Watch the crowd get to their feet. See the excitement on the people’s faces. Steve Harvey really knows how to give an introduction and he gives it to the most worthy man ever!

Titus 1:10-16 For there are many rebellious people, mere talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision group. They must be silenced, because they are ruining whole households by teaching things they ought not to teach—and that for the sake of dishonest gain. Even one of their own prophets has said, “Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons.” This testimony 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 commands of those who reject the truth. 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.

This section requires a continuation of the devotion from yesterday. In the previous verse, Titus 1:9, Paul tells us that a church elder, “…must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it.” When you include verse 9, today’s section makes a lot more sense than it would on its own.

The reason that the elder must hold firmly in the message to encourage others by sound doctrine as well as refute those who oppose it is because there are many rebellious people in this world. The original Greek word for “mere talkers” implies someone who does not know what they’re talking about or is talking out of malicious intent which certainly goes with the next description of deceivers. People who have malicious intent are often out to mislead people from the truth.

In Paul’s day there was a group of Christians who said that followers of Jesus must still hold fast to the Jewish traditions such as observing the Sabbath and being circumcised. Paul would battle these men at every chance he got to show that the gospel of Christ is not Christ plus laws but simply Christ. Christ plus anything no gospel at all.

Paul’s exhortation that the rebellious talkers and those of the circumcision group must be silenced is because they are leading people away from the truth of Christ for dishonest gain. These men are adding rules and incorrect theologies so that they can sound more intelligent and more educated and be thought of as true teachers, which they are not. As a timid man who came in love, Paul uses very harsh words in verse 13 where he says rebuke them sharply. He is not being gentle, nor should he be. These men are wolves who were attempting to turn God’s flock back to rules and legalism rather than to simply believing in Christ and believing God’s promises. Those were incorrect, correct them lovingly. Those who maliciously corrupt the faith must be corrected quickly so that they do not corrupt anymore followers of Jesus.

This is a lovely little bit of wisdom in verse 15. “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.” People who have the right motives tend to believe that the people I come in contact with everyday also have right motives. However people who are corrupt and depraved belief that everything is as they are. It is to this topic that Christ spoke to us in Matthew 10:16 “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.” Jesus is saying, be innocent but be on the lookout for those that are not innocent as you are.

These men who attempt to corrupt believers in Christ into following Jewish law and tradition claim to know God but by what they say and do they clearly show that they do not know God. Because of their intent to destroy people’s faith and uplift themselves the are unfit for doing anything for the kingdom. They will not see heaven because they also try to block other people from seeing the kingdom of God.

**All biblical quotations, unless otherwise stated, come from the 1984 version of the New International Version Bible via a program called E-Sword.

Titus 1:5-9 The reason I left you in Crete was that you might straighten out what was left unfinished and appoint elders in every town, as I directed you. An elder must be blameless, the husband of but one wife, a man whose children believe and are not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient. Since an overseer is entrusted with God’s work, he must be blameless—not overbearing, not quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not pursuing dishonest gain. Rather he must be hospitable, one who loves what is good, who is self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined. He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it.

In this section Paul is telling Titus about his responsibilities in Crete, mainly doing what was left unfinished and appointing elders to the churches in different towns. Paul then begins giving Titus the requirements for being a church elder.

As we all know, leaders must be held to a higher standard than the people that they are leading because leaders the example for the people they are leading. If a leader does something that the people underneath them are going to also do the same thing and probably even step it up a notch or two. And a leader certainly can’t correct or reprimand someone who is simply following in the leader’s footsteps.

Let’s go through some of the things that Paul tells Titus to consider when choosing an elder.

He must be blameless. This is not saying that he must be perfect, worried that someone can be perfect. What Paul means by this is that the elder must live in a manner that even if he is accused of doing something wrong, people will not believe it because of the manner in which lives.

He must be the husband of but one wife. Unfortunately this is a transformational issue. In the original Greek it doesn’t say that he must be the husband of one man, but simply that he must be a one-woman man. That doesn’t require him to be married. It simply means that he can be married or date one woman at a time.

He must be a man whose children believe. If it isn’t required but he’s married then it can’t be a requirement that he has children. But if he does have children then their belief in Christ is a requirement.

He must not be given to drunkenness. This doesn’t say he must not drink, but instead encourages readers to only drink in moderation. The original Greek says he must not constantly remain near wine therefore a more accurate translation might be “he must not be an alcoholic.” Unfortunately, the definition of alcoholic varies from person to person and it usually sounds like “an alcoholic is someone who drinks more than I do.”

He must be hospitable. This is telling us that he must be fond of having guests and taking care of people in his home. In that culture it would imply that he must be willing to feed and provide for friends, family, and even strangers.

He must be self-controlled. Paul is telling Titus here that an elder must be of sound mind and moderate in his actions. The words used also imply that he must be discreet, sober and temperate.

An elder must be holy and disciplined. The words here imply that an elder must obey both the laws of God and the laws of men. It also implies that living this type of life requires one to exercise and strengthen themselves in self-control.

If someone desires to be an elder or leader in the church, they would do well to take a hard look at the passage above, Titus1:5-9, as well as 1Timothy 3:1-13. These are passages that talk about requirements for church leadership. And once the person who desires a leadership role thinks they have an understanding of the passages, I encourage them to download E-Sword and really look at what the original Greek words really mean. More wisdom can be gleaned from understanding the English and then understanding the Greek than just by reading the English translations alone.

**All biblical quotations, unless otherwise stated, come from the 1984 version of the New International Version Bible via a program called E-Sword.

Kind of like Oreos, I have a specific way of eating them. This, is a visual representation of how it’s done!

The Whole Peep, before I enjoy eating it.

First I eat its eyes.

Next I bite off its head.

After the head, I bite off its tail.

And then, suddenly, it's GONE!!!

Yes, this really is how I eat MY peeps. Comment at the bottom, how do you eat yours?

Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ for the faith of God’s elect and the knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness—a faith and knowledge resting on the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time, and at his appointed season he brought his word to light through the preaching entrusted to me by the command of God our Savior,

To Titus, my true son in our common faith: Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.

In this introduction Paul is setting himself up as being a servant or slave to God. He’s saying that he has given up his own interests and rights so that he might serve the Lord as an apostle which can also be translated as ambassador. He is therefore an ambassador for Jesus, encouraging God’s chosen people, both Jews and Gentiles, to accept God as sovereign Lord and to strive for holiness and godliness.

Godliness is dependent upon having the hope and expectation of eternal life which comes only through faith in Christ as Savior. God cannot lie and he has made promises to mankind that through his son man would see a visible image of the invisible God, Jesus Christ, the light of the world.

This position of a servant and apostleship was given to Paul by God the father, through a manifestation of God the son, appearing as light on the road to Damascus.

This letter from Paul was written to a man named Titus, a Greek convert to Christianity, whom Paul himself is the spiritual father of. This means that Paul was the one that encouraged Titus to faith in Christ.

As is standard in many of Paul’s letters, he praised a blessing of grace and peace upon the recipient and that the blessing would come from no other God.

Implementation

Take a minute to thank God that he cares enough about you to show you himself through his son, Jesus Christ. Pray that He will lead you to godliness and holiness and that you will become the willing servant that Christ wants you to be.

**All biblical quotations, unless otherwise stated, come from the 1984 version of the New International Version Bible via a program called E-Sword.

About a minute later a man who had recently completed his masters degree at a local theological university came along. Thinking that he was extremely enlightened in the ways of truth, and eager to show off his enlightenment, he asked the boy why he was so excited.

The boy replied with a huge laugh, “Do you have any idea what God is able to do? I just read in the Bible that God opened up the waves of the Red Sea and the entire nation of Israel went right through the middle.”

This highly educated man laughed lightly at the child’s naivety and sat down next to the young boy. He then began to open the young boy’s eyes to the “realities” of the miracles of the Bible. “That can all be explained quite easily. Modern learning and exploration has shown that, in the area of the Red Sea they passed by in was only 12-inches deep. That little amount of water wouldn’t stop anyone. It was extremely easy for the Israelites to wade across the sea.”

The boy was puzzled. His eyes wandered from the man back to the Bible laying open in his lap. This highly educated man, content that he had enlightened a poor, naive young person to the finer points of scientific insight, turned to go. He hadn’t gotten more than 5 feet away before the boy began to rejoice and praise God even louder than before. Once again, the man turned to ask about the reason for his excitement.

“Wow!” exclaimed the boy happily, “God is even greater than I thought! Not only did He lead the whole nation of Israel through the Red Sea, but He topped it off by drowning the whole Egyptian army in only 12 inches of water!”

Yes. There is more to the bible then just forgiveness but, if you follow Christ and read what he says, there isn’t much more to it.

If you want to read the parts that are about hating, being angry and whatnot, read the psalms that King David wrote about wanting God to crush his enemies. If you’re into legalism and being bound by rules, read the Pentateuch (first 5 books of the Bible, written by Moses). If you read the words of Jesus, you’re not going to find that except for when he’s bashing the religious rulers and teachers. And that is only because the religious rulers are leading the common people away from God instead of closer to Him.

If you’re looking for justification to remain angry, Jesus is not what your looking for. If you want directions on how to forgive, how to love, and how to get along with your neighbors, Jesus is your guy.

Don’t get me wrong.  We need the old testament, the Jewish Torah. It’s rightly been said that any text, without context, is pretext. And what that means is if you say something and there is no context to it, it’s probably a lie. The old testament not only gives us a context for the New Testament, it also gives us tons of wisdom and examples of both what to do and what not to do. The old testament provides the context by which we understand the New Testament. And had there been no Jews there would be no Jesus. Christians need to remember that fact.

So if anyone says that they read the bible and hate their brothers, sisters or anyone else, my first question to them would be do you follow Moses or David, or do you follow Jesus?

Unfortunately, there is a high likelihood that this question could offend them. Sometimes this is a question that you have to ask just to get them thinking. Please understand I am not advocating offending people, I am simply advocating getting them to stop and think about what they say they believe. If they get offended, I’m sorry and I need to ask for forgiveness. And after they have forgiven me I will explain the reason for the question and ask them again.

You see, the reason for the question is not to offend people. We need to keep that in mind. We simply need to see what they’re focusing on when they read the bible. Another excellent question to ask is “what is your favorite book of the bible?” This simple question will tell you a lot about their theology. And their theology will tell you how they live their lives.

Is there more to the Bible than forgiveness and love? Yes. But that doesn’t give us license to ignore Christ’s commands to love and forgive others.

And as today is a furlough day for her school district, I won’t be doing much writing today either.

But since she will be back to school tomorrow and our house will be empty, I should have a lot to say in the next few days. To that effect, I have been spending a lot of time thinking about the book and have decided on a course change. How many times will I do that, right? Well, almost every day, something happens to make me think that I need to add this or that scenario to my book. The content that I wanted to produce was increasing on an almost daily basis. Sadly, if I actually want to publish the book, I need to condense it. So I have taken my focus away from individual scenarios and I am now looking at general principles. This seems much more doable.

So, at this point the topics will be:

• Who?
• What?
• When?
• Where?
• Why?
• And the prinicples of How?

I think this should still provide me with plenty of content for a small book.

Until tomorrow,
Tim

Saturday afternoon was cold and raining. While we were on our way home, my wife and I came across a young girl, probably only between 22 and 25 years old, holding a sign and panhandling by the side of the freeway off-ramp. I said that she looked cold and my wife asked “what can we do?” She also stated that we didn’t have anything that would keep her warm. We gave her a measly $3 and drove off.

I wanted to disappear. I wanted to scream. I wanted to throw out all of our possessions so that we could invite this girl into our warm, dry home without my wife worrying that she would rob us.

I mistakenly understood my wife to be callous and cold. While her tone was cold, her intention wasn’t. It was simply matter of fact. She wanted to help but didn’t see what we could do. But really, neither of us stopped to think about it.

We could have done something. In my truck, I always keep a spare blanket and provisions in case we are stranded somewhere. We could have given those to the young girl. Even the thin, reflective poncho would have helped. Yes, I keep all these things in my truck at all times but didn’t stop to think about giving them to the homeless girl. I even had about $63 dollars in my wallet but I only gave her $3. Yes, I am ashamed.

All this ranting is to say that today I came to see how Satan uses wealth and materialism in my own life to coerce good people into doing nothing to help or heal their neighbor.

The devil has blinded us to the pain of others because they might cause us pain. The problem, as Cefer Dakat recently reminded me, is summed up quite quickly in the following paragraph.

Things are meant to be used. People are meant to be loved.
The problem in our society is that People are being used and things are being loved.

And that is exactly the way that Satan wants it.

If we refuse to let go of a $5 bill to feed a homeless person, Satan wins. If we refuse to invite a stranger into our home because they might rob us, Satan wins. If we refuse to help a neighbor, panhandler, or a starving child in Africa, Satan wins. “Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.” James 4:17

Sadly, I have come to believe that Satan wins far more battles than he loses. And I want to put a stop to it.

In the late 80’s and early 90’s, there was an expression that said “Think Globally. Act Locally.” What this means is that you need to envision the change that you want to see in the world and put it into action in your home town. And this is exactly what I am going to do.

I simply want to have more compassion for the homeless and impoverished people I see every day. I am looking to serve them and I truly hope it will help me to see them in a different light, a softer light, a gentle light, a more compassionate light.

I simply want to be the hands and feet of the Lord, showing compassion to the people He loves.

There are some professions that are all about helping people. There are also professions that are all about making money and selling goods. In this American culture, which is more important? Which is more valued?

Let’s take a minute and rank six professions from 1 to 10 on how much of an impact they have on people’s lives.

1. Athlete
2. Doctor
3. Corporate secretary
4. High school teacher
5. Lending officer
6. Ambulance driver

Which profession makes more money?

After you’ve thought about the impact that each one has on people’s lives, maybe even your life, please consider which one probably makes more money than the one next to it. Compare doctors to athletes. Compare high school teachers to corporate secretaries. Compare ambulance drivers to lending officers. In each case, who do you think makes more?

It’s easier for me to tell you who makes less money, and that is almost always the person whose job is more of a basic necessity and has more impact.

Why does an athlete make more than a doctor? Why does a corporate secretary make more than a high school teacher? Why does a lending officer make more than an ambulance driver?

These are serious questions that I don’t have the answer to. While I was growing up my father always told me that if you pay peanuts you hire monkeys. Let’s think about that for a minute.

Do you want monkeys performing surgery on you, teaching your children, or driving your ambulance? Probably not.

How would you feel about having a monkey as an athlete, a corporate secretary, or lending officer? Now those don’t quite seem so dangerous do they? So once again I ask, why do the people who have the more necessary jobs accept lower pay?

This world is absolutely upside down.

And please understand I’m not saying that athletes don’t deserve $10,000,000 every year. I’m saying doctors deserve more.

I’m also not saying that corporate secretaries don’t deserve $200,000 a year. I’m simply saying that high school teachers deserve more. And at $65,000 per year, at high school teacher makes approximately 1/3 of what a corporate secretary makes.

And I’m not saying that lending officers don’t deserve $150,000 a year. I just want to make sure that the person driving my ambulance has my safety on his mind, instead of how he’s going to pay his bills on an average salary of $28,000 a year.

What does this world value?

We value platinum, silver and gold. We value people who make us forget about our troubles, people who entertain us. People who, for the most part, are not the role models that we should be looking up to.

The person who serves, the person who takes care of others, the person who educates and the person who heals wounds, they are all compensated for their work but far below what they should make if you compare them to people whose jobs do not have other people’s lives on the line.

Bottom line:

If my life is on the line, I don’t want to go to the lowest paid doctor. I don’t want him taking cheaper shortcuts to get me healthy.

If I am getting an education, I want someone who has put in their time not only in university classes but also in real life practice of what they’re teaching me.

If this world doesn’t think that our health and education is worth as much as the ability to throw a football or shoot a basketball into a hoop, what will we value 20 years from now?