Prepared - Part 3

 Wednesday, January 12, 2022

Stand your ground, putting on the belt of truth and the body armor of God’s righteousness.  Ephesians 6:14

This week we are investigating Paul’s comparison of a Christian in spiritual warfare to a Roman soldier prepared for physical combat.  Today’s piece of God’s well-dressed warrior is the breastplate of God’s righteousness, the Body Armor.

In His sermon on the Mount of Olives Jesus said we would be blessed if we hunger and thirst after righteousness.  He said we should seek the righteousness of the Kingdom of God first, and worry about material things later.[1] 

What is this righteous condition?  The word “righteousness” or “justice” comes from a basic verb which means to show.  In a religious sense or application it means to stand before God with your heart open and on display.  There is nothing hidden, God can inspect you.  Is that a comfortable idea?  David prayed: 

 

Search me O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me.  Psalms 139.23-24a

Each of us has (at least) a few things in our life that, if they became public, would cause us shame.  Even if not public, we struggle with the self-shaming guilt that knows we offend God.  How do I know that?  I don’t have a crystal ball; I’m not reading your mail, or hiring a private investigator to spy on you.  I simply have a human heart…and I read God’s Word that tells me all about me…and you.  God knows the flesh lives inside us all.  Most of us know from experience (and the rest of us could guess from sheer human intuition) that it is not a wonderful prospect to stand before a righteous and holy God without some super-asbestos holy shield to protect us from judgment. 

The breastplate, or body armor, covers the vital core organs, heart, lungs, and kidneys.  Having a breastplate of righteousness means your heart has been cleansed, you’ve been forgiven of sin and made to stand righteous, openly on show for God.  When it's like that, beloved, Satan’s darts are way out of range. 

A fellow Christian once accused me of being uncaring and cold towards him and his family.  He then widened it to include the whole church (and probably the whole of Western civilization!).  I told him he misunderstood me, but that I would pray for God to help me understand.  I did go to prayer, and while God affirmed to my heart that I really did care for and love this brother and his family, there were some other things in that area that needed my attention.  When I shared this with the brother, I could stand with the breastplate of righteousness.  I had stood honestly before God.  Satan could not use this rift of understanding to break that church apart.  He tries to do that, you know.  A wise believer will put on the breastplate and have a clean heart before God.

For You Today

Just as David opened his heart to God’s inspection with a confession that he needed holy, omniscient eyes to inspect every crease, crevice, and hiding spot of darkness in him, we must also be that transparent in our walk with God.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!  

[1] Title and Other Images:  Pixabay.com   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©   

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[1] See Psalm 1,  Matthew 5:6 and Matthew 6:33

Prepared - Part 2

 

Tuesday, January 11, 2022

Stand your ground, putting on the belt of truth… Ephesians 6:14a

We are investigating Paul’s comparison of a Christian in spiritual warfare to what a Roman soldier was like prepared for physical combat.  This morning’s piece of God’s well-dressed warrior is the Belt of Truth.

Preparing for battle is no little thing.  In the latter part of my tour in Vietnam, the 1968 Tet Offensive put every soldier on high alert.  We spent the nights of those weeks in defensive embankments; two soldiers watching, one sleeping.  We needed to be ready for whatever invasion the enemy had planned.

In the primary battle of eternity between good and evil, the starting point for any soldier of the cross is an uncompromised commitment to truth.  Truth is that inviolable defense standing as the line between Godly obedience and wickedness.  It is only when truth is told that anything holy can stand.  A president that lies to his nation, or a bank teller that dips in the till, a husband or wife who cannot manage to be truthful with a spouse, or even a child trying to hide the cookie crumbs all over his face when his Mom said to stay out of the cookie jar, all are entry points to the crumbling of trust. 

Paul’s analogy of a Roman soldier, suited-up for battle, and the Christian warrior’s dress, begins with the belt of truth.  That belt holds everything in place.  Without truth any of us miss the mark of God’s way.

Jesus told Thomas:  I am the way, the truth, and the life. ^{(John 14:5-7)}  Like a belt around the middle, truth holds the way and the life together.  He told his disciple if he would see God, those realities would be in his bones, sinew, and flesh all day, every day, for eternity.  That is the nature of truth; without it there is no way or life worth having.

For You Today

In every way imaginable truth simplifies life.  Like not trying to make 2 + 2 equal anything but 4, you can count on truth; and that path always leads to finding the rest of Jesus’ math lesson with Thomas, the way to life.

Put on the truth belt…and never take it off…because the battle rages on!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!  

[1] Title and Other Images:  Pixabay.com   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©    

Be Strong in the Lord - Part 2 The Belt

 

Wednesday, July 29, 2020

Note; this week we are re-visiting a series of devotions from 2016 entitled FAITHFUL WARRIORS.  It’s not something we do often, but this series bears repeating during times of crisis. 

Stand your ground, putting on the belt of truth….   Ephesians 6:14a ^(NLT)

Truth is the one thing that is the defining mark of the Christian in our society.  Whatever else we do or don’t do – whether you do visiting to care for folks, teach a class, give a tithe or more, truth is never optional for the believer.  We must always speak the truth in love. 

And we must speak it clearly and openly. 

Martin Luther said,

If I profess with the loudest voice and the clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God, except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at the moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved, and to be steady on all the battlefield besides is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point.^[1]

When we name the name of Christ, we must conduct every moment of our lives in truth.  And it is critically-important for followers of the One who said that HE is the truth, that we take every opportunity to remind ourselves. 

I spend time on the computer every day, so on my computer screen I have helps to remind me of my commitment to truth.  My desktop is usually cluttered with all sorts of projects, but in the middle is this cartoon:

And on a second computer I use there is this one:

For me these are reminders that I cannot claim to be a follower of the great Truth, Jesus, if I will not conduct my life with truth in the smaller issues of life such as:

·       truth in speech

·       truth in finances (including the IRS stuff)

·       truth in relationships with others (in and out of the church)

·       truth in business. 

If we will not conduct our lives with truth in these material and earthly things, how can we claim to have the greater truth within, which is the One who called Himself THE Truth? 

The truth can only exist IN you when HE presides as Savior and Lord from WITHIN you.

Let’s Pray Together:

Father, we’re at a time – a particularly difficult time – where truth hangs, as a minimal garment, a decoration at best, when our lives depend on having truth surrounding us like a belt that holds everything together.  Lord, give us commitment to truth, the WHOLE TRUTH, and nothing less, that we may truly be disciples of HE who IS truth.

For You Today

It is either all truth or all lie – don’t forget; the chief weapon of the ENEMY, Satan, is anything but truth, and a Faithful Warrior’s belt of truth is not optional! 

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road today.  Have a blessed day!

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Title image:  Pixabay.com  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©

This devotion originally appeared 1/12/16 as Faithful Warriors - #2. The Belt of Truth

[1]Martin Luther, as quoted in John Whitehead, Religious Apartheid, Moody Press, Chicago, 1994, p. 161.

Figuring It Out

 ^[1]   

Tuesday, June 16, 2015

Stand your ground, putting on the belt of truth and the body armor of God’s righteousness.  Ephesians 6:14 ^(NLT)

“Caitlyn” (formerly Bruce) Jenner has come out of more than one closet recently.  The newest revelation is that Ms. Jenner is a Christian…and a Republican.

Hmmmm.

Considering the cultural climate of American political correctness these days, it’s a little difficult to say anything without a backwash of complaints that you’re a biggoted, mean and ignorant right-wing (read that “typically-uninformed and so-last-century”) christian.

Okay. 

In the June 12^th edition of The Week magazine, Damon Linker makes a strong case that American Christianity is the perfect seedbed for the widespread, open-armed kind of theological ingathering of anything goes; in short, where else could Caitlyn go?

S/he couldn’t go to Judaism; neither could the Sharia-bound, sharp edge of Islam be her new home.  American, individualistic Christianity is the catch-all basin for the cast-offs.

What to say?

I believe Mr. Linker may have tapped-into the mother load of understanding about why Americanized Christian organizations are drying-up and shriveling on the vine of God’s Kingdom. 

Can we say Protestant? 

The word itself defines what may be a bitter pill for many conservative evangelicals.  And yet, this is our history.  To “protest” means to object strongly and show it by your speech and actions.  This is what Christianity’s face has been throughout the course of the last two thousand years; a group within a group objects, protests, and separates to form a new group under the title of “Christian”; it’s what we do.

And American Christians do it better and more often than anywhere, or anyone else.

And so, it’s natural that the somewhat unnatural approach of Bruce-Caitlyn should find identity with those of us who reject the status-quo and change everything.

Could this be more confusing?

Perhaps not more so than Christianity itself; Christ was hard on a lot of attitudes – hatred, judging, etc – but then he said to love those who did such^{(Matthew 5)} – and then he said to reject some ^{(Matthew 18)} who wouldn’t reconcile, but he came to die for everyone. ^{(Matthew 26:28)}

Figuring it out, navigating the orthodox amid the chaotic, is what Christians are called to do.  We are called to be the theological lens for social scientists, making sense of the intertwine of our times and God’s call, proclaiming a timeless message within a linear framework; the ethereal mixed in the mud of our messy lives. 

It aint easy!

But neither was the cross.

Perhaps it is best to look at our times, the headlines, the Jenner disclosures and Keeping up with Jenner’s Kardashian kids, as what it is – simply the chaos of human life that is searching for something to which you can hold onto…but not too tighly, for fear that you’ll get tied down to it, and then you won’t be free to change it all again next week.

And in light of all that confusion, chaos, changing and questioning, I will take the stability of the cross any day.

For You Today

What’s the greatest need of your life?  (Besides a good nap this afternoon?)

When you “figure it out” don’t be too quick to jump without checking to see if that change is anchored to the cross.

Like Caitlyn, you might have to buy a whole new wardrobe.

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[1] Title images: By Duncan Rawlinson/ @thelastminute/ Duncan.co, via Wikimedia Commons and Illustrated Frazer Harrison/Getty Images in THE WEEK magazine, June 12, 2015