To Those Who are Guarded By Keeping the Eye Upon

 I started out today on a whole different path...looking into something I'd spied in Psalm 8, but then a scripture Troy Brewer quoted caught my attention...and then there I was falling down that rabbit hole.  

My fall took me through Second and Third John and then I ended up in Jude.  Jude names himself as the brother of James.  The only James worth mentioning at that time was James, the brother of Jesus.  (Who wrote the Book of James.). I read somewhere that scholars find it interesting that James would call himself the brother of Jesus, but Jude...in the same position...never did.  That's a thinking point in and of itself.  Did he not think himself worthy of calling himself the half brother of Jesus?  I think that's what I'm gonna think of him...a humble man walking in the footsteps of his brother...who none of us are worthy of even touching the hems of his garment.

Anyway...on to what I discovered.  In his greeting, Jude says the following:

        "To those who are the called,

          loved by GOD the Father and

          kept for Jesus Christ."

In the Greek:

called:  invited as a guest to a banquet; invited to the kingdom of heaven and its privileges

loved:  to make holy, purify or consecrate, be holy, sanctified, set apart

Father:  ancestor, patriarch, mentor, model, founder of a tribe or people

kept:  to guard from loss or injury, properly by keeping the eye upon. (This really got me...you know how you keep your eyes on your babies when you take them to the playground or an open area so they can be kept safe?  That is EXACTLY how God watches US.  Day and night...24/7...because we are all in an open, unsafe place.   

So LOOK!

"To those who are invited to the kingdom of heaven and its privileges, 

made holy, sanctified, and set apart by GOD the founder of our tribe, model

and guarded from loss or injury by keeping the eye upon (you) for Jesus Christ."

Jude was writing to ME and he was writing to YOU.   WE are invited to the kingdom of heaven and all it holds.  WE are made holy, sanctified, and set apart by the founder of our tribe, the model WE should all strive to be like!  And WE are guarded from loss or injury by GOD who keeps HIS eye upon US for Jesus Christ!  

I think I'm going to write this down and put it EVERYWHERE I can see so I never ever forget.  I am SOMEBODY to God and His Son...and so are YOU!  

In Search of Christ,

Terrie