One of my
favorite preachers is Alistair Begg on Truth
for Life. He has admonished all Christians to read the Book of Titus for 30
days and then we will better understand what is expected of us in our Christian
walk. It’s the knowledge of truth that
leads to Godliness. I’ve taken it to heart and have been listening to it each
day through the BibleGateway.com
audio tool. Max McLean’s powerful
voice enhances the reading experience and helps me to be focused and benefit
from hearing the Word through someone else’s voice. I recommend mixing up your Bible reading with
a little Bible listening in this manner.
I would also like to encourage you to read the Book of Titus everyday
until school starts in some format with teacher lenses.
As a
Christian educator, public or private, we have a high calling with high
standards. Paul is teaching us in Titus to pass grace and peace to those who
are near us and to live a life that is godly. There are only three chapters in
the Book of Titus, which makes the charge to read it each day pretty simple. In
the first chapter, I was struck by Titus’s admonition to appoint elders
throughout the towns. The church could not grow without local elders. How can
we ever grow Christian Educators without local teachers? These elders/teachers were to be blameless. Phew! That’s quite the charge. Who of us can
live a blameless life? In the flesh, no one can. In the Spirit, He can mold us.
We need a teacher at every school who loves what is good, is self-controlled,
upright, holy and disciplined. (1:8).
Christian Educators at the school level are encouragers.
In Chapter
2, the older men are taught to be without extremes, worthy of respect,
self-controlled, sound in faith, in love and endurance. The older women are to be reverent, not to be
slanderers or addicted to much wine and to teach what is good. They are also
charged to teach the younger women. Wouldn’t it be great for each mature
Christian Educator to purposely mentor one of the younger teachers? For those
of us who have weathered the profession, it is certainly our gift to nurture
our newest teachers, Christian or not.
What a blessing we can be to our school community by being a mentor. Our
young men are to set a good example by doing what is good. My favorite line of the whole book is 2:7 – “In everything, set them an example by doing
what is good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness and soundness
of speech that cannot be condemned, so that those who oppose you may be ashamed
because they have nothing bad to say about us.”
Finally in
Chapter 3, Paul helps us to understand authority. In our schools, we must be under
authority. A 16-9 educator understands
the law and when they are on the clock, they are “Congress.” We must be under authority to our
administrators, obedient and ready to do whatever is good. We are to slander no
one, to be peaceable and considerate and always gentle toward everyone. That’s the “9” part of our call. When we are exuding the Fruit of the Spirit,
(love, joy, peace, goodness, kindness, gentleness, patience, self-control and
faithfulness), we are living out Paul’s charge to Titus and all leaders. 3:8 – These things are profitable for
everyone.
During the
summer months, please intensify your time in the Word and use some of the great
new tools available to us through technology.
I recommended the app – Holy Bible because it is totally interactive and
can read the Word aloud to you also. If you haven’t already tried, record your
own voice reading the Word and then save it for a future generation, your
children’s children. The Book of Titus
is small, but a powerful Christian mandate for living out our faith, especially
in a world that does not share our same worldview. Grace and peace to all.
Prayerfully yours,
K
Note: To more fully understand the 16-9 Movement, please read the first blog
entry by clicking here.
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