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You were running the race nobly! Who has interfered and caused you to swerve from the truth? Gal. 5:7

7 You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion is not from Him who calls you. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view, and the one who is troubling you will bear the penalty, whoever he is. Gal. 5:7-10

And he said to his disciples, “Temptations to sin are sure to come, but woe to the one through whom they come! It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were cast into the sea than that he should cause one of these little ones to sin. Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.” Luke 17:1-4

So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift. Matthew 5:23-24

Men, likewise, dwelling together according to knowledge, as showing honour to the weaker vessel, pertaining to woman, and as co-heirs of the grace of life; that your prayers be not cut off.

Treat them with honor as a delicate vessel and as fellow heirs of the gracious gift of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered.

…with the proper understanding that they are more delicate than you. Treat them with respect, because they also will receive, together with you, God’s gift of life. Do this so that nothing will interfere with your prayers.

I Peter 3:7

Now you have every spiritual gift you need as you eagerly wait for the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. He will keep you strong to the end so that you will be free from all blame on the day when our Lord Jesus Christ returns. God will do this, for he is faithful to do what he says, and he has invited you into partnership with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

I Cor. 1:7-9

Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James,

To those who have been called, who are loved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ:

2 Mercy, peace and love be yours in abundance.

The Sin and Doom of Ungodly People
3 Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people. 4 For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.

5 Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord at one time delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe. 6 And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their proper dwelling—these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day. 7 In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.

8 In the very same way, on the strength of their dreams these ungodly people pollute their own bodies, reject authority and heap abuse on celestial beings. 9 But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not himself dare to condemn him for slander but said, “The Lord rebuke you!” 10 Yet these people slander whatever they do not understand, and the very things they do understand by instinct—as irrational animals do—will destroy them.

11 Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain; they have rushed for profit into Balaam’s error; they have been destroyed in Korah’s rebellion.

12 These people are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm—shepherds who feed only themselves. They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted—twice dead. 13 They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever.

14 Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about them: “See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones 15 to judge everyone, and to convict all of them of all the ungodly acts they have committed in their ungodliness, and of all the defiant words ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” 16 These people are grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage.

A Call to Persevere
17 But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. 18 They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.” 19 These are the people who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit.

20 But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, 21 keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.

22 Be merciful to those who doubt; 23 save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.

Doxology
24 To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— 25 to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.

The Book of Jude

What happened there
Was so terribly wicked.

Under a noble Lion Banner
The vipers feed
The enemy swings sledgehammers
Mocking the innocent that bleed
While the watchmen stand in silent agreement.

And they crushed me.

Some bones are still fragmented.
Some stay out of joint.
Their coldness never relented
There is nowhere to point
To kindness or mercy

Or accountability.

I have tried to do surgery again and again
On my own broken bones.
I’ve tried spiritual disciplines.
I army-crawl through life alone
Dragging my legs along.

Everyone looks safer than them.

I trusted their banner in open singing.
I walked into the wrong door
When the hammers started swinging
Now I can walk no more.

I fled. I bled out
My most necessary bits

On the cold, hard freezer floor.

Now I walk, I skip, I dance
No more.

No one will ever confess;
It can’t be made right.
How can I ever escape
The cruelty portrayed

If it remains the last moment I remember
Having legs?

While in their own eyes
They do no wrong, and despise
Whomever can’t commend.
They run after anyone who will pretend with them

That they are who they pretend to be.

How do humans
Made in the image of God
Get so twisted
Capable of such self-justified,
Heartless, soulless wickedness?

Part and parcel and permanently
Passing the buck.

How can I ever hope to be like Jesus,
If I can’t keep them forgiven?

I’m stuck
By souls that live under no steeple.
The angel comes and troubles the waters,
But I’m troubled by the people.

It keeps twisting me.

I have fasted
Praying You save the souls
Of the men in charge
Of breaking my own.
They made their beds
With the loose tongues
Of loose women.
They couldn’t choose the right.
They said nothing.
They did nothing.
So I eat nothing
And if breaking me
Is red on their ledger
May their salvation
Be transformation
Rendered only

From Your pierced hand.

I have no poetry to record this event.

Two years ago, God sang Isaiah 54 over my broken spirit. It filled me with hope and buoyancy. In verse 9 it says,
“For this is like the days of Noah to Me,
When I swore that the waters of Noah
Would not flood the earth again;
So I have sworn that I will not be angry with you
Nor rebuke you.”

As I pondered in my heart on that, I was driving to the shop to buy vanilla ice cream to go along with some apple pies I’d made for my fellows at work. As I drove there, a radiant rainbow broke through puffy white clouds in a powder blue sky, proclaiming declarative colors. I laughed and thanked God for His promise.

The years have been heavy on me, and hard, but He has been faithful. At difficult times rainbows have appeared in the sky, reminding me that I have peace with God. Once, a stranger pulled me out of my own fog to see one. She got my attention and pointed to a rainbow in the sky. “Isn’t that strange?” she asked, “There’s a rainbow, but not a cloud in the sky.” She pointed out we hadn’t had rain; we weren’t meant to have rain. “Don’t you need rain to have a rainbow?” I remembered He was with me and the remembering dispersed my fog.

Sunday evening, so low on hope, my buoyancy long-spent, I again drove to the store to get ice cream. The sky hinting earlier at rainbows now proclaimed the largest, longest, most resplendent rainbow I’d ever seen. From horizon to horizon, the promise was brilliant and broadcast. People reacted in shock as they wandered out into the parking lot underneath the exhibit. I began texting my family to step outside, to gaze in wonder, but as I did gray clouds blew over the rainbow, erasing it from the sky and leaving naught but dark storm in its wake.

I was grateful for the view I had, but troubled by how easily storm can obscure promise. I thanked God, and I found myself begging Him to protect His promise from all harm, even harm caused by the recipients of His promise. I begged Him not to let anything cover up His kindness, or arouse His displeasure. My heart felt hopeful, but I couldn’t shake how easily the dark gray of storm hid even the strongest rainbow.

The next night, around 1am, my dogs asked me to take them outside. They made it sound important. I walked out into the darkness and wandered through the grass with them. I looked up to greet the moon, as has always been my custom.

An unbroken lunar halo traced a wide, unbroken circle all the way around the moon. The circle of light felt so close, it seemed like I was standing inside its circumference. All the colors of the rainbow shone through the black night sky. The circle was complete, the contrast highlighted its beauty, and it remained intact even when I returned inside.

“The light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness can never extinguish it.” John 1:5 NLT

His anger is ceased; His loving faithfulness endures unbroken forever. Storms may blow in, but He never leaves. He intends good to His people. He is willing and able. He is the one and only God, I tell you.

“Fear not, for you will not be put to shame;
And do not feel humiliated, for you will not be disgraced;
But you will forget the shame of your youth,
And no longer remember the disgrace of your widowhood.
“For your husband is your Maker,
Whose name is the LORD of armies;
And your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel,
Who is called the God of all the earth.
“For the LORD has called you,
Like a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit,
Even like a wife of one’s youth when she is rejected,”
Says your God.
“For a brief moment I abandoned you,
But with great compassion I will gather you.
In an outburst of anger
I hid My face from you for a moment,
But with everlasting favor I will have compassion on you,”
Says the LORD your Redeemer.
“For this is like the days of Noah to Me,
When I swore that the waters of Noah
Would not flood the earth again;
So I have sworn that I will not be angry with you
Nor rebuke you.
For the mountains may be removed and the hills may shake,
But My favor will not be removed from you,
Nor will My covenant of peace be shaken,”
Says the LORD who has compassion on you.
“Afflicted one, storm-tossed, and not comforted,
Behold, I will set your stones in antimony,
And I will lay your foundations with sapphires.
“Moreover, I will make your battlements of rubies,
And your gates of crystal,
And your entire wall of precious stones.
“All your sons will be taught by the LORD;
And the well-being of your sons will be great.
“In righteousness you will be established;
You will be far from oppression, for you will not fear;
And from terror, for it will not come near you.
“If anyone fiercely attacks you, it will not be from Me.
Whoever attacks you will fall because of you.
“Behold, I Myself have created the smith who blows on the fire of coals
And produces a weapon for its work;
And I have created the destroyer to inflict ruin.
“No weapon that is formed against you will succeed;
And you will condemn every tongue that accuses you in judgment.
This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD,
And their vindication is from Me,” declares the LORD. Isaiah 54:4-17 NASB

Let all God’s people say amen.

Amen.

If You, LORD, were to keep account of guilty deeds,
Lord, who could stand?
But there is forgiveness with You,
So that You may be revered.
I wait for the LORD, my soul waits,
And I wait for His word.

Psalm 130:3-5, NASB

Forgiveness is better
Than vengeance
When justice allows.
Don’t hold us to the letter;
Forgive our sins,
Our forgotten vows

Lead us from our ambition
Into humility and service
Beyond what we could
To pursue Your mission.
We don’t deserve this,
But You are good,

And all is Yours,
Even wayward we.

“You live long enough
You love hard enough
It’ll break you.”
There’s no other way

You know it’s true
If you’ve ever loved past the pain
The part that feels the beauty
The part that commits truly

Has no guards to cover its tenderness
Ït cannot live behind a glass
Instead, smiling at vulnerability,
Blooming like a flower in the rain

One part invincibility,
Every other part that remains
Framed in aching flesh
Choosing to love, to feel death…

Because only those who love
Can feel what it means to die.
Only Love can
Sing the honest grief of the lost;

Only love is worth that cost.

How faithful You are
To we, the faithless.
Raining down provision,
Pausing in patience
At the grinding of ambition
Against Your places,

Your peoples and desires.

Allowing for all who might be saved,
Until the time the ark is closed
And the season of Promise begins.

We give birth into the current
Wherein we are born.
For one moment
We hold their heads
Above the waves
And all the eddies,
The burning, choking, treading
Against swirling, rushing
Inevitability

Is worth it.

How have I spent
The language
You’ve given me?
In fear, doubt, anguish,

And sometimes faith?

Help me to recognize when close
Isn’t close enough.
Strengthen my obedience.
Fix Your love

On foolish me.
Protect me from every enemy,
Seen and unseen.

Redeem every failure.

Will the table I’ve built,
Not so level, on four tall stilts,
Stand steady or slowly tilt

And will the life that’s spilt

Be redeemed
By The Great Redeemer?

I know He can, but not if He will.
Either way, I’m His.