Past, Present and Future

         I spent a few moments “cruising” the internet this morning as I looked for some background information. The result was a tad shocking as I came across some web locations that were very negative towards Christians in general. A lot of the negative comments were due to a mixing of doctrines and situations that exist in the world today for all types of non Christian people. An atheist or a “sinner” is not going to view Christian values at all which was quite evident by the negative comments usually paired with bad language at the same time. My original search was for the time when the following passage of Scripture was incorporated into a children's ministry. Titus 2:11-13 says, “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,  Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;  Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;”

         The passage came into the courses about 20 years ago and became one of my favorite passages as it has the past, present and future present in it for people in the world today. In Paul's message to Titus, he emphasized here that the grace of god that brings salvation has appeared to all men. That's the past part as it shows that the Lord Jesus Christ came on the scene in a bodily form around 2,000 years ago. There are millions of people who know about Him in one way or another even if it is only in the writing of the date, which used to be A.D. And has now been changed to C.E. to try to get rid of Christ from history. Fortunately, The Lord Jesus Christ has appeared to “all” but not “all” have welcomed Him. Those who are more content to dwell in their sin will reject Him even from the beginning. You see, when you begin to follow Christ, you come to the next verse which says, “teaching us to deny ungodliness and worldly lust and to live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world. Now that is going to dramatically change your behavior, your goals and basically much of your life. A sinful people do not want that to happen so they reject the grace of God that has been revealed to them through the Lord Jesus Christ. The third part of the passage is the future as it relates how we look for the glorious appearing of our Great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. Believers truly look for His “glorious appearing.” It is one of the tests mentioned in First John for the believer (1 John 3:1-3). The above passage has meaning for our past, our present and our future. One of the most difficult parts of the passage is living out the present part. That is where we are supposedly progressing in our sanctification process. It is a daily matter with all of us as we seek to grow living soberly, righteously and Godly in this present world. This is where we might say, the rubber meets the road. So, Praise God today for the fact that He His grace has appeared to you and that you are growing day by day in His Word and that we are all waiting the glorious appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ.