BLESSINGS FROM CHARACTER TRANSFORMATIONS

BLESSINGS FROM SPIRITUAL CHARACTER TRANSFORMATIONS My Dear Precious Child, In the apostle Paul's letter to Titus, he enumerated spiritual character traits that come from having a personality change after having become born again and baptized in the Holy Spirit, the ones related to having become a new creation. Titus had similar authority over Gentile believers that Timothy had and Paul wrote instructions to both of them, as is also true of other men who had been appointed heads of churches in other cities. Titus had been the messenger to deliver the scathing letter that Paul wrote to the Corinthians about the believers there still being spiritual babies when they should have been mature converts, having matured into the nature and character of Christ Jesus. Paul reiterated some of his same salutations in the instructions to the believers in Crete, one being that I had chosen the believers and that I had given to Paul knowledge to share with them in hope that the eternal life with which they had been blessed would persist in their character and in the preaching of Titus in his ministry. Paul had left Titus with instructions on how to choose the presbyters and the bishops related to their character. He wrote the same criteria for judging the character of a man so as to appoint him a presbyter or a bishop. He reminded Titus that any candidate for those positions must be men of integrity, married only once, the father of children who are believers and not known to be wild and undisciplined, not arrogant or self-willed, not a drunkard, not violent or greedy. Instead they should be hospitable, a lover of goodness, steady, just, holy and self-controlled. In their teachings they must hold fast to My message of the new birth so as to encourage other people with sound doctrine and he wrote about refuting people who deviate from the Gospel of Christ, especially the Jewish converts who seemed to be deceivers and persistent talkers who must be silenced. They had upset entire families by teaching things that they had no right to teach which had been taught for monetary gain. In his letter to Titus, Paul became stern again, just like he was with the Corinthians. He reported that a prophet from Crete had described fellow Cretans as this: "Cretans have forever been liars, beasts and lazy gluttons." Paul added his comment that it was the simple truth. He told Titus to admonish the Cretans sharply so that they would remain close to the truths in the faith, unaffected by Jewish fables or rules invented by men who had been diverted from the truth. Paul wrote that to the clean all things are clean, but to the defiled unbelievers nothing was clean. In fact, he assessed that the minds of the Cretans were tainted, their acting as though they knew Me but their actions denied that I even exist. He wrote that they are disgusting, totally incapable of any decent action. In contrast, Paul wrote to Titus that his own speech must be forever consistent with sound doctrine relating to Christ Jesus by telling the older men to be temperate, serious minded, self controlled, sound in faith, loving and steadfast. Similarly, he said that women must behave as if they belonged to Me, not slanderous gossipers or slaves to drink. By their good examples they must teach the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be sensible, chaste, busy at home, kindly, submissive to their husbands, all so that My word does not become disrespected. Paul wrote that the young men should keep complete control of themselves, just like Titus must, less he fail to be a good example to them. He told Titus that his teaching must have the integrity of serious, sound words to which no one could find exception. If the teaching of Titus remains sound, no opponent would be able to find anything bad to say about the Christians at Crete; and if anything bad were to be said about them, their hostility would bring shame upon themselves. One of the examples that Paul used is that slaves/workers must be submissive to their own bosses/masters, pleasing them in every way, not contradicting them, not stealing from them, but instead by letting their good conduct express a fidelity which adorns the Gospel of Christ in every way. In his instructions to Titus Paul reminded him that My grace had come upon them, offering salvation to all of them, training them to reject godless ways and worldly desires, living temperately, justly and devoutly in the age of My New Covenant of the Holy Spirit and their blessed hoped of My appearing by revelation and the appearing of Christ Jesus by revelation, His being the Christ who sacrificed himself for all people to redeem them from unrighteousness, cleansing them for Himself, a people of His own, their being Christians eager to do what is right in the earth. Paul wrote that those are the things that Titus was to say to the people in the churches, making appeals and corrections with the authority that he had in his ministry, reminding Titus not to let anyone look down upon him, which the false Jewish prophets were prone to do. Paul's apostolic position allowed him to correct the actions of the believers, if need be, by giving permission to the heads of the churches to speak to his members about the corrections, admonishments and fleshly sins which had invaded certain churches. Paul was trying to avoid poisonous doctrines which poison entire churches. Your Father of Divine Order