Grains of Sand

Last night I had a meeting with our ladies’ committee. We were planning a couple of upcoming events for the women of our church and the community. It’s a lot of work and if I had to do it myself…well, I probably wouldn’t. Our combined gifts and personalities make the improbable possible. Put them to work! In Exodus 18, Moses’ father-in-law confronts Moses about trying to do everything by himself. The issue wasn’t so much the workload that Moses was carrying but the responsibility that he had assumed that wasn’t his. People came to Moses to “ seek God’s will ” and to have Moses settle their disputes (18:15, 16, NIV). Jethro then gave his son-in-law some good advice: “ You must be the people’s representative before God and bring their disputes to him. Teach them the decrees and laws, and show them the way to live and the duties they are to perform ” (18:19, 20, NIV). The primary task of a spiritual leader is not to make decisions FOR people, but to teach them how to make good ...

Reading: Titus 1 Paul had left Titus with a daunting task.   The older apostle’s “ true son ” in the faith (1:4) had been assigned the job of appointing elders for all the towns that had been reached with the Gospel on the island of Crete. The trouble was, the Cretans didn’t have very good reputations (1:12) and that, unhappily, included some of those who claimed to be believers. The elders that Titus was looking for would be responsible for guiding the young churches and keeping heresy at bay—and it seems there was a lot of that going around that one little island! Choosing men of integrity was vital. The heresy and the hypocrisy would be challenges to Titus both in facing opposition to the Truth and in choosing men who met the standards for church leadership. From among those who had been, as Paul described it, “ liars, evil brutes and lazy gluttons, ” Titus had to find men who had been so transformed by the Spirit of God that they were now considered “blameless” by thos...