Posts that reference the book of Titus

4 Keys to Hope

So we’re finishing up our look at 4 keys to some important aspects of our walk with Christ. We started with 4 keys to prayer, then faith, peace and joy. This week, we’ll finish up with hope—a confident expectation of what God has promised, grounded in His faithfulness. Here are four keys to unlocking and maintaining hope, rooted in Scripture and our relationship with God.

Anchor Your Hope in God’s Promises

Hope begins with trusting in the promises of God. Romans 15:4 says, “For 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.”

God’s Word is full of promises that offer us hope in every situation. Abraham’s story in Genesis 12-21 exemplifies this. Despite seemingly impossible circumstances, Abraham trusted God’s promise of a son.

Regularly read and meditate on God’s promises in the Bible. Write down key verses that speak to His promises and keep them where you can see them daily.

Remember God’s Faithfulness

Reflecting on God’s past faithfulness fuels our hope for the future. Lamentations 3:21-23 reminds us, “Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”

Jeremiah found hope in the midst of despair by remembering God’s unchanging faithfulness. We can experience that same renewal when we recall how God has worked in our lives and in the lives of others.

Keep a record of God’s faithfulness in your life. Write down answered prayers, blessings, and moments when you’ve seen His hand at work. Reflect on these entries during challenging times.

Look For the Hope of Christ’s Return

Our ultimate hope as believers lies in the return of Jesus Christ. Titus 2:13 calls it “the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.”

Focusing on the promise of Christ’s return gives us hope beyond our current circumstances. The early Christians, enduring persecution and trials, found great hope in the assurance of Jesus’ return.

Spend time studying eschatological passages in the Bible. Reflect on the surety of Christ’s return and the eternal life we will share with Him. Let this truth encourage you in the present.

Encourage One Another

Hope is strengthened in the body of Christ. Hebrews 10:23-25 urges us, “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”

By encouraging and supporting each other, we build and maintain hope. Sharing our struggles and victories with fellow believers fosters a hopeful and uplifting environment.

Be intentional about encouraging others. Send a note or a text , pray together, and remind each other of God’s promises and faithfulness. Join a small group or Bible study to strengthen your connections to others.

Hope is a vital part of our spiritual journey, sustaining us through life’s challenges. By anchoring ourselves in God’s promises, remembering His faithfulness, looking forward to Christ’s return, and encouraging one another, we can experience a hope that is steadfast and unshakable.

The Spirit Helps in Our Salvation

By Paula Wiseman

The Holy Spirit plays an active role in the lives of believers from salvation to glorification. Sometimes, it’s not always evident or clear what that role is. Over the next few weeks we’ll take a closer look at what the Spirit does, how He helps us and why Jesus said it was to our advantage that He go away and the Holy Spirit comes. (John 15:7) How does the Spirit help in our salvation? The short answer is:

The Spirit accomplishes our salvation.

We rightly focus on the work that Jesus did on the cross. His willingness to die in our place resulted in God’s highest exultation (Phil 2:5-8). But without our regeneration, our rebirth, that sacrifice doesn’t help us. It is the Spirit who regenerates us. Jesus told Nicodemus as much.

Jesus answered, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh, and whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I told you that you must be born again. The wind blows where it pleases, and you hear its sound, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit” (John 3:5-8).

We can’t give physical birth to ourselves. But once we are born, we are part of the physical world. Likewise, we cannot cause ourselves to be born again. The Holy Spirit does that, and once He does, we become part of the the Kingdom of God.

Jesus doesn’t just save us and drop us. A second way the Spirit helps in our salvation:

The Holy Spirit indwells us after salvation.

Paul drops some dense doctrine about the Holy Spirit in Romans 8. It is worth a long slow read. However, we’ll focus on just a few verses.

You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him. Now if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, then he who raised Christ from the dead will also bring your mortal bodies to life through his Spirit who lives in you (Romans 8:9-11).

There is an inseparable connection between new life, eternal life that is, and the Holy Spirit living in us. You cannot have one without the other.

One final, critical way the Spirit helps in our salvation:

The Holy Spirit seals us in our salvation.

In the first century, the seal was the sign of authenticity, that the document could be trusted. Paul uses that as a metaphor for the church at Ephesus.

In [Christ] you also were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and when you believed. The Holy Spirit is the down payment of our inheritance, until the redemption of the possession, to the praise of his glory (Ephesians 1:13-14).

The Holy Spirit is the guarantee that God will bring all His promises to pass. Our sins are forgiven. We will receive eternal life. We will live in heaven with Him. Not one of those promises will be rescinded or revoked. We can’t lose our salvation. We can’t lose our inheritance. And no one or nothing can strip them from us. The Holy Spirit is the seal. Nothing can overcome the Holy Spirit to undo the seal.

While it’s true that the Holy Spirit always points us to Christ, it is important to understand how active He is in our lives so we praise God for this amazing gift of the Helper He has given us. Next we’ll consider how the Spirit helps in our understanding.

Great Pumpkin Theology

By Paula Wiseman

Last week we talked about Tooth Fairy theology and how that creeps into our prayers. This week we’ll look at how the Great Pumpkin influences us. The Great Pumpkin was an invention of cartoonist Charles Schulz in his Peanuts comic strip. In it, one of his characters, Linus, sits in a pumpkin patch every Halloween night waiting for the Great Pumpkin to rise and fly through the air bringing toys to all the good little boys and girls who believe in him.

Believe it or not, the Great Pumpkin has caught the attention of a range of philosophers who say he represents both the futility of faith and the existential crisis of modern man waiting for an external fulfillment that never comes. Contrast that with the cartoonist who said he simply thought it would be funny to have a kid who mixed up Halloween and Christmas.

Even so, we need to be careful that Great Pumpkin elements don’t sneak into our theology or our prayers.

The Great Pumpkin is a one-man belief system – Linus is the originator and chief proponent of the Great Pumpkin. Thankfully we have the canon of Scripture as our source material for who God is and how He works. God wants us to know Him and He left us a revelation of Himself. Not only that, but He gave us the Holy Spirit to explain and interpret that revelation.

The Great Pumpkin is works-driven – According to Linus, the Great Pumpkin judges and chooses the pumpkin patch based on its sincerity and lack of hypocrisy. The toys are distributed to good boys and girls who believe. We can easily fall into believing that God chooses us, or that He is more likely to give us what we ask for because of our goodness or hard work. God chooses and gives because HE is good, not because we are.

The Great Pumpkin is merciless and graceless – At one point in It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, Linus calls out to Sally, “If the Great Pumpkin comes I’ll put in a good word for you!” Then horrified, he corrects himself. “I mean ‘when’ … I’m doomed. One little slip like that can cause the Great Pumpkin to pass you by.” What great news it is that God does not reject us after one failure! And we don’t have to “wait until next year” to see if we’ve been forgiven and accepted. We have immediate access to God through Christ.

Don’t settle for a pumpkin.

But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, Titus 3:4-5

Next week – genies.

Read all of the Theology series

Identified

By Paula Wiseman

Not too long ago, I bought my daughter season one of Downton Abbey. And of course as soon as we finished watching it, we bought seasons two and three.

(Let me interrupt for just a moment. When I say “we” watch Downton Abbey, I mean my daughter and I, and my twelve year old son. Yes, my son. It began as mild interest because Maggie Smith (Professor McGonagall of the Harry Potter franchise) stars, but he is totally hooked now. One day I mentioned to him that, in all likelihood, there were not many other boys his age who watched Downton Abbey. He very matter-of-factly replied, “They don’t know anything about women.”)

In the last episode in season three, the family goes to visit the earl’s cousin in Scotland, and there is a fleeting scene with the household staff of the Scottish estate and the personal attendants of the earl’s family eating a meal together. The Scottish servants addressed their English counterparts, not by their given names, but by the name of the individual they served. Mr. and Mrs. Grantham were the valet and lady’s maid for Lord and Lady Grantham.

Their identity was determined by the one they served.

In Acts 11:26, it says “the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.” They weren’t just “learners” any more. They were do-ers, imitators, “little Christs.” The name was meant to mock by those who spit it at the first century believers. In some circles, in some locations that’s still the case. The name carries a preconception to almost everyone who hears it. Often times because of those preconceptions or in our deference to political correctness, we shy away from the name.

He never does that to us though. He never mumbles under His breath that we belong to Him. No, He makes lavish declarations about us. In Scripture we are called:

His friends (John 15:15)
Holy, blameless, accepted (Ephesians 1:4-6)
His own special people (1 Peter 2:9)
A New creation (2 Corinthians 5:17)
Elect (Colossians 3:12)
Heirs (Titus 3:7)

And many others. The name “Christian” may be a slur to some, but it identifies me with the Savior I serve. I’ll gladly take the name.

Next week: One more Downton post.

Study Tip: Titus

By Paula Wiseman

(Sigh… sometimes Study Tip Tuesdays happen on Wednesday. Many thanks to Mario at ExpertHelp for getting the site lined out once again!)

One of the accusations leveled against believers is that we are hypocrites. Our actions don't match up with what we claim to believe. Too often it's a fair criticism and devastating to our credibility when it comes to sharing the gospel. In Paul's short letter to Titus, he stresses the importance of sound doctrine so that it produces a sound witness in us.

This letter is only three short chapters long, easily read in one sitting. Here are some ways to approach this short book.

Each chapter has a theme. Come up with a summary sentence.

Paul gives specific instructions for different demographic groups (and some comments about those outside the church). Who are these groups and what does Paul tell them?

There are some profound statements about our salvation. What are they?

One repeated idea is sound doctrine. What is it? Why is it important? What results does it produce?

Study Tip: 1 Timothy and Titus

By Paula Wiseman

Imagine training a young man or young woman to do your job. What would they need to know? What pitfalls should they avoid? What kind of pep talk would you give? In two New Testament letters, the Apostle Paul gives Timothy and Titus his guidance on how to pastor a church. (We'll talk about 2 Timothy in a different post.) The different tones in the letters reflect the personalities of the young men receiving the letters and the churches they were leading, but there are similar themes.

Look for the following things as you read these short letters –

1. What qualifications should a leader have? Do your leaders have them? Do you?

2. What are the marks of false doctrine and sound doctrine?

3. How should our beliefs impact our daily life?

4. What specific groups or situations are addressed? What guidance does Paul give for each one?

Both books have great verses and passages worth noting or even memorizing. I love the summary of the gospel in Titus 3:4-7 – " But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life."

Do you have a favorite piece of advice in 1 Timothy or Titus?