Regarding Jude, how do I apply this to myself?:
"Be merciful to those who doubt..." (Jude 1:22 NIV).
It always helps me to be more merciful to people who are struggling with biblical truths by remembering what was going on with me before I was a follower of Jesus. Even after Jesus was reaching out to me, and even after I developed a private belief in the existence of God and the existence of the "Son," Jesus, I was not trusting Him.
Praise be to God I started trusting Him after I gave my heart to Jesus!
Regarding Jude, how do I apply this to my community?:
As I near the end of this huge New Testament Survey Overview, I acknowledge that this personal introduction of the New Testament has been successful thanks to God's help. Though my enthusiasm was incredible fuel, I needed God's help to accomplish all my class assignments during this epic semester. God had me prepared for this semester, or I would not have had such unprecedented success.
Regarding showing mercy to those struggling with their faith, I reflect now that I cannot show people my friend Jesus in a direct manner. When I tell of my best friend, I am talking about someone that no one, not even me, can physically see. I have never physically seen Him.
Once I spoke at a chapel service for a Christian high school. I told them how we can not physically see Jesus, yet if a person believes in Him, a person can know Jesus in her or his heart.
And to grow in the love and knowledge of Jesus requires trusting the witness of Jesus in the Scripture, relying on the encouragement of the unseen Holy Spirit in your unseen heart.
That is why we need faith.
Yet it is not blind faith:
+ We have the Scripture, the witness of disciples.
+ We have a long history of God working in the lives of Christians, the witness of true believers.
+ And for those of us in this very day and age who have trusted Jesus, we have our personal testimonies of what our loving God has done in our life.
The fact is I would never dare to do a speaking engagement where I told the Gospel if I did not have Jesus with me. Jesus is always with me, in Spirit. Now there have been brief times when I wondered if He left me to go be with somebody else.
The unseen spirit nature is a challenge for us all. Yet for me, being someone who is a truly "spiritual" person, I must remember that there are doubters who need my compassion, yet who also need to be told the truth about Jesus the Messiah, who is for real.
Hunter Irvine
