Titus 3:3a For we ourselves also were sometimes

I purposely did not finish this verse and left off the list of things that might or might not remind you of a past life. It really doesn’t matter what you were back then before Christ. The important issue is that we left that life behind. I don’t have to spell it out, I don’t have to be specific. You know you have changed. I know I have also, thank God.

2 Peter 3:18 But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.

I have struggled with this verse. Grace growth has been slower than I had expected, slower than I desired. I was at a point where I was beginning to think that perhaps it was going to be something I had to struggle with always. I know what I am and I see things in black and white. That is judgment, pure and simple.

Last night I saw error and I did not pounce upon it with the rod of correction. God showed me the heart of the one speaking and my tenderness in fellowship, my earnest desire to maintain unity and harmony in the body outweighed my need to be right. I saw grace growth.

I’ve been walking with the Lord for a long time. I have no idea why God changes one thing about me and leaves another untouched. I struggle and like Paul in Romans 7, I identify with doing things I do not want to do. Like Paul I thank God.

Today I thank God for what others won’t even notice because they don’t see what is going on inside me. I see it and I know it is grace for grace sake, a gift from God.

Job 4:12 Now a thing was secretly brought to me, and mine ear received a little thereof.

Thanks be to God for even the smallest of changes.

2 Corinthians 12:2 I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven.

I’ve had many conversations over the years about this person Paul knew over fourteen years ago. Nowhere in scripture was this account given. Or was it? Paul was stoned to death in Acts 14:19 and rose up in Acts 14:20. Is it possible Paul was talking about himself? He started off this chapter with a desire not to boast.

I’ve always suspected that Paul knew and saw things which he could not share. It feels like Paul is trying to relate the hope of glory unseen, but in a way that does not undermine his credability. Paul’s witness is his first responsibility. It is one of those things, that when we get caught up in moment we should not forget how we sound to unbelievers.

I believe that God will receive His own. I also believe that if I allow my witness to be placed in doubt, then someone might suffer for a number of years before coming to the Lord. That would be on me. That I would not want.

What I know is not nearly as important as who I know. My responsibility is not to show my knowledge, it is to show Christ. A credible witness keeps that in mind.

Colossians 4:6 Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.