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Jude - Be On Guard! By Pastor Lee Hemen February 17, 2013 AM What motivates you in life? When I was in a JNROTC program, we were stationed for several weeks at Quadra, a Canadian military base. We had to learn basic commands in French because of the cadets that were from Quebec that were there training with us. All I remember is “stand easy” was “repos,” “dismissed” was “écartée!” and “attention” was “garde à vous!” We were motivated to be alert because if we did not follow the commands quickly enough, we were punished for our lack of knowledge. Our drill instructors did not care that some of us did not know French. We had to learn them correctly and quickly. We were highly motivated. For the Christian, our motivation needs to be Jesus Christ. When Jude wrote his letter there were those who had begun to get discouraged because they thought Jesus was going to return any day. The signs were all there but He still hadn’t come back. Then, in the midst of mounting persecution,...

Be On Guard! - Mark 13:31-37 By Pastor Lee Hemen January 30, 2011 AM Before becoming a Christian I studied various other religions, from the esoteric to mainline faith practices. Each one left something to be desired. Hinduism was too foreign and based mainly on mythology and magic. Islam and Mormonism sounded the same, were hard-lined, strict, and full of inconsistencies. Buddhism and the new age were just revamped versions of self-help methodologies. And Scientology, like est (Erhard Seminars Training), or Eckankar were just plain weird. Then I was challenged to read the Bible and I could not believe what I had missed. I learned Jesus shared with his disciples, “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.” (Matthew 7:15 NIV ) I came to realize that I had almost lowered my guard and allowed myself to be influenced by false teaching. We would do well to be on guard. In this section of Mark’s gospel we find...