Paul McKenzie

Memory Verse, Thursday, Oct 8, Titus 2:14

"who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works."

Here we see that God has purpose for the redeemed, "to purify for himself a people for his possession". People zealous to work the works of God.

Ephesians 2:10 brings out the same thing. After telling us that: "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not from your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, that no one may boast" (2:8-9), he goes on to say:

"For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."

Brought us from death unto life. Made us a new creation, as it is written in 2 Corinthians 5:17: "Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away, behold the new has come."

And Peter says the same thing in 1 Peter 1:22-23: Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God;"

And John: "Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure" (1 John 3:2-3).

Do you see the difference? Nothing we have done saved us, and never will. It was a new birth, called by God to be His possession. And with it comes a new heart, zealous to do the works of God. Declared first righteous, becoming sure children of God. Then, the Holy Spirit begins to teach us how to acclimate this new nature through obedience and the good works He's prepared for us.

Not manufactured works, but natural outgrowths of those who have obtained the righteousness of Christ. John continues throughout his letter to show you how one distinguishes a child of God from a fake. And all return to that great desire of a believer to be home with Jesus. For we learn that the people called by God want to be with God, and want to do what He does, to continue in the image of God we were to be from the very first day He breathed life in the dust that formed Adam.

And as always, Jesus gave us the answer as to how to perform the works of God, in John 6:29: "This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent."

Do you believe?

Today if you hear His voice, harden not your heart.

Memory Helps

"WHO gave himself for us

TO redeem us from all lawlessness and

TO purify for himself a people for his own possession

WHO are zealous for good works."

Divided this way, we can use our four fingers in "four"-teen to make a step-by-step process in memorizing this passage.

Get the first words of each line first: "WHO/TO/TO/WHO". Sounds a little "owlish", doesn't it?

Then add the next words: "Who GAVE HIMSELF/to REDEEM US/ to PURIFY FOR HIMSELF/who ARE ZEALOUS".

Then finish the verse. If you do it this way, counting on your four fingers, you will see how easy it is to memorize. One final thing, notice all the "p's" in line three: "purify, people, possession".

Linking verse numbers:

Again, we have Titus holding "tightly" a brand New "S" with two New price tags on it, so we are reminded of "Tight S Two New", with the N in "New" phonetically representing "2" in our memory alphabet as well.

This time my "Titus" is going to look a lot like my friend "TeRry", because the T and R sounds represent 1 and 4 respectively, and with the second "r" silent and vowels as filler, "Terry can only mean 14". I use him in every word picture for verses 14. He is now holding tightly to that S, and is receiving a "Redemption" letter from Jesus that says "free from lawlessness". Then Jesus pours living water over him to "purify" him, and hugs him as Jesus takes him as one of His own possessions!

My friend Terry with the "tight S" zealously and thankfully hugs Jesus tightly. A lot to say, but a simple picture to see.