Speaking Eternity

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Speaking Eternity

I have been studying these verses and trying to figure out what they mean:  “Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the faith of God's elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness, in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began and at the proper time manifested in his word through the preaching with which I have been entrusted by the command of God our Savior; To Titus, my true child in a common faith: Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.”  Titus 1:1-4.  So much packed into those verses.  My flesh gets jealous when I read something like this from Paul because I just want to, once in my life, write a sentence like that!  I can’t unpack all of that in our little blog, come this Sunday morning for the full attempt, but I would like to share one cool thing I learned.


Read this again, “promised before the ages began and at the proper time manifested in his word”.  If you were to guess that he was speaking about Jesus...then you would be right.  God, in eternity past, promised (think about who he made the promise to...his son) the truth and eternal life.  So Jesus came and gave us the truth and provided eternal life which gives us great hope.  It is the next line that struck me, “through the preaching with which I have been entrusted”.  Yes, Jesus fulfilled the promise and came.  Yes, he made known the truth,  Now watch this, Paul also understands that the blessing that he has been given to preach Jesus does the same thing.  It makes Jesus known in his time.  When Paul preached the gospel, he made Jesus known in the community he was preaching in.  When Paul preached, he brought eternity into his community.  No greater gift to give to our community.  This promise from ages past that promises eternity future was brought to people through Paul. One man shared that it is like when it is cold outside and we breathe.  We create this cloud of our breath.  When Paul preached he brought Jesus into that place just like that cloud of breath.


If you read those verses again you will notice that Paul is writing to Titus.  Titus was one of the young men that Paul was entrusting his ministry to.  He was passing the torch to Titus.  He was teaching him the truths of how he could speak eternity into his community.  Titus then taught others, who taught others, who eventually taught us.  We have been given the privilege of speaking eternity into where ever we are.  We get to bring Jesus into our place of business, into our neighborhoods, into our families, into where ever we decide to share the gospel.  Isn’t that cool?  When we speak the gospel, the eternal purposes of God are made known into that place.  What God chooses to do individually into the lives of people is up to him, but we speak eternal truths into those dark places.  We breath life and truth into places where life and truth are void.  We bring Jesus. If we keep our mouths quiet, then the lies prevail.


Have you ever heard a believer speak the gospel on a news cast?  They are being interviewed about the situation in Afghanistan, or some news event, and they begin to share the gospel.  Can you remember your reaction?  We become excited.  It is as if a ray of sunshine has penetrated the darkness.  Jesus has entered the room!  Truth is shining in the middle of all of the lies.  That is what happens when you are bold enough to preach the gospel by your life and by your words.  Like that cloud of breath shows the cold, you expose, even for a brief moment, the lies of destruction.  You speak the light of eternity.


One of the main reasons we stop sharing the gospel is that people do not seem to respond.  You are ignored or rejected and so you stop sharing.  But Paul understood that whom God saves is in His hands and Paul’s blessing was to simply make him known.  Paul loved speaking eternal truths into the lives of those he cared about.  People’s responses are God’s department.  Our role is to speak truth so as to shine light on to the lies. To bring light into darkness.  To bring eternity into the temporal. To make Jesus known.  You are not at work today, you are on the mission field.



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