Rebirth and Renewal by Water and Spirit

God Loves Us
God's Caring, Saving, and Upholding Love

God's Saving Love in Christ

Titus 3:1-8 The Message

He Put Our Lives Together

3 1-2 Remind the people to respect the government and be law-abiding, always ready to lend a helping hand. No insults, no fights. God’s people should be bighearted and courteous.
3-8 It wasn’t so long ago that we ourselves were stupid and stubborn, dupes of sin, ordered every which way by our glands, going around with a chip on our shoulder, hated and hating back. But when God, our kind and loving Savior God, stepped in, he saved us from all that. It was all his doing; we had nothing to do with it. He gave us a good bath, and we came out of it new people, washed inside and out by the Holy Spirit. Our Savior Jesus poured out new life so generously. God’s gift has restored our relationship with him and given us back our lives. And there’s more life to come—an eternity of life! You can count on this.

For Reflection

God gave us God's son so that we might know God and through the life and resurrection of Christ know our human potential as children of God.     We are meant to judge ourselves by the example of Jesus. We have not been set up to be the judge and jury of others. Being in a right relationship with God is our salvation, not our good works or our pious talk.

We honor that relationship by being obedient to God.  Civil strife is a fact of life but we cannot expect that we are sent into to condemn and fix others.  We are to be kind and loving and transformed by our faith.  Our lives should reflect the grace that God has shown to us.  We might act out in opposition or in concert with our civil lives, but as we discovered by studying the actions of the Jewish religious leaders, one cannot legislate righteousness.  Righteousness comes from the spirit which resides withing us.

Remember this Palm Sunday that Jesus road in as a spiritual king not as a civil king.


Pray

Pray that you will live a life as God intended;  living in peace. live in freedom from civil conformity, live kind lives, live merciful lives, live obedient lives, live as a child of God.  Pray that you will have faith and confidence that God will provide all things. Pray that you will trust God to put all things right.