Monday, May 5 - by Pamela

Today's passage from the Bible In a Year Reading Plan is 1 Samuel 11-12, Psalm 89, John 21

Today's scripture focus is Ephesians 6:15-16

Ephesians 6:15-16

New International Version (NIV)

¹⁵ and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. ¹⁶ In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.

Scripture: verse 16- In addition to all of this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.

Observation: "In addition to all of this". All. of. this. Be prepared. Even if you are totally prepared you will never know what kind of "flaming arrows" will come your way.

Application: My daughter, Kiandra, has had the fortunate opportunity to be a movie Stand-In for a made for tv Christmas movie and the final day of shooting for the movie was yesterday. The final scene they were shooting involved a fire scene where a Christmas tree was knocked over and it bursts into flames and causes the sprinklers to be set off where the actors run through the mess, past the burning flames, and to safety out the door.

Have you ever seen a fire spread like crazy? It's actually kind of nuts.

Before they even set the scene, they had a safety meeting with all the people on set--everyone had to be there to be checked in and counted. Hair, make-up, costume, set people, camera people, prop and light people, actors, caterers, stand-ins (and their moms!). We had to hear the plan, to know what to do, and to be prepared to evacuate if necessary. Crazy. They had firemen on set and trucks outside with their hoses set up inches from the scene. Just. In. Case.

The scene was set and before filming began, everyone had to gather in one room and be counted. Then "Picture's Up!" was called and then "Rolling!" and so it went. They had set up a monitor for us all to watch and we could see the controlled plan and camera zooming in on the smoke as it started and then the rapid flames that rose up and licked the ceiling. You could almost seem to feel the heat through the screen. Thankfully, everything went as planned and the scene was captured without injury and the fire was controlled quickly and put out.

What about if the fire scene had NOT been planned out as well? What about if precautions were not in place to ensure people would be safe? What about if the fire went out of control and the entire studio burned to the ground? What about if the fire was started by a "flaming arrow" and not the flick of a series of switches? What about if the "flaming arrow" came out of no where and hit a target that was not expecting it.

It is our "shield of faith" that protects us as Christians from the evil one. Our faith is like our safety meeting, our head count, our evacuation plan. When we are prepared, we can stand against our flaming arrows that threaten us.

Prayer: Dear Lord, You have given us all the pieces of armour that we need to protect ourselves. Help us to put it on, wear it proudly, and be prepared for the times we will be attacked. Lord, when the flaming arrows of life come, remind us that we already have everything we need to guard against them. We forget sometimes. We think we can do it on our own. We often don't even fully understand the danger that flames can have on us if we are not prepared for them. Amen.

Tomorrow's scripture focus: Ephesians 6:17

Tomorrow's Bible In a Year Passage passage: 1 Samuel 13-14, Psalm 90, Acts 1