Worship for Today: Our common faith.

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing,
majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of
him in Titus 1:4,

"To Titus, my true son in our common faith: Grace and peace from God
the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior."

Paul points to the "common faith" both he and Timothy shared.

We are all aware of the differences that exist between the various
religions, denominations, churches and fellowships. Sometimes the
perspective is advanced that God is who he is to you and he is who he
is to me. He may be one thing to you and another to me. One is
persuaded of a certain flavor of theology and someone else may be
persuaded of another. When I read comments like Paul's to Timothy in
his salutation, I suspect he would be horrified at our acceptance of
this state of affairs. He speaks of the "common faith" they both
shared.

What may get missed at times is the realization that God is not a
subjective concept that is one thing to one person and another thing
to another. God is who he is. He exists in objective reality. The
basis for the common faith that Paul and Timothy shared did not lay in
Paul's evangelizing or discipling of Timothy, but that they both
served the one, true God. In another letter Paul speaks to this. He
says, "There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one
hope when you were called— one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God
and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all."
Ephesians 4:4-5. There Paul points to the grounds for us all to "make
every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of
peace."

Here is where common faith is found. Although we may all have
differing needs, differing trials and difficulties, differing levels
of maturity, etc. in the Lord, we need to rid ourselves of the notion
that God is what each individual makes him out to be. Our God exists
in a majestic splendor that is all his own and it is not changed one
wit by my perspective of him. I need to embrace him for who he is, not
what I think I want him to be. God, after all, is the ultimate reality
of being.

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share
your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We'd
love to hear from you!

Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com