Nourishment

“Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.” Jude 3-4 ESV 

Jude’s letter to fellow believers was not the message of encouragement, joy, and thankfulness he had wanted to write. He was surprised by a scathing evil creeping into the church, thus shifting his trajectory towards urgency: “appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.” If you continue reading, he describes the people wielding such evil as “shepherds feeding themselves” (v. 12).

Appearing trustworthy, these shepherds were actually damaging to the community and needed to be pruned. I couldn’t help but think of the similarity here with the “wolves in sheeps clothing” Paul had warned churches of (Acts 20:29).  Whether it’s the imposter shepherds called out by Jude or the ravenous wolves warranting Paul’s warning, both were right under the church’s noses, covert in their evil actions of feeding on/taking advantage of the body.

Reading this resonated with the tech-wise people of God series we just finished up. Just like the imposters described above, so too can technology advancements impede our growth in Christlikeness. For some of us, maybe devices have turned from God-honoring tools for serving others into daily distractions unbeknownst to our daily rhythm. Maybe some of us need a self-awareness check because of how consumed we’ve become with feeding our engagement with technology while depriving ourselves from DTWG; the nourishment we need. I don’t want to paint cell phones and the interwebs as inherently evil. If there’s one thing this series has taught us it's that technology/devices are just tools which can be a gift or a curse; it’s how we use them that’s in.  

As we enter into this week, enter with fresh eyes on your habits with technology. The devotion above is not to bring about fear or guilt in using the tools of technology, but instead to inspire intentionality in our use of all the tools God gives us to steward so that we might look more like his Son each and every day.  

Have I given prayerful/thoughtful consideration to how I utilize my time, with or without technology?

What has God been asking of me throughout this series?How can I serve my community with the tools God has given me this week?