When grace is our teacher

"Christ and His Disciples by Rembrandt

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Titus 2:1-15

TO CHEW ON: "For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously and godly in the present age." Titus 2:11-12


We are all to some degree products of our education. Many a life has been put on track by the words and actions of an encouraging teacher. Our reading today tells us that God's grace also teaches us. What does it teach?

First, we are to deny certain things:
- ungodliness [asebeia is a lack of reverence and regard for God.]

- worldly lusts. Lust [epithumia] is a strong desire and intense craving for something. Worldly lusts would include things like the "gratification of sensual cravings, desiring the forbidden, longing for evil, coveting what belongs to someone else, and striving for things, persons, and experiences contrary to the will of God" - New Spirit-Filled Life Bible, p. 1713.

Instead we are to live:
- soberly [sophronos that is "act in a responsible manner, sensibly, prudently, being in self-control and in full possession of intellectual and emotional faculties" - New Spirit-Filled Life Bible, p. 1721]

- righteously [dikaios meaning properly as is right, agreeable to the law of right.]

- godly [eusebos that is piously with our actions set in motion by reverence for God.]

What impresses me about Paul's interpretation of God's grace teaching us is how much our will is involved. Right attitudes don't just fall into place or come over us. We choose to deny [arneomai - disregard, reject] certain mind-sets and actions, and to intentionally cultivate or live [zao - breathe, be among the living, be active in] others.

Living this way is not some unpleasant heavy duty but a ticket to freedom. Leslyn Musch explains it well:

"God's grace teaches us to do good works not to earn salvation, but because we are free from sinful behaviors and free to do good things for God. This is the privilege and inheritance of God's people and not a harsh law to be followed and fulfilled. Holy living is the response of God's chosen and special people to the redeeming love and immeasurable grace of Jesus Christ" - Leslyn Musch, "Truth-In-Action through Titus, New Spirit-Filled Life Bible, p. 1723 (emphasis added).

PRAYER: Dear God, please help me to deny impulses within me to take You lightly and to gratify my selfish and worldly cravings. Help me to choose the sober, righteous, and godly response to the circumstances of my life today. Amen.

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Who will you put on today?

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Romans 13:1-14

TO CHEW ON: "But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts." Romans 13:14.

Here Paul sums up for readers two simple (and vast) instructions about living a Christian lifestyle. They are as relevant today as they were 2000 years ago.

1. "Put on the Lord Jesus Christ…"
The image is of clothing oneself. Clothes serve many purposes. They protect us from the elements. They cover our intimate parts, providing modesty and dignity. They also define us by the styles and fabrics we choose to wear. Paul tells these Roman Christians to dress in Jesus.

• Way back in the Old Testament, Job makes this statement that underlines clothing's protective and defining aspects: "I put on righteousness and it clothed me; My justice was like a robe and a turban" - Job 29:14.

• Paul speaks of the rite of baptism as something that initiates that putting on and declares it to the world - Galatians 3:27.

• A mind renewal is also involved. Paul, writing to the Ephesians, describes how they must "…put off … the old man … and be renewed in the spirit of your mind that you put on the new man which was created according to God in true righteousness and holiness" - Ephesians 4:17-24. Colossians 3:9 also talks about this renewal.

2. "…make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts."

[Provision - pronoia is forethought, planning, making preparation for, providing for.]

In other words, Paul tells these Christians and us, not to make plans to sin.

• Just don't do it says Peter - 1 Peter 2:11.

• "Walk in the Spirit (another way of describing Step 1 above) and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh" - Galatians 5:16.

Two steps that are so simple and yet they involve a lifetime of practice, of putting off and putting on.

Who are you, who am I wearing today? If it's Jesus, let's not be sullying those clothes with plans to sneak into our day some old-clothes thought or habit.

PRAYER: Dear Jesus, please help me to put on You and to be aware of my sneaky side that still wants to make provision for sinful thoughts and actions. Amen.

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Responsibility of influence

"Vashti's Defiance" - Alexandre Cabanel

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Esther 1:1-22

TO CHEW ON: "But Queen Vashti refused to come at the king's command brought by his eunuchs therefore the king was furious and his anger burned within him." Esther 1:12

Do we blame Queen Vashti for refusing to come before the drunken King Ahasuerus and his male guests to show off her beauty? I can think of several reasons for her refusal. Maybe such a debauch had happened before and been uncomfortable for her. Maybe it was a bad time for her to leave her own party. Or perhaps she had an independent streak that simply resisted being ordered around.

Whatever it was, her refusal ended badly. The king wasn't too drunk to ask for the input of others. His coterie of male advisors told him to be decisive with her for fear her attitude would spread to other women in the realm—and that would never do in their male-dominant culture.

It's easy for us, looking at this event through our western civilization lenses, to sympathize with Queen Vashti. And yet the king and his advisors had a point. My Bible's notes contain this observation on Vashti's actions:

"Leadership involves both responsibilities and influence. In her rebellion Vashti ignores her responsibility to her authority King Ahasuerus" - A. Joy Dawson, notes on Esther, New Spirit-Filled Life Bible, p. 634.

We can take away at least two lessons from these opening scenes of Esther:
1. When we are in positions of leadership our actions have the potential to affect and influence others, and we need to carefully consider their effect.

2. If we feel civil disobedience is really warranted, we should be prepared for consequences.

PRAYER: Dear God, please give me the wisdom to know when defying civil authority is warranted. At all other times help me to have a compliant spirit that acknowledges Your will and design in placing over me the rulers of Your choice. Amen.

MORE: More about Esther, the book
We will be reading all of the book of Esther in the coming days so here are a few facts about this little book.

• The author is unknown. But it was a Jew, familiar with Persian words and customs. Mordecai or Ezra may have been the author.

• It was written shortly after 465 B.C. and the story takes place over four years starting with the third year of King Ahasuerus (also called Xerxes') reign.

• A unique feature of the book is that the name of God is never mentioned.

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 Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Tested by circumstances - 2

"Naaman's Gifts Refused"- 1728 engraving
by Bernard Picart and Abraham de Blois

TODAY'S SPECIAL: 2 Kings 5:15-27


TO CHEW ON: "But Gehazi, the servant of Elisha, the man of God, said, 'Look, my master has spared Naaman this Syrian, while not receiving from his hands what he brought; but as the Lord lives, I will run after him and take something from him." 2 Kings 5:20.

The last character in the Naaman story is Elisha's servant Gehazi. He isn't confronted with Naaman's leprosy, as the characters in the earlier instalment were, but with his boss's reaction to Naaman's offer of gifts.

I can just see Gehazi as Naaman returns to Elisha, loitering in the background,  eyes glittering as Naaman's servants unpack the beautiful clothes and the sacks of coin. Then watch his expression change when Elisha refuses them all.

He wants that stuff, oh, how he wants it! And so he makes a plan. He runs after Naaman and tells him that Elisha has received guests, now needs some things, and asks for a modest two outfits and a sack of silver.

After stashing them safely in his quarters he stands before Elisha as usual to wait on him. In answer to Elisha's, "Where did you go, Gehazi?" he replies with the brazen, "Your servant did not go anywhere."

Foolish Gehazi. Do you not know that your master is in touch with the One who can not only see your motives and actions, but can reveal them to him? Elisha confronts Gehazi with what he has done and bequeaths on him and his family the leprosy that had infected Naaman.

What can we learn from how this sly prophet's assistant handled his test? Three things come to mind.

1. Being around the things of God and the people of God doesn't change our hearts. Gehazi served the man of God but he wasn't a godly man. Each of us needs to come to God personally and have a personal relationship with Him.

2. God has a way of revealing knowledge about people and situations to those who are close to Him.

3. Like Gehazi's response to Naaman's beautiful stuff revealed his covetousness, greed, deceit, and sneakiness, so our response to temptation can show us what's inside us.

Let's observe our responses to today's circumstances and the temptations they bring. Then let's allow these tests to educate us about ourselves, our weaknesses, and our need for repentance and a change of heart.

PRAYER: Dear God, please help me not to kid myself that I can fool You in any way. I pray with the psalm writer: "Search me O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my anxieties. And see if there is any wicked way in me. And lead me in the way everlasting" (Psalm 139:23-24).

MORE: Lying to the Holy Spirit

This story reminds me of one from the New Testament. The couple Ananias and Sapphira gave a generous gift to the early church but in a deceptive way. Read what happened to them in Acts 5:1-11.

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The Holy Bible, New King James Version Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. - Used with permission.