Thursday 30th March - Titus 2

Today’s chapter is Titus 2

Tom writes:

Titus is a book about getting people to do good.  And people doing good comes through great teaching.  Paul repeats again and again that the purpose of life in this present age is to live in an increasingly good way. Am I doing more good this year than last year? Are you? If we want to grow in goodness then good teaching is what we need. That is why it is so great that you are reading the bible - a daily dose of the scriptures induces your heart to do good. So does sitting under good preaching. Good preaching is hopeful, helpful and humble. Humble in that it actually preaches the word. Helpful in that it addresses the concerns you really have. And hopeful because it focuses on God and his grace, rather than you and your dreams. Sitting under this kind of preaching means that you let it form you rather than you just sit there waiting for bits to “resonate” with what you are already thinking. I fear that we are losing this kind of preaching and this kind of listening in the ‘charismatic’ church today. 

Lots of preaching today feels under-prepared, stuffed full of stories and focused on a self-help kind of hope that we have copied from our culture. We tend to judge the preaching by the “way it makes us feel” rather than the “way it makes us live”. A battle needs to be fought, and won, for helpful, hopeful and humble preaching that actually causes people to live better lives. We need to keep hold of the creative and engaging things we’ve learned about how to make people feel good in our preaching. But we also need to put more work into preaching the bible as it actually is. We need to explore what teaching sound doctrines actually looks like in our house groups, on Sundays, in kids groups and in one-on-one conversations. That is the heart behind this project on the bible. I want us to learn from the book. To be purified by the Book. I want to learn how to engage with scripture in a way that changes my life, that makes me do good. Can I encourage you that by reading this stuff you are doing a great thing? You are playing a key role in the battle of our times. Keep on engaging with this book and wrestling with its truths. Commit yourself again to this great adventure of our faith; to know and teach the truths that help people become good.

Question for reflection

Are you listening to the Word in a way that makes you live differently?

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