Open the Bible UK Daily

Save others by snatching them out of the fire…Jude 23Those who can see that they’ve been burned know what the fire can do, and they reach out to others in the flames. That takes courage. You can’t do ministry without being burned. There is no pain-free ministry.There is an old story about an African village. One night there was a fire in a wooden building, and the whole family who was sleeping there died, except for a tiny baby boy. As the fire flared up, a stranger rushed in and...

Save others by snatching them out of the fire.Jude 23If you’re going to be useful in ministry, you need to have a proper understanding of yourself and what God has done for you. Sin has damaged us all, but the Bible makes it clear that sin has done deeper damage to you and to me than staining our lives. It’s changed our nature. Like wood that’s been in a fire, sin burns. It consumes.The Bible makes it clear that we’re sinners because we sin. It also teaches...

Have mercy on those who doubt.Jude 22“Those who doubt” would include those whose faith has been undermined and those whose faith has not yet been fully formed. There are many people like this today.How are we to minister to folks who are confused about their faith? Jude says, “Do this with great compassion.” There’s a big difference between the child who struggles to do what’s right and the child who refuses to do what’s right. And there’s a big difference between the person who struggles to believe and the...

Have mercy on those who doubt; save others by snatching them out of the fire.Jude 22–23If you want to live a healthy Christian life, you need to learn to wait. The obvious question is, What does God want us to do while we are waiting?The answer is that we are to give ourselves to ministry. God calls us to ministry. There are people in need all around us. So, from now until the day when Jesus comes or calls for us, we are to give ourselves to the work of mi...

Wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ...Jude 21The people who bring menus to your table at a restaurant are called waiters or waitresses. They have no other agenda but to wait on you. They take your order, bring your food, and then make sure everything is all right.Some people think God exists to wait on us, but the Bible tells us that our calling is to wait on Him. The purpose of our lives is to make ourselves wholly available to Jesus Christ, the guest of honour, who...

[Wait] for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.Jude 21When Jude talks about waiting, the obvious question is, Don’t we already have God’s mercy? Yes. Don’t we already have Jesus Christ? Yes. Don’t we already have eternal life? Yes!If we’ve already received these things, why does Jude tell us to wait? This is teaching us something important: All that you can experience in the Christian life is only a taste of what Christ has in store for you.The Holy S...

[Wait] for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.Jude 21Patience is what you need when things have not worked out as you hoped. Somewhere deep within every heart there is a dream of life as we want it to be. That dream is placed in your heart by God. The word “wait” reminds us that the dream will never be fulfilled in this life.Our first parents were driven out of the garden of Eden. Paradise was lost, and the dream can no longer be fulfilled here...

Keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.Jude 21Once you see how important the theme of waiting is in the Bible, you’ll have new motivation to exercise this neglected area of the Christian life. Here are five passages on waiting:Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him. (Ps. 37:7)I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I hope. (Ps. 130:5-6)They who wait for the LORD sh...

God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.Romans 5:5In one of the books by American author, Garrison Keillor, about Lake Wobegon, he describes a rather awkward teenager growing up in a small town. The lad gives a speech at his high school graduation, and afterwards somebody comes up to him and says, “Nice speech!” But he can’t receive a compliment.“Oh no,” he says, “I was just rambling. I didn’t know what I was talking about. I was just glad when it was all over.” He couldn...

The Son of God… loved me and gave himself for me.Galatians 2:20Some time ago, a pastor from England went to India to deliver a series of evangelistic messages. When he arrived, there were posters hanging all over town advertising the evening meetings at which he would be speaking.The posters were supposed to read: “The visiting pastor from England will bring the evening messages.” But instead, there was a typo, and the posters actually said: “The visiting pastor from England will bring the evening massages.”The work of the preacher i...

In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.1 John 4:10One way to work God’s love into your mind is through the Lord’s Supper. At the very centre of Christian worship, God has given us this exercise to keep us in spiritual shape.We come to a table where we receive bread and wine. They direct our attention to the cross, where Christ’s body was broken, and His blood was shed for you.<...

Keep yourselves in the love of God...Jude 21The Bible talks about the love of God in a number of ways:1. Providential love is God’s kindness to His enemies as well as His friends. God’s enemies will come under His judgement, but right now they receive good gifts from His hand. Why do good things happen to bad people? Answer: God’s providential love.2. Saving love is God reaching out to us: “God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should n...

[Pray] in the Holy Spirit…Jude 20Another way to pray in the Spirit is by using the Lord’s Prayer (Mat. 6:9-13). Martin Luther structured his entire prayer life around the Lord’s Prayer:1. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. (6:9)Luther prayed that God would be honoured in his own life, and in the church, and in the nation where he lived.2. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. (6:10)He prayed for the advancement of God’s...

[Pray] in the Holy Spirit…Jude 20The Bible contains some marvellous prayers that were breathed out by the Spirit of God. You will find many of them in the book of Psalms.The whole Bible was written as men were carried along by the Holy Spirit, and as you fill your mind with God’s Word, you will begin to think God’s thoughts after Him.If you learn to form your prayers from the Bible, you will be praying in a way that reflects the heart and mind of God. Y...

We do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.Romans 8:26Imagine a teenage computer geek writing software in his basement: “How can I get this in the hands of the people at Microsoft?” He doesn’t know anyone there, and he has no idea how to introduce his ideas to them. Who knows how many requests they receive in a day.One day there’s a knock at the door, and a man in his late sixties, with gre...

[Pray] in the Holy Spirit...Jude 20Once you’ve grasped that there’s one God, and that He’s not whoever you want Him to be, the next question is “How do you come to Him?” That depends on what you want to receive.The Bible uses the picture of a throne to help us understand. There is one God, but more than one throne. That’s easy for us to understand in the United Kingdom. There is one king in Britain, but he has several thrones, and each throne relates to a different...

[Pray] in the Holy Spirit…Jude 20Imagine meeting with your minister at church. The minister places a number of envelopes in front of you and says, “We can talk about anything you want. But here are some envelopes with questions written on them. Go ahead and pick one.”The topics range from faith to spiritual growth to fellowship, but you choose the envelope on prayer. The question on the envelope reads: “How would you describe your prayer life?” and inside there are a number of cards with various words—some positive, some negative.</p...

[Look] to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith...Hebrews 12:2Faith grows by looking at Jesus. Faith becomes strong as you fill your mind and soul with how trustworthy He is.Imagine yourself as a younger child, attending a professional sporting event with your family. Your parents get tickets about twenty-five rows from the game. The people are packed in like sardines, and they’re standing in front of you, so you find it very difficult to see.You eventually find a solution. Instead of sitting in your chair, yo...

[Build] yourselves up in your most holy faith…Jude 20Faith is like a muscle. It grows strong when it is used. If you want to develop a particular muscle, you pull or push against a weight. Faith grows when it has to push against a great burden.That’s what happens when God allows trials in your life. You lose your job, a relationship ends, or the bottom line of your business is the wrong colour, and suddenly you’re in the gym. This is the moment. God is handing you the weight...

[Build] yourselves up in your most holy faith…Jude 20Jude is talking about the same faith here that he mentions in verse 3: “The faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.” You can build up your faith by affirming what you believe. That’s why Christians throughout the centuries have recited creeds in their worship: “I believe in God the Father, maker of heaven and earth…”C.H. Spurgeon preached to vast crowds in London over a hundred years ago. When the time came for him to enter the pulpit, he often felt...