He is able to keep me from stumbling into crap.
In all my travels and search through any country or culture, He is the only God who has ever said from the beginning that humans, both make and female, were created in His own image; and, He alone the only God who offered Himself as Saviour of those mortal images. As Creator from the beginning, all glory, majesty, dominion and authority have been His before all time, now, and in the future forever. [v25] So now I enter today knowing that I can stand in the presence of my Maker’s Glory, blameless, and with great joy. [v24]
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[a] https://www.biblica.com/resources/bible-faqs/how-many-different-languages-has-the-bible-been-translated-into/
[b] Matthew 21:28-32
[c] Matthew 13:24-30
[d] Isaiah 9:6-7
[e] John 7:38; Revelation 7:17 (See also: Jeremiah 2:13; 17:13 and John 4:10-11)
[f] Deuteronomy 5:32
[g] Zechariah 3:1-7