Godliness in hope of eternal life.
Titus
{1:1} Paul, a servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God’s elect, and the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness
{1:2} In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began
{1:3} But hath in due times manifested his word through preaching, which is committed unto me according to the commandment of God our Saviour
{1:4} To Titus, mine own son after the common faith: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour.
Ever thankful for the Lord, for His mercy, His love, today on Thanksgiving Day we need to thank Him even more than ever.
Read this from Paul to Titus.
The truth which is after godliness in hope of eternal life which God cannot lie promised before the world began.
The truth.
Godliness in hope of eternal life.
God cannot lie.
Promised before the world began.
*
Our wonderful, most amazing Lord and Father didn't do anything haphazardly in creating the world. We can be very thankful for such foresight without it there would have been no salvation.
How many times do people plan things and not think of everything? All the time right? If we only thought of this, if we only thought of that. God thought of it all and we can take great comfort in that.
The truth we all need so desperately is life in Jesus.
All we know is life. We can witness death but we cannot know death in all its reality. We know that when a person dies their life as we know it is over. They get buried or cremated and they're gone from our lives completely except in memory. We too will one day be the person that dies, the one that is gone from the lives of others except in memories. Is that all there is? People want to believe there is more because it gives them hope. Who wants to believe that there is nothing after death? We can have the hope of eternal life and that hope is found in Jesus, this is the truth.
Godliness in hope of eternal life.
One day we who place our trust and our love in Jesus will live again and not in some substandard existence of ghostly form. Jesus didn't die so we could live in a semi-existence. He rose from the grave as a human being with flesh and one day we will as well.
We can all hope in God, and we should all acknowledge the truth which is in God.
I thank God our Father, His Son Jesus Christ and praise Him for all His Love and the wonders of that love.
Amen.
11/27/09
Rev 14:12 Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus
Patience
hupomone?
hoop-om-on-ay'
From G5278; cheerful (or hopeful) endurance, constancy: - enduring, patience, patient continuance (waiting).
Keep
te?reo?
tay-reh'-o
From teros (a watch; perhaps akin to G2334); to guard (from loss or injury, properly by keeping the eye upon...)
The endurance of the saints. It sounds like a movie title doesn't it? Perhaps a show on saints through time and their common link through endurance- a documentary of sorts. Or maybe it could be a touching story of a family with the last name Saints and it's a tale of courage and faith beyond all odds- enduring hardships and such to make the story appropriately exciting and something people would want to watch. The meaning here in Revelation 14:2 is prophetic and it's talking about those in the future who are on God's side as the world comes to an end. People with endurance, people with hopeful endurance. People who will watch, who will guard the commandments of God.
We've talked about this several times but it bears studying even more. It's too easy to lose hope, it's too easy to stop hanging in there- to stop enduring with patience. It would be so incredibly easy for us to just give up hope, to believe it's all too much and that things would never change.
People will argue that they've known others who have held fast to their faith for a long time, growing from being young to old, to very old without ever having their hope realized. They would say they were fools to believe and that it's foolish for them to believe when it's always hope without realization. The endurance means nothing, the patience means stupidity. The watching and guarding the commandments of God is silly to them because the love in those commandments isn't seen at all- only the restrictiveness.
It's what we call human nature to want to rebel against anything that might restrict our lives, but in truth it's not human nature at all, it's the sin nature. Most don't want to diffrientiate between the two arguing that they're one and the same because we're all sinfilled from our birth- caught up in the nature we inherit from our parents who ultimately inherited it from the first human to sin- Eve. But in truth and that's what we are interested in here, truth, we weren't originially created human with sin. We were created human without sin. There are a group of people who believe it's that nature Jesus took on but that's clearly not true. Jesus was tempted taking on our nature through his sinful mother... yes, some have claimed that Mary was sinless but that's not true. People want to believe that Jesus didn't have our sinning nature- yet remained without sin. People want to believe that Jesus was like Adam and Eve who were not in any way tainted by thousands of years of sinning. Jesus took on a nature that had for thousands of years been prone to sinning and with that nature HE did not sin. The temptations of Christ were real, He was touched by our infirmities not absolved and shielded from them.
Heb 4:15 For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.
ALL points tempted like we are. Does that sound like He was absolved from the nature, the humanity we possess? No. He wasn't protected in some special way - He became human and endured all the temptations we endure- if he'd been given some special attributes that we don't possess then Satan would call His sacrifice superficial and non-acceptable. Satan can't call His sacrifice unacceptable though. Jesus didn't use His power as a Son of God to defeat sin. Jesus defeated sin in the same way it's possible for us, in humanity- through God and God alone He prevailed.
So to say that as humans we want to be in charge of our own fate- to choose not to believe in what we call fairy tales and fables, would be false. To say that we as humans tainted by sin want that - would in fact be the truth. God did not create us to defy Him, but to love Him. There will be a people- the saints - who will hold fast to the truth in Christ and believe in the commandments of God all the commands that He's given us out of His love. These people will have salvation through Christ's sacrifice, believing in God and all He is. These people and I pray I'm among them will hold fast to the faith of Jesus, clinging to Him who while tempted like we are endured without sinning, laying down His life to redeem ours.
By the grace and mercy of Christ now and forever...
Amen.
11/27/10
Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.
11/27/11