Our Savior

We Worship God
A Guide for Worship Leaders:
Remembering Jesus Christ

Titus 3:1-7 (The Message)

He Put Our Lives Together
 ^1-2Remind 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. ^3-8It 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
"...hated and hated back."  It's true, we are some times caught in the whirlpool of hate, a downward spiral of retaliation which engrosses us and rots the soul.  There is more to life than the agony of self-centeredness apart from God.

Who among us will break these death spirals?  Who will take the first radical step and have the courage to say, "It stops here, right now, with me?"   Now that you know the saving grace that is God in Jesus Christ, only you can stop.  Love is contagious.

Pray
for wisdom to break the downward spirals of sin.  Pray for the courage to fight the instinct for retaliation.  Pray to listen to God inside you.  Pray for the courage to reject self and embrace God-centered agape.