The Whole Armor of God

 The whole armor of God as described in Ephesians 6 tells us two important facts: 1) the enemy of God's children is strong and has evil intent for us, and 2) God has planned and prepared our defense against our enemy.  God understands our challenge and knows our weakness so He has made this armor available for us to use.  All we have to do is pt it on in order to be safe while doing daily battle.  We have truth, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation and the Word of God on our side and at our constant disposal.

                                      

Learning to live a "with-God" life

 My experience with church throughout my life has helped me understand what "with-God living" is.  Our family never attended church until I was 6 years old, but when we began attending a small church in our town, our encounters with the believers there showed us the beauty of the community of believers acting together not only in worship but also in just living life.  They taught us by example how to enjoy God's presence.  They taught us how to put God at the center of everything, even of our socializing together.  They played a huge part in preparing us for our move away from that town and into a totally different situation where we had to make our own way, so to speak.  We were able to continue our spiritual journeys on our own, without their help largely because of what those Christians in that church had taught us about God's presence in our lives.  I continue to grow spiritually through my interactions with other believers in church even now in my senior years.  I know that there are many things that are less than perfect in churches, but they can be powerful tools to help us grow spiritually, and for that I am most grateful. 

I AM

 Jesus' "I am" statements reveal a lot to me about God and my relationship to Him as His child.  They cover the gamut of human life experiences and that alone tells me that God is interested in all aspects of my life.  He wants to be a part of it all, provision of my needs ("I am the Light of the World", "I am the Bread of Life") to guidance and protection ("I am the Good Shepherd", "I am the Way") to security and peace ("I am the Resurrection and the Life", "I am the Vine").  It culminates in His offer of salvation from sin and spiritual death ("I am the Truth", "I am the Life").  The rest of Scripture confirms the truth and validity of Jesus'  "I am" statements and my own experiences in life of seeing those statements fulfilled is all the extra confirmation I need that I am living a "with-God" life.  For that I will be

eternally grateful.

God's encouraging presence

 The promise of God's presence is the most fundamental assurance I have in my faith.  What does this do for my sense of security in life?  It give me courage to face any situation that I find in my life journey.  It has given me enough hope to let things happen and trust God for the outcome even though I cannot see that outcome at the moment.  As I look back on experiences I have had in the past, I find myself surprised at how I responded at the time.  I often think, "I would not respond that way now," but I know that is not true because it was God's presence in my life that helped me then just as I would anticipate God's presence to make that difference now as well.  As I need the help, I receive it, not before and not later, but right at the time I need it.  God's presence through His Holy Spirit provides the peace and courage necessary for every situation.

My Divine Tour Guide

 I was thinking of the metaphor of Jesus as the Good Shepherd, which is a beautiful metaphor but basically meaningless to the contemporary American society because we do not have shepherds.  We do not get the fullness of meaning from it like the people of Bible times, or people in countries that still have shepherds the way they did in Bible times.  The first thing that came to my mind that might be a contemporary metaphor is that of a tour guide.

When you engage a company to take you on a trip, the tour guide has decided the route you will take and the sights you will stop to see.  The guide arranges all the transportation, the hotels, and the places to eat.  They tell you what to expect and they make explanations when necessary as you go along the journey.  If an emergency arises, you call the guide and they help with whatever the need is.  

All the responsibilities of the trip are on the guide.  All I do is pay for the ticket and make personal choices in a few things, but otherwise I just enjoy the trip.

I have paid for my ticket by accepting Christ as my personal Savior.  He is now my tour guide for my journey of life.  Part of His "job" is to plan my journey, where I'll go, how long I will stay at each place, it's all laid out for me to follow along.  He will take care of me and make sure I have everything I need for my trip and will make sure I get home safe and sound.

So far, for 70+ years now, He has done a wonderful job at being my tour guide.  I plan to let Him guide me for the rest of the journey until we reach heaven.

Jesus is my Good Shepherd and my Divine Tour Guide.

It is so unfair!

 I had a conversation this week with some friends in which we were lamenting the increased dishonesty in our society, dishonesty that is known and accepted with nothing being done (so it seems) about it.  Honesty no longer seems to be the best policy.  Consequently, in some settings, hones people are a great disadvantage.  This has been the case for a long time, we all know, but it seems like in recent years it has become more "acceptable."  It is frustrating to the one who is trying to live a godly, Christlike life to be thwarted in your effort to be honest, but that is increasingly often the case.

This morning when I read Psalm 141, I immediately thought of that conversation.

Psalm 141:5 yet my prayer is continually against their evil deeds.

David had a lot of trouble that came from wicked people who for one reason or another wanted to harm him and destroy the good he had done or was trying to do.  He was determined to not become like them.  His prayer often included words such as found earlier in this psalm (verse 4): “Do not let me incline to any evil, to busy myself with wicked deeds in company with men who work iniquity, and let me not eat of their delicacies!”  In fact, not only did David pray for his own spiritual protection, he went so far as to pray against the evil deeds going on around him.  I thought of a conversation I had yesterday with some friends about the unfairness we see in our own 2021 society where being honest in one’s dealing so often put you at a great disadvantage.  It is hard to remain honest when you see those who are dishonest gain what looks like the advantage, and nothing is done about it.  How can a Christian manage in such a situation?  I think I see at least a partial answer to that question in this psalm.,  You pray two things regularly: 1) pray that you will not compromise what you know God wants you to be and do as a child of His to be a good example to those around you, and 2) you pray that He will thwart the efforts of those who are dishonest.  We cannot control what others do like we can control our own actions, so we do what we can and leave the rest in God’s hands, just as David did in Psalm 141, we pray against the evil deeds of those around us while we pray for their spiritual renewal.

Using pastel colors

 I discovered this week that I tend to use brighter colors on my cards, which surprised me.  I know that sounds silly ... that I could not discern my own tendencies ... but it just had not dawned on me that this was the case until I decided to try to do a card for the current Retro Rubber Challenge Blog.  The current challenge is to make a card using pastels, and here is my entry:

I had some pastel green paper with small white dots that I used for the background.  I wanted something that would look nice along with the pink with pale green dots that served as the background for the Bible verse stamp I used.  The stamp is from 1998 so it certainly qualifies for that challenge!  I also used a stamp inside that says "From my heart to yours".  It is a 2007 stamp.