Putting on the Armor of God for the New Year
Sang Won Sur
I was doing my daily readings today, and I thought these verses may be
helpful to you as it gave me guidance on how i ought to live. This
comes from book of Ephesians 6:13-17 (NLT)
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13 Therefore, put on every piece of God’s armor so you will be able to
resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then after the battle you will
still be standing firm. 14 Stand your ground, putting on the belt of
truth and the body armor of God’s righteousness. 15 For shoes, put on
the peace that comes from the Good News so that you will be fully
prepared.16 In addition to all of these, hold up the shield of faith
to stop the fiery arrows of the devil. 17 Put on salvation as your
helmet, and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
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Here's my take on the verses --
Our lives are constantly bombarded with issues, decisions, or maybe we
can even point to temptations in our lives. We have choices to make
daily, right? It can be simple as, should i get out of my bed and do
something productive, or just keep sleeping? Spend time with family or
focus on work? Keep going with my career decisions or look into other
possibilities? Say something critical, or just remain quiet? To act
responsibly or "let someone else do it"
I think you get the drift. We all have crossroads, whether big or
small, in our daily lives.
How can we remain faithful to God in the new year? We can put our
trust in God, by putting on His armor and know that we are fully
protected and guided to what's best for our lives!
So, to break down God's armor into pieces (follow the Scriptures above
and see if God reveals other things to you)
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Belt of truth -- in the world of lies and deception, we ought to be
truthful and not lie. This may seem simple, but try to observe in your
own lives.
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Body Armor of God's righteousness -- righteousness, from the Old
Testament, has always been linked with doing the right thing, being
responsible. See Hebrews 11, Abel was considered righteous because he
gave sacrifices to God. Noah was righteous because he was reponsible
on a day-by-day basis to build that ark (for about 100 years!!! -- now
that's being responsible to the end). Abraham was considered righteous
because he left all his riches to go to a land that he didn't know.
Righteousness -- are you doing the right, responsible thing in your life?
(Note: through Jesus, we are no longer bound by keeping all the laws
-- such as going to church every Sunday. We can even be forgiven for
murder, adultery, etc through the awesome love of Jesus. BUT, as
people that love God, our fight ought to be to strive to live lives
that are righteous, and repent of our failures "when we fail" -- not
"live the way we want" and assume we are forgiven! We want to live in
obedience because of our love for God. That's our purpose for our time
on earth, to develop a love relationship with God -- and when we fail,
God provided His provision to turn back to Him through Jesus).
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Shoes of peace - Knowing that God is with you. Recognize and
internalize the good news (that God loves us, and He wants us (all
people) to love Him back, but because of our shortcomings, our
imperfections, we cannot relate with Him. Therefore, God sent Jesus to
intercede and cleanse us from our imperfections -- now we can relate
to God. God is now with us -- He is in us (the Holy Spirit)). Knowing
this Good News, knowing that God loves us and is with us is what gives
us peace. If the God of the universe is with us, who or what can harm
us? And, nudge --- He loves us!
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Shield of faith - (This is a difficult concept for me as well.) To not
rely on what is known such as sciences, medicines, but to act on
things that are unknown (For a good definition of faith, check out
Hebrews 11:1-2). Faith is linked with righteousness (see above
regarding Abel, Abraham, Noah, and others in Hebrews 11) -- you see,
these people had to act out of faith, not knowledge!
For example, I know when I drop a ball, it will fall. This is proven
fact that we can observe and see. Therefore, it's knowledge. But when
we can't make the positive correlation of cause and effect, now that
is faith.
Abel offered sacrifice to God -- did Abel really know God accepted his
sacrifice? Did Abel know exactly what kind of sacrifices God desired?
He just gave his best and held faith that God would be pleased.
Noah built the ark -- He was a queer, in our modern day terms, in the
view of others. Who would go up the highest mountain and work on
building a super-duper floating device? Building an ark on the roof of
our houses is not something considered sane, is it? Rain causing flood
is not something Noah could have proven by sciences or knowledge, Noah
had to act out of faith.
Abraham likewise, left all his riches (he was wealthy!!!) and was very
comfortable in probably his mansion with all his servants getting him
everything he needed. In our knowledge perspective, don't we just want
to remain in our state of "known", "well-established" comfort? Abraham
didn't. He moved in faith to a land he did not know. (unproven land,
not sure where he is going is 100% better for him)
So, this is where our limited knowledge are tested -- some of you may
be thinking holding/buying cash-flow businesses, properties, or
stocks, jobs, etc will lead to our success . . . but God has something
much better than that planned for us. This means we may have to be
ready to give up our common sense to follow where God leads us -- in
FAITH! Because that is better for us!
Do you see how knowledge correlates with faith? (I'm not saying
knowledge is bad here -- we just have to learn to give up even the
things we know to attain something greater).
Live by faith or knowledge? that is the question.
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Helmet of Salvation - Knowing that we are redeemed by Jesus! We know
where our future lies (to be with God), we know where our home is . .
. we know where we'll go when we pass away from earth. And we know
through whom it is (Jesus!)
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Sword of the Spirit - This is the offensive -- the rest of the armor
we put on guards us and guides us -- but the armor is not complete
without the sword.
As Jason and I observed, NY Giants offensive was awesome this year,
but their defense was terrible. When we look at the games they won, it
was often attributed to their offensive. Sometimes, offensive is a
better defense . . . this means we need to know how to use this
"sword" to win battles!
That's where Scriptures come in. Be on guard by understanding and
applying Scriptures to your lives. The Bible both guards us (gives us
peace, guidance, direction) and allows us to overcome evil
(temptations, indecision, and attacks by Satan). This is something
we'll develop as we build our relationship with God. (for any of you
interested in how to develop a relationship with God, be sure to ask
me -- and we'll walk through it together).
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Sorry for the long message -- on the outset, I didn't think I'd be
writing this long! (but I'm always wrong on the lengths of emails! we
all know this!!!). I hope this message is meaningful to you and will
guide you throughout the new year.
May the grace and love of Jesus be upon you all this new year!
-Sang
Hwang
KYU LEE
May you all have a blessed New Year, filled with much joy & happiness!
--
GPS4Jesus Ministries
http://www.gps4jesus.com
gps4...@googlegroups.com
John Chung
> Date: Fri, 1 Jan 2010 10:57:46 -0500
> Subject: [GPS4Jesus Email] Putting on the Armor of God for the New Year
> From: sa...@sangnjh.com
> To: gps4...@googlegroups.com
> CC: samt...@gmail.com; and...@gmail.com; rhj...@gmail.com; broo...@yahoo.com; bingp...@hosanna.net; brya...@gmail.com; cmm...@gmail.com; revc...@hotmail.com; dann...@gmail.com; cm1...@nyu.edu; yoonch...@hotmail.com; chu...@eden.rutgers.edu; sunji...@gmail.com; r...@getconnectedny.com; jgrah...@yahoo.com; re1...@gmail.com; jhl...@gmail.com; hsa...@gmail.com; stra...@yahoo.com; ljwl...@gmail.com; park...@gmail.com; yos...@yahoo.com; rosan...@gmail.com; joe...@joychurch.com; dlayedr...@yahoo.com
Hwang
