My thoughts for 2022 are being shaped by this passage from Jude:

Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day— just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.

Jude 1:5-7

This passage serves to show that Jesus is NOT our culture's Anything Goes Jesus; I've heard people talk about THAT guy—who wants to follow a guy whose foundation is built on shifting sands? Can I trust my salvation to someone who changes? May it never be! Jesus NEVER taught a libertine gospel. It was an apostasy in the 1st century church and it continues in the 21st. Jesus actually spoke more about Hell than anybody else in the Bible. And maybe that's the dissonance between hearing what other people say about Jesus versus what He actually said.

"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

Matthew 7:21-23

"Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.” Thomas said to him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

John 14:1-7

And while I vehemently reject that doing what is right in our own eyes is OK, or even worse, something to CELEBRATE, as our culture parades around sin—even devoting months for immorality—when I consider my own actions, these passages are a sobering reminder for me to not trample on the love of God. It breaks my heart when I look back over my life at the times I did just that! I did not pursue the things of God, but chased what the world values...it's not even a soteriology thing for me—it's relational: sin screws up my connection with God. I know I'm not going to Hell, but it's a joyless existence and I'll have nothing to show for this laying up on Earth (Mt 6:19-21).

May I never again be like the world, a system that gives glory to the things that should not be done. Perhaps if we as believers are not mindful and hear the repetition of the chants, we might find ourselves applauding them in like manner—oh, may 2022 and all my years remaining, may I "do not imitate evil but imitate good" (3 John 1:11)!

And yet, I'm also reminded of the warning by Paul in 1 Cor. 10:12: "Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall." I've got to approach life with humility for the moment I think, "I got this" is the moment I lose focus on my need for Jesus. If I could do it, I would have never needed Him...that's basically the gospel.

Jesus is...

...the way...

...the truth...

...and the life.

If I believe this, how might I respond? How would it shape my life? What should I be learning? Which way should I go?