The Full Armor of God--Part II

Part On of the Series is Listed Below
Picture Reference: http://www.romancoins.info/MilitaryEquipment-cingulum.html


In the Roman army a sword belt was made of leather overlaid with many metal plates. This allowed the belt to show the soldier's rank in addition to acting in it's more practical role. In the first century A.D., Roman soldiers normally carried two weapons which were stored on their belt. The first was a sword 18-24 inches long called a "gladius". The second weapon was a small dagger called a "pugio" The belt itslef was commonly called a "Cingulum" or "Balteus". Also common during this time was a groin guard, or "sporran", which hung from the belt.

A starting question for us might be why did Paul begin his list of spiritual armorments with the belt of truth? I believe that there are two main reasons that Paul began with the belt. The first reason is that the belt was an item that was worn at all times by members of the Roman Army. In my research I found that even when other elements of the armor were not being worn, the belt stayed.

The belt not only was practical for keeping your tunic on tight, but it was necessary for keeping military protacol such as chain of command. The same is true of the truth. Truth is practical. If you always tell the truth you never have to worry about having to remember a lie. The truth is also necessary for Christians to keeep our chain of command. All things that come from God are truth. If we stray from the truth, then we stray from God. In ancient times anyone who lived in Roman occupied lands could look at a Roman soldier's belt and know instantly that he belonged to the army. As Christians, people should be able to look directly at our lives and be able to know that we belong to God.

The second reason I believe that Paul began with the belt of truth is that the belt is the starting place of the entire outfit. It binds the tunic close to the body, holds the weapons for easy access, and marks the rank of the man wearing it. This was an essential piece of equipment for anyone in the Roman Army.

The truth is an essential piece of equipment for anyone in the Lord's Army. All of Christian doctrine relates back to the truth. To believe in Jesus you must believe that every single time he said, "I tell you the truth.." he was doing just that telling the truth. (By the way click on the online Bible and enter in "I tell you the Truth in the Keyword search, you'll be astounded to see how many times he said that very phrase.)

Not only, do you have to believe that Jesus was always telling the truth, but as a Christian we are called to live in the truth. Here are only a few lines of scripture that relate how important the truth is to the life of a Christian:


Psalm 31:5
Into your hands I commit my spirit; redeem me, O LORD, the God of truth.

Psalm 40:11
Do not withhold your mercy from me, O LORD; may your love and your truth always protect me.

Psalm 43:3
Send forth your light and your truth, let them guide me; let them bring me to your holy mountain, to the place where you dwell.

Psalm 51:6
Surely you desire truth in the inner parts ; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place.

Proverbs 16:13
Kings take pleasure in honest lips; they value a man who speaks the truth.

Isaiah 45:19
I have not spoken in secret, from somewhere in a land of darkness; I have not said to Jacob's descendants, 'Seek me in vain.' I, the LORD, speak the truth; I declare what is right.

John 1:14
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John 14:6
Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

John 14:16-17

16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.


The truth marks us as different. The truth says that we have made our stand. The truth declares that we have enlisted in the Lord's Army and we take our marching orders from the Creator himself. So, as you are preparing to go out into the world each day. Slide that belt through it's loops and cinch it tight, reminding yourself that God has called us as Christians to live in truth.


Works Cited:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_army#Roman_Soldier.27s_Main_Armor
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balteus_%28sword_belt%29

The Full Armor of God--Part I

Ephesians 6:10-18

The Armor of God

10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.


I hope you will join me over the next few weeks as we dissect this scripture and study why God calls us to put on "The full armor of God." We will take an in depth look at how God calls us to spiritually clothe ourselves,  and the importance of each article we are told to wear.

Today, our focus is going to be on why armor? When I hear someone say armor I instantly conjure up images of medieval knights perched majestically on top of noble horses. I think about fairy tales and lofty castles. I think of lances and King Arthur.

At the time Paul wrote Ephesians (around the year 60 A.D.) the major fighting force in the biblical world was the Romans. In those days when you thought of armor you would conjure up images of a Roman Infantryman, not some European in a tin can.. The basic parts of a Roman's armor would be a shield, the Caligae (special marching sandals), a tunic, a belt, one of several flexible and form fitting armor plates (breastplates), a metal apron and a helmet.

It would seem to be a safe assumption, based on the dress described by Paul and the actual armor worn by Romans, that the mental image Paul was painting was of a Roman soldier. Okay so we know what kind of armor, but that still begs the question, "why armor?"  Why didn't Paul say put on the comfy sweatsuit of God or the pajamas or even the bathing suit?

Paul answers this question for us in verses 10-13 where he tells us that we must prepare for an enemy. How does an army prepare for battle? They drill, they equip, and they plan. Paul tells us that the enemy is not a physical presence coming to destroy our bodies. Instead he warns of the, "authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil." Paul uses an armor metaphor to show God's people how to prepare themselves for a spiritual battle.

You see there is a spiritual battle going on all around us.  Satan knows that he cannot win against the Lord. However, the devil is a vindictive loser. He wants to hurt God as much as he can, he wants to lash out at the power that tossed him from Heaven. How can Satan hurt God? By hurting us, by stealing us, by allowing us to be damned!  Satan knows the great love that God has for his creation, so to attack us is to lash out at God.

God tells us, "look there is an attack coming." He hands us our equipment and tells us to put it on so that we can be safe. The only catch, if you can call it that,  is that God passes out what we need, but whether you put on what he has handed you or not is your choice. The enemy is deceitful, he might tell you what you want to hear. He might even help make life easier for you if you follow his deceitful path instead of God's narrow way.

In the end though God's narrow path leads to an eternity with him in Heaven, God knows this. The wide and easy street that Satan offers leads to hell and damnation, the devil knows this as well. So the only choice left is which path to follow. I choose the narrow one with ambushes waiting around every corner. While I know there is a hard trek before me I am secure knowing that I have God-brand Kevlar waiting for me if I will only accept it.

The Worst of it....

I imagine that there was a chill in the air, though I can't be sure because scripture doesn't say.  Yet even if the temperature didn't fall I have to believe that there was a prevailing feeling of cold, you know the kind that makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up.  A few hours before there had been laughter, cruel and cold itself, jeering  out the name of Jesus.  "King of the Jews, " I can hear one guard saying to another, "that would be the kind of sorry king these Hebrews would have."

He finally had trudged his was to Galgotha.  Could there be a more fitting name than this, place of the skull.  Those that crawled up this hill with their last measure of strength were only carried out, there was no return, no reprieve, no last minute call from Pilot.  Jesus was spent, poured out, used up by the time he made it to the top.  This once strong carpenter was reduced to stumbling about, unable to hold his own body weight courtesy of the abuse he had suffered.

I hate to imagine the scene that must have unfolded as he was laid on the cross, the metal on metal sound of the nails, the squishing sound as the nails tore through flesh.   Then the cross rises, the body weight pulls, the jolt as it slides in to place.  No, no, no, I just want to scream at the thought.  Leave him alone.....

As time drug by, I would like to say it got better, easier.  But that is not how crucifiction worked.  No, You would have to pull against the nails to take the weight off your chest to push breath in and out.  You would pull, anguish each time, growing weaker and weaker.  The trauma of the beating and whipping that Jesus had already endured had weakened his body......Yet none of this was the worst of it.

Look at the gospels and look at the moments right before Jesus died.  In Mark we are told Jesus cries out in Aramaic, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?"  Can you imagine?  No, I don't think any of us really can.  Jesus against all human emotion and inclination had lived an entirely blameless life.  He was the Son of God, God incarnate, yet the father head turned away from him.  Why?  For you and me.

Jesus was a substitution for us.  He literally took on every sin that the world had or ever would commit onto himself.  In that moment the blameless life that Christ had led was smeared with every sin in my life, your life, all of us.  He was for the first time separated from God by sin.  Imagine, he had always been there, always answered, always directed.  Now in this moment, when Jesus knew he was about to perish, there was no answer, there was no reassurance.

See Jesus did take it all for us.  To be without God, to be separated from him is what we deserve.  But because Jesus chose to experience that for us, even though he didn't deserve it, we are covered by his blood.  When God looks at those of us who believe in him through Christ, he sees Jesus.  Jesus' blood is the ultimate magic eraser taking the stain of our deeds away and leaving only his perfect shining image.

Bring Me A Worm...

"Bring me a worm that can understand a man and I will bring you a man that can understand the triune God."--John Wesley

Over the years I have encountered many people who struggle with their belief in God because they cannot figure out why something happened, or didn't happen.  In college, I had a philosophy professor who revealed that his family had experienced a terrible tragedy.  He told us about his brother and the way that cancer had destroyed his body.

My professor went on to tell the class that his family had been a Bible believing group who spent hours, upon hours praying for healing for his brother.  In the end, his brother succumbed to cancer and the professor reasoned that there could be no God.  He ranted that a loving God would have healed his brother and answered his family's prayers.

At one time or another, to one degree, we have all been there.  We have prayed earnest prayers and asked out of all the right reasons to no avail.  It is not a good feeling.  We begin to say God why didn't you......

There is a flaw in this thinking, however.  When we assume that God has to answer our prayers we get our perspective backwards.  Because we serve a good God he often does provide us with our wants, but we exist to please God, not the other way around.  When a potter forms clay into a vase, the purpose of the vase is to bring pleasure to the artist that formed it.  It is not the place of the creator to spend time trying to please the vase.

Those that dismiss God because they say science disproves his existence, or that believe he cannot be real because he chose not to do something for them fail to reason about God from the right point of view.  If we begin with an open mind and admit that God could exist then we have to also say that  He  would be the originator, the creator.

If He is the creator, then He has the ability to do things that science cannot explain (creating matter, breathing life into a life-less object, etc.).  You see science does not say that God cannot exist, science says that if God exists he has to be able to do things that we can't do, can't understand, and can't explain.  Man has simply become so self absorbed and so self important that he believes he must be able to figure out everything. If a God who is capable of breaking our scientific "laws" is real, then all the things we are certain about are no longer absolutes.

Those that believe God has to answer when they call, suffer from a closely related delusion.  They believe that they must be the center of God's universe.  If there is a more powerful being then He must exist to make us happy, to wait breathlessly at our beck-and-call.  God could not possibly see a bigger picture than we can through our limited perspective, and what we want always must be what is best.  In reality, sometimes what we want, even with good intentions is not what is best, even if we think it is.

We are but worms, and we cannot understand.....

Our Amazing, Everyday God

God.  Even just writing the name seems like I should blow it up, put it in italics, and make it bold.   

GOD!
Yes, much better.  

In a way, this is exactly how it should be.  If we thought about God's name this way all the time imagine how things would change.  If we put this much emphasis on making sure that we held everything to do with God as holy, then we might not hear His name used in vain so much.   Would we feel a little more special when we bowed our heads and called out, "God, my God..."?

I think sometimes we forget who we have the privilege of calling on, and serving, and calling Father.  I think we forget the awe that should come by communicating to the One who called out into the darkness and created everything.  When we speak it's not just God that listens.  It's  God that listens.  It's the hands that split the Red Sea, the voice that shattered the walls at Jerricho, The God that tilted the earth to the perfect angle.  A half degree one way we freeze, a half degree the other way we fry.  God is amazing!

It would be so easy for us to get caught up in this greatness and believe that we couldn't access a God like that.  It would be easy to reason that a God who deals in such gigantic absolutes doesn't have time for little ole' me.  Then we remember Jesus.  As much as God calls for caps and magnitude, Jesus calls for a breathless gasp of awe, a whisper of almost unbelief, that unspoken, "it's really him" tone in our voice.

Why?  Because he could have done anything.  God incarnate!  With a word, "Angels", and winged creatures would have swooped down with a ferocity that no Sci-Fi flick could duplicate, no CGI could mimic.  With a whisper, He could have laid waist to the Romans.  He could have flung the nails that pierced his hands past the edge of eternity.  He could have done all this, but he didn't, that's why the all but silent awe.  That's why God is not unreachable.  He put on skin, he dwelled with us.  He cried when his friend died, he laughed when his friends acted stupid by a midnight fire by the Sea.  

The greatest mystery of our faith is not creation, or the flood, or the miracles of Jesus.  The greatest mystery of our faith is why Jesus?  Why such a good man, a perfect man, had to die for us.  There are a lot of theological answers that can be proven by study of the Old Testament and New Testament fulfillment.  But today, today I submit that wrapped inside these other complicated reasons, is a simple one.  We needed a way to make God reachable.  That way is through the very welcoming and reachable Jesus.


Matthew 7:7-8

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. ⁸For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. 


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Blessed are the...who?

James 2

1My brothers, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, don't show favoritism. 2Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in shabby clothes also comes in. 3If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, "Here's a good seat for you," but say to the poor man, "You stand there" or "Sit on the floor by my feet," 4have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

How applicable is this today.  We live in a society where bigger is better and giant is best.  People are judged by the clothes they wear, the car they drive, the house they live in, etc.  We like to say that as Christians we are above this, but in all honesty most of us have experiences that tell us that is not true. 

Let me ask a couple of questions:

1)  How would folks react if someone walked into your church service with a torn pair of jeans and a messy, wrinkled t-shirt?  Would they accept them and welcome them, or would they scoot away?

2)  If the homeless shelter brought in a group of 15 men to your church service, would they be left alone or warmly greeted?

Now replace how the "church would react" with "how would you react"?  How willing are we to step out of our comfort zone, to be the first to step out and offer a hand to those who need it the most?  Remember who Jesus chose to hang out with, hint:  it wasn't the Israeli Donald Trumps.

For more devotions check out our devotions page at http://cszdevotion.blogspot.com/

Testimony

In every life there are moments that define us, that change who we are, or that remind us of who we want to be.  I think that it is important in our Christian lives that we take note of the times that God has worked in our lives and either affirmed what we know is true or, as in my case, redirect us back to the right path.

I was eighteen and on the cusp of leaving home for college.  Like most 18 year old kids, I thought I had all the answers.  When I was very young my mom had taken me and my brother to church regularly.  Once she started working outside of the home, that began to wain until it died out all together. 

An elementary school friend of mine had offered to take me with him to his church on Wednesday night for their youth program.  His name was Daniel, and as it turned out what was an offer to take me to church one Wednesday, turned out to be every Wednesday night for several years.  Every week I would hear stories from the Bible, sing songs, and spend time with friends that believed in Jesus and God.  I owe a lot to Daniel and his family!

I continued attending Wednesday night all the way through my high school years.  The teen program incorporated sports each night, especially basketball.  Now, when it comes to basketball I don't match the stereotypical player's body build.  In fact, I resemble the ball more than I do most players, but I loved to play.

It's important to the story to understand that during my teens I lost three people who were close to me.  The first of these was an uncle who had been bed ridden for years.  He would lay in his bed and tell me stories from when he was a young man in the war.  His passing was hardly unexpected, but the first time you lose someone you actually knew, that you really cared for, it's always hard.

Next was the loss of my younger cousin.  His death was a shock that came out of right field.  One moment he was a normal kid, and the next moment he was gone....

Finally came my Uncle David.  David was the cool uncle that every kid wants.  He had been a rodeo cowboy in his younger days and I can still remember riding in his truck to go watch him.  One day he left for work, and the phone call came....

As I've already admitted, I was a bit of a know it all (some might say I still am).  I had been taught the Bible, I had heard the stories, but somewhere in my mind I couldn't shake this feeling that if God loved me, all of this shouldn't be happening.  Slowly, I went from believing, to being unsure.  I wanted to believe in God, I just wasn't sure that I still did.

I still made Wednesday Night programs every week.  I wasn't going to miss basketball with the guys, and that meant still going to the lessons too. 

It was one of those hot, muggy North Carolina nights when it has rained just enough to make the asphalt steam.  My best friend and I had been to town and were riding home in his little pick-up truck.  We hadn't a care in the world.  We were heading for my house that night, talking and joking about the first thing that popped in our minds.

As the truck pitched to the right we began heading down a long, down hill turn.  I had my arm hung out the truck window, letting the warm night air rush into the cab.  There was no warning.  One moment we were flying down the hill, the next moment the truck was sliding on the passenger's side throwing sparks and debris into the open window. 

With a jerk, the truck lurched onto it's roof, still sliding down the steep hill.  We hung upside down, suspended by our seat belts, things tumbling around the cab all around us.  The roof that was now below us creaked and erupted in sparks as the asphalt ate away the sheet metal that had once covered our heads. 

I remember thinking, "Okay Lord, if you're really there this would be a good time to show it."  The truck slid to a stop and began to spin in long, slow circles.  My friend and I looked at each other a moment and in unison undid our seat belts.  We fell to the floor with a jarring thud and quickly began to army crawl our way out the window. 

Adrenaline was pumping through my veins and for the moment I thought I had escaped without much damage.  One look at Dave's pale face and drooping jaw told me a different story.  "I'm so sorry Dano," then as though talking to an invisible crowd he said, "Oh my God I've killed Dano."  Dave ran down the rest of the hill toward the nearest house still yelling and screaming that he would get help.

A bright light from the top of the hill began to pour down and I could hear the sound of tires on the wet asphalt getting closer.  For the first time I noticed the blood that was soaking my shirt and jeans, and I began to shake.

I could see the outline of people running toward me through the headlights. As they got close enough to identify, I knew my prayer had been answered.  Driving down that street, this night happened to be the youth sponsors from my Wednesday Night Church program.  They called 911, they even sent someone to go get my parents and bring them to the scene, and they stood beside me holding me and telling me that everything would be alright. 

That night they operated to clean out the debris from the accident.  They closed the gap in my arm up as well as they could.  It took stitches on the inside and outside of the arm to get the job done, though I remember them debating about a skin graph before the medicine put me under.  The scar left behind, now 13 years old, still runs from my wrist to my elbow, a constant reminder of that night.

Some may say that it was a coincidence that my youth sponsors were traveling down that road, at that time, on that night.  I know better.  I know that God was telling a confused and hurt young man that he wasn't alone, that I am never alone. I've faced many trials and hardships since that day back in 1996, but never again have I wondered if there was a God. 

I know my wife will get a kick out of this final statement.  For some people God works in gentle whispers and nudges in the right direction, for me it took running me over with a pick-up truck.  Thank God for pick-up trucks!