NorMel House Devotions

Titus 3:5-6 “He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit , whom He poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior.” In today’s text, Paul speaks of the Holy Spirit's washing of rebirth and renewal. He isn’t referring to baptism, but rather to what baptism signifies. Spiritual rebirth of the soul is the God ordained transformation portrayed in baptism. We are washed in Christ’s blood, cleansed from sin and renewed by the Holy Spirit. This isn’t because of anything we’ve done, but, as 1 Peter 1:3 says, “Praise be to the God and Father of our LORD Jesus Christ! In His great mercy, He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” We are sanctified by the work of the Holy Spirit. God poured out the Holy Spirit on us through Jesus Christ. Spiritual Baptism is the pouring out of the Holy Spirit, and by Him, we a...

Titus 3:4-5a “But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, He saved us” If you know Paul's history, then you know that Paul was not always a servant and preacher of the gospel. Paul, formerly Saul, persecuted the Christians of his time, even putting many in prison. So, how did the persecutor become the preacher? Titus 3:4 gives us the answer; quite literally, "the kindness and love of God the Savior appeared." Saul went from persecutor to preacher, not because of anything he had done, but because Jesus came to him, and as our text says, "He saved us!" In Acts 9, we can read about Jesus' appearance to Paul, and in verse 20, it says, "At once he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God." The opposer became the opposed, again, not because of anything Paul did, but because God chose to reveal Himself to Paul through Christ Jesus. Jesus personifies God's kindness and love, and we can see a strong contrast between ...

Titus 3:1-2 “Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate and always to be gentle toward everyone.” As Christians we are part of two kingdoms but ultimately our allegiance first lies with God, our true King. Having said this, we are also required to be good citizens of our country on earth. We are not above the law but must be obedient to the ruling authorities that God has put in place. When and where our earthly authorities differ from God’s law, we must first be obedient to God. We must not allow the government to lead us astray or cause us to disobey God. If we look to the disciples, we can see that they only disobeyed the government in order to stay obedient to God. They did not do this lightly and many suffered, were beaten, threatened, thrown into jail or even executed for it. As Christians, we must study and understand what God requires of us in His law so we wil...

Titus 1:10 "For there are many rebellious people, full of meaningless talk and deception, especially those of the circumcision group." When people think of false doctrine, quite often they think it’s an obvious and easy thing to identify, however there are times when Satan likes to work in subtle ways. In the time of this letter to Titus, Paul knew that there were many that were teaching and preaching things that were false, however, these false teachers truly believed the doctrine they were preaching was correct. This is often the case with “rebellious people, mere talkers and deceivers”, so we must guard against this. This is a problem within the churches and therefore a big problem. The Bible gives us many warnings about those who profess to know the gospel but slip in falsehoods or their own rules and practices. In Matthew 24:24, Jesus says, “For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.” F...