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The importance of faith cannot be overstated, but it must be placed in the truth. By definition, faith is a belief that endures in the face of doubt, and it includes trust and reliance. Therefore, as Paul confirms for Titus, it must be in someone who is faithful, truthful, and reliable. It must be in God – Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Faith allows us to access the Grace whereby we are saved from the price of our imperfections. Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.”

Is the Apostle Paul contradicting himself in these above two descriptions? Are works required or not? As always, we need to place these verses back into the context of where they were written. In both, Paul is telling us that Grace is what saves. Titus 3:7, “That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”

But once saving is experienced, a change in relationship with God requires the building of a divine nature within us, which is visible in our good works and words. Ephesians 2:10, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”

The journey begins with God’s mercy, manifests in our life as Grace, and lives in the way we follow Christ as part of His spiritual body on earth, the church. Titus 3:4-5, “But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;”

Faith allows us access to saving Grace, but saving Grace allows our faith to live through good works. James 2:18, “Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.”

This verse in some Bibles is titled, ‘the comfort of the believer in the day of the Lord’. The day of the Lord’s return is one step closer each time the sun rises, which should cause us to consider what manner of preparation we are undertaking.

Apostle Peter asked the same question. 2 Peter 3:11, “Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness.”

 The thread in both Peter’s message and Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians is the ‘Word of God’. Peter encourages us to use this word in our lives so that we have ‘holy conversations’ in our preparation. Paul underlines the need to hear the gospel truth (v14) as a calling first and then respond by believing in it. 2 Thessalonians 2:14 “Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Belief of the truth (Word of God) and sanctification of the spirit, according to Apostle Paul, allows salvation for our soul. With the comfort of this knowledge and the confidence of faith in its surety, we can then journey calmly to the Lord’s return without fear.

2 Thessalonians 3:5, “And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ.”

This greeting to a loved Christian brother at the beginning of John’s third epistle, highlights the two treasures required for community fellowship, LOVE and TRUTH.

The Apostle John continues in the remainder of the letter to identify what is seen when those two precious stones are missing or overwritten by natural desires.

Love and truth are indeed like precious jewels in our lives, and as time moves on, they seem to be getting rarer and rarer in our western society. We have the God given ability, as Gaius did, to make sure those treasures are valued and visible within our daily interactions.

Recently I witnessed a brother who works with precious gems showing and describing the process of taking raw stones and highlighting their natural beauty in jewellery. Love and truth also require cutting, polishing, and shining within our lives so they can be appreciated by others. They must first be sought out amongst all of the distractions of modern life.

Jesus Christ was the epitome of love and truth in His life upon this earth. Those traits which were so precious in Him, were also visible to those around Him in His words and actions and we are still beneficiaries of their effects today.

Love was required for a perfect God to lay down His life for imperfect mankind.  The result being His unmerited favour as Saving Grace for all.

John 1:14, “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”

As the spiritual body of Christ on earth, let us endeavour to shine forth those treasures of love and truth to those around us.

At the start of each New Year of Grace many people make plans and resolutions in order to achieve gain in their life. Logically, the ‘gain’ we desire shapes the goals we set and the actions we take to achieve them.

The Apostle Paul gave sound advice (above) on this matter to Timothy and all who laboured in his time. He reminds us that we ‘brought nothing into this world and we can carry nothing out’ (V7) but our passing from this life must be prepared for during this life. There is no greater gain than our soul’s salvation to eternal life. We sing, ‘the sky not the grave is our goal’ or as Apostle Paul also puts it, “While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:18).

Our contentment in this life is not dependent on the ‘things’ we have but upon the peace and joy within our life, which can only truly come from access to godliness.

Global changes have caused us all to reflect a little more upon life and its purpose. On a recent family gathering at a seaside location, I saw the following sign outside a coffee shop:

“Good health is the new wealth,

Gratitude is the new attitude.”

All good gifts in our life come from the loving, Heavenly Father. Let us all seek His blessings and therewith be content.

We read in our text our Lord’s words “Doubt not” and this should lead us to ponder on what doubting means. If we take the dictionary, we find that it is a state of mind, that hangs between two contradictory conclusions, or in simple terms, a place where we park in our mind, at a T junction, before we continue our journey one way or another. In the spiritual sense, we see clearly then why the Lord said we should avoid this stop, particularly when it pertains to our desire to follow His words and commandments. If we allow ourselves to doubt and pause in our quest, Satan is immediately there, and because of the doubt, we can then have a battle on our hands.

In the natural we have all experienced how, if we set out to do something and then doubt our ability to see it through, we usually fail. How often on T.V. have we seen a sportsman or woman about to perform a high jump or weight lift, and at the last minute, doubt appears in their eyes and they usually fail. The downfall of man and woman had its origin in doubt and we read in Genesis 2:17 God’s Commandment, “But of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest there of, thou shalt surely die.” While Adam and Eve had no doubt in God’s words, they lived under God’s blessings, but when Satan came to Eve and put an alternate view to her in Genesis 3:5 “For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as Gods, knowing good and evil.” Because of the doubt shown by Eve, Satan was able to lead them to disobedience to God’s words.

The consequence of allowing doubt to creep into our faith in Christ, is shown in many parts of the Bible. One of these graphic examples is when the Apostles saw Christ walking on the water   and Peter asked the Lord “to bid me come to thee”, and the Lord commanded “come”.   Peter did not doubt that single word and walked on the water toward Christ, but when the weather became boisterous and in Peter’s mind he paused and let doubt in, then he sank and called to the Lord to save him. Christ’s words should ring clear to us even to-day; “0 thou of little faith, wherefore dids’t thou doubt?”

In our daily life, both natural and spiritual, we are confronted daily with happenings and teachings which require us to try the situation, we call on our common sense to test the natural things and we should call on God’s spirit within us, to test the spiritual to see if they are possible in the natural and from God’s word in the spiritual. Once we have determined these things, our faith should then take over and we should proceed. It is only when doubt is allowed to come to the fore, that we are deviated, which usually leads to failing and unhappiness.

Having seen the downside of doubt, we should take heart from our Lord’s promises in our text, if we can overcome doubt in our lives, we can see the great blessings that can flow. Christ likened the trials and tests that come into our lives as mountains, (mountains of cares, etc.) but He promised that if we have faith in Him, and doubt not, we can command that those mountains be removed and cast into the sea. And His further promise that all things asked in His name in prayer, doubting not, ye shall receive.

To help us overcome this doubt in our lives, God has given us His Spirit. The Apostle John writes in 1 John 5:4-5 “For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world, and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith, who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?” If we can all devote some   time to overcome “doubt” in our lives, we will appreciate and taste more and more, the blessings of God.

The text shows a turning point which was always in God’s plan. The Apostles of our Lord, who went up into the mountain witnessed and were shown a vision, which confirmed what our Lord had been teaching them, but they had not understood. As He was speaking to them, He was transfigured and shown to be in His heavenly glorious form before them, radiantly white. The scripture in another place says it was whiter than anything that could have been produced on this earth. So bright and white was the righteousness of Christ, that His disciples could not look upon Him.

They saw that He was speaking with Moses and Elijah. It is recorded they were speaking about the events that He had to go through in fulfilling that period of time, to allow a new period to begin. Our Lord had told His disciples that the law and the prophets were to John the Baptist, and from that point, the Kingdom of God would be preached. They did not understand because they were of the Jewish Faith and they believed that the Messiah would come and the Kingdom of God would begin. They witnessed and saw the three together. We have heard how a bright cloud came over this mountain and surrounded them. There are very few occasions in the scripture where it is recorded that God came directly from Heaven, for man cannot look upon God and live, for the glory of God is so great, but He sent His glory to overshadow them. We see that mortal men had to fall on their faces, for they could not look upon the glory of God and live.

God gave unto us on that day, the most profound message in a few words. He said, “This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.” He confirmed that Jesus His Son and He was able to stand in the presence of God and live, which showed that He was indeed the Son of God. Then God gave direct to the world, that great commandment, the three words that if only we could cling to in this life, we would not need to know and search any other things within our lives. “Hear ye Him.” An instruction that we now needed to listen and hear what the Son of God had to say and the message He had to bring for the Messiah had been rejected, and now there was a period of preparation for the Kingdom of  God for all, and this preparation would come through the Word of God, and so fulfilled what Christ had said. The scripture records the Apostle Peter in his enthusiasm, did not realise what he was saying. He said to the Lord, – Let us build three tabernacles; one to Thee, one to Moses and one to Elias. The tradition in those days was that these tabernacles were like an altar, where people who passed by, could kneel down and remember a great event and give thanks unto the Almighty God. When he looked, the only one standing there, was our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and so fulfilled God’s promise through Christ, that the laws which came through Moses, would be fulfilled. The guidance that came through the prophets, who were responsible to bring God’s word to this earth were to end. Now Christ and He alone, would bring about the way to the kingdom of God. The law and the prophets were now finished, and Christ’s word that the Kingdom of God shall be preached, was now to begin. He told them to tell no man of this until He had resurrected from the grave. This was His first teaching — the resurrection. We know that Christ went into the grave as the son of man, for on the cross He became an ordinary man when He took the sins of the world upon Himself, and through the power of the Holy Spirit, He came out of the grave as the Son of God. Now this promise could be given to the world for all mankind that heeded His word.

It is very easy for us to say that we accept Christ’s words. Hear ye Him was the instruction. We in our life say that we accept His word, but — Do we? Do we sort them out and accept those that are pleasing and fit in with our life style? Do we reject those that we think do not fit in with our life style? Hear ye Him was the commandment, hear every word. To take it further, His Words when He said to the Apostles and sent them into the world, “He that heareth you, heareth Me.” The Holy Ghost brings to our remembrance all His words. We must strive at all times to not only be the hearers, but also the doers of His Words as we work towards the coming Kingdom.

We see in this text the first words given to the Apostle John were fear not, fear not for I am the first and the last, I am He that was living and was dead and am now living, and I have the keys of hell and death. Now that fear that our Lord spoke of before this came to pass, that fear of fearing God, for He had the power to not only take our bodies, but our souls in hell, that fear now was no more for the believer, for everyone that believes that our Lord came into the world, and He was the first and He will be the last, and that He has the keys of hell and death. No longer should we fear but we should reverence God’s name and give thanksgiving unto the Almighty God at all time, that He has given to the world this great gift, this gift where one has made a sacrifice great enough to overcome that power of hell and death.

It is only our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who holds those keys, and if we live according to His teaching, those keys He has already said they will be coupled with other keys. He had already said to His Apostles that He gives unto them the keys to the kingdom of heaven. They were not the keys to hell or death, they do not have that power that is only vested in our Lord. But the keys that He gave His Apostles were the Word of God, the gospel of salvation, the keys that open our heart and allow His word to enter in and increase our faith so that we understand that now as we leave this life, whether it is a natural death or whether it is a forced death, we do not fear, for we know that death has been overcome and there will be a resurrection again. Death is only the temporary ending of this body, but it will rise again when our Lord returns.

We should not fear hell for hell is the place of going to wait for judgment and for us in the Christian Church, judgment is with us each day of our lives, that is why we are taught that, that is one of the commissions of the Apostles to preach repentance and remission. We can now in sincerity, repent for our sins, we can receive remission of our sins through the partaking of the body and blood of Christ and through that, we no longer have to answer for that sin. Even all of those sins that are committed, as the Lord said in the quietness of the night, those things that we do when we think others cannot hear them. If we do not recognize them as sins, then they will be broadcast out on the day our Lord returns, but if we are sincere and we are humble and meek and recognize that we are sinners, we can have those taken away from us and therefore then there will be no need for judgment, for we have already judged ourselves unworthy and been given the remission  or the righteousness of Christ, to make ourselves worthy so that we can stand before this glorified Christ and look unto the blessings that He will bring unto us when He returns.

Now all of this is only made possible through the teachings of the Holy Spirit, for the Holy Spirit has been sent into the world to give us this guidance and this teaching and it was already foretold many, many years ago that this would happen and we today are blessed that we live in this period of time when the Holy Spirit labours through flesh and can give us that hope, can give us  that understanding so that we in our lives, can make this preparation. The Psalmist already wrote of this preparation in Psalm 34:11 “Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the Lord. What man is he that desireth life, and liveth many days, that he may see good? Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile. Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it. The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry. The face of the Lord is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth. The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth, and delivered them out of all their troubles. The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the Lord delivered him out of them all. He keepeth all his bones: not one of them is broken. Evil shall slay the wicked: and they that hate the righteous shall be desolate. The Lord redeemed the soul of his servants: and none of them that trust in him shall be desolate.” 

We see the great promise foretold those many years ago. We must hold fast to these promises of God, remembering His words, “I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last.”