Talk of JESUS .com

Tag: titus

  • A Foundation of Truth

    A Foundation of Truth

    My father was a builder when I was a boy. He and my uncle and the men who worked for them built houses from the ground up.  My dad could look at a piece of ground and survey it with his eyes and see a finished house. What just looked to me like piles of dirt being moved about progressed into a hole deep in the ground with leveling lines of string and cement blocks tapped with a hammer were set just so, one by one below the foundation of the house.  We watched these men set block by block on the dirt in the raising of a house over a strong foundation where they would walk on the dirt floor from room to room knowing the outline of what was to come.

    In many ways reading the Bible becomes a foundation to the foundation of truth. Daily devotional time with God becomes a leveling of all that seems out of kilter in our lives. Regular worship with like-minded Christians and perspective from the sermons of a God-fearing Spirit-filled pastor/preacher becomes a plumb line for our ascent into a higher place nearer to truth and the certain hope of our salvation in Christ Jesus.

    I paint you this picture as introduction to what I attempt to do in my personal life.

    • I read the Bible. It is 66 Books. I have read all of them, most numerous times. Every time I take on a book of the the Bible to study I learn more about God.

    READ & STUDY a book of the Bible. THEN, read another.

    • I pray. (More than once or twice daily.)  It is personal conversation with God. I do not hear God as well as I ask God for the needs of others and sometimes my own desires.

    I need to pray much more. Do you?

    • I worship with others. I don’t just ‘go to church, I try to be part of Christ’s church. I am a member of our local church and try to worship with our church every Sunday. I have done this in different places, buildings and denominations most of my life. God is a relational God. Jesus is a relational Savior. The Holy Spirit is a relational Counselor. AND Christians must, according to scripture, have a relational love for each other and the whole church.

    We are Christ’s church, the bride of Jesus. We are one with Him and with one another.

    I say all of this a introduction to an introduction (a borrowed thought) from a lesson on Titus I recommend to you.

    In addition to my daily time set aside for the Bible and prayer, I listen to Truth for Life and the teaching of Alistair Begg. I read and listen to the teachings of others as well. Do not rely on any one man (or woman) for the truth of Biblical teaching.

    The risen Jesus Christ sent out twelve Apostles to different churches in different places to lead and instruct the church. An Apostle to the Gentiles (once known as Saul of Tarsus) encountered the risen Christ, who in turn instructed others how to instruct the church. By the Spirit, Paul wrote many of the letters of the New Testament for Christians. Two letters to Timothy and one to Titus are considered as ‘Pastoral Epistles,’ letters to the church through these two pastors of certain churches.

    Pastor Begg suggests reading this short Letter of Titus every day.

    This teaching from Truth for Life will follow this short letter daily on the radio and online in January 2014 for a series of lessons titled: “Get It Right, Volume 1.”  I would like to recommend these to your daily devotional time.

    Christ’s servant,

    Roger Harned

    (site administrator) http://talkofJesus.com

     

  • Our Sin

    Our Sin

    Psalm 51

    English Standard Version (ESV)

    Create in Me a Clean Heart, O God

    To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.

    4 Against you, you only, have I sinned
    and done what is evil in your sight,
    so that you may be justified in your words
    and blameless in your judgment.

    Mark 8:

    34 And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them,

    “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it…

    38 For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

    Titus 1:16  They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.

    2 Timothy 2:

    If we have died with him, we will also live with him;
    12 if we endure, we will also reign with him;
    if we deny him, he also will deny us;
    13 if we are faithless, he remains faithful—

    God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, 26 and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.

     

    John 13

    English Standard Version (ESV)

    Jesus Washes the Disciples’ Feet

    Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end…

    17 If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.

    18 I am not speaking of all of you; I know whom I have chosen. But the Scripture will be fulfilled, ‘He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me.’

    If you know our Lord’s commands, ‘blessed are you if you do them.’

    And if not blessed for obedience to our Lord who died for our sins on the cross…

    IF not blessed, then cursed. (May God have mercy on your soul.)

    One of You Will Betray Me

    21 After saying these things, Jesus was troubled in his spirit, and testified, “Truly, truly, I say to you,one of you will betray me.”

    22 The disciples looked at one another, uncertain of whom he spoke.23 One of his disciples, whom Jesus loved, was reclining at table at Jesus’ side, 24 so Simon Peter motioned to him to ask Jesus of whom he was speaking. 25 So that disciple, leaning back against Jesus, said to him, “Lord, who is it?”

    You believe your sin is against me; but your sin is the adultery of Judas.JudasBetrayal

    I gave her time to repent, but she refuses… – Revelation 2

     John 15:12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.

     

    Ephesians 5

    English Standard Version (ESV)

    Walk in Love

    Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.

    2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us,

    a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

    Walk as children of light

    9 (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), 10 and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.

    11 Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.

     

    Wives and Husbands

    22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.

    23 For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior.

    24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.

    25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.

    31 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”

    32 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.

    33 However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

    Against you, you only, have I sinned
    and done what is evil in your sight…

    Forgive us, Lord

    by the fragrant offering of the Blood of Your Cross.

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