Just Don't Look Behind Door #3

I can hide anything from you for a while.

I stashed my wife's Christmas present behind my desk at home. I bought it 3 weeks before Christmas. I don't think she ever saw it. I didn't wrap it right away. I don't think she found it...until she was looking for a present for the kids she forgot where she hid. I waited too long to wrap it.

That's what happens when you live in the same house. I can only hide things for so long. It helps that my wife is not a detailed person. She doesn't see details. So, she'll miss things that a detailed type 'A' would see. But then, because she forgets details she'll forget where she put something and go through my stuff looking for it. If I tried to hide something really bad, she'd find it. That's what living together will do.

Titus is written from the point of view that the men in the church, even on the entire island of Crete, have a relationship. This isn't just for the men in the church. They all grew up together. Some are now in this 'new' organization that Titus is appointing leadership for.

There's no hiding stuff from each other. It's a small island. Good or bad, people know about it. It's like that proverbial small town in America. Everyone knows everyone else's business.

Integrity. Does your outside match your inside?

All of our outward actions stem from our inward position. You can fake it for a while. If your inward position is set so that you're not proud of everything you are but you want people to think that you are then you can fool them...for awhile.

I want men speaking into my life who, though aren't perfect, have a lot of good stuff to offer me. I want to be one of those guys, too. That's what Paul is describing. The only way I get the full benefit of what they offer is by being in a long-term relationship with them. Only then do I see and understand how, imperfect as they are, they still are worth being an example for me to pattern my life after.

Likewise, I've known plenty of men who give a good first impression but it's down hill from there. Time is a great filter of the truth.

If I don't want you to look behind the closed doors of my life eventually one of us is going to have to move.

I'd rather stick around, and have you stick around, and learn how to be a better husband, father, pastor, elder and friend together.