THE CHRISTIAN WALK

Wednesday, November 22, 2023

GIVE T.H.A.N.K.S.

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Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com

In Christ, Mark

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Anyone who knows me will understand why I might have a fixation with acronyms. After all, twenty eight and a half years of serving in the Navy will expose you to more than a few.

Given this, I’ve been called by the Holy Spirit to write this devotion based on an acronym of the word “thanks”. Each letter of the word will offer a reason to have gratitude toward our Lord, not only during this holiday season but every day. Let’s get started with the letter “T” and move through every letter thereafter.

T = TRUSTWORTHINESS

Sovereign Lord, you are God! Your covenant is trustworthy. 2 Samuel 7:28

The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple. Psalm 19:7

The Lord is trustworthy in all He promises and faithful in all He does. Psalm 145:13

How many people have let you down in your life when you trusted them?

I don’t know about you but I lost count a long time ago.

This is why it’s so critical to have a relationship with the One who never fails His children. Ever.

We find Samuel proclaiming the trustworthiness of our sovereign God, understanding that the Lord’s covenant is one that can be relied on. David, the master psalmist, is in agreement with Samuel because indeed, the Lord never breaks His promises and He has made many of them in the scriptures. One need only read their Bible to see that.

King David also talks of how we, the simple, can expect to gain wisdom when we choose to follow the Lord’s guidance and direction because both are grounded in trustworthiness. The Lord has never and will never lead His people astray when they rely on Him.

Finally, we read from David’s words that the Lord is faithful in all He does. Note that David doesn’t say that the Lord is faithful in most of the things He does. No, our Lord is faithful in ALL He does. We can always have faith and trust in Him because He and He alone is perfectly faithful and trustworthy.

H = HOPEFULNESS

God will never forget the needy; the hope of the afflicted will never perish. Psalm 9:18

You answer us with awesome and righteous deeds, God our Savior, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas. Psalm 65:5

Yes, my soul, find rest in God; my hope comes from Him. Psalm 62:5

Blessed are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord their God. Psalm 146:5

Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. Isaiah 40:31

I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11

The Lord is good to those whose hope is in Him, to the one who seeks Him. Lamentations 3:25

Everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope. Romans 15:4

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. 1 Peter 1:3

As you can see, there are many scriptures that speak to the reassurance and hope we have in our Lord. In fact, hope is what buoys us up and keeps us afloat in a life where the world seems to want to drag us below the surface to drown in our circumstances.

For the afflicted, the scriptures assure us that their hope will never perish. This is because the Lord Himself will never perish. As long as we have the Lord, we have hope, a hope no one else can provide. When we’re in the midst of weakness, the prophet Isaiah reminds us that all we need to do is hope in the Lord so that our strength might be renewed. His hope alone can help the feeble soar on wings like eagles.

For those who are troubled in life, the scriptures offer assurance that through the Lord’s hope, their souls can find rest, peace, encouragement, and even joy. The scriptures breed perseverance within us as we read about the trustworthy promises of our God. Indeed, the Lord IS good to those who seek Him and place their hope in His hands.

And for us, struggling to make sense of our life and where it might be heading, the Lord speaks words of hope into our hearts and minds. Through the prophet Jeremiah, He promises that He knows the plans He has for us. All we need to do is trust Him and why wouldn’t we want to do that because He wants us to prosper, be free from harm, and have a hope for our future.

The primary instrument of that promised “future hope” was Jesus Christ, God’s only Son who He sent to give us a new birth into a living hope, one that assures all Christ-followers that they will overcome death and the grave when this life ends, joining God and Jesus forever. Through the hope found in Jesus, the final chapter of your life’s story has already been written and it’s the happiest ending ever. All you have to do is place your hope and trust in Him as the Savior, given to you by a loving, trustworthy God.

A = ABUNDANCE

Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; His greatness no one can fathom. One generation commends Your works to another; they tell of Your mighty acts. They speak of the glorious splendor of Your majesty—and I will meditate on Your wonderful works. They tell of the power of Your awesome works—and I will proclaim Your great deeds. They celebrate Your abundant goodness and joyfully sing of Your righteousness. Psalm 145:3-7

How abundant are the good things that You have stored up for those who fear You, that You bestow in the sight of all, on those who take refuge in You. Psalm 31:19

God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. 2 Corinthians 9:8

Think about where we are today in the scope of the dawn of mankind. We are countless generations from the first couple, Adam and Eve. And yet, we still live and learn and love, and do so abundantly because of a Lord who provides.

God is good. We hear people proclaim it all the time here in the 21^st century but it’s definitely not a modern day expression. Rather, it has been proclaimed for the ages as people experience first-hand the remarkable, amazing, copious goodness of God. Indeed, His power, majesty, and glory are always on display. All we need to do is open our eyes and take in the creation around us. Only an omnipotent Creator could craft the abundant nature of what we see and experience in our world.

Going back to the Psalms, we find David proclaiming that the Lord has good things stored up for those who revere and respect Him. The apostle Paul shares this sentiment asserting that God always looks out for the good of those who love Him, those called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28). Trust the Lord, place Your hope in Him, and an abundance of goodness will be yours. He will bless you plentifully so you will have all you need to abound in the works He will call you to do and that is definitely reason to give thanks.

N = NEWNESS

If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 2 Corinthians 5:17

We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. Romans 6:4

I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown. The one who is victorious I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will they leave it. I will write on them the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God; and I will also write on them My new name. Revelation 5:11-12

I often think about my life before Jesus. It wasn’t pretty.

Like so many others, past and present, I thought I could captain my own vessel and navigate through life successfully. What I learned is the more I was holding onto my will and way, the more I was completely lousing things up. Something needed changing. I needed newness.

Enter Christ Jesus who brought the words of Paul to life in me, making me a new creation from the moment I asked Him into my life and accepted Him as my personal Savior. In a moment, the former me was in the past and I was now embarking on an exciting journey that I’m still on this very day, a journey that is not just for the now but forever. Once dead in my sin, I was now assured of life, resurrection life that would allow me to be with Jesus (and Father God) eternally. Jesus wrote on my a new name, one that would mark me as His, a future resident of the new Jerusalem that will come down from the new heavens and be found on the new earth when Christ returns.

Did I mention He makes all things new?

Let us give thanks for the newness we find in our Lord.

K = KNOWLEDGE

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Proverbs 1:7

The Lord gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding. Proverbs 2:6

Ask God to fill you with the knowledge of His will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please Him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God. Colossians 1:9-10

Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 3:18

Where would we be without the Bible and God’s inspired words within?

Well, we would be left to a life of ignorance and foolishness, a life void of wisdom, for starters.

I give thanks that I can learn something new and fresh, every time I read the scriptures, even from passages I may have read many times before. It’s amazingly awesome to me that the Lord finds brand new levels of understanding to bring me to. Maybe you can relate.

The Holy Word of the Lord is available to anyone who would want it. A person can choose to receive or reject it and those who turn away from it, do so because they lack any kind of respect or reverence for their Master and Maker. Therefore, knowledge never really gets started with them for only from the Lord’s mouth do we receive legitimate knowledge and wisdom.

We need to receive this offering with gratitude because it helps us bear good fruits in our life, a life that is worthy of the Lord and pleasing to Him in every way. And it’s this kind of life that leads us to a spirit of everlasting thanksgiving unto the Lord who imparts all we need to know about Him and the plan He has for each of us, a plan that leads to the final letter and its representative word.

S = SALVATION

Jesus is “‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone.’ Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” Acts 4:11-12

For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Thessalonians 5:9

Mankind has received no greater gift from God than His Son Jesus. Anything else pales in comparison and even gifts we might mention as runner ups are all connected to what we have because of Jesus. Every good and perfect thing is in and of Him.

Indeed, God made a trustworthy promise when He so loved the world so much that He was willing to offer up Christ Jesus, His only Son, so no person would perish but rather have the opportunity to live forever. The fulfillment of that promise is what offers us newness in Jesus and an abundant hope that no one can take away. We have this knowledge because God provided it through the scriptures.

Yes, we end this T.H.A.N.K.S. acronym message with salvation, the promise of living forever through Jesus, because God always saves the best for last. I pray that we all put it at the top of our list of things to be grateful for, not just on Thanksgiving, but every day of every month or every year that the Lord provides in this life until He ushers us into the one to come.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone and blessings to you always!

In Christ,

Mark

CULTIVATE THANKSGIVING

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

In Christ, Mark

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** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

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Today is the day before Thanksgiving and I wanted to take a short pause from our study of Titus to honor the holiday and help us all prepare. In praying over this, the Spirit has led me to this special message, Cultivate Thanksgiving.

The idea here is that in order to live with a pervasive attitude of gratitude in life, we need to be intentional about creating the right personal, spiritual environment to abide in. We have to cultivate the soil of our soul so to reap a harvest of thanks unto our Lord. Here are six actions we can take which can help us to that end.

1. Count your blessings.

Praise the Lord, my soul; all my inmost being, praise His holy name. Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all His benefits—who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. Psalm 103:1-5

There’s a saying I have always held onto. It goes like this:

Count your blessings and when you finish, start counting over again.

Indeed, we should never take for granted all that the Lord has provided and done for us. As David exhorts in the 103rd Psalm, we should “forget not all His benefits” before he goes on to specifically name a few. He encourages his readers to remember that the Lord is the One who:

1. Forgives all sin.

2. Heals all diseases.

3. Redeems lives from the pit.

4. Crowns believers with love and compassion.

5. Satisfies desires with good things.

6. Renews us and allows us to soar on the wings of eagles (also Isaiah 40:28-31).

All of us could add volumes to this list as we consider how abundantly the Lord has blessed us. From the simplicity of giving us air to breathe and a heart that beats, bringing us health and life, to providing us shelter, clothing, and food to the gift of family and friends to love and be loved by. There are plenty of blessings to count for sure and when we do so regularly, we cultivate thanksgiving in our heart and mind.

2. Acknowledge the Lord’s goodness and love.

Let them give thanks to the Lord for His unfailing love and His wonderful deeds for mankind. Psalm 107:21

Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever. Psalm 118:1, 1 Chronicles 16:34

For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving. 1 Timothy 4:4

Over and over again, the scriptures declare and proclaim the goodness of the Lord, calling on believers to give thanks for “His unfailing love” that “endures forever” and “His wonderful deeds for mankind”. This Lord of goodness is always working things for the good of those who love Him back, those who have been called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28) so let us cultivate a constant response of thanks for all the Lord has done, all He is doing, and all He is still yet to do.

3. Worship and sing songs of praise.

I will give thanks to the Lord because of His righteousness; I will sing the praises of the name of the Lord Most High. Psalm 7:17

I will praise God’s name in song and glorify Him with thanksgiving. Psalm 69:30

Let us come before Him with thanksgiving and extol Him with music and song. Psalm 95:2

If you’re like me, you love Christian music. Whether listening to it when I am driving, at home, in worship at church, or even when I embark on the walks I enjoy going on, the songs of praise to the Lord always lift up my spirit and cultivate an overflowing feeling of thanksgiving in my soul. And this feeling in my soul wells up from within into an outflow of gratitude as I raise my own voice to sing along, extolling and glorifying the Lord in “music and song”.

Every day, I post a Christian song of the day for this express reason and I pray it is a blessing to you, a chance to lift your own voice in praise and thanksgiving to the Lord through which all things are possible.

4. Pray with a spirit of gratitude.

Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18a

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. Philippians 4:6

Friends, the best wireless communication means we have is prayer, our chance to personally connect with the Lord of all creation whenever we want to. When we call on Him, there isn’t some call center where we have to first be on hold and then talk to some prayer customer service agent first. No, from the moment we turn to the Lord in prayer, He is ready to listen to us and help us discern His will in any and all circumstances. Nothing is too difficult or complex for Him to figure out and we can always trust His wisdom and guidance.

Because of this, we should easily be able to “rejoice always” and refuse to be “anxious about anything”, instead praying “continually” while allowing thanksgiving to cultivate within as we present our “requests to God”.

In the end translation, no one is there for you like the Lord is and no one else possesses the power He has to take care of any problem we might be facing. All we need to do is trust Him and give Him thanks for all He is, all He’s been, and all He is still to be in our life.

5. Be generous to others.

You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. 2 Corinthians 9:11

As Christians, we should hopefully come to understand right away that Jesus calls us to a life of self sacrifice, not self service. His own life was defined by His constant willingness to place the needs of other before His own and He did so all the way to Calvary’s cross.

Each day, we have the chance to be generous to others, to share the great enrichment we have received from the Lord with them. There is never a bad occasion to extend generosity to others and the scriptures tell us that generosity cultivates and generates “thanksgiving to God”.

Jesus called us to care for those that society might view as “the least of these” (Matthew 25:31-40) and when we do, we reflect His compassion, caring, and giving, allowing others to see His light through what we do so to raise up their praise and thanksgiving unto Him.

6. Respond to God’s will.

Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Ultimately, it is God’s will for us to be thankful always. The scriptures tell us so and that should always be enough. All we need to do is respond in obedience while exercising the first five methods to allow thanksgiving to cultivate in our lives.

I pray you’ll do just that today as we prepare our hearts for the Thanksgiving holiday tomorrow.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

Tuesday, November 21, 2023

INSTRUCTIVE GRACE

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Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are His very own, eager to do what is good.

Titus 2:11-14

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Grace, grace, God’s grace

Grace that will pardon and cleanse within

Grace, grace, God’s grace

Grace that is greater than all our sin

This is the chorus of one of my most beloved old hymns, Grace Greater Than Our Sin, a hymn that was written by Julia H. Johnson and has been sung in churches since the early 1900’s.

The message at the heart of the hymn itself is that no matter how sinful a person may have been in life, that sin cannot overcome the overriding gift of grace that was granted by God when His Son Jesus purchased the sinner’s pardon by dying on Calvary’s cross.

As I’ve written many times before, I have always liked to look at the word “grace” as an acrostic poem that looks like this:

God’s

Reward

Christ’s

Expense

When we understand grace, our heart and mind is taken to the cross where Jesus died the death he didn’t deserve to bring us a salvation we didn’t deserve. In other words, grace instructs us to remember the depth of sacrifice that Jesus went through to save all people, no matter their gender, color, or nationality.

Indeed, without a redeeming Savior to believe in, no one would have hope and believing is all that God asks for to gain everlasting life. It’s a decision that is not only meant to rescue us from Hell and sure eternal damnation but to transform us, to make us a new creation through committing to model the life of Jesus as we carry on the work He started, the work to make disciples of all nations.

Instructive grace exhorts us “to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions” while striving “to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age” all the while waiting “for the blessed hope” which is “the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ” who has promised to return. When He does, the scriptures assure us that He will “redeem us from all wickedness” and “purify” us as “His very own” for by receiving Jesus as Savior, we become co-heirs with Him to the Kingdom of God (Romans 8:17).

Grace instructs and reminds us that we are saved through our belief in Jesus as Savior. It leads us into Christ-like living every day that we are blessed with in this worldly existence, a life that rejects a sinful subscription to the desires of this world while displaying self-control and a devotion to righteousness.

Yes, grace is greater than all our sin and it teaches us to be greater, a people who behave in ways pleasing to the Lord, when we allow ourselves to be taught.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

Monday, November 20, 2023

GOD'S CALL FOR SOUND TEACHING

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Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

In Christ, Mark

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** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

You, however, must teach what is appropriate to sound doctrine. Teach the older men to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love and in endurance.

Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. Then they can urge the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God.

Similarly, encourage the young men to be self-controlled. In everything set them an example by doing what is good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned, so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us.

Teach slaves to be subject to their masters in everything, to try to please them, not to talk back to them, and not to steal from them, but to show that they can be fully trusted, so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive.

These, then, are the things you should teach. Encourage and rebuke with all authority. Do not let anyone despise you.

Titus 2:1-10, 15

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

In his opening chapter to Titus, his ministry partner who was entrusted to grow the Christian church on the island of Crete, we find Paul discussing two specific tasks that needed immediate attention.

The first was the selection of elders, qualified Christian leaders who could partner with Titus to bring the legitimate, true Gospel message to the island’s lost. After providing a list of requirements to screen men for the elder position, Paul adds that the men were to show the ability to “hold firmly to the trustworthy message” (aka the legitimate Gospel” as it had “been taught” so to “encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it”.

This latter part of Paul’s exhortation served as a lead in for the second matter Titus had to address, the attempted infiltration of false teaching on the island.

Paul went onto warn Titus about “many rebellious people” on Crete who were “full of meaningless talk and deception”, particularly those who were part “of the circumcision group”. These teachers of false doctrine tried to convince others that there was more required to gain salvation than simply believing in Jesus as Savior. Circumcision was also needed in accordance with the old covenant, Mosaic Law.

Towards the end of chapter 1, we read Paul raining against this form of impure teaching, demanding that Titus ensure it was rebuked and “silenced” as it was “disrupting whole households by teaching things” that were inappropriate and untrue. Further, the false teachers were doing it “the sake of dishonest gain”.

As chapter 2 opens, we find Paul shift his focus to what he wanted Titus and the selected, appointed elders to teach and it wasn’t what he wanted but rather what the Lord was prescribing. This teaching was “sound doctrine” and Paul’s provides specific guidance to different subsets of the Cretan society. This included:

1. Older men.

Teach the older men to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love and in endurance.

It’s important to remember how patriarchal cultures were in first century A.D. Men were at the forefront and older men were looked to for wisdom gained from a lot of life experience. Therefore, it would be of critical importance to make sure the older men on Crete were living in step with the sound doctrine of the Gospel, reflecting a life that looked like Jesus, a life that showed temperate, self controlled, faithful, loving, and persevering behavior. This would help the men be “worthy of respect” among the people, role models for the Christian lifestyle.

2. Older women.

I find it interesting here that Paul doesn’t direct Titus to teach the young women as he does the young men which we will cover next. Rather, the teaching responsibility is placed on the older women who were “to be reverent in the way” they lived which include a refrain from slandering others or becoming alcoholics from a love of wine.

These reverent older women would be able to “teach what is good” and instruct the younger women in ways a man couldn’t. They could “urge the younger women to love their husbands and children” while being “busy at home”. They could model “self-controlled and pure” and “kind” behavior while ensuring “no one will malign the word of God” through falsely influencing the young women.

Like the older men, the older women were expected to play a major role in showing the younger women what proper Christian living looked like.

3. Younger men.

If you’re a man reading this, maybe you can remember your younger days. If you’re like me, they weren’t your proudest moments in life, for sure.

Immaturity and a general attitude of invulnerability lead young men to do some pretty crazy, risky things. Self control isn’t exactly a strong suit when we’re younger and left to our own devices.

It’s obvious that this isn’t just a modern day phenomenon because as we read Paul’s words, there must have been some wild and crazy young men living on Crete, young men who needed encouragement to become “self controlled”. And so Paul exhorts Titus to set the example for the youth by doing what was good, lacing his teaching with “integrity, seriousness and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned”. This was to be done “so that those” who opposed Titus might “be ashamed” because they would have nothing to use as a point of discrediting the true Christian Gospel teachers, of which Paul and Titus were counted.

4. Slaves.

Like other things we read in the scriptures that reflected societal flaws, slavery was present and accepted during biblical times, so much so that we find it addressed quite a few times, particularly in Paul’s epistles.

What makes this part of his direction on teaching different from other places where slavery is addressed is that there’s no mention of the masters here in Titus. Paul only touches on what was to be taught to the slaves. I don’t have a good answer for why this is in this letter but it is.

As for the slaves, Paul urges Titus to teach obedience “to their masters in everything”, making every effort to “try to please them, not to talk back to them, and not to steal from them” so they could “show that they can be fully trusted”. Just as Jesus was oppressed and mistreated and yet stayed focused on carrying out His Father’s will, so too were the slaves encouraged to “make the teaching about God” attractive “in every way”.

Titus, and anyone screened and appointed to assist him in the Cretan church, had a lot of work to do to teach the things Paul directed, to carry out God’s plan for sound teaching. He (they) were to do so with encouragement but also with authoritative rebuking when needed, especially directed to those who may oppose or despise them.

Today, we can look at these words from Titus 2 and use them as a template in the church as all applies with the exception of the guidance for the slaves.

Older men should still be instructed in proper Christ-like behavior so to be worthy of the respect of those younger.

Ditto for older women who can then teach the younger women how to be obedient to the scriptures in the way they live within their families and life in general.

And self control should be stressed with younger men, teaching them the critical importance of integrity and soundness of speech.

As Christians, we all play a role in shaping behavior in others but it begins with ourselves. The goal every day is to be a little more Christ-like in the way we think, talk, and act than we were yesterday. A commitment to this transforming process, day after day, will allow us to reap a harvest of the fruit of the Spirit and that fruit will reveal the authenticity of our faith to others as we become role models for them through an unwavering, uncompromising submission to the sound teaching of our Lord.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

Sunday, November 19, 2023

THE PURITY HINGE

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted. They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good.

Titus 1:15-16

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Every single living person is a sinner who falls short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).

This is an undeniable truth.

Here’s another one:

Despite this, a person’s only hope of approaching the righteousness and holiness the Lord expects is through surrendering their own will, exchanging it with the will of the Lord.

Conversely, if left to our own devices and desires, we are destined to be corrupted by our sins, impure and in a place where we’re not fit to do anything good in the name of the Lord.

Therefore, the Lord and our commitment to Him is the hinge point for living in purity.

This is the key point we find the Apostle Paul conveying to Titus in his letter intended to help further establish the Christian church properly on the island of Crete. Look again at his words here:

These closing verses of chapter 1 come after Paul’s warning about false teachers in the Cretan church who were teaching a distorted Gospel, one meant to deceive and disrupt Christian households on the island while providing “dishonest gain” (v. 11). These false teachers claimed “to know God” but “both their minds and consciences” were corrupted which led to Paul’s labeling them as “detestable, disobedient, and unfit for doing anything good”. The actions of these deceivers showed their denial of God and how it resulted in their pervasive impurity and wickedness.

On the other hand, legitimate Christian believers, who placed their full belief and trust in the Lord and His Word, would act in pure ways and be able to discern between purity and sinfulness. They would see all things through the lens of the Lord and receive all He provided with thanksgiving, never accepting any doctrines that would teach against eating certain foods, for example. Such attempts to regulate eating were a part of the old covenant and Law God had established with His people, a Law that was superseded by the new covenant put in place through Jesus, His Son.

Want to live a life of purity?

Seek the Lord, His Word, and His Spirit for direction regarding every thought, word spoken, and action taken. He will always lead you to be holy as He is holy, just as He commanded you to be.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

Saturday, November 18, 2023

OUT WITH THE BAD

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

For there are many rebellious people, full of meaningless talk and deception, especially those of the circumcision group. They must be silenced, because they are disrupting whole households by teaching things they ought not to teach—and that for the sake of dishonest gain. One of Crete’s own prophets has said it: “Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons.” This saying is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, so that they will be sound in the faith and will pay no attention to Jewish myths or to the merely human commands of those who reject the truth.

Titus 1:10-14

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

In yesterday’s message, we found Paul providing Titus guidance on selecting church leaders who would represent the Gospel well, sharing “the trustworthy message as it was taught” in order to “encourage others by sound doctrine” while “refuting those who oppose it” (Titus 1:9). An influx of faithful, committed Gospel leaders was needed to make sure the Christian church in Crete advanced properly in a way that was pleasing to the Lord.

So who were the “those” that Paul referred to, those who needed refuted?

We find the answers in verses 10 through 14 of this first chapter of Titus. Look again at Paul’s words here:

As in other places where the Christian church was trying to take root, there were people who were willing to accept the message of salvation through Jesus to gain eternal life but only if there were modifications. One group of these believers that seemed to pop up nearly everywhere were Jews who converted to Christianity and yet pushed to preserve requirements of the Mosaic Law found under the Old Covenant.

You will find Paul calling these Jewish Christians who proclaimed a modified Gospel, Judaizers or “the circumcision group” because one of the main tenets of the Judaizer theological beliefs was that circumcision was still required for salvation in addition to belief in Jesus. Or in other words, there were works required of a believer to gain eternal life.

This obviously contradicted the true Gospel that required only belief in Christ to be saved. Salvation was by grace and grace alone, underserved and unearned, a blessed gift from a God who surrendered His only Son to purchase the pardon of anyone who would place their faith in Him as Savior.

And so Paul called for Titus to ensure these “rebellious people” who were “full of meaningless talk and deception” were silenced and rebuked because of the harm they were doing to the Gospel. This harm included the disruption of “whole households” through the teaching of false doctrine, all “for the sake of dishonest gain”. It’s obvious that these false teachers were trying to profit off of their sinful perversion of God’s salvation promise.

Note here that Paul didn’t just wish for the rejection and then excommunication of these “rebellious” Cretans. Rather, he held out hope that they might be changed through rebuke to where they would “be sound in the faith” and turn away from “Jewish myths” and the “human commands of those who reject the truth”.

Through his provision of set qualifications for proper Gospel leaders and call for recruitment and then his command to seek out and eradicate the attempts to distort and alter the purity of the Gospel, we find the Apostle Paul instructing Titus to be out with the bad and in with the good in regard to the Cretan Christian church.

Today, this urging for discriminate screening of church leaders and the warning over false teaching infiltrating the body of Christ and polluting the true Gospel is still in play. We may not have Judaizers today but meaningless talk and deception where proclaimed Christian leaders are leading people astray through teaching inappropriately is still happening, and on a scale larger than we know.

Now, more than ever, we need to raise up leaders and teachers who uphold the sanctity of the Gospel while exposing and rebuking any and all attempts to alter the good news God has given through His Son, and this includes intentionally ignoring the parts of the Word and salvation promise that people might not want to hear, such as the fact that all people who choose to reject Jesus will end up suffering eternal damnation and torment in Hell. Ditto for posing as if they have new revelations from the Lord not found within the scriptures or building their ministry on the foundation of making false promises and proclamations to their followers such as assuring wealth and/or health in life when there’s no certainty it will happen.

As long as this world exists as we know it, Satan will do everything in his power to try and disrupt every good and perfect thing the Lord is trying to do. The scriptures tell us he is the “father of lies” (John 8:44) and has been doing it for the ages. With this, the church and all Christian believers need to be completely and uncompromisingly anchored in the inerrant Word of God and the leading of the Holy Spirit. For when we stay steadfastly secured to the one true foundation in life, we will never find ourselves in a place of vulnerability where our enemy can attack and we will easily find the deceitful attempts of false teachers exposed.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com