If I were to persuade you to read the book of Titus...

Here is what I'd say:

I'm prone to desire simplicity. It is a proven fact that the simplest of machines are hard to break. It's those darn Toyotas that combine machine and computer to an unhealthy degree that makes an idea of simplicity seems less plausible than a talking hamster.

All that aside, I like it when someone lays an important truth out to me in a way that doesn't make my head explode with 9 logical proofs, doesn't make my brain hurt with apologetical complexity, and doesn't leave me feeling like mouse in a maze searching for that piece of cheese. It is the simplicity and bluntness of a person that draws me to one, understanding them, two, believing what they have to say, and three, acting upon that belief.

I read the book of Titus today simply because I flipped through and thought, "I haven't read that in so long, I can't even remember what it's about!" I tell you what, I was blessed today in the reading of God's Word. Shouldn't surprise anyone by now that God's Word is a blessing in whatever section you're in.

I'd like to know what kind of person Titus was. Somehow, based on the shortness, and conciseness of the book, I feel like I might relate to the guy. No, Titus didn't write it, but you can tell Paul knew that he was writing to a guy who just liked the plain truth in its most blunt form.
Take for example Titus chapter 3. Paul practically summarizes the entire book of Romans in that one chapter! I mean reading Titus 3 almost felt to my soul what my stomach felt like after this past year's Thanksgiving dinner!

Titus seems like a guy that Paul knows doesn't need any fluff, or logical filler. He seems like a simple man with a lot of faith that wants to continue to grow deeper, not asking, "now wait a minute, why?" It's the fact that his faith is so much that a question like "why?" doesn't even bother to creep in. Perhaps he did write back in a letter that we obviously know that God didn't inspire, and asked why, but my point is this, it would seem by the way that Paul wrote this letter to Titus that he was preaching to the choir and now just giving them more to sing about.

It seems as if Titus asked Paul in a prior letter. "OK Pauly, A few questions for you: What makes a good Elder? How do I preach better? What should I preach? What would you tell the people I'm preaching to if you were here? and oh, by the way, can you keep it to 500 words or less, I'm still using dial up internet."

All kidding aside, that would be a similar conversation that I could see having with my father, who I trust enough to just get answers from without explanations. I think Paul eludes to a similar "father-son" relationship to Titus in verse 4 of chapter 1: "To Titus, my true child in a common faith.."

The simplicity of this book points so clear to the simplicity of the Gospel and it's application to us:
Simple logic, like a simple machine, If A then B 

IF Titus 3:4-7~We have faith in Jesus Christ who saves us by His grace (A) THEN Titus 3:8~our lives are characterized by good works (B). 

Paul's letter to Titus is only 3 chapters long.  I challenge you to read it today in one sitting and be blessed like I have been by it. Let me know what you think; what stood out in the book of Titus to you?

Refuel

I woke up early this morning and went to school with my wife, who teaches. It is convenient for me, because she teaches at the school inside our church (see the My Church link above). Anyways, I do this occasionally to wake up early on my day off, instead of sleeping in, to spend some needed refreshment and extended time with the Lord.
I do this in a few ways: 1.) dive into God's Word 2.) Go into the worship center and jam out on the drums to some of my favorite worship/gospel music 3.)workout in the health facility here at church, praying and listening to the Lord while I work off the lbs.
One reason why I like to do these early mornings occasionally is to get a fresh lick of paint on my walk with the Lord. It really helps to separate yourself from the norm and just "hang out" with the Lord. When you are tired or feeling stale, "PULL OVER" (as my pastor says) and rest in the Lord. It is OK, in the middle of a busy period and hectic time, to STOP and refuel in God's word and in His presence in worship.
Ps 62:5-8
"For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him. He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken. On God rests my salvation and my glory; my mighty rock, my refuge is God. Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us."

When God is our refuge, "pulling over" to refuel is not like going to a 7Eleven, It is so much more than that. It is like connecting a fire hose of the Holy Spirit to our Souls and pumping us full of Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-control!

I admit, when I feel worn out, sometimes I'm more quick to turn to a nice cup of coffee before I pick up God's word. In the long run, that cup of coffee contributes more to hypertension than it does to giving peace. I NEED more time with the Lord, always. Why? Because the more I get to know Jesus, the more I find out how much I NEED him and his salvation. The more time I spend with Jesus, the more I realize how much time I wasted on things of this world. The more I worship Jesus, the less I worry about how long I'll live in the flesh and more about living in the spirit for eternity.
All this to say, we need more pit-stops with Christ in our journey on this earth. We need to seek every opportunity to do this. After all, "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path" ~Ps 119:105 Without God's word, we would be wandering aimlessly through this world.

Facebook and 1 Thess 4:1-8

My wife called me yesterday and said, "Chris you need to send an email to a boy in our youth group..." After finding out why, a surge of anger seemed to almost melt my inside out. Long story short, this boy, on Facebook, "invited" my wife to be part of an ENTIRELY inappropriate Facebook group. I'll spare you the details, but trust me, NOT appropriate, and definitely not a group that you would expect to see any sold-out Christian to be in.
Facebook seems to be a readable form of some people's lives. On the front page you see all of the good things, the "praises" of people, the Christianese quotes and statuses. But once you go deeper into the page, you start seeing some things that perhaps don't equate. Jesus spoke of this same thing regarding Pharisees in Matt 23:25-26 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean..."
Here's the issue: DON'T SAY YOU ARE WHAT YOU DON'T APPEAR TO BE. I don't look or act like an elephant, so I don't go around telling people I'm an elephant. If I did, all of the elephants in this world would be mad because I'd be giving them a bad name!
1 Thess 4:1-8 says:
"Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to live and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more. For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is the avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. For God has no called us for impurity, but in holiness. Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you."

Our lives ought to reflect the amazing and mysterious gift of the undeserved sacrifice of Jesus Christ for us. Paul is regarding those who are engaging in sexual immorality or immorality in general, but claiming the name, as disregarding the response of the Gospel: Jesus saved me, I now live to praise Him. When the response is this: Jesus saved me, I live however the heck I want to live; there is a BIG problem. We are not saved by our works, good or bad, but true salvation is followed by "works response." (James 2)
Are we perfect? No, we will make mistakes and daily cling to the forgiveness of God in our lives. But generally speaking, if someone is truly a follower of Jesus Christ, their actions are more and more, progressively becoming like the actions of Christ: That is our Sanctification.

Facebook has been God's light into this kid's sin, and I would be disregarding what I'm called to do as a brother in Christ if I were to watch this happen and do nothing. So I've written the kid and have expressed my concern on what his actions and items on Facebook are doing to the Name of Jesus. It is a mockery of Christ to claim his authority and live apart from it. It ultimately will be avenged by the Lord, of which I'm thankful. It is this righteous and holy anger that wells up in us that will be satisfied in the Day of the Lord with His vengeance. I want a front row seat to that show.

Let us always keep in mind how we represent the Name of Jesus. Are we giving Him the praise and honor that He deserves, or claiming his authority while we mock him with our lifestyle?

Stand up for the truth, and know that you have the right and authority in Christ to admonish those who are claiming the name, and living otherwise (1 Cor 5:12-13). It really is a facet to our evangelism, to make sure that those on our team aren't batting for the other.

Preeminence (Col 1:15-23)

I love this picture. I took it a few years ago in the fall. The beauty of this picture isn't only in the man-made structure of the pier in Grand Haven, MI. The beauty is in the placement of this structure amidst the beauty of God's creation. I love it that we serve a God that created this! This is just an aside to the topic of today. Let's dive in!

I took Latin in college. And yes, I lived a very exciting college life ;-).
Anyways, it is a convenient thing in hindsight to be able to use some of my very basic Latin knowledge. In this case the prefix "Pre" in the word Preeminent. Ok ok, so it didn't take my one year of college level Latin to figure out what "pre" meant, but I wanted somehow and in someway to feel good about taking that class.
In Colossians 1:15-23 Paul gives a fantastic description of why the prefix "pre" is so important when it regards Christ and another term, "eminence." In case you don't have your bible in hand, I'd love to provide you this little break today to read this and fuel your walk with Christ today:
Col 1:15-23
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

21 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, 23 if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.

The word eminent is an adjective which means, "high in station, rank, or repute; prominent; distinguished." If that word weren't enough to describe Christ, the prefix "pre" is placed to say, not only is Christ high in rank or prominent, he IS the highest of the highest rank, he CREATED the rank he is PRE-the highest there is. Paul reminds us that he is "the image of the invisible God." He is the creator of all things, mentioned twice in this passage. He ordained all rulers and authorities, both invisible and visible. He was not just in the beginning, he IS THE BEGINNING (vs18).

Vs 18 is an amazing verse to me. If Christ IS the beginning, does that me he was never created but that he can only create? YES. I get this question a lot while working with high school students. It is a question that I've mulled over and over about. There's a point when a human get's the cognitive recognition to realize, wait a minute, something is fishy about God always "being" and never was created. When it comes to human standards and natural law, this is an impossibility according to the laws of thermodynamics. The 1st law states something along the lines that matter is neither created nor destroyed it's just in balance. So long story short, in everything that our science has been able to discover and experiment, something can only be created by something else using OTHER preexisting matter. That begs the question and argues so nicely the fact that there is only one answer to the ultimate beginning of all matter: Jesus Christ the Creator of all things (our passage today). BUT... what about him!? He's the Image of the invisible God so he IS matter too by humanistic scientific definition. Where did his matter come from? How has Christ always just "been" and never has been created?

It took me awhile to get past the chips on the shoulders of the esteemed academic realm to finally allow God to enlighten me with an answer to this that is both biblical and comforting: We are not meant nor have the capability to understand this concept of "eternal." Just even talking to a Junior in high school last week about this, he said, "It scares me a little bit about going to heaven, I don't like the thought of "forever" because I'm afraid of getting board." ;-) As funny as that is, it proves two very important points. One, beyond the biblical survey of Heaven and the fact that somehow and lovingly "eternality" with Christ will NEVER get boring. Two, we just can't, in our human capacity, fully understand or even scratch the surface of this concept. My pastor puts it this way, "if the bible doesn't tell us, then God didn't mean for us to know." I love that! It's like litmus test to our faiths, are we going to have faith enough to just trust God with a bit of information that we can't figure out!? or not?
This brings me back to PREeminence. Christ is preeminent and thus the head of all things, particularly our lives, should we recognize that or not. It is then my honor and comfort to you reading this to say, "TRUST the guy who is in charge and clearly knows more than us." I'll leave the "out of human knowledge realm" category for Him and focus on his word to us and learn as much as I can.
When a boss tells you what to do, do you ask why? No! Or you shouldn't, maybe that's your lesson today from this blog. Why can we understand that model here on earth, but sometimes miss the fact that we ultimately serve our boss' BOSS (vs16). And why do we serve Christ? We find that answer in verses 19-23.
Only a PREeminent Christ can truly reconcile all things to himself because of the fact that he's the creator of all. He's the ruler of all. He's the giver of all. So the ONLY way that we could be reconciled is if Christ "created" that option. And he did: Grace by sacrificing himself on a cross for the payment of OUR sin. The only thing we create is trouble. He, being preeminent gives us the opportunity to BELIEVE, to have faith, and join him back into the preeminent sinless eternal life with himself in the future! Praise God!
Our response?
Some of you reading this may actually feel alienated from God. You may think, "if he's so preeminent, how come he hasn't created a solution to my issue." Satan's best tool is deceiving you into believing that that is true. The solution to ANY issue, is the Preeminent Christ who gave his life so that you could be reconciled to him and SAVED from your sin! Recognize and believe in Jesus as your boss' Boss. Recognize and believe in Jesus as the HEAD of all things, the creator of all things. Recognize Him as the amazing and awesome image of the invisible God of the Universe! Dive into his word and pretty soon, he will seem so big in your life that your other issues seem like ants that you will have the strength in the Holy Spirit to stomp on an kill.

Some of you reading needed a little encouragement or challenge. "I know about all of this, but I really needed to be reminded of Christ's Preeminence in MY life, because my priorities have been out of order." I'm telling you, Christ's preeminence in your life is the key. If you are your own boss right now, there's trouble brewing, the pressure cooker is hissing. The heat isn't stopping and you are about to blow. God is gracious, allow the preeminent Christ to pick you up off the heat. Perhaps you want to pray to the Lord, "Lord, I know you are there, I've been allowing other things to get in the way of your preeminence in my life. I recognize you now what you have always been, first of the first, and the ruler of all, especially now in my life."

I don't know where you land in the above two categories. But my prayer for you is that you take the word of God and grow from it. Recognize your position as NOT preeminent and TRUST in the only person you can trust: Christ. He reconciles us to himself, and we should want nothing more, and be motivated the most in our actions by this amazing grace that he has made available to us by faith.

Blessings on your day!

I hope someday to get to worship with my brothers and sisters in Liberia

This is taken from the Harvest Bible Chapel in Paynesville Liberia, Africa. My friend Sandy Song is singing along with them. I really hope that I'll be able to someday worship with these amazing brothers and sisters in Christ! Enjoy.

Psalm 3 from Harvest Bible Fellowship on Vimeo.