True Woman - the Beauty of Holiness pt 2

Continuing my devotion from yesterday as the whole household is still quiet. :)

I felt like my devotion was very incomplete yesterday.

I really liked how Nancy put it (when talking about women, christians and holiness).

He washed us with the renewing of regeneration of the Holy Spirit, whom He richly poured out on us through Jesus Christ, (paraphrase, verses 5 - 6). He saved us! Saved us from what? From sin, from impurity, from debauchery, from decadence, from our flesh, from being slaves to various passions and pleasures.

Those who belong to Christ have been saved. They've been rescued from that impure life. They've been set free from sin. They are different than those who don't follow Christ, and the difference should be obvious to everyone.

This is the thing that has so struck me about the book of Titus as I've been meditating on the whole three chapters—the context of the passage we're studying in Titus two—is the stark contrast between those who follow Christ and those who don't. That's the way it's supposed to be. There's supposed to be a stark contrast.

It shouldn't be difficult for people to know whether someone is really a Christian. The unbelieving world is characterized by impurity, and believers of Christ are supposed to be pure.

Chapter 2, verse 14 of Titus says that Christ, “Gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness.” How much? All lawlessness, “and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.”

We are saved from having to...being enslaved to..being forced to .... live a life of impurity. Consider that for a moment. Consider that Easter has just passed. Christ died to save me from sin. From being forced to live in a way that doesn't please God one bit.

My life should be remarkably different from the world around me simply because God is the reason for my existence. I know it, he knows it, and my life should reflect that reality.

We are to be pure, a holy people, set apart, different from the world. Our job is simple....make the God that we serve look good. Anything else is self-serving and idolatrous. If we believe in God we make him look good. We are to glorify him in EVERYTHING that we do, whether we are at home or away. Whether we are in church or at home or at work or wherever.

How are you doing at your 'job' as a Christian?

How can you answer these questions that Nancy puts to us?

• Do you have eyes that are wide open to everyone else's sin but too proud to see the defects in your own life?
• Are you able to be entertained by that which is unholy, to laugh at it, to enjoy it?
• What kind of tolerance level do you have for things that are impure? Do you tolerate a little bit of it?
• What kind of people do you gravitate toward? We see David in the Psalms saying, “I'm drawn to people who have pure hearts. That's who I want to be around.”
• Are you drawn to people whose hearts are pure, or are you drawn to those whose conversation and their lifestyle are coarse or off-color or perverse?
• Again, equally important, what kind of people gravitate towards you? Do coarse and perverse people feel comfortable telling their stories around you, and if so, you might want to ask, why?

Are you ready to be that pure, holy bride of Christ? Have you made yourself ready for him?

The question to me is....how will I change to become more of the person that God has called me to be? Am I really willing to have myself changed all the more for him?

Ah Lord God...make me that person I want to be:

⁹But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. ¹⁰ Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

(from 1 Peter 2) Let me be that called out person who proclaims your glories!

Amen.