“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. 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. 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. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, 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, and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak.” (Ephesians 6:10-20 ESV)
Does the Lord Jesus ever speak to you through the everyday circumstances of your lives, like in parables, like he did when he lived on the earth to the people of his time, in order to illustrate biblical truth to them and to us? He does that way for me sometimes, and today was one of those times. So, I am going to share with you a little bit of that, and then how the Lord spoke to me, and it goes right along with this passage of Scripture from today.
Now, so that you can relate with what I am relaying to you, I took pictures of the setting which I will post along with this writing so that you can follow along with me. For I have a room in the apartment where my husband and I live where I have my table, which is where I write these daily devotions and sometimes poems and memes, and where I record video talks and post songs, too. And that is where I was seated as I took 2 of these photographs.
Now I looked over to my right this morning and I saw what looked like a black cockroach on the floor up against the wall underneath my walker, which was underneath my window, which was in between my bench and my closet. And to the right of where I was seated, adjacent to my closet, was my end table next to my chair, and on and/or over that table were images of lighthouses and my Bibles, hymn books, poems, and song lyrics.
Now all of these images, combined together, not only gave me a picture of the full gospel message, but also of the opposition to the true gospel, represented by the cockroach underneath (below, less than, bottom, lower). And a cockroach represents someone malicious who is morally unclean, a deceiver, a manipulator, an opportunist, someone who is opposite of good, who tells lies, who is not trustworthy, who is egocentric, who is a fake and who fakes his Christianity, and a person or a member of a group of people regarded as undesirable and rapidly procreating (breeding, multiplying).
*I took the photos after the cockroach was taken out of the picture.
So, let’s begin with the window. The curtain was opened so that I could see the light coming from the Son. This represents Jesus Christ dying for us on that cross, shedding his blood for us, which opened that curtain for us into the Holy of Holies and into a personal relationship with God – Father, Son Jesus Christ, and Holy Spirit – by genuine God-persuaded and God-gifted faith in Jesus Christ whereby we are crucified with Christ in death to sin and raised with Christ to now walk in newness of life in him, no longer to live as slaves to sin, but as slaves to God and his righteousness (Romans 6:1-23).
And the walker not only represents our walks of faith in the Lord, in conduct, and in practice, but our dependency upon our walker (the Lord Jesus Christ and his word and his Spirit) to assist us in our walks of faith and obedience to him, for without him we cannot live the Christian life. But the opposition that is lower, less than our walker are all those who dilute and alter the gospel message to make it more attractive and appealing to the flesh and who try to discourage us from relying upon the Lord and his spiritual armor with which to fight off Satan and his wicked schemes against us.
To the right of my walker, which is under the light of the Son, is my closet. And a closet is a place of storage, and can often represent our hearts, which are either surrendered to the Lord or not. And the light of the Son represents the light of life in Christ Jesus, and the truth of the gospel and of his righteousness. To the left of my walker is my bench, which to me represents the law of the Lord and his authority over my life and his justice and mercy and judgments. And then my end table, adjacent to the closet (my heart) is symbolic of the altar of God where I meet with the Lord.
On that altar of God and over it is the word of God and psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, and the light of the truth of the gospel. And the chair adjacent to it represents the authority of Jesus Christ that is over my life. So when I sit in that chair, and I study the Scriptures, and I sing the hymns and spiritual songs, and I respond to the light, this is indicative of a life that is surrendered to Jesus Christ as Lord and who is a true worshiper of him. And then across from that is my desk where I write what the Lord gives me to write each day from his word to put on the internet, which is ministry.
All of this combined together gives us a true picture of the gospel of our salvation. For Jesus Christ didn’t die on that cross just to forgive us our sins and to promise us heaven when we die. He died that we might die with him to sin daily, and that we might walk with him daily, in his power, in walks of obedience to his commands in holy living, by his grace and mercy. And all of this will transform us in our hearts and minds away from walking in sin to now walking in moral purity, uprightness, godliness, honesty, and faithfulness to our Lord and in doing what he has called each of us to do.
Now, the “cockroaches” of the world represent not only those who are teaching lies and who are deceiving people into believing that they can “believe” in Jesus, have all their sins forgiven, and be guaranteed heaven when they die, but regardless of how they live, as though that is the full gospel message, but the “cockroaches” are the lies themselves, and these false gospel presentations which don’t talk about the necessity of walking in obedience to our Lord in holy living, by his grace, and which don’t lead us to obeying our Lord in the ministry to which he has called all of us to do.
So, the Lord is telling us here in this passage that we need to daily put on (put into practice) the armor
of God, which is our salvation and his righteousness and obedience and holy living and the word of God and our testimonies for the Lord and our witness for his gospel and our service to him in ministry and our walks of faith and our prayers to God. Our hearts need to be surrendered to the Lord to doing his will and purpose for our lives so that we can refute and reject the lies of the enemy that he is throwing at us via these “cockroaches” of the world.
And so we must get rid of the “cockroaches” in our lives which might be tempting us to sin against the Lord and to receive and to accept a diluted gospel of salvation which does not require death to sin and living to the Lord in walks of faith and obedience to our Lord in holy living. And we are to receive and to apply to our lives the truth of the gospel, instead, which involves us daily putting on this armor of God to fight off Satan, which then results in the fruit of the Spirit in our lives in ministry and in character and in behaviors that are committed to the Lord and to his service.
[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; John 1:12-13; John 6:44; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 10:1-22; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-17; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; 1 Peter 1:15; 1 Pet 2:24; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]
Oh, to Be Like Thee, Blessed Redeemer
Lyrics by Thomas O. Chisholm, 1897
Music by W. J. Kirkpatrick, 1897
Oh, to be like Thee! blessèd Redeemer,
This is my constant longing and prayer;
Gladly I’ll forfeit all of earth’s treasures,
Jesus, Thy perfect likeness to wear.
Oh, to be like Thee! full of compassion,
Loving, forgiving, tender and kind,
Helping the helpless, cheering the fainting,
Seeking the wandering sinner to find.
O to be like Thee! lowly in spirit,
Holy and harmless, patient and brave;
Meekly enduring cruel reproaches,
Willing to suffer others to save.
O to be like Thee! while I am pleading,
Pour out Thy Spirit, fill with Thy love;
Make me a temple meet for Thy dwelling,
Fit me for life and Heaven above.
Oh, to be like Thee! Oh, to be like Thee,
Blessèd Redeemer, pure as Thou art;
Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;
Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrYhiK2nQBg
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