“Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand firm therefore, 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 evil one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” (Ephesians 6:13-17 NASB1995)
Taking up the full armor of God is not some kind of
religious ritual we go through. This is about how we are to be living day by
day, in practice, as followers of Jesus Christ. And to stand firm is not just
to recite some kind of religious doctrinal statement, either. It is not lip
service only. As those who profess faith in Jesus Christ, we are to be those
who are putting that faith into practice in our daily lives by the things that
we do and believe and practice and say, which are in alignment with God’s will
for our lives.
So, if we are those who are standing firm on the truth of
God’s Word, then we need to be students of the Scriptures who are studying them
in their correct and appropriate context, and who are putting the teachings of
Christ, which are intended for his church, into practice in our daily lives. So
daily we are to be putting sin to death, by the Spirit, and we are to be
walking (in conduct, in practice) in obedience to our Lord’s commandments under
the New Covenant God has with both Jew and Gentile, by faith in Jesus Christ.
And we are to be those who are testing the spirits to see
whether or not they are of God, so that we don’t end up believing and putting
into practice the lies of the enemy and not the truth of God’s word. For lies
and liars abound in our world today, and so many professing Christians are
believing and living the lies and not the truth of God’s Word. For they are not
students of the Scriptures who are seekers of truth and righteousness, but they
are those who want an easy way to heaven without having to change course.
So, know the truth. Believe the truth. And then be those who
are daily putting that truth into practice, by the Spirit, by the grace of God.
And righteousness is not just being made right with God via
a confession of Christ as Lord and Savior. For righteousness is not just “the
approval of God,” but it “refers to what is deemed right by the Lord (after His
examination), i.e. what is approved in His eyes” (source: bible hub
interlinear). And what is approved by God is all that is holy, just, godly,
morally pure, upright, honest, faithful, and obedient to our Lord and to his
commandments. We must die to sin and obey God to meet his approval.
And then we are to be those who are taking the message of
the gospel of Christ to the people of the world. And right now, the internet is
still wide open for us to share the truth of the gospel (at least here in the
USA), but it won’t be indefinitely. But we must be diligent to make certain
that the gospel message we are sharing is the one taught by Jesus Christ and by
his New Testament apostles, in their correct, appropriate, and biblical
context. For a false gospel message is what is presently permeating “the
church.”
For Jesus Christ taught that to come to him we must deny
self, take up our cross daily (die daily to sin), and follow (obey) him. For if
we hold on to living in sin and for self, we will lose our lives for eternity.
But if we deny self, die daily to sin, by the Spirit, and we walk in obedience
to our Lord and to his commands, in his power, then we have eternal life with
God. For not everyone who calls him “Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven,
but the one DOING (obeying) the will of God (see Luke 9:23-26; Matthew
7:21-23).
And the faith to believe in Jesus Christ is not lip service
only, and it is not something of human flesh, so we do not get to decide what
that faith looks like. For the faith to believe in Christ comes from God, it is
persuaded of God, and it is gifted to us by God. And God persuades us as to his
holiness and righteousness, and of our sinfulness, and of our need to die with
him to sin and to now walk in obedience to his commands in holy living, by the
grace of God, in the power of God, and not of human flesh.
By God-gifted faith in Jesus Christ, which is not of our own
doing, we are crucified with Christ in death to sin and raised with Christ to
walk in newness of life in him, no longer to live as slaves to sin but as
slaves to righteousness in walks of obedience to God’s commands. We are no
longer to permit sin to reign in our mortal bodies to make us obey its desires.
For if sin is what we obey, it results in death. But if obedience to God is
what we obey, it results in sanctification, and its end is eternal life with
God (see Romans 6:1-23).
For our salvation is not just deliverance from the
punishment of sin so that, when we die, we get to go to heaven, and not to
hell. By faith in our Lord we are delivered out of our slavery to sin so that
we can now live holy lives in walks of obedience to our Lord, and no longer as
slaves to sin. This is what our salvation is all about. And we learn about all
of this when we are students of the Scriptures who study them in context, and
then, by the grace of God, we are putting the Word of God in daily practice in
our lives.
[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 1:12-13; John
6:44; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 2:6-8; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; 1
Corinthians 10:1-22; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32;
Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; Hebrews 12:1-2;
1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:5-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10]
My Sheep
Based off John 10:1-30 NIV
An Original Work / June 24, 2012
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love
My sheep hear me.
They know me.
They listen to my
voice and obey.
I call them and lead
them.
They know my voice,
so they follow me.
They will never
follow strangers.
They will run away
from them.
The voice of a
stranger they know not;
They do not follow
him.
So, I tell you the
truth that
I am the gate, so
you enter in.
Whoever does enter
Will find
forgiveness and will be saved.
Nonetheless whoever
enters
Not by the gate;
other way,
He is the thief and
a robber.
Listen not, the
sheep to him.
Oh, I am the Good
Shepherd,
Who laid his own
life down for the sheep.
I know them. They
know me.
They will live with
me eternally.
The thief only comes
to steal and
Kill and to destroy
the church.
I have come to give
you life that
You may have it to
the full…
They know my voice,
so they follow me.
In Daily Practice
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