Remind the people …
Summary: Paul understands a basic truth about people: Our memories leak! To help, he gives Titus a list of things to remind people about.
Continue reading “Titus 3:1 (a) — Leaky Buckets”Titus 3:1 (a) — Leaky Buckets
Titus 2:12 (c) — The Age
… in this present age …
Summary: There are limits to what we can know about Paul’s thinking. Yet there are clues in his letter to Titus that give us confidence that his words are still relevant today.
Continue reading “Titus 2:12 (c) — The Age”Titus 2:5 (b) — Another Word for “Holy”
Then they can urge the younger women… to be … pure…
Summary: Times have changed and so have our cultural norms. The timeless concepts presented in God’s Word may sound unsophisticated to the modern ear.
Continue reading “Titus 2:5 (b) — Another Word for “Holy””Titus 1:2 (c) — Once Upon a Time
[the hope of eternal life]… promised before the beginning of time …
Summary: God’s ”time” is very different from ours. Before our time began, he knew the cost of offering us eternal life and he willingly paid it.
Continue reading “Titus 1:2 (c) — Once Upon a Time”1 Peter 1: 2 (a) — An Absence of Uncertainty
… who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father…
In our post titled, “God’s Eye” we discussed how God’s view of time is different than our own. In today’s passage, Peter affirms the idea that God knows the future. He uses the word, “foreknowledge” to describe how God chooses us.
Perhaps you have had a sense of “deja vu” now and then? It is the feeling that you have already been someplace or done something before you have actually experienced it. To be clear, that is not anything like foreknowledge.
Continue reading “1 Peter 1: 2 (a) — An Absence of Uncertainty”1 Peter 1: 1 (c) — God’s Eye
To God’s elect…
If you live in a place where there are elections, you might think that being one of God’s “elect” has something to do with being chosen. Looked at in a certain light, you would not be far off. Some people like to make a fuss over the idea that some are chosen and others are not, but it is not that simple. We all come into this world the same way by birth. We all leave through the same door; death. The problem with being human is that we cannot “see” things the same way that God sees them.
Continue reading “1 Peter 1: 1 (c) — God’s Eye”Jude 1: 25e — A Reasonable Faith
…before all ages, now and forevermore!
The nature of time is an interesting and much-debated topic. It exists to help us navigate life by dividing our experiences up in three ways: past, present, and future. God’s view of time is different than ours (See Psalm 90:4; 2 Peter 3:8). In fact, time may not have any meaning in heaven except as it relates to our world and our need for temporal structure.
Jude writes that God is God, “… before all ages, now and forevermore!” He is covering all the bases. There never has been a time when God wasn’t God. There never will be a time when God is not God.
Why is this important?
Continue reading “Jude 1: 25e — A Reasonable Faith”James 4: 13-14 — Stage Fright
Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.
Note: Somehow I skipped over verses 13-17 in chapter 4. I’m not sure why, but as I started preparing for James 5: 12 I was reminded of the passage I had skipped over. So, let’s rewind for a few days and visit these words of James.
As I write this the world is embroiled in a war against an unseen enemy. A virus known as “Covid-19” has been unleashed and is running rampant. Wherever it goes, it lashes out at everyone around it. What sets it apart from other viruses is its speed and the potential nastiness of its effect on a person’s lungs. Within a matter of weeks beginning last December, the virus has infected most of the rest of the world. Slowly (it seemed) more information has become available. Suddenly, it seems, the country was shut down and we are all sitting at home.
Today we wonder how this happened. How did we become virtual prisoners in our own homes?
Continue reading “James 4: 13-14 — Stage Fright”