Well Armored
Ephesians
{6:10} Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.
{6:11} Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
{6:12} For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high [places. ]
{6:13} Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
{6:14} Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;
{6:15} And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace
{6:16} Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
{6:17} And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:
{6:18} Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints
{6:19} And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel
{6:20} For which I am an ambassador in bonds: that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.
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Be strong in the Lord.
Not be strong of yourself.
Be strong in the power of *HIS* might.
Not be strong of your own might, your own accord.
Thank God that we don't have to be strong in and of ourselves, that we don't have to rely on our own might as we are trying to be strong *for* the Lord. We have to be strong *in* the Lord. We can't take any glory to ourselves. We can't save ourselves, we can't be strong in our own might or we'll fail miserably.
God has armor and it's available to us all. The armor isn't made of leather, or even chain mail, it's not made of a super fine mesh, it's not Kevlar, this armor of God's is made of all that any Christian will ever need to combat the invisible forces of evil that can attack and steal us from our salvation. These dark forces want our eternal life. God's armor will protect our eternal life.
The biggest threat to our eternal life is invisible- principalities, power, rulers of darkness, spiritual wickedness.
Sounds so horror movie of the week, doesn't it?
I love that we can take the imagery of real armor and use that to realize what sort of armor we need for our very real, spiritual battle.
Loins girt in truth.
Breastplate of righteousness.
Boots of the preparation of the gospel of peace.
Shield of faith.
Helmet of salvation.
Sword of Spirit- word of God.
Praying always.
Truth, righteousness, gospel of peace, faith, salvation, Spirit-word of God, prayer.
We're not left defenseless.
We're not left on our own without armor, without protection.
Unfortunately it's a lot simpler to grab a pair of boots and shove them on our feet and to cover ourselves with Kevlar clothing, pick up a metal shield, put on a protective helmet and yes, heft up that metal sword and wave it about, than it is to put on the Spiritual armor available to us. Seriously. You'd think, hey, invisible armor, weightless, available all day everyday what is better than that? Nothing! Right? Nothing. And yet the Spiritual armor is something so many choose not to use. Can't see it, it's not there. Can't see it, why use it. Can't see it, hey it takes work to *think* about the spiritual, so much easy to just put on a metal jacket.
Truth. Righteousness. Gospel of peace. Faith. Salvation. Spirit-word of God. Praying.
That wickedness we fight would have us to believe we can't have any of those things- that we can't have the truth, we can't be righteous, that the gospel of peace belongs to the disciples, that faith is something elusive, salvation well, salvation is just a myth and who can ever really have the Spirit of God in them? Prayer, now here is something a lot of people are familiar with. Prayer. Yet those wicked spirits, the evil principalities would have us believe that even our prayers go unheard.
This armor is heart armor, spiritual armor that protects our eternal life not our physical life. We have to realize that we live in a spiritual world. If we can't admit that we live in a spiritual world then we really do have no hope. People often say there has to be more to life than this, meaning the existence they currently have, and they're right. The spiritual world is huge, so much larger than the physical. There is so much more than this.
We can have eternal life it's ours for the asking by the Grace of Jesus Christ. We can live in the spiritual world. It's only if we do live in the spiritual world that we can live and have more to life than what we have now, than what this world offers.
Perhaps as one going to battle each and ever day we need to remember to put on our armor. We wouldn't go out into a physical battle without armor on, without protective gear. You see our soldiers all the time all decked out in their protective gear, a lot of times they even have to sleep in it I've read. They wouldn't dream of taking off the protective gear and going out into the battle field. Yet here we are in a spiritual warfare where the battle is for our eternal lives and we think nothing of living unprotected. We think nothing of getting up and going about our day to day business without once thinking about Jesus, without once thinking about the truth in Jesus, the gospel that brings us peace, the faith, salvation, the Spirit, or praying.
Make no mistake we are in a war, all of us and we so need to be well armored.
Each day, each time we think about it, we should make sure we're protected shouldn't we? How? Through prayer, through acknowledging the truth, the gospel, by claiming Jesus in our lives, His righteousness, His peace.
May God help us all.
Amen.
“Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.”- 1 John 2:15-16
11/11/09
Rev 22:14 Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.
Mat 5:3 Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Mat 5:4 Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
Mat 5:5 Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
Mat 5:6 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
Mat 5:7 Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
Mat 5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
Mat 5:9 Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.
Mat 5:10 Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Mat 5:11 Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.
Mat 5:12 Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.
Blessed are they that do his commandments.
And Jesus says--
Blessed are the poor in spirit
Blessed are they that mourn
Blessed are the meek
Blessed are they which hunger and thirst after righteousness
Blessed are the merciful
Blessed are the pure in heart
Blessed are the peacemakers
Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake
Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you false for my sake.
Rejoice and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven.
Poor in spirit, mourning, meekness, hunger and thirst for what is good, persecuted, reviled, accused falsely- these are blessed. A total contradiction to how we envision life. We are told to be anything but meek, to have our spirits lifted up and, to leave off mourning, to do what we want as long as we don't hurt anyone- but by all means don't deprive ourselves of any desire. We are taught to detest any sort of persecution and to fight tooth and nail for our right not to be persecuted and to have any persecutors prosecuted by the law. We are raised to HATE the things that Christ says we are blessed by experiencing. We are taught to live for the here and now not for some fictitious, highly unlikely reward that may or may not be in heaven for us.
People want to say that Satan doesn't rule, they want to say that mankind hasn't allowed itself to be corrupted by Satan, they want Satan out of the picture altogether as fictitious as the mythical heaven. It is Satan, the father of lies that has infilterated the hearts and souls of people corrupting them fully until all that is truly blessed and good is made to seem hateful.
Truthfully, Jesus couldn't have LIKED being persecuted, and can't like to have those who love Him and seek His righteousness persecuted. Liking it isn't the issue, realizing that it will exist for as long as the battle between good and evil goes on is important. Understanding the facts of what we face is very important. With our tendencies to fight back and give as good as we are given, to be hateful to those that are hateful to us, with this sort of response praised and exalted it won't be easy at all to love the way Jesus would have us love, to love as He loved.
Christ allowed Himself to be tortured and killed when He could have fought back. He was righteouse, He was sinless, He was innocent of any crime and yet He did not call witnesses to come to His defense, He did not bring out the facts, He did not flaunt the miracles He performed. Jesus had EVERY right to fight- He had innocence on His side- yet He chose not to fight. We call that being a coward and a fool, we call people cowards and fools who allow themselves to be mistreated and walked all over. Christ was not a coward or a fool.
Our mentalities have been twisted and looking at ourselves and demanding we be treated right, with respect due to us, we forget all about Christ.
Love, truth, righteousness, faith these are God, these are Jesus, these are the things we long for and are offered by the Holy Spirit, the comforter sent to us by Christ.
There is a reward in heaven, it is real. You can't believe in God and not believe in Satan. You can't believe in God and not believe in heaven. You can't believe in God and not believe in love.
May God grant us His mercy and His righteousness by the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the Son of God, now and forever in Him.
Amen.
11/11/10
11/11/11