Armour Of God

January 23, 2009 at 4:02 pm (Armour of God)

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                                    Valerie Balzan

This is a new series being presented by Valerie Balzan who is on the Leadership Team at Liveseed International Church, Qormi, Malta.  The Christian believer is called upon to wear the divine armour that the Lord has provided and know what each piece is for in the contest with Satan and the evil agencies under his control. There is a spiritual war on and every Christian soldier must be fully armed and trained for battle and experience supreme conquest

 

THE ARMOUR OF GOD – Part 4

 

The Girdle of Truth (Section B “The Big Squeeze!”)

 

Text: Ephesians 6:10-18

 

At the root of sin is a stubborn resistance to deal with truth. We are often in denial about ourselves and secretly hope that God will overlook our failings. Yet David wrote in Psalm 51:6 “You desire truth in the inward parts.” As a girdle squeezes you in and makes you feel rather uncomfortable, so God’s truth will give a “push” to your soul and make you feel uncomfortable when you are walking in dishonesty. The key to victory is repentance and action.

 

What action? Psalm 119 gives us the answer. Verse 30 says “I have chosen the way of truth” – that’s the first thing to do. Make a quality decision that God is always right and that you will obey Him. This gives great pleasure to God for it is a wonderful act of worship. Then verse 30 says that “Your judgments I have laid before me” That’s the opening of the Bible and reading it and getting guidance from it. Verse 31 says “I cling to Your testimonies.” Once you know the truth then hold onto it and don’t let it go. Verse 32 then declares, “I will run the course of Your commandments, for You shall enlarge my heart.” Once God sees that you are serious about living by the truth, then He will give you the grace to do so. He will increase your desire to do so and that motivation will ensure your success.

 

In Ephesians 6:14 (KJV) Paul talks of “having your loins girt about with truth.” The loins represent our most private areas. We must guard our love of the truth so that there is no barrier between us and the Lord. The loins speak of life and reproduction. Whatever calling we have on our lives, we must seek to reproduce it in the lives of others. – 2 Timothy 2:2. If you love sharing your faith with non-believers and find that many respond to you, then find some baby Christians in which you discern the same gifting and teach and encourage them to step out in faith and do the same. God has called us to “reproduce after our own kind” – Genesis 1:22, 24, 28. But if the truth is not in us, we will produce “mixed seed.” Just take a look at the lives of people who attend churches where they preach a gospel of compromise so as not to offend the congregation and to make a name for themselves as being “seeker friendly.” Often the motive is the thought of large collections every Sunday. Their churches are often splendid looking and you will find honour given to the wealthy and influential. Yet their meetings are lifeless because God does not tabernacle where the truth is absent. Paul warns about this in 2Timothy 3:5 “having a form of godliness but denying it’s power”

 

He goes on in verses 8 and 9 to say “Now as Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses, so do these resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, disapproved concerning the faith; but they will progress no further for their folly will be manifest to all, as theirs also was.” Usually the children of such “Christians” are not fooled by the hypocrisy of their parents and the church dies at the end of their generation. How sad! God has not called us to death but to life. Let us open our hearts to let the Lord deal with our secret weaknesses and sinful motives, so that our service to Him will be honest and life-producing. Let us be unafraid to teach/preach/live the truth.

 

The last text in the above paragraph starts as a warning in verse 1. “But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come:” Today we are truly living in perilous times. People have cast off spiritual values and true morality. They call evil “good” and they call good “evil”. Those who are committed to Jesus Christ have to work with these people and live among them. As these ungodly men and women make ungodly laws, so oppression increases over our lives. How important it is for us to value, hold onto and live according to God’s holy truth. It will protect us and hold us steady in life’s battles. It is armour.

 

Lastly let us strive to always speak the truth. That might seem an obvious thing to do in light of what I’ve just shared. However I am referring to using the voice to be creative. Speaking creative and faith-filled words into a conversation can change the course of that conversation. It creates a godly atmosphere. Speaking words of life over our children can cause them to have a higher vision of themselves and release in them a sense of destiny; of God having great plans for their lives. That will often motivate a child far more than all the complaining, criticising, negative and often abusive words that parents sometimes speak over them. Usually the parent is frustrated by the child’s behaviour but their way of dealing with it isn’t godly. Correct gently but firmly and then speak often of the Lord’s love for them and how He and you value them. That will stop the enemy from speaking other ways of seeking value into their ears.

 

This is truly spiritual warfare! For the sake of the kingdom of God and for the next generation, let us speak truth and life.

 

Further study

Psalm 86:11;  Psalm 15:1-5  Proverbs 4:20-23   Proverbs 15:4   Proverbs 16:24  Romans 1:25   John 8:31,32   

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Dave’s Snippets

January 23, 2009 at 3:57 pm (Dave's Snippets)

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                                           Dr. David Allen

AMEN

 

The word “Amen” and, even to unbelievers, both is known well and understood:  it means  “OK”, “I agree”, “Indeed”, or “So be it”. We find the word, or sometimes the sentiments of it, at several crucial moments in Scripture, as we shall now see.

 

Before the creation of the world, there was a dialogue within the circle of the Trinity (see Psalm 40 and Hebrews 10:5-8). The response to the request of the Father was: “Father, you don’t want endless sacrifices, weekly, daily and yearly ones; You are going to give me a body so I can offer the final and ultimate sacrifice.” That final sacrifice was only made possible by the incarnation of Jesus through the conception via the Holy Spirit coming upon Mary. In Heaven the Son gave a heartfelt “Amen”   to the Father’s request for a  Divine Saviour!

 

But then, in Nazareth, in response   to    the    Lord’s word through the Angel Gabriel, Mary was equally positive. Even though it was an honour to be chosen to be the mother of Messiah, we must never forget that it entailed suffering and even the possibility of scandal. And at that dreaded hour, she watched her son suffer the horrendous death of crucifixion. Knowing all this, she said, “May it be according to your word. Through her “Amen” the unique conception of God’s Son took place!

 

Approximately three years later, in the Garden of Gethsemane, faced with   the horrors   of trial, beatings and Crucifixion, His faith  began to waver: “ If there is another way, Father?” But His “Amen” was as strong as it has been in the premundane question from His Father: “ Not my will, but  your will be done!  On that response   the fate of mankind rested. He went to Golgotha. Hallelujah!  

 

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Word Studies

January 23, 2009 at 3:52 pm (Word Studies)

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                                        Rev. K. W. Munday

WORD STUDIES

 

Word Studies is presented by Rev. K. W. Munday, retired minister and former General Secretary of Assemblies of God for many years. He has served the body of Christ with grace and distinction, is an excellent, quality preacher and speaker, broadcaster, writer of books and still active in Christian service. His contributions here on Word Studies should prove a great means of blessing, inspiration and instruction.

 

ORDINARY

 

There is nothing very exciting about this word. lt’s just .. well, ordinary! And it describes the common lot of most people, because we are ordinary. Those who make it to the top of their profession or shine as celebrity stars in the media are relatively the privileged few.

 

But surely the time has come in praise of-the ordinary. To start with we are in the majority, and to tell the truth we support the extra-ordinaries. The politicians get it from our taxes; the footballers get it from the turn- stiles, and the entertainers from the box office. We are not envious of them (well some aren’t) but where would they be if it came to a show- down? They’d learn who butters their bread!

 

When you consider it, we are the oil that keeps society’s engine running smoothly, for instance when the Queen is travelling and her car develops a fault or even a puncture, she does not send for one of her cabinet ministers, no, she sends for an unknown Joe Bloggs who works at the local garage. Or, a thousand passengers step off the morning rush-hour train and pass the driver’s cab without a word of thanks let alone a tip. That anonymous engineer who brought them safely to their destination was just one o f the ordinaries.

 

There’s and interesting verse in the New Testament (1 Cor.1:26) about people becoming Christians. It says ”not many noble are called” – that’s because there aren’t many compared with us, although it doesn’t say “not any.” They can come as well if they want to. Another verse, considered to be one of the greatest in the Bible is John 3:16 ‘”For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life”, and if you consider that carefully, it’s good news because if He loved the world, and we are in the majority then God must love us! And when we accept that love, the Bible states that we become the children of God. Eh! So we’re not so ordinary after all!

 

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