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It is I who says of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd! And he will perform all My desire.’  And he declares of Jerusalem, ‘She will be built’ and of the temple, ‘Your foundation will be laid.’  Isaiah 44:28

As we continue to watch current events, it’s instinctive to ask God where He is in all of it.  Oh, how Isaiah’s voice reassures us in our fears.  Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he predicted the coming of Cyrus to deliver God’s people from exile.  At the time of this writing, Cyrus was not even born yet.  It would be another 200 years before he arrived on the scene to do precisely what God said He would. 

God had predicted Israel’s defeat and capture before they were carried off into captivity.  God had predicted, with great detail, what exile would be like and how they were to survive it.  Now through Isaiah, God predicted their deliverance through a foreign ruler the likes of Cyrus.  He had always been their God and He is still waiting to fulfill more prophecies concerning future events. 

No one changes the courses of God’s Word.  This inspires holy fear, respect, and worship for who He is.  His prediction of Cyrus comforts us since life has taken a turn and our immediate future is uncertain.  Just as surely as I’m writing this, He knows the nature of our exiles and deliverances.  The names of those who will shape our future are already pre-chosen. All is on schedule to lead us to glory. 

Just as God has foreknowledge of the main characters which comprise the leadership of world governments, He also has foreknowledge of every single detail which comprise our lives.  He spoke our name long before we existed, called us by name at our moment of re-birth, and will speak our name again when He welcomes us home.  Our past, present, and future was written with red ink and not one step (though uncertain as it may seem for us) causes Him to worry about us. 

He is the God who dismantles and the God who re-builds.  He is the God who wounds and the God who comforts.  He is the God of the faithful and the God of the exiles.  In these days when anger and fear make up our global emotional climate, we trust a Father who whispers, “Don’t be afraid.”  Our life does not begin and end with deliberate, even erratic actions, of powerful people.  God’s scepter of justice holds them in check. 

Your people are written, prophetically, into these days.  Let us rise up to carry out the work of an ambassador with confidence and joy.  Amen

Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength.  Isaiah 40:30

In WWII, Japan surrendered to American forces and yet the news of the surrender took weeks and months to reach isolated Japanese garrisons.  Soldiers continued to fight.  Men continued to die.  Those who were ignorant of Japan’s surrender were caught in the ‘not yet’.

I have often been confused by the promises of God.  He is my healer.  Does that mean that I will never know a sick period?  He is my deliverer.  Does that mean that I will never know a season of oppression?  He is the God who avenges.  Does that mean that He will settle all scores on the heels of wrongdoing?  He is my strength.  Does that mean that I will never languish in seasons of weakness?  He is my shield.  Does that mean that I will never be wounded by fiery arrows?  He is my comfort.  Does that mean that I will never feel alone or forsaken?  I can get tripped up when I’m in a prolonged ‘not yet’ period.

Solomon said it another way in his well-known discourse.  “There is an appointed time for everything.  A time to give birth and a time to die; a time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted.  A time to kill and a time to heal; a time to tear down and a time to build up.”  Ecclesiastes 3

Without listening to God, I cannot guess which season I am in.  I can easily become an agent that works against God’s purposes.  I’ll try to preserve what God is dismantling.  I’ll try to bring something to a close when it’s ready to be launched into a new fruitfulness. I’ll comfort when I should exhort.  The Christian life is a faith-walk and we live against the backdrop of human need and impaired spiritual vision.  

Lord, you strengthen the fiber of my faith in the ‘not yet’.  I ‘know that I know’ that You will fulfill every promise when the time is right. Amen

“You are my witnesses,” declares the Lord, “and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he.  Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me.”  Isaiah 43:10

What is that that convinces me that God is God and there is no other God but Him?  Will someone else’s testimony do it?  Perhaps temporarily.  Will exhaustive study of the scriptures do it?  Not really, though study of the Word will be the doorway to my faith.  

The truth is ~ I must experience that ‘God is God and there is no other’ in my own life.  I can’t coast on secondhand faith, on the stories of my father and mother, on the narratives of past heroes of the faith.  God has to be larger than life to me!  How does that happen?  Only as I have need of Him.  Only as other gods leave me empty.  Only when stakes are high and impossible odds are staring me in the face will I look for God to move personal mountains.  When He does, the passion of my own testimony is born. 

A long life spent with Jesus has birthed many God-stories.  If you’ve gotten these devotionals over the course of years, you know some of them.  The more times He saved me, the more I was convinced of whom I believed.  The greater the deliverance, the more my faith grew.  And it’s a good thing.  The faith tests just get steeper and steeper the older I get.  What I trusted God for at 40 does not resemble what I have to trust God for today.  The way home to glory is an upward climb. 

The stunning thing about this scripture is that God chose me to be a witness to His power and glory.  Because I was hand-picked (as you were if you’re reading this), my personal story is being crafted to bring about great need.  There is mystery in all of this.  With every need, I might assume that there is a heavenly fix.  I can easily look to God to instantly repair everything that breaks.  Sometimes He does.  Sometimes, He defers the answer until glory.  What do I get in its place?  HIM!  Love, compassion, and grace.  And in this broken world, perhaps the latter is the strength of my witness.  I need God more than I need His power to fix the messes of my life.  The real dilemma always is this ~ when God withholds the breakthrough but gives me more of Himself, do I see Him as the greater gift?  

Yes. Amen

“For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground:  Isaiah 44:3

I’ve said goodbye to loved ones who are now in heaven.  My mother died when I was 30.  I never knew my grandfathers.  One grandmother passed away when I was 10 and the other when I was 25.  My Dad went home to heaven in 2003. And our son, Ryan, in 2019 on Father’s Day.  When you those you love have been nearby, and then they’re gone, the absence is both excruciating and disorienting before it can be comforting.

Think of Jesus’ mother, his disciples, and His friends, after He died.  Feeling His absence left a void the likes of which none of them had experienced before.  They didn’t just say goodbye to a son, or a parent, or a wife or husband; they said goodbye to God.  The One who was called Wisdom had walked with them.  The One who was called Love had consistently discerned their spiritual and physical needs.  The One who was called Counselor had spoken into their thoughts with perfectly crafted language.  When He announced that He was leaving, there was panic.  The caveat in this announcement, however, was the promise that He would come to them again in a much better way. 

It was only months later that Pentecost happened.  They got back the Spirit of the One they feared they had lost, and it was better.  He was right!  Instead of walking with Him on the roads of Judea, they were filled with His presence and took Him with them everywhere they went.  Instead of waiting their turn to speak with Him, His voice was inside, and His words were no longer for the masses; they were personal.  Daily, they were transformed by the incoming floods of Living Water. 

Oh Spirit of God, be poured out upon those who don’t have you or even want you.  Bring those dead in sin to living faith.  Be poured out to comfort those whose hearts are broken, to encourage those who are disillusioned with you.  Be poured out upon the dry bones of our lives, the places where the smell of death is still in the air.  Be poured out upon the Word which we know, the Word which has been preached to us, prayed over us, and yet has not taken root to change us.  Touch our barren landscapes with the promise of green.  We are the dry ground and You are the river.  Amen

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.   2 Corinthians 12:9

 Last night, I had quite a dream.  I was in a large auditorium.  It was packed with strangers but also sprinkled with people I recognized.  The best of my friends, even my parents, were there.  The program for the evening consisted of a full-length opera followed by a full-length concert tagged on at the end.  The artist on the program was me.  I had been asked to do the impossible; to sing and speak after people had already sat through a marathon length performance.

When the opera ended, the lighting on the massive stage began to diminish.  The elaborate sets were dimmed until they were barely visible.  What was left was a grand piano bathed with the glow of a lone spotlight.  I was aware of a holy calm as I climbed the stairs to the stage.  There had been no rehearsal and I had no particular program in mind.  I sat on the piano bench, thoughtful, eager to find opening words.  And then they came.  “There is a current of grace, God’s grace, and when you find it ~ you can ride it, not fight it, by picking up your feet to be carried effortlessly by the Spirit.”  The next hour flew. The concert became a holy benediction where we were all swept up into the current of His grace.  We were unaware of time, unaware of the changes that came over us through the Spirit’s influence.

For every performer, the stage is a life-long bedfellow.  As a young pianist, then flautist, then singer, then teacher, life on the stage is second nature.  Yet, along with it comes perpetual striving against the backdrop of spiritual immaturity.  Performance is always accompanied by reviews and one’s life can easily be summed up by a long collection of others’ opinions.  You were good or you were not.  You were talented or you were not.  You were a natural teacher or you were not.  You were biblically sound or you were not.  You were worth inviting back or you were not.

It’s oppressive.  Some time ago, I realized that somewhere along the way, my striving ended.  I learned how to find God’s current of grace on a stage, to think about those who were attending rather than myself, to think about tracking with God’s thoughts rather than my own.  The stage has become a platform to love others, to speak what they did not anticipate hearing, and to provide an environment where each can enter that sacred space where God speaks.

Writing a daily devotional is like taking the stage.  But this morning, as you read this, I hope that you will be caught up with me into the current, that you will pick up your feet and be taken into the heart of God where there is strength, peace, and transformation.

Jesus, let this current become so familiar and intoxicating that each of us will be startled when we put our feet down on the riverbed, only to find ourselves fighting against Your current.  Make us aware and discontented to live that way.  We are called to Your river to be baptized into what is otherworldly, the favor of Your love and the mission of Your kingdom.  Amen

Our people must learn to devote themselves to doing what is good, in order to provide for urgent needs and not live unproductive lives.  Titus 3:14

We have been urged, not only here at the end of Titus, but throughout our church experience, to do good to others and to help those in need.  The plights of the poor and the hungry are usually presented. Sometimes however, our ability to empathize and then take action is compromised by our own present pain.  May I suggest we look at it a different way?

Nothing motivates me to reach out to people more than to identify someone in the same kind of pain that I’ve experienced.  I understand them because I’ve lived their dilemma.  Where others might not notice that they walk with a limp, it’s so apparent to me.  All the signs flash red. 

Paul said in 2 Corinthians 1:3-5.  Here’s how Eugene Peterson put it in THE MESSAGE.  All praise to the God and Father of our Master, Jesus the Messiah! Father of all mercy! God of all healing counsel! He comes alongside us when we go through hard times, and before you know it, he brings us alongside someone else who is going through hard times so that we can be there for that person just as God was there for us. We have plenty of hard times that come from following the Messiah, but no more so than the good times of his healing comfort—we get a full measure of that, too.

The kind of pain that has made me feel so alone – someone else is experiencing.  The loneliness that accompanied that kind of suffering – also plagues them.  The spiritual questions I wrestled with God over – most likely eat at them too.  As I’m writing this, I’m coming out of my skin because, daily, I see the results of reaching out to you authentically through my own story.  I read a text, I ask God to reveal if there is any inner conflict regarding what I’ve read, and if so, I share it.  I have discovered that my struggle is our common struggle.  Your emails back, or Facebook comments, reassure me that the God of all Comfort has done it again.  He’s redeemed what is bitter and changed the nature of it to ‘bittersweet.’ 

Never did I see a greater example of this than after our son, Ryan, took his life 2 years ago.  Several months afterward, I was scheduled to teach the book of Esther at a conference center in Asheville, NC.  I wasn’t sure I would have the strength to go through with it, but God assured me He would help me.  Before the last session of the weekend, I shared briefly about our son’s death, the spiritual wrestling it was causing, but ultimately, the confidence I was feeling that God would redeem the darkest thing our family has walked through.  After it was over, the line of women waiting to talk with me was 2 ½ hours long.  Most every person was eager to share their own stories of a family or friend’s suicide.  Most had buried their words in shame and grief.  Not that day. 

As you read Titus’ last words from Paul’s letter, and as you think of the ‘urgent needs’ he describes, what comes to your mind?  What has been your greatest struggle?  What has been the issue that has nearly driven you to back up from God completely?  Link arms with me to let God change the nature of what has seemed like senseless pain.  God does not waste anything.  The darkest experience becomes our greatest platform.

This entire letter to Titus was instruction on how to set the church on track.  The end result would be a sound and healthy body, both theologically, and relationally, as God opened His people’s eyes to others.  Comfort would abound.  Trust in God would be recovered one person at a time. 

My pain, other’s gain.  My comfort, their comfort.  If I hide, others will languish for a word and find none.  Cover me with grace and fill me with hope.  Amen

As soon as I send Artemas or Tychicus to you, do your best to come to me at Nicopolis, because I have decided to winter there. Titus 3:12

It is always a mystery to me why some notable characters in the Bible take up chapters, not verses.  Tychicus is mentioned only five times in the New Testament, and only in partial verses.  Yet much more could have been written about him.  He was a friend to Paul, faithful in every way to represent Jesus in good times and in seasons of great pressure.  He proved to be  dependable no matter the circumstances.

• He traveled with Paul from Corinth to Jerusalem, never knowing if their ministry would prosper or if they would face persecution.  This didn’t deter him. 
• He stayed around during Paul’s first imprisonment and during his second.  We can be sure that Tychicus was watched, labeled as a disciple of Christ, and became a suspect of sorts.  This also didn’t deter him. 
• He was the one Paul chose to deliver the books of Ephesians and Colossians to their respective congregations.  In doing so, he was trusted to tell the story of Paul’s ministry and imprisonment in such a way that encouragement, not discouragement was the result. 

People’s hearts were strengthened to follow Jesus through his words.  How easily he could have presented Paul’s plight of imprisonment with fearful tones, causing other disciples to shrink back.  Even in this, he was faithful. 

Tychicus was also the one who accompanied Onesimus when he was returned to his owner.  He would have been an advocate, encouraging Philemon to receive his former slave.  That was dicey and required a spiritual finesse.  

So, what does Tychicus have to do with Titus?  Paul wanted Titus to come and visit him but for Titus to be able to leave Crete, an interim pastor had to be appointed to take oversee the church.  It couldn’t be just anyone with the church such a mess.  Tychicus was the man.

Finally, there is a passage in 2 Corinthians 8 where Paul describes an unnamed ‘brother’.  And with them we are sending our brother whom we have often tested and found earnest in many matters, but who is now more earnest than ever because of his great confidence in you.  Many commentators believe that this man is Tychicus.  Tested and found to be true.

If I read between the lines in the verses that describe this man, how easily he could have been proven to be an unfaithful friend.  He could have grown disillusioned with the life of discipleship, having seen Paul arrested.  He could have grown weary of the pace and lifestyle.  He could have been ambitious to assume Paul’s position of authority while Paul was in prison.  He could have sensationalized the stories of what it was like to accompany Paul in order to get attention from other believers.  He could have boasted of his friendship with someone as famous as Paul.  In all these things he was tested.  In all these things he was proven to be as gold.

In all these things, test me…that I will be found to be faithful to my friends.  Amen

Warn a divisive person once, and then warn them a second time. After that, have nothing to do with them. You may be sure that such people are warped and sinful; they are self-condemned.  Titus 3:10-11

Was Titus really supposed to tell a certain person in the church to cease causing divisions or he could lose the right to fellowship in the church?  That can sound so extreme.  What does this mean for us today?  Does it mean all kinds of divisive people? 

Divisive people are all around us.  They are often Christians, not Spirit-driven, but flesh driven. They thrive to find fault with others, to nit-pick over all kinds of issues.  Their negativity spreads like a cancer.  Argumentative people are attracted to them and what unfolds is a community of gossipers.  While this instigator should be confronted by church leadership, this is not the kind of person of whom Paul spoke.  This passage is not about a disgruntled believer who loves to complain and stir up trouble.   

The Greek word Paul used to identify this ‘divisive person’ was the same word for heretic.  It was the only time in scripture ‘heretic’ was used.  Paul knew of a certain man on the island of Crete who had turned against some of the fundamental teachings of the Gospel.  He re-fashioned his own brand of the Gospel to form a doctrine that had no foundation whatsoever in the Old or New Testament.  It was a doctrine conceived from his own heart and mind.  His audience consisted of immature believers and discontented souls who would follow him to the point of splitting off to form a rival church. Titus was to warn this heretic twice, and if there was not repentance, he was to have nothing to do with him.  The heretic was to be put outside the church lest he do more damage to God’s fragile flock who were not yet on solid footing. 

Let me be clear.  This was not related to the holy crusades in the Medieval church when heretics were arrested, tortured, and killed during the Inquisition.  God never sends church leaders out on a killing rampage. 

God loved His people on Crete and was the Shepherd of the sheep.  He knew how easily the early church could fracture under the influence of someone who did not treasure the Gospel.  False teaching would destroy their faith, a faith designed to anchor them to Jesus during a time of persecution.  God would have been a poor shepherd if He had allowed a heretic to destroy the body.  

This is comforting news for us!  We have a Heavenly Father who promises to lead us home safely.  That becomes quite impossible under the care of a false prophet.  God must clear our path and make a way for us to walk safely under the umbrella of sound teaching.  In this story of Titus and Paul, God made a way to deal with wolves who would foster instability. Sound doctrine tethers us to Jesus, the One who is Truth without compromise. 

Lord, if you label someone warped, sinful, and heretical, it is for my protection.  You see the heart and know what I cannot know.  Give me the courage to trust You when You label something dangerous. Amen

But avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law, because these are unprofitable and useless.  Titus 3:9

Our churches are presently divided about peripheral issues.  So strong are the opinions about things not even related to Jesus that one set of believers refuse to fellowship with others who disagree with them.  This is not new however.  Arguments amongst the believers on the island of Crete were so severe that Paul had to address it with Titus.  The points of contention were numerous.  In the end, he called them all of them ‘unprofitable and useless.’

I grew up in a culture where Christian books and articles were read with an interest to discern what was wrong with them.  They were not instruments for spiritual growth but fodder for correction and debate.  With red pen in hand, sections were starred, phrases circled, and when finished, became sermon points and/or the topics of a letter to the author or editor.  This culture still exists today. 

Conversations that focus on someone’s genealogy for the sake of boasting are also a waste of time.  Ancestry.com is interesting.  We all need to know where we come from; to know the good and the bad of our family lines.  But that’s not what Paul refers to here.  There were those who constantly reminded others that they were descendants of Abraham and, therefore, had more importance and authority than their Gentile brothers and sisters.  They acted as if their lineage trumped all others.  Not only was it mean, it was unbiblical. Whether I have Jewish roots, or I’m tied to European royalty, or I possess a name that links me to the early forefathers in our country, is immaterial.  What matters to God is whether I know Jesus and am a part of His family.  My spiritual adoption gave me a new lineage and this is the one trumps family trees. 

Quarrels about the law also abounded within Titus’ community.  False teachers put one burden after another on the shoulders of the new Gentile believers regarding Jewish laws.  These were fulfilled in Christ, voided by the blood of Jesus’ sacrifice, but you wouldn’t know it.  Think of the effect, emotionally, of such teaching.  A Gentile would feel like he couldn’t do enough to please a God who treasured Jews over Gentiles, A God who still enforced the burden of the law over the sufficient work of Jesus’ death and resurrection.

Believers who have not conquered the flesh, through the power offered to them by the Spirit of God, love these wranglings. These arguments profit nothing.  When Jude exhorted all believers to contend for the faith, he was not referencing the above.  In reality, Paul (and Titus) were the ones contending for the faith by silencing false teaching and exhorting believers who engaged in one argument after another to step up to higher things. 

I’m reviewing the topics that stir my blood and bring about passion.  If there are any that displease You, show me.  Amen

We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.  Titus 3:3-5

Jesus wasn’t afraid to come and live with people who were prone to hate.  He wasn’t put off by the messiness of human relationships.  He expected to encounter people who were threatened by each other, easily jealous even among family and friends, envying to the point of taking revenge.

Jesus wasn’t surprised by this.  He watched the effects of the Fall from the portals of heaven.  He saw Cain kill Abel.  He saw Noah’s fall from grace after leaving the ark.  He saw the progression of David’s sin with Bathsheba, from desire to full-blown adultery. None of this took him by surprise for He knew the hearts of men.  He also knew the nature and character of the Archangel Lucifer – the one who had been corrupted by his own beauty and had defected against His Father. Jesus understood how persuasively Satan could lure others to sin. No one and nothing was off limits.

If you’re jealous of someone, they probably know it.  Conjuring up a fake warmth that seems genuine is nearly impossible.  Your body language says it all, pointing at times to the reality of your inner sneer. Discontent and entitlement are the enemies of us all.  They lead us to want more than what we have and if someone else has it, we struggle to love them.  If another sibling has the coveted blessing of the parent who has slighted us, a brother or sister can become an enemy.  No relationship is safe from sin.

When Jesus came to live with us, He subjected Himself to all of this. The dread of what He might suffer didn’t prevent Him from coming to extend kindness instead of condemnation.

What You have done for me overwhelms me.  What You have done, for even my enemies, humbles me.  Amen