Titus 3:14 English Standard Version (ESV) And let our people learn to devote themselves to good works, so as to help cases of urgent need, and not be unfruitful.

What does our urgent needs look like today?

Urgent needs change over time as we survive one calamity after another. In our earliest stages of salvation our urgent needs were for a Savior. We knew we were lost and our need for salvation took first place. Then as we were fed and clothed we became comfortable if not complacent with our salvation.

Then we needed to love and we found a place within community to share our love and fellowship began to strengthen our bonds of love and we grew. As we grew our sphere of influence grew and we found we could be used to serve a wider place in His Kingdom. Then we saw our calling and met more and more needy peoples.

We met needs and saw they neglected their own salvation and we felt used. We looked to our bibles and saw how Jesus was abused and felt that connection.We must be in league with righteousness because we suffer as Christ suffered. We got comfortable with being used and felt God was at work even if we did not see results.

At some point we got so busy with the work that we neglected our own daily salvation simply because we had long ago lost that sense of urgency when we first came to Christ. Maturity brings us closer to Christ and a terrible things happens in our flesh that we did not notice happen.

My daughter’s words ring out and crippled my soul this morning. “I don’t need to be fathered anymore.”

Luke 23:34 English Standard Version (ESV) And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And they cast lots to divide his garments.

In our haste to grab our tiny bit of His righteousness, we have forgotten where forgiveness begins and neglected to confess and admit we need to be Fathered.

Hebrews 10:22 English Standard Version (ESV) let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

Yesterday I left off with the need for conviction of conscience to cause us to seek forgiveness from our accountability partners. This is how our hearts get sprinkled clean. While I was trying to be cleaver in implying C of C stood for Conviction of Conscience, in the business world C of C means Certificate of Conformance.

A true heart is faith’s Certificate of Conformance. We are conformed into the image of Christ little by little as the body is washed in His Word and our feet are washed by forgiveness. It take both and we should not neglect either.

There are those that say only God forgives sin but that is a body of sin. Remember what Jesus said to Peter in John 13:10 “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean….” If Jesus said it, it is true. He also said for us to do this for one another, so we can forgive foot sin. We not only can but are commanded to do so.

It is our good conscience that tells us when we need to seek forgiveness.

1 Timothy 1:5 English Standard Version (ESV) The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.

This is how we get to love like Jesus, to allow His love to issue forth from within us like rivers of living waters.

John 7:38 English Standard Version (ESV) Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’