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Studies In Titus
Contributed by Glenn Pease on Apr 5, 2021 (message contributor)
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1. Titus The Trouble Shooter
Contributed on Apr 5, 2021
No where do we find the Apostle Paul so troubled and restless that he cannot stand still and preach the Gospel. He had to hear from Titus, and until he did he could not concentrate on his ministry. This is the only record we have of Paul failing to go through an open door.
Somebody has to do the dirty work in life, and so all leaders need men who are trouble shooters. George Washington needed one when Benedict Arnold betrayed the colonies and escaped to the British forces. Washington was angry and was determined to get him back. He choose Sargent Major John Champe ...read more
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2. Hope
Contributed on Apr 5, 2021
How can you tell if a Christian is exercising this living hope? They will be expecting good to come out of all circumstances. They will be focusing on the best and not the worst. They will seeking for ways to do instead of grumbling about what can't be done.
Billy Graham in his book Hope For The Troubled Heart tells the story of the lone survivor of a shipwreck who was marooned on an uninhabited island. He managed to build a hut in which he put everything he had saved from the wreck. He prayed to God for rescue as he daily scanned the horizon for a ...read more
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3. Faith Builders
Contributed on Apr 5, 2021
Paul begins this letter to Titus by making it clear that he is a servant of God and an Apostle of Jesus Christ for the purpose of increasing the faith of God's people.
Jerold Kennedy, the great Methodist preacher, was surprised to learn of the new business called Proxy Pickets. If you want to protest and picket a place, but it would not be convenient for you, and would break into your routine, for a price they will do it for you. They will send pickets to march ...read more
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4. Faith And Knowledge
Contributed on Apr 5, 2021
Faith and knowledge go together, for you have to have some basis for faith. Faith is trust in somebody or something, and you have to have knowledge of persons or truth in order to trust them.
Over the years I have read the mail of many people. It is because it is because I buy a lot of old books and people leave letters and postcards in these old books. Seldom have I found anything worth reading, but the fact is, much of the best reading in history is found in reading other ...read more
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5. The Beauty Of Order
Contributed on Apr 5, 2021
Christians are to be admired because they add order, and in so doing add beauty and harmony to the church and the state, and every other group they belong to.
Paul Aurandt tells of how even the disorders of life can sometimes be a blessing. Only hours after Pearl Harbor the Japanese went after the Philippine Islands. American and Philippine troops were taken by surprise and had to retreat to the Bataan Peninsula. These brave troops became famous for ...read more
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6. Self-Control Is The Key
Contributed on Apr 5, 2021
The point that Paul stresses is that a Christian leader is to be one who has a great deal of self-control so that he does not let his actions or emotions go to extremes. He does not dominate, lose his temper, or go off on a binge of drinking to escape the pressures of life.
Gigi is Billy Graham's daughter, and she writes about one of those days she wishes she could wiped off the calendar. It all started with an experience some of you have had. It was flood damage to their house. The carpet men were there replacing the water ruined carpet. She was trying to do ...read more
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7. Positive Leadership
Contributed on Apr 5, 2021
A leader is not content just to be a Christian. He wants to be a good Christian, and the best Christian he can be. They put forth effort in order to grow. They are ever reaching up to find better ways to apply God's Word in their lives.
Late one night in Philadelphia and elderly couple came into a little third class motel. The husband said to the night clerk, "Please don't tell us you don't have a room. My wife and I have been all over the city looking for a place to stay. We didn't know about the big ...read more
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8. Excellence Excludes Excess
Contributed on Apr 5, 2021
Paul says this is what Christian leaders are to be. They are not to be people who get captured by the culture, or by circumstances. They are to be people who are stable and consistent in their commitments regardless of changes in life.
As I read Barbara Shields book Winners-Women And The Nobel Prize, I was so impressed by the life and leadership of Agnes Gunxha, better known as Mother Teresa. As I read of her life and ministry I kept seeing her fulfilling the requirements that Paul lays down for one to be an elder, or leader, in ...read more
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9. Christian Excellence
Contributed on Apr 5, 2021
What we see in this letter of Titus is that Paul was committed to excellence. The goal of God is not just to get His Son a bride, but to get Him a bride who is without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing. In other words, the goal of God is always perfection.
For some unknown reason a sculptor hacked an 18 foot high piece of marble into an awkward shape, and then left it unfinished to lay in a Cathedral courtyard in Florence, Italy. For about a hundred years it laid there until Sept. of 1501. The damaged block had been offered to other sculptors, but ...read more
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10. To The Pure All Is Pure
Contributed on Apr 5, 2021
The pure live life based on this sound doctrine: If God made it, it is good. If God approves it, it is good. If God recommends it, it is good. If God commands it, it is good. This means that even in this fallen world so corrupted by sin the vast majority of reality is still pure.
A sophisticated social leader was expecting a large group of friends at her home one evening. Knowing her husbands habit of using guests towels indiscriminately when he came home from the office, she put a note on the ones she put out for the occasion. It read, "If you use one of these ...read more
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11. Sound Doctrine
Contributed on Apr 5, 2021
The stability of the church depends on the leaderships commitment to the Word of God. The orthodox doctrines, or teachings that come from Christ and his Apostles is the foundation that can never change.
Rusty Stevens, a Navigator Director, tells this story. He was pushing the lawn mower around his yard trying to get done before supper was on the table. His 6 year old son Mikey came out and stepped in front of him, grabbed the handle of the mower and started to push. The father quit pushing and ...read more
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12. Culture Conformed Christians
Contributed on Apr 5, 2021
Thank God everyday that the President and Congress cannot tell any American how they are to worship, and what they are to believe. This is one of the greatest freedoms of life, and most people in history have never enjoyed it.
An insurance adjuster tells of a life policy taken out in the name of Abraham Brown in a small southern town. For five years the insurance company received the premiums when they were due. Then all of a sudden they stopped without warning. The company sent several notices and then finally there ...read more
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13. Christian Education Of Women
Contributed on Apr 5, 2021
love is not how you feel or dream, but it is what you do. Love chooses, and love acts, and the loving choices in acts can be learned. The trained Christian is one who can ask in any situation in life, "What is the loving thing to do in this situation?"
Janette George played the role of Corrie Ten Boom in the movie The Hiding Place. She wrote an interesting book called Travel Tips For The Reluctant Traveler. In it she tells of her 35th birthday. That was the year she finally accepted the fact that she would never play Peter Pan. But she expected ...read more
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14. Christian Education
Contributed on Apr 5, 2021
Severe suffering will cause most Christians to go through some sort of conflict like this, and that is why Christians need to be taught to have sound endurance. This is the ability to not give up, but to hang in there and do the will of God even when it does not seem to pay off.
One of the most remarkable stories in the history of horse training is that of the horse named Snow Man. There is an old verse that jockeys supposedly whisper into the horses ear before a race: Roses are red, Violets are blue. Horses that lose Are made into glue. Snow Man apparently heard this ...read more