Hey Gang: As you
traverse through the day do you look for those wonderful object lessons that
God provides for us? Several days ago I was cutting and splitting
some wood in preparation for the coming fuzzy-white-stuff season. There
were several types of wood in the pile, some easy and some more
difficult. I had forgotten about an old elm tree that came down in
a recent storm; it was hard as flint.
I learned
very rapidly that if I tried to go at the strength of those pieces, the
eight-horse splitter did not have the power to penetrate and split the
log. But, if I studied the piece and looked for the fault line in the log
and zeroed in on that weakness, I was able to split the log and, once it was split,
the rest of the splitting process became much easier.
Throughout the
day, each time I ran into a piece of that tough elm tree, God reminded me of
Paul's words in Ephesians 6:10, "Finally, be strong in the Lord
and in the strength of His might". I have mentioned, in
morning messages before, that I am a very weird person - I love to cut the
grass. I get great joy in getting on that noisy machine and making a
skillion revolutions around the yard. Why, because I can sing at the top
of my lungs and no one can hear me. I have found that singing brings joy to my
heart. Nehemiah tells me "The joy of the Lord is my
Strength".
Paul continued on in his
letter to the Ephesians giving us the formula for living a life of victory and
joy: First, and foremost, "put on the full armor or
God". Why? "So that you can "stand firm
against the schemes of the devil." How many know that when
our house is built on the sand, we are like the foolish builder described by
Matthew whose house could not stand against the storms?
Paul does not leave it there. He
always states the principle he is trying to teach us and then hangs the whys
and wherefores on the knobs that follow: "For our struggle is not
against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against
the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness
in the heavenly places." (Eph. 6:11-17).
Do you agree with me that we are in an
evil age when everything that can be shaken is being shaken? Paul
closes his teaching on the importance of having every piece of the armor of God
in place with this challenge "Therefore, take up the full armor of God,
so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything,
so stand firm" (vs, 18)
An old-salt-country
preacher, after reading these words, "Stand firm having girded
your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and
having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace, in addition
to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish
all the flaming arrows of the veil one and take the helmet of salvation, and
the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God' (Eph. 6:14-17) said,
when all the parts are in place, Satan cannot tell you from Jesus Himself!
So, time for
me to close this and you to do a quick inventory - make sure you have all the
pieces of God’s armor in place. Why don't you drop what you are doing for
a moment or two and join me- Your eternal life may depend on it.
Blessings,
Gramps
PS - Most of you know that Gramps was diagnosed with Cancer
earlier this year. Chemo affects even the thinking processes, so gramps has not
written new blogs for several months. Fortunately,
We had a backlog of ones he had written. Those of you who know our family will realize
this was written some years ago; our grandson is now a College Freshman! As we begin this New Year, we will continue
to rewrite some of the blogs from years ago.
If we have forgotten what they say, so will you. we will try to post one a week, but some
weeks get a bit hectic.
We continue to pray and believe for God’s complete healing. Gma
No comments:
Post a Comment