So maybe you have been hearing and seeing of the news now 2 weeks after the earthquake in Haiti and you’ve thought “I should do something. I should send money. I should donate something.” Maybe you have spoken about it with someone close to you about the best way you could help. But then maybe life got busy again for you. Maybe your desire to think-through the best way to help has led you to do nothing because you’re just not sure if it will do any good. Afterall, you can’t give enough to make the pain all go away - so then why do anything at all?
Titus 2:3-5 says: “Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips, nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be dishonored.”
What always made me wonder when I read this passage from Scripture was, why did an older woman have to teach younger women how to love their husbands and children? Was this not a natural thing for women to do, that Paul would have to write this as instruction for Titus to teach the women?
Watch this amazing video featuring Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan from 1930:
Anne Sullivan must have been quite a woman of love, compassion & patience. How long must it have taken to teach and work with Helen Keller, a woman born blind and deaf?! Yet Anne Sullivan did not see someone disposable, but rather someone who had value and was worth spending her time and life with to teach and care for. Amazing!
Watching this video again brought to mind some things I have been thinking about recently. Discipleship takes time. Have you ever been working with someone to bring them along in their faith? This isn’t a one-time momentary thing is it? If you are the mature believer in a relationship with someone coming along in their walk with the Lord you have to be ready to committ your time and love to this person. Teaching someone to observe all the Jesus commanded (Matthew 28:19-20) doesn’t just happen on Sundays either.
The second part of the Bible is commonly known as the New Testament. This is a phrase that means the same thing as “New Covenant” in reference to the New Covenant that Jesus introduced and ratified with his blood. His disciples, who were Jewish, were surprised and awed at the idea that Gentiles would be able to partake of God’s promises to Abraham. But there were some Jewish Christians who insisted that Gentiles needed to keep the Law of Moses to be saved. Paul expounded in great detail about this in his epistles, declaring that the New Covenant which Jesus made has superseded the Old Covenant of the Mosaic Law which had been only a temporary measure.
I thought the following article by Jonathan Dodson was an excellent and practical outline for good tips for us to follow to keep us in situations where we can see God work to open up opportunites to preach the gospel and love people like Christ. The world we live in is pressing us to remain isolated, become distant from others, and communicate less face to face. It is easy for us to chat online, facebook with people halfway across the globe or even video chat - as long as we don’t have to be in the same room with a real person and have a real conversation!
“Love is the language Jesus spoke, and we are called to speak it so that we can converse with him. It is the food they eat in God’s new world, and we must acquire the taste for it here and now. It is the music God has written for all his creatures to sing, and we are called to learn it and practice it now so as to be ready when the conductor brings down his baton. It is the resurrection life, and the resurrected Jesus calls us to begin living it with him and for him right now. Love is at the very heart of the surprise of hope: people who truly hope as the resurrection encourages us to hope will be people enabled to love in a new way” - N.T. Wright, “Surprised by Hope” taken from Top Ten Excerpts by Raffi Shahinian
In Dunkin’ Donuts this morning,
an old lady wearing a tattered watch cap
started speaking to no one in particular.
“I can’t sleep at night.
I have pains in my chest all the time.
My leg hurts and my children do not love me.”
People waiting in line
hid in their cellphones, looked away
or stared straight ahead.
“I don’t know what to do.
I don’t know where to turn.
My husband died two years ago on the 27th.”
Everyone pretended she wasn’t there.
The girls behind the counter took the next customers.
The line inched forward.
At a side table, a beautiful young lady with matching purple scarf and hat
looked at the old woman and said, simply,
“Honey, please sit down with me,
and tell me your story.”
We find throughout the New Testament, sections which speak to how followers of Jesus Christ are to behave toward fellow believers or the attitudes which they should have or not have toward fellow disciples. Here is a list of some of these. The Christian walk can keep us quite busy. Of course, these things are all predicated on our love for God. The phrasing is from the KJV.
I was directed to this article by a friend, thought it’d be good to share. This is something I have seen a lot of in our churches and really want to push us to break the trend. It’s from a pastor’s blog for a church in Ireland (thus the lingo at times) :
I was sitting at a large table having a meal with 10 other people last week at a really cool, small intimate wedding. The seat I had was facing out through the nearby large old window looking towards the beautiful view of a lake with swans gently gliding by. It had been a busy week and I had been busy talking to those seated around me. I enjoyed the talk and banter that went on. But I found myself every now and then just being captivated by the view and silently drinking it all in. I’d love to say that I was having a real God moment for myself right there and then….but I wasn’t. I was just enjoying the view and the stillness of the lake.
Titus 2:3-5 says: “Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips, nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be dishonored.”