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The Armor of God

During a message on spiritual defense, I ran out of time to cover all the elements of the Armor of God. I promised the church a video appendix on the message. Thought I would go beyond the borders of our church and share it with the CrossEyedLife community.

Here it is… many blessings!

The Whole Armor of God

Ephesians 6:10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. 14 Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. 16 In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; 17 and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, 18 praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, 19 and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak.

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Checked your wall lately?

What do you do when you focus in the wrong direction?

I’m not talking about just looking the wrong way, I mean pointing all your energy in the wrong direction.

I heard it said once that the greatest tragedy in life is to spend all your years climbing the ladder of life, only to find out you had it leaning on the wrong wall.

In ancient Hebrew, this particular human condition is pronounced “bi-gbu-mmer.”

It’s one thing to see a life lived poorly day after day, month after month, and year after year. It’s usually the product of bad circumstances, poor decisions or any number of factors that require a major life change to overcome.

What do you do when your focus is in the wrong direction like that?

Counseling… move across the country… go back to Continue reading “Checked your wall lately?”

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The Glory of Moms

Jochebed. Now there is a name for you.

Of all the biblical names you might know, this probably isn’t one of them.

Go ahead, take your guess: some incredible warrior whose story is tucked away deep in 2 Chronicles, a prophet who didn’t last long at the hands of Babylonians, or a Pharisee who conspired against Jesus?

Nope, she’s a mom.

But, not just any mom. Jochebed is the mother of Moses.

I love her story.

She was a mother in unfortunate circumstances. She was a slave in Egypt while a partial genocide was in progress. Baby Hebrew boys were being sacrificed to the Egyptian God of the Nile.

She defied the authorities and hid her son for three months. When hiding him was no longer possible, she got a basket and set him afloat on the Nile where he was discovered by Egyptian royalty and adopted.

This is the story of motherhood.

Perseverance. Even in the most difficult of circumstances she never gave up. She was a slave (any mothers beginning to identify?) in a culture so difficult to raise a child she literally had to save his life everyday.

Humility. Her name is hard to find, let alone spell. She is not even identified in this story that describes her most memorable moment. Its chapters later, in the genealogy of her son, that we finally see her name.

Risky. Hiding her son not only implied he was in danger, but her actions now put her and the rest of her family in danger, too. But, it didn’t matter. She made the decision that being a mother was risky business.

Creative. Without the back story, placing your child in a basket and floating him downstream hoping something good might happen probably won’t win you the mother of the year award. But in reality, this was brilliantly creative: children were daily being sacrificed in the river and a floating basket with a boy inside would not be out of place, placing the child in the reeds so that he would not float aimlessly was strategic, and selecting a spot on the river where he could be discovered by the only ones who could save him… that’s how biblical mommas roll!

This Mother’s Day weekend I hope you will celebrate the mothers in your life. Whether it’s your mom, your children’s mom, or just a mom near you, I hope you’ll take time to be thankful and thank them.

For all the times moms have persevered by making those sack lunches creative when the budget was tight. For all the times mom humbly helped with homework for which she never got a gold sticker. For all the times mom risked personal safety to stare down that bully who dared lay a hand on her baby. And, for all the times mom creatively schemed, manipulated and implemented her “whatever it takes” plan to get you in the church; we say thank you.

Mom, you are amazing and today we call you Jochebed, whose name in the original Hebrew means, “Glory of God.”

We see His glory in you… Happy Mother’s Day.

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When you can’t wait on hope

Don’t you hate that, “We’ve got good news and we’ve got bad news” conversation.

It’s always followed up with the question, “Which one do you want first?”

Neither! Why don’t you go back out the door, fix the bad news and then come back in here with just good news… sound like a plan?

But, it never happens that way. Taking the good with the bad just seems to be one of the natural processes of life:

  • You get unexpected cash, and the car breaks down
  • You get some time off, you get a cold
  • You get married, you… wait, I think you get it

It’s a pattern that plays out almost everyday, but the blessings are hard to see. For example, you would not have had the money to fix the car (bad news) if the unexpected money hadn’t showed up (good news).

This same pattern seems to be confirmed in Continue reading “When you can’t wait on hope”

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You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means

I love Easter! I even love Easter for the stuff that we “serious” Christians should not love it for:

  • small children in new Easter clothes
  • that fake plastic grass you put in the bottom of Easter baskets
  • Cadbury eggs… Oh, thank you heaven above for those eggs
  • the knowledge that the week after Easter they’ll start putting the Christmas displays up at Walmart

I just love this time of year, even for those nonreligious, way over-commercialized things. But, the reason I love Easter the most is because of what this time of year means for people of faith.

We celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ. We were lost in our sin and desperately needed a Savior. The God of the universe became flesh for us, lived a perfect life, died a sacrificial death, all for the purpose of paying the price for us, a debt that He did not owe. Then after three days in the tomb, He rose from the dead putting an exclamation point where the devil wanted to put a question mark.

He’s alive!

The resurrection of Jesus Christ proves that He is who He said He was; that He had the authority to do what He came to do. Easter is awesome.
Every year during this holiday I feel the need to clarify some Christian vocabulary. I think we have trouble with the word Continue reading “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means”

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When walking on water is only step one…

I must give credit where it is due.

I have been reading a book by Pastor Steven Furtick called Sun Stand Still. I’m not finished with it so I can’t fully recommend it yet, but so far… pretty awesome (Kindle says I’m 59% finished, so, I give it a full 59% endorsement).Sun Stand Still Cover

By the way, it may be a while before I finish. It’s a treadmill book which makes it pretty slow going. Highlighting is almost impossible.

One of the great concepts in the book is with worth repeating, but as any even mediocre preacher worth his weight in bulletins knows, you can’t just repeat it. You have to improve it.

I got this.

I love the concept of hearing, speaking and doing. If we are going to have audacious faith that allows us to be used by God to do what would be impossible without Him, we must be in the Biblical pattern of hearing, speaking and doing. According to Furtick:

  • Hearing the Word initiates faith
  • Speaking the Word activates faith
  • Doing the Word demonstrates faith

One without the other two is pointless. Two without the third is a shame. All three together are a powder keg of spiritual movement that comes from, operates in and produces God stuff in our lives.

Continue reading “When walking on water is only step one…”

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Just hanging with the herd

My wife and I argue regularly about two things in our life. Argue might be too strong of a word. It’s more like regularly spaced, prolonged, futile debates.

We’ve been ‘discussing’ them for so long that we actually smile during these confrontations, realizing neither one will move the other… and, we’re growing kind of conformable with that scenario.

I guess thats just marriage…

Continue reading “Just hanging with the herd”

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Let it flow…

As a church we are in the midst of a series of material called The Blessed Place On Earth.

I love the concept of blessing in Scripture. I love the way God’s people long for blessing. I have prayed the prayer’s with others, for others and for myself that God’s blessing would fall.

But, this series has led me into a direction of remembering one of the oldest promises for God’s people. That we are to become a blessing for those around us.

It is quite clear that God does not bless His children so that they can become a stock tank full of blessing. He blesses His children so that they can become a free flowing stream of blessing to  the world around them.

If you have ever seen a stock tank that has sat unattended for a long time without circulation or changing, that water gets nasty! The same is true with the believer who continually stockpiles blessings and never becomes a blessing to those around them.

The best way to make your blessings continue, to make an impact in this generation, is to make sure that every blessing on you, passes through you, to become a blessing to someone else near you. That’s what we mean by making our homes the most blessed places on Earth.

But it’s not just our homes, we need our churches, schools, workplaces, and every other place that Christians go to be places of blessing as it drips off of us, after God rained it down upon us.

So, what is this incredible Scripture that teaches us to not only receive blessing, but to be a blessing. We find it in Genesis 12:

Continue reading “Let it flow…”

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When you’re hot, you’re hot

The world is perishing for lack of the knowledge of God and the Church is famishing for want of His Presence. The instant cure of most of our religious ills would be to enter the Presence in spiritual experience, to become suddenly aware that we are in God and that God is in us. This would lift us out of our pitiful narrowness and cause our hearts to be enlarged. This would burn away the impurities from our lives as the bugs and fungi were burned away by the fire that dwelt in the bush. – A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit Of God 

 

 

A simple thought today. Not one to change a belief system, or alter the course of one’s destiny (Calvinists should be happy with that line since I said destiny, and Arminians should be happy since I mentioned altering it). 

This is a thought I have been pondering  since a phone call with a friend a few weeks ago. He and I had been reading A.W.  Tozers “Pursuing God” (one of the best books in the universe, by the way). He called me as I was sitting in the drive through of our bank and asked, “Why does this guy compare God to fire? I thought that was the symbol for the devil.” 

The question really caused me to think and admit, that our culture really does associate fire/flames with evil and satanic (I don’t capitalize that name on purpose, just so you know). 

I’m sure its because of our Holoywood-esque images of hell. 

Continue reading “When you’re hot, you’re hot”