Stand Up Faith

If you're off by an inch, you'll miss by a mile. The Apollo space program, designed to land humans on the moon and return them safely to Earth, demonstrated this point. If calculations were off by an inch as they returned from outer space, the spaceship would miss Earth by a mile. Many adjustments were made to establish the exact calculations required to return the astronauts safely. One can only imagine how desperately and conscientiously NASA scientists worked with the Apollo astronauts to be sure that happened.The Book of Jude bears similarity to NASA's desperate efforts to return its astronauts. Jude was desperate to rescue some young churches from false teaching. He knew that if false teaching took root, the lives to which Jesus had called them would be off by a mile. Jude realized if the young churches embraced wrong theology, not only would their lives be grievously impacted, the future trajectory of Christianity would be off by thousands of miles, almost as if Christian faith were lost in space. Therefore, passionately and with deep concern, Jude called the Church to have "stand up faith:" faith that stands up to all the forces trying to knock it down; faith that stands for truth; and faith that gives Christians courage to stand for what they believe. His call to have stand up faith is still critical today.