Jacobs Thoughts and Doings

The last roses of Summer are among my favorites. This modest one glows with a soft inner beauty.  It will soon drop as Winter sets in. I will carry this warm and tender blossom in my head and heart as the temps plunge!

Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ to further the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness—in the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time, and which now at his appointed season he has brought to light through the preaching entrusted to me by the command of God our Savior, To Titus, my true son in our common faith: Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.

Titus 1:1-4

Who is this Titus?   We just studied the letter of Jude (meaning “Jew”) and now we have before us a letter written by a man named Titus, a rather common Roman name.

We know that Titus and Paul were very close brothers who worked together to further the Gospel and to make it clear that Christ’s salvation is for all nations, tribes, cultures and so on.  The fact that Paul and Titus were fellow laborers and very close friends angered the traditional Jews because Titus was never circumcised to make him, so to speak, a Jew. Paul resisted the pressure to have Titus circumcised.  I recall that Paul, earlier on, insisted on having Timothy, whose mother and grandmother were Jews, to be circumcised.  I am convinced that Paul encouraged that because he wanted Timothy to be an example for all Jews.  Now, he is against having Titus undergo the Jewish rite.

As I see it, Paul believes that the Gospel is for all peoples, and they can come into the fullness of God’s salvation directly, without any regard for Judaism.  As churches were planted all around the Mediterranean Sea, non-Jews flowed into their fellowships.  Paul knew that the same salvation was just as much available to them as to the Jews.

The belief that many of the Jewish Christians at the time was that the proper way was to become a Jew and a believer.  That mold is now being broken by Paul and Titus is an example of the fact.

I believe that many believers of Jewish background were astounded that Paul could write, Titus, my true son in our common faith.  I am impressed with the word, son, a true son, not a second-class one.  This is possible because they, Paul and Titus, had a common faith.  That made them brothers in the faith, a law-abiding Jew and a Gentile in every sense of the word.

Today the Jewish element in the church is important but minimal.  The truth stands – all believers are true sons of God in our common faith.  This common faith is not a common culture.  It is new kingdom on the earth, the Kingdom of God that supersedes all human loyalties.  That is the power of the Gospel.

So Titus and Paul shared the Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.  Brothers made so by the Blood of Christ, their elder brother!

Our salmon colored iris waits until Fall to bloom.  Its beauty is striking. I find the blend of color, line and form outstanding in this flower that defies all by blooming just before the Winter freeze.

Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever, Amen.

Matthew 6:13

Come to think of it, I probably prayed this prayer more than any other in my life.   Further, did I ever really try to understand what the Lord Jesus taught us to pray, as clearly expressed in this prayer?  The prayer opens with the plea, “Thy kingdom come,”  and closes with “Thine is the kingdom.” We might say, “God’s kingdom is here!”  It has come.

As I grow older, I think more often of the difference between the kingdom of God and the kingdoms of this world.  I am now 88 years old and I have read and pondered Biblical teaching quite often, especially now as the nation in which I live, this “kingdom,” so to speak, is going through an election. The air is full of it.

Now, I believe it is important for all of the followers of the Lamb in this nation to pray again the Lord’s prayer and to actualize it in life.  The prayer opens with the request, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”  “In heaven.”  As my mind goes to the heavenlies, I see no nations there.  Only one King over all.  Only one language. One song of praise.  One blessed salvation.  And so forth.   Where are the earthly powers, our earthly “kingdoms?”  They are not there, not at all.  Saved people are there from all nations and languages.

Jesus’ prayer begins with, Thy kingdom come and ends with the words Thine is the kingdom.  The entire prayer is based on this reality.  As people who are born again of the Spirit of God, our loyalties have shifted to Jesus Christ, to the kingdom he is building.  We live in the passing kingdoms of this world but our citizenship is in the kingdom that will be there when all kingdoms of this world perish.

If we keep this in mind, always, we find ourselves pulled more and more to Jesus and his kingdom while acknowledging that temporary kingdoms do serve a purpose, but quite limited, in the long run.

The kingdom in which we live is forever.  Heaven gives us a little insight into that.

Lord, may we know how to live in our frail earthly kingdoms while we know that only your powerful kingdom is forever, and ever.  Amen.

I find this picture of a milkweed spreading its seeds as far and wide as it can, growing in our yard, is a reminder of the way goodness spreads. Every fiber in the plant is contributing to what it has been building up to do for weeks – spreading seed on delicate parachutes.  I am amazed.  The white fluffs here are really aids to carry the seeds high over trees and houses, to who knows where?  I cherish the thought. Each seed is like a kindness.

Evan, son of Paul and Tammy, puts himself completely into his running!  I see in this shot his spread right hand, like paddling the air to provide even more forward motion.  And look at that brow. This is concentration!  We need to have this determination to run the race of life, don’t you think?

To the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.

Jude 25

In our day we see almost no benedictions or blessings like this.  When have I finished a letter, standard or email, with a closing like this?  Probably never.

Yet, how very fitting.  Jude bares his heart about the danger of moving Jesus to the periphery of life and putting self or something else in the center.  The warning is strong, indeed.  Then comes this reassuring, warming, comforting word, a true benediction.  Jude asks. who deserves to receive glory, majesty, power and authority?  Any human being, dead or alive?  The most admired people in our cultures? Any nation?  Any philosophy or world-view?  Or is this all just a play on words?  Only a hope, not a reality?  None of the above.

In my culture it is hard to imagine the possibility of anyone who has this glory, majesty, power and authority.  The idea is preposterous. I think my culture has lost the ability to even begin to think in these terms.  We have settled into a relativity that excludes such unthinkable terms. The world, our culture holds (the physical world and the world of people) has no meaning at all, there is nothing transcendent to cast any light at all on life as we know it.  We walk around blind.

That is exactly what makes believers different from the cultures we live in.  We do know that God almighty is our Savior who earned our salvation at great cost to him, and that salvation in his name is now available to anyone who believes and abides in Him.  That free salvation is the door into God’s heart.

As we receive it and look upon the One who earned it for us, our hearts well up in real heart-felt gratitude, for He alone merits glory, majesty, power and authority.  If we really believe that and reorient our lives around that reality, we burst free from the bondage of lostness in which unbelievers move about as blind.  That is what makes us believers different – we know the actual heavenly Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  They are alive in our lives, right now.  We not only embrace Him but sing a song of eternal praise, joining all those who love Jesus Christ with all their hearts, now and evermore.

Every Fall I admire, once again, the purple beans that brighten the day, outside our window. They are not for eating, but for soul-food.  Their beauty is stunning!

To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy.  Jude 24

Without fault.  Me?  How can that be?  I need moment by moment cleansing, of that I am sure because I am faulty.  I can not possibly declare myself without fault, not for a moment.  So what is the Spirit of the Lord trying to say to me?   I believe I hear him say that I am no mystery to Him. He knows me through and through, all of me.  The truth is, because I am living in constant cleansing as his child being saved, he sees me covered, not by my own self-made virtues but by the Blood of Jesus, the perfect Sacrifice.  I may never, never forget that.  Jesus sees me covered by Christ’s righteousness.  Were he to see me without Christ, what hope would I have?

Of course I try, desperately, to live a faultless life, every moment of every day.  But that does not earn my salvation, it simply announces that I am a repentant sheep in God’s saved flock and I love the Shepherd of my soul so dearly that I want to do his will to the best of my ability. My hope is not in my obedience, but in the saving power of God. My obedience is but a sign that I love my Shepherd!  My life is a thank offering, pure and simple.

It is on the basis of that amazing, comforting fact that I can break out with full-throated praise, as Jude says, with great joy because my joy is based on the fact that God loves me and protects me every hour of every day.  I am saved by his sacrifice, not by my striving to do good. I will ever keep all that in my heart and mind, ever.  May God help me to do so.

I love Jude’s words, his glorious presence.  I and you live in God’s presence, his glorious presence.  There is no distance between God and his saved ones.  They are unspeakably close. So, let us praise our Maker, our Savior, our Friend and our eternal Hope, now and ever more.

Anna Ruth brought home some dramatic gourds.  I enjoyed photographing the arrangement on our kitchen table.  Nice, don’t you think?  And so seasonal.