Kansas City, Missouri, United States - Reflecting God – Embrace Holy Living - "Hope of Eternal Life" – Thursday, 6 November 2014 - Scripture: Titus 1:1-16

Kansas City, Missouri, United States - Reflecting God – Embrace Holy Living - "Hope of Eternal Life" – Thursday, 6 November 2014 - Scripture: Titus 1:1-4 I, Paul, am God’s slave and Christ’s agent for promoting the faith among God’s chosen people, getting out the accurate word on God and how to respond rightly to it. My aim is to raise hopes by pointing the way to life without end. This is the life God promised long ago—and he doesn’t break promises! And then when the time was ripe, he went public with his truth. I’ve been entrusted to proclaim this Message by order of our Savior, God himself. Dear Titus, legitimate son in the faith: Receive everything God our Father and Jesus our Savior give you!
A Good Grip on the Message
5-9 I left you in charge in Crete so you could complete what I left half-done. Appoint leaders in every town according to my instructions. As you select them, ask, “Is this man well-thought-of? Is he committed to his wife? Are his children believers? Do they respect him and stay out of trouble?” It’s important that a church leader, responsible for the affairs in God’s house, be looked up to—not pushy, not short-tempered, not a drunk, not a bully, not money-hungry. He must welcome people, be helpful, wise, fair, reverent, have a good grip on himself, and have a good grip on the Message, knowing how to use the truth to either spur people on in knowledge or stop them in their tracks if they oppose it.
10-16 For there are a lot of rebels out there, full of loose, confusing, and deceiving talk. Those who were brought up religious and ought to know better are the worst. They’ve got to be shut up. They’re disrupting entire families with their teaching, and all for the sake of a fast buck. One of their own prophets said it best:
The Cretans are liars from the womb,
    barking dogs, lazy bellies.
He certainly spoke the truth. Get on them right away. Stop that diseased talk of Jewish make-believe and made-up rules so they can recover a robust faith. Everything is clean to the clean-minded; nothing is clean to dirty-minded unbelievers. They leave their dirty fingerprints on every thought and act. They say they know God, but their actions speak louder than their words. They’re real creeps, disobedient good-for-nothings.
"Hope of Eternal Life" by Stan Toler
In the comic strip “Momma” by Mell Lazarus, a suitor approaches Mrs. Hobbs and says, “Mrs. Hobbs, I am going to pop the eternal question: will you marry me?” She answers, “No.” Persistently, he asks, “Can’t you at least say ‘maybe . . .’”? She insists, “No, I don’t give temporary answers to eternal questions.”
Unfortunately, many people have put off answering the ultimate eternal question. Their rationale seems to be, “Someday I’ll think about being a Christian. Someday, maybe I’ll work God into my life.”
Meanwhile, we who have received Christ as our Savior enjoy the blessing of “the hope of eternal life” that God “has brought to light through the preaching” of faithful servants who shared the gospel with us (vv. 2, 3).
After having officiated many funerals over the years, I can tell you it makes all the difference in the world when the bereaved have “the hope of eternal life” and the assurance that their loved one has gone to be with the Lord.
So give thanks today for the blessing of hope brought by faithful preaching, continued in fellowship with the Lord, and communicated to others in your words and countenance.
Hymn for Today:

"I Am Resolved" by Palmer Hartsough
1, I am resolved no longer to linger,
Charmed by the world's delight;
Things that are higher, things that are nobler,
These have allured my sight.
Chorus:
I will hasten to Him,
Hasten so glad and free.
Jesus, greatest, highest,
I will come to Thee.
2. I am resolved to go to the Savior,
Leaving my sin and strife.
He is the true one, He is the just one,
He hath the words of life.
Chorus:
I will hasten to Him,
Hasten so glad and free.
Jesus, greatest, highest,
I will come to Thee.
3. I am resolved to follow the Savior,
Faithful and true each day.
Heed what He sayeth, do what He willeth,
He is the Living Way.
Chorus:
I will hasten to Him,
Hasten so glad and free.
Jesus, greatest, highest,
I will come to Thee.
4. I am resolved to enter the Kingdom,
Leaving the paths of sin.
Friends may oppose me foes may beset me,
Still will I enter in.
Chorus:
I will hasten to Him,
Hasten so glad and free.
Jesus, greatest, highest,
I will come to Thee.
5. I am resolved, and who will go with me?
Come, friends, without delay;
Taught by the Bible, led by the Spirit,
We'll walk the heav'nly way.
Chorus:
I will hasten to Him,
Hasten so glad and free.
Jesus, greatest, highest,
I will come to Thee.
Thought for Today:

“[Jesus} is the great high priest who can sympathize with our weakenesses, but who also rescues us into a new quality of life and holiness that will sustain us in the end"(Diane Laclerc).
Prayer Needs:
For faculty and students as they prepare for full-time Christian ministry in Trinidad and Tobago.
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