Titus Connection Volume 19 Number 2 – February 2025

Greetings.  We are continuing our focus on King Josiah.  His life offers very good discussion and thinking on how people, both young and older, should follow the leading of the Holy Spirit.  Thanks.  Mike

In 2 Chronicles 34, readers learn about King Josiah who was placed on the throne at age eight because his father King Amon was killed.  After several years of being mentored and guided by the kingdom’s officials, Josiah sought the God of his father David, and made the decision to be faithful to God.  (vs 1-3).
Josiah lived out his faithfulness to God by destroying the idol worship in his country (vs 4-7).  Baal altars were torn down, incense altars cut up and Asherah poles were smashed.  Scattered were the broken pieces over the graves who had
sacrificed to the idols and the priests’ bones burned on the altars.  He did this throughout Israel.  There was nothing left of the idolatry that was going on.  No stone was left unturned.
At about the age of 16, Josiah was bold and courageous enough to stay
focused on what pleased God and despite his age, he followed God’s ways.  Josiah made changes because of his relationship with God.  What impact has your relationship with God been in your life?
Consider how you develop courage to do the right thing that please God.  What changes do you need to make in your life to do what is right in the Lord’s sight, to be pleasing to Him?  Perhaps you need to spend time in God’s Word, applying and being obedient to what you learn.  Spending time with the Lord in His Word and prayer to deepen your relationship with Him may be part of the answer.  Hanging around strong believers who have consistent, godly lifestyles will help too.
In the next step in Josiah’s development (2 Chron 34:8-21, 2 Kings 22:3), Josiah chose to repair the Temple.  Hilkiah was given money Levites had collected and the money was entrusted to men supervising the Temple rebuild.  What was rebuilt were stonework and timbers by faithful laborers like carpenters, masons and builders.  The Levites were administrative, security and musicians, perhaps playing music while the work was being accomplished.
Obediently Josiah purified the Temple and the land, restoring the Temple and the activities associated with the Temple.  Honor God with what is holy and restore Judah’s relationship with Him.  Then Hilkiah found the Book of the Law (first five books of the Old Testament) while they were working.  It had been misplaced, forgotten about for a good number of years.  The book was taken to King Josiah and had the book read.
When Josiah heard the words, he tore his clothes, showing signs of sorrow and remorse.  He wanted to know what was in that Book because their forefathers had not kept the truths and principles found it the Book, thus having God’s anger placed upon them.  Look up Joshua 1:6-8 and consider how precious the Word of God is to you?  How obedient are you and I to following the Word of God?
To be honest, how quick are you and I with learning something from the Scriptures and then obeying it right away?  It is so easy to read something from Scripture and rationalize the obedience away, or thinking the application is for someone else.
Will God bless a group, a church, an organization or a country if the leadership is not remorseful of sin and turn towards Him?  Being a leader who indicates that his or her allegiance is with Jesus has great responsibility to follow the Word of God and obediently live out the Word.  Leaders have significant influence on others and being sensitive to the Holy Spirit’s leading into obedience is not an option.
How you and I handle the Word of God speaks volumes of what kind of relationship we have with the Lord.  We must not take obedience to the Lord lightly.  It is a great responsibility!
Think about who you want to become in the next five to ten years.  If it involves being more like Jesus (and it should if you are a believer in Jesus), what do you and I need to do today?  Where do you see yourself being used by the Lord?  It all starts now surrendering to the Lord’s leading and our obedience.

The difference between a compass and GPS is with GPS you need roads (paved) for the system to work.  If you are in completely foreign areas with new roads or no roads, the system will is not very helpful.  With a compass you can be anywhere in the world and you will find true north.  The compass is based on the earth’s gravitational pull.  Chinese military used it for navigation around 1040.  Western Europe began using the compass around the beginning of the 1200’s.  (Habitudes, The Art of Navigating Transitions, 2014, Tim Elmore).
What is a person’s compass?  It is the value system you live by, the core values that are not just talked about but are lived out in a person’s decision making to many aspects of the person’s routine.  Circumstances and events change our lives but having a true north (value system) to guide you, will keep you focused on the right direction to live by.
As you read about King Josiah who was a young person when he was made king of Judah (2 Chronicles 34-35), he made the decision early on in his kingship to follow God in every area of his life.  As a result many godly reforms occurred while he was king, impacting the whole country.
As Christians, our compass should be Jesus.  Truths and principles should then come from the Bible.  WILD core values are Honoring God, Serving one another and Empower others.  These values with corresponding truths and principles are found in the Scriptures.  You may choose some values like Faith, Family, Serving, Integrity, Loving, Empathetic, Others focused, and so on.
To find your compass, here are a few guidelines to follow:

1. Determine your core values, who you want to become.  These values you do not compromise.  They are the focus of decisions and how you live your life.  Having four to six or slightly more is enough.  Often you write down a single word or two for your values.

Then write short statements that quickly explain the value word.  It can be a phrase or short sentence.  This may take some time to come up with what you truly value, so do not rush. You need to know and explain to yourself (and others possibly) what those words truly mean to you – that is not simply a list of nice words, but these words and statements guide you in your everyday life.

2. Put this core value statements sheet somewhere you can see them all the time so that when a decision is made, these values give you the parameters needed to make a solid decision.  Memorize them to carry them close to your heart.
3. As you focus on them, intentionally integrate them into the routine of your life.  Do not write them down and put them in a folder or even on the wall and forget about them.  These values should be who you are. They will guide you when you deal with situations that are new or unfamiliar to you.  These values guide your conscience and allow you to be true to yourself.

A young man who was in a secondary school from the United States was one of the best wrestlers in his state where he lived. Wrestling is a sport where you actual wrestle another individual to get the person down and pin the person on the ground.
He was at the top wrestling tournament for the state he lived in.  Joel had the ability to be the best wrestler in his state, but he was scheduled to wrestle a girl, but he refused.  He would not wrestle because of his personal values.  Wrestling is a violent, combative sport and for him, Joel did not believe it was right to wrestle a girl because of the violence and how you must handle your opponent.
It was a matter of conscience for him.  He obviously forfeited his match and never had the opportunity to wrestle for a state title.  Joel never said it was wrong for girls to wrestle.  In his value system his values would not allow him to wrestle a girl.  In uncharted waters, Joel followed his compass, not a GPS.  (Habitudes – The Art of Navigating Transitions p. 15).
What do you live and stand for?  Please do not say you are a Christian and live contrary to how the Bible shows us to live.  Values you discern from Scripture and live by will never let you down as you will not compromise your conscience.  Compromising your conscience is one of the worst things we can and will do to ourselves.  That can destroy a person.