A few years ago, Julie was in the kitchen baking

when she suddenly called me to come help her. Being the dutiful

husband that I am, I came running. As I looked into the kitchen, I

instantly saw what was wrong. Julie had a run in with the mixer and

her shirt had wrapped itself around the beaters. She asked me to

help her get untangled and I said I would be right back. When I

returned, I had my camera in hand to capture the embarassing moment

on digital film. She shot me a look that said: "You are not

helping!" Have you ever had a moment where the behavior of someone

else hindered what you were trying to do? Titus faced this with the

church in Crete. In light of the beautiful gospel, the church was

not living lives that were different than the world around them.

And this, Paul contends, hurts the work of the Gospel. The charge

here is clear - how we live today has an impact on how fruitful the

ministry of the church is.