Wednesday, May 14th

Today's passage from the Bible In a Year Reading Plan is 1 Samuel 29-30; Psalm 96; Acts 7

Today's scripture focus is Genesis 1:9-13

Sorry for the delay in today`s post - life happened.

Genesis 1:9-13

English Standard Version (ESV)

9 And God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. 10 God called the dry land Earth and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good.
11 And God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.” And it was so. 12 The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.13 And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.

Accompanying John MacArthur sermon: Creation Day 3

Can you imagine witnessing the amazing display of God's power through creation?  Obviously there were no human observers, but wouldn't it be amazing?!  The angels were likely there to watch it happen - which would make sense because that would give glory to God the Creator.

In his sermon, MacArthur acknowledges that there is no place in the Bible that specifically states when angels were created, but we do know several things about them.
What is definite is that they are creatures and they were created and they did have a beginning. They are immortal. Once created they live forever. But only the triune God is eternal, without beginning and without ending. Angels are created beings.
Job tells us they were there worshiping God when the foundations of the earth were laid - which would either mean Day 1 or Day 3, depending on how you would interpret the the foundations of the earth being laid - either the original formless void earth of Day 1, or the shaped earth of Day 3.

Before Day 3 we have an unformed earth, light, and a vast universe (and possibly angels).  Now, on Day 3 God forms the earth by gathering the waters into one place and letting dry land appear.
MacArthur's commentary:
This was caused by a tremendous, cataclsymic upheaval of the earth's surface, and the rising and sinking of the land, which caused the waters to plunge into the low places, forming the seas, the continents and islands, the rivers and lakes.

Can you imagine that?  Simply awe inspiring.

The continents could quite possibly have all been joined together (called Pangaea), until the flood`s breaking up of the tectonic plates where the fountains of the deep broke apart the continent into it`s current form.

Incredible. The majesty of creation takes my breath away.

God also made plants today - which is neat, considering at this point light existed, but not the sun.  God created the plants in a mature state, with seeds already in the vegetation, ready and capable of reproduction.
God set in motion a providential process whereby the vegetable kingdom could reproduce through seeds which would maintain each one`s unique characteristics. The same phrase is used to describe the perpetuating reproduction of animals within their created species, and indicates that evolution, which proposes reproduction across species lines, is a false explanation of origins. 

MacArthur also make an interesting note about a well-known fable - Rahab (pronounced rahHOB) was a legend, a sea monster who fought the gods in creation to stop them from creating dry land.
this legend found its way into some of the rabbinical tradition. And Rahab then became a name that would refer to any sort of...any reality or any fantasy which caused havoc, which rebelled against God, which fought against divine purposes, or the people of God. And you find a number of references to Rahab, to the sea monster in rabbinic literature. They called Rahab the lord of the sea, the great monster of the sea, I suppose his name would be Neptune. And he was always opposing the will of God in these legends. But the Holy One was able to contain him and control him.

It seems as if the Jews then borrowed the idea of Rahab and turned it into a sort of a metaphor for anything that resisted the power of God, anything real or anything in fantasy that resisted the power of God. And you find the references to Rahab, as I noted them, all throughout Old Testament wisdom literature. (Job 7:12, 9:13, Isaiah 51:9, Psalm 89:10)

What is so interesting to me about that is when you come to the Genesis account and the actual account of creation, there is no Rahab...there is no sea monster. There is no other existing power. There is no other existing force or existing deity in a sea monster form. What you have in Genesis is a very careful detailed believable real account of creation with nothing poetic, nothing legendary, nothing mythical whatsoever....The writer of Genesis meticulously avoided making any use whatsoever of a well-known legend that even appears in other wisdom literature, and is even referred to by the prophet Isaiah. He using it metaphorically to speak of anything that reeks rebellion and havoc. There was no such battle (in creation). God said it and it was so.
The writer of Genesis was careful to write this out as historical fact, not allegory or poetic license.

One other note MacArthur makes.  God refers to the light as being good, but He doesn`t refer to the earth that way on Day 2 because it wasn`t yet habitable for humans.  After Day 3, it had reached the point where it could contain and sustain life, and God called it good.

What an amazing God we serve!

Tomorrow's scripture focus: Genesis 1:14-19

Tomorrow's Bible In a Year Passage passage: 1 Samuel 31; Psalm 97; Acts 8

Tuesday - May 13 - Tiffany

Today's passage from the Bible In a Year Reading Plan is 1 Samuel 27-28; Psalm 95, Acts 6

Today's scripture focus is Genesis 1:6-8

And God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” ⁷ And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so. ⁸ And God called the expanse Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.

Remember coloring as a little kid? If you were like my daughter, the entire page starting where the grass ends all the way to the top of the page is blue. That is the sky.
If you were like me, there was a green strip at the bottom of the page, a blue strip at the top of the page, and the white in between was, well, was air.

If you were God, the page would have blue at the bottom, blue at the top, and the white would be Heaven.

But is this Heaven, like the spiritual heaven? Is this heaven like space with no oxygen but lots of stars and whatnot?
John MacArthur says this:

 

On day two God separated that water in to two places. That's what it's saying here. He put an expanse in between and some water was above and some remained on the earth. So you have the water that was still on the earth and now some water that's separated and taken above. That's exactly what it is saying. And in between those two elements of water there is an expanse.

Now the word "expanse" is the Hebrew word raqia. It means, interesting word, it means expanse. It means spread out thinness....

The picture is of a thin area that God just cuts right through the waters that surround the earth....

Look at verse 8. God called this expanse what? Heaven. It's what we understand as heaven. It's what we understand as the space above us. Heaven is shamayim and it literally means the sky, or the skies. It refers to the universe and the space above us. So there was no heaven, there was no space as we know until the second day and God just cut all the way around that sphere and released some of that water and sent it up, creating between the waters above and water below space.

The Jewish writer Cassuto says, "From this we may infer that immediately after its formation the firmament occupied of its own accord the place appointed for it by the will of God which is the sight of the heavens as we know it." Literally created space. "Thus as soon as the firmament was established in the midst of the layer of water, it began to rise, arching like a vault." That's very graphic. God cuts that water and then it just begins to rise and it begins to expand until its going further and further, creating in between space. Cassuto says, "In its course...in the course it expands arching like a vault, in the course of its upward expansion it lifted at the same time the upper waters resting on top of it." It just took them right up. "This marked a considerable advance in the marshalling of the components of the universe. Above now stands the vault of heaven, surrounded by the upper waters. Beneath stretches the expanse of lower waters, that is the waters of the vast sea which still covers all the heavy undifferentiated matter on the earth. The universe..he writes..is beginning to take shape."

I know that is a large quote. But really, I think it might be the clearest explanation of the creation of the area around us I have ever heard.
So now our universe has shape,  and space, and a reason for rain - there is water above us!
  Tomorrow's scripture focus: Genesis 1:9-13

Tomorrow's Bible In a Year Passage passage: 1 Samuel 29-30; Psalm 96; Acts 7

Monday, May 12th

Today's passage from the Bible In a Year Reading Plan is 1 Samuel 25-26, Psalm 94, Acts 5

Today's scripture focus is Genesis 1:1-5

Genesis 1:1-5

English Standard Version (ESV)

The Creation of the World

1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

Accompanying Bob Deffinbaugh sermon: The Creation of the Heavens and the Earth
Accompanying John MacArthur sermons: The How, Why, and When of Creation Part 1 and Part 2

According to MacArthur, the Hebrews didn't have a single word for "universe".  They had a phrase for "universe" and that phrase was "the heavens and the earth".  So, verse 1 could really be translated "In the beginning, God created the universe."

Obviously, as Christians, we all believe in Intelligent Design, and that that Intelligent Designer was God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.  I'm not get into the official debate of old earth vs youth earth creationism, except to say that I personally am of the opinion that we have a young earth.

God created the universe out of nothing.  And the world He created was created in a mature state.  Adam and Eve are the only people to never experience being in utero, infanthood, toddlerhood, etc.  Both of them were created as fully developed adults.  Similarly, God created the world and all that is in it in a mature state.  The chicken came first, not the egg.  On the day God created trees, they were all only a day old, but if you cut an oak tree down and examined it's rings, it would have appeared much older.  

There are many other evidences for a young earth, including the current population of the world, but that's where I'll leave it for now.

How did God create?  By His Word.  What an amazingly powerful God we serve, that merely the sound of His voice speaking into nothing would cause the universe to be created.

Why did God create the universe?  MacArthur contends a couple of reasons.  Quite simply, He created the universe because He wanted to.  Why did He want to?

In order to display His glory - to both the angels and mankind.  So much of His character is revealed through creation - His power, His wisdom, His intelligence, His creativity and imagination, His love of beauty and order.

He also created in order to display His grace and mercy through His plan of redemption.

He also created in order to provide a bride for His Son.
MacArthur: This glorious plan of God to give to His beloved, the second member of the trinity, an expression of love, of eternal divine love by granting to Him a redeemed humanity who would reflect His glory and serve Him and praise Him forever. What an immense thought. What a glorious thought. And that's bound up in the purpose of God in creation.

And so we see the beginning of the universe, which began with the creation of time.

The earth was formless and void.  Formless means that it was like a wilderness - a devastated, waste place.  Void means that it was completely empty.  Utter desolation.

Now these words have to do with a waste place, a desolated place without inhabitants. Devastation and depopulation, without shape and form and without inhabitant. So when you see the words tohuand bohuin Genesis, it's not some tricky technicality that you're seeing there, it's just the word for devastation and emptiness. It was a waste place and there was no life there. That's exactly what it means. Maybe the best way to say it would be the earth was unfinished as to its shape and unpopulated. That's exactly what it means. And that's understandable when day one started.

The material was there. There was time and there was space and there was matter, but it was unformed and unpopulated....God created them, God spoke them into existence but yet they were undifferentiated, unseparated, unorganized and uninhabited.

This empty wasteland was covered in water and utterly surrounded by darkness.  There was no light.

And the Spirit of God hovered over the water - He was completely in charge of every aspect of creation. He is the energy behind creation.

And then God created light - as well as day and night, even though He had not yet created the sun.  We know that God does not need the sun to be a source of light.  How He provided that light before He created the sun we do not know.  But we know that He did because He said that He did.  And immediately, the earth was placed on its axis and began to spin, creating day and night.

I liked MacArthur's point....
This starts the cycle of days. He separates the light from the darkness. He created the light but didn't destroy the darkness. It was never His desire as the creator that there be perpetual light, not at all. But that both darkness and light would operate consecutively. And that was good. And that they would operate consecutively for given periods in an unchanging cyclical order. He made it so because it suited His creative plan. It suited His plan to have the earth revolving, to have light and to have dark.

And it was good.

God took chaos and began to transform it into cosmos - beauty and order.

I loved Deffinbaugh's closing statement:
If you have never come to Christ, I can say with total confidence that your life is formless and empty; it is chaotic and lifeless. The same One Who turned chaos into cosmos can make your life anew.
Amen!


Tomorrow's scripture focus: Genesis 1:6-8

Tomorrow's Bible In a Year Passage passage: 1 Samuel 27-28, Psalm 95, Acts 6

Friday, May 9th

Today's passage from the Bible In a Year Reading Plan is 1 Samuel 19-20; Psalm 93; Acts 4

Today's scripture focus is Ephesians 6:21-24

Ephesians 6:21-24

English Standard Version (ESV)

Final Greetings

21 So that you also may know how I am and what I am doing, Tychicus the beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord will tell you everything. 22 I have sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are, and that he may encourage your hearts.
23 Peace be to the brothers, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 24 Grace be with all wholove our Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible.

Accompanying David Legge sermon: The Man With the Message
Accompanying John MacArthur sermon: Praying at All Times

Surprisingly, MacArthur covers these 3 verses in the end of his sermon about v18-20.  He does bring up a good point.

Paul sent Tychicus so that the church at Ephesus would be informed.  It's really hard to pray for people when you don't know what's going on.  Obviously you can pray for people generally.  But it's wonderful to be able to pray specifically and intelligently.

Legge, however, devoted an entire sermon to these 3 verses, and it was well worth the read.

First a quick summary (summarized from MacArthur)...
Ephesians has taught us the wealth of our blessings in Christ. Ephesians tells us that we are blessed, loved, forgiven, redeemed, given wisdom, made rich, made secure, sealed with the Spirit, alive with new life, objects of eternal grace, God's masterpiece, called to a life of good works which God will do through us, one with God, one with fellow believers, members of God's intimate family, indwelt with the Holy Spirit, powerful beyond our imagination, able to glorify God.

And that's just the first 3 chapters.

It goes on to teach us that we possess the living Spirit of God inside us, we are members of the body of Christ, we have received gifts and gifted men to teach us to serve, Jesus Christ teaches us to walk a new life, we've received the love of God so we can walk in love, we've received the light of God so was can walk in light, we've received the wisdom and truth of God so we can walk with discernment, we've received the power of the fullness of the Spirit of God, we've received resources to make every human relationship all God intended it to be, we've received invincible armor that Satan is powerless against if we use it, climaxing in the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God.

The danger of knowing all this is that we may become smug and think that we no longer need God. So Paul reminds us that yes, we have it all, but it all depends on Him.

Paul gives a bit of a summary of these blessings in v23-24, but he also gives the Ephesians a gift - the personification of everything he has taught them, lived out in the life of Tychicus.  Paul sent them Tychicus, yes to talk to them about Paul and how he was doing, likely many things that aren't contained in this book.  He also sent Tychicus to comfort them, encourage them, strengthen them, and challenge them to put into practice the words of this book.

Tychicus is that gift to us as well.  We need to be challenged to let the doctrine of this book change the way we live.  We need to be comforted, encouraged, strengthened, challenged.

Tychicus was from Asia, likely Ephesus itself.  He was likely a convert of Paul's and travelled with him on his journey from Greece to Asia (Acts 20:4) and likely right to the end of his missionary journey in Ephesus.
Legge: 
When Paul was arrested in Jerusalem, then he was imprisoned in Caesarea, and all of those dramatic appearances that he had before kings and before governors, all of his miserable experiences, his terrible voyage across the sea, the shipwreck en route to Rome, his residence in the Roman house arrest, and all of those trials that Paul faced, all of the dangers - the likelihood is, and the word of God would lead us to believe, that this man Tychicus went through all of it with Paul. If that is the case, we can say he experienced a great deal!.....Not only did Tychicus go with Paul as an ardent supporter right throughout all of those experiences with him, but we believe that just as he was the messenger for this particular letter, he was also the apostle's messenger at Colossae - you can find that in the book of Colossians chapter 4 and verse 7. The likelihood is that he took the letter of Philemon from the little prison where Paul was, and he took it to Philemon and probably stood and verified the conversion of his slave Onesimus, as he gave the letter over to Philemon. We're led to believe also that he went to minister to Titus in Crete, from Titus 3 and verse 12. Assuming, as we did at the very first study of the book of Ephesians, that the book of Ephesians is a circular letter - in other words, it wasn't just specifically for the church at Ephesus, but it was going to go around all the churches of Asia - Tychicus was the postman that took it round all of those churches.

We're speaking of a mighty man tonight.

Legge notes that Paul refers to Tychicus both as a beloved brother and a faithful servant.  It's not always common to find both qualities in one person.  Sometimes people are well loved but it's often because they don't stand for anything so they never ruffle anyone's feathers.  Sometimes people are faithful servants but they can be legalistic to the point of arrogance and obnoxiousness.  But Tychicus was both faithful to the Word of God, but also a man of love.  And that should be a picture of us as well, because really it is a reflection of Jesus Christ and His Spirit dwells within us.  Do we speak the truth in love?

Paul loves the Ephesians and as he closes this book he blesses them with peace, love, faith, and grace.
Peace with God and peace with each other.
Love for one another.
Love with faith - both saving faith and practical day-to-day faith.  Staking our lives upon the truth of the Word, knowing we have the confidence and boldness to come before God.
Grace - acknowledging that ALL this is a gift of God.  Which should cause us to love and pursue Christ with an undying devotion.

Legge ends his last prayer on this book with this:
Lord, we pray most of all that You will give us a love for Christ that is an undying, incorruptible, imperishable love - a love that will say: 'For me to live is Christ and to die is gain'. We thank Thee for this book, and we thank Thee for all Thy blessings. We pray that in our own individual lives and in the life of this church in the days that lie ahead, that we will be given grace to implement these things to the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.

Tomorrow's scripture focus: Genesis 1:1-5

Tomorrow's Bible In a Year Passage passage: 1 Samuel 21-22
Sunday's passage: 1 Samuel 23-24
Monday's passage: 1 Samuel 25-26, Psalm 94, Acts 5

Thursday, May 8th ~ Miriam

Today's passage from the Bible In a Year Reading Plan is 1 Samuel 17-18; Psalm 92; Acts 3

Today's scripture focus is Ephesians 6:18-20

18 With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints, 19 and pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.

Well, I'll be the first one to admit that I slack at prayer.  I send God text messages.  I rarely sit down and take time for meaningful communication.  Not to say that you can't have meaningful communication while you do other things, because you can, but firing off little mini-prayers here and there during the day tends to not be two-way communication, and rarely do I bother to consider that because I'm busy.  Bad, right?  I know.

The Bible says to pray without ceasing, so I'm sure that because it also says to "be strong and do the work" along with many other passages to do with being diligent and faithful in our work, to our employers, etc. and so on, we are not to sit around all day doing nothing but praying.  So that says to me that there is nothing wrong with praying while we shower, or do the dishes, or prepare meals, or drive somewhere.  However, am I praying in the Spirit, on the alert for opportunities to demonstrate God's love to those around me, or praying for pastors, church leadership, missionaries, Operation Christmas Child, World Vision, our government, the teachers and principals of schools, etc?

Mark Driscoll says the following regarding these verses:

How’s your prayer life? You know what? If you don’t know you’re in war, you don’t feel like you need to listen to the commander in chief, and you don’t feel like you need to talk to him. Peacetime—you’re like, “What, I’m on vacation. What do I need to get orders for?”

This ain’t vacation, friends. This is war. If you know, you get up in the morning you’re like, “OK, I’m not going to work; I’m going to war. I’m not going to church; I’m going to war. I’m not going to school; I’m going to war.” First thing you’re going to do: call headquarters. “OK, what do I need to know today, and let me talk to you about what I’m heading into, and I need you to give me some directives here.”

Then you listen to the Holy Spirit. Primarily, he will bring to mind the word of God which he has written. “OK, now I’m ready to go. I know what to do. I’m connected to headquarters, and throughout the day, I’m checking in. 

Imagine an army going to war without a communication plan. Imagine soldiers just being deployed in an enemy territory with no communication plan. Prayer is our communication plan. It’s how we talk to God; it’s how God talks to us. It’s how we tell him what’s going on, though he already knows, and it is the way that he gives directives to us.

How’s your prayer life? 

He says, “Perseverance.” Perseverance. Four times in this section he uses the language of “stand.” So it’s, “Stand, stand, stand, stand.” A soldier needs to hold his post—right, soldiers? You plant your feet. You stand. You don’t say, “Oh, I feel like I should go to another post. I feel like I should have a—” No, no, no. Hold that line, right? Your king has sent you there to hold that line. Your job? Stand there. Your Community Group in your neighborhood, stand there. Whichever local church you’re in, stand there. Whichever ministry role you’re in, stand there, plant your feet. What we don’t need, Mars Hill, is twelve thousand generals. We need one general and twelve thousand faithful soldiers.

Paul’s final words. He says to pray for the leadership. “Praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for 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.”


He’s in prison. I’d be shocked if I’m not eventually. The way culture is trending, to preach sin and repentance will soon be hate speech. I don’t know if it’ll happen in five years or fifty years. I would doubt preaching the gospel won’t get you in prison eventually if things continue the direction they are. “That I may declare it boldly”—boldly, boldly—“as I ought to speak.” Pray for me that I would not give up, that I would not back down, that I would not calm down, OK? Pray for our church.

Pray for your church.  Pray for the church as a whole, regardless of denominations.  Pray for the entire Christian body ~ that we will recognize that we are at war, and that we will stand and fight together in unity.

Tomorrow's scripture focus:  Ephesians 6:21-24

Tomorrow's Bible In a Year Passage passage:  1 Samuel 19-20; Psalm 93; Acts 4

Wednesday, May 7th

Today's passage from the Bible In a Year Reading Plan is 1 Samuel 15-16; Psalm 91; Acts 2

Today's scripture focus is Ephesians 6:18

Ephesians 6:18

English Standard Version (ESV)

18 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,

Accompanying David Legge sermons: Constant Prayer, Varied Prayer, and Spirit-Led Supplication
Accompanying John MacArthur sermon: The Armor of God: Praying at All Times

The first 3 words of v18 are praying at all times.  We need to pray continually.  Our spiritual battle depends on prayer.  A suit of armor is useless without anything to energize it.  Prayer is essential to the spiritual battle that is life.  We need to be praying constantly.  Not just in emergencies.  Not just when we need something.  We need to pray for everything.  Legge made the comment that you are only as strong as your prayer life.  Did that prick anyone's conscience as much as it did mine?

Now, obviously we can't audibly pray continuously.  We have to work, eat, sleep, etc.  But we can have an attitude of prayer, a constant communion with God.   We can live in such a way that we are filtering everything through, as MacArthur coined it, God-colored glasses.  It's a God-consciousness that has you sorrowing over the state of the world, struggling against sin, all as you eagerly anticipate the coming of God's ultimate victory and the glory that will finally be His.

Note that we are supposed to pray with all prayer.

MacArthur: What does that mean? All kinds of prayers. You pray all the time. You pray all kinds of prayers...public, private, verbal, silent, loud, soft, deliberate, planned, unplanned, spontaneous, requests, thanks, confession, humiliation, praise, standing, kneeling, lying down, lifting up your hands, putting your hands down...you name it. Every kind of prayer expressive of every emotional attitude of every kind of thinking and every kind of circumstance, that’s the idea.

Legge's list of prayers include prayers of praise, confessions, waiting upon the Lord to feel His prescence, praying the scriptures, interceding on behalf of others, singing, and listening.

We also need to have perseverance in our prayers.  We need to be specific in our requests (not just "God bless the whole world"), and we need to be committed to praying persistently, until we've received the answer.

Do we pray that way?  I know I sure have work to do in this area.


Tomorrow's scripture focus: Ephesians 6:18-20

Tomorrow's Bible In a Year Passage passage: 1 Samuel 17-18, Psalm 92, Acts 3

Tuesday - May 6 - Tiffany

Tomorrow's scripture focus: Ephesians 6:17

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

Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

I always see Prince Phillip from Disney's Sleeping Beauty when I read this verse, though he is given a shield and not a helmet.

But what wonderful imagery! We're gearing up for a spiritual battle, the previous verses have spoke about other pieces of armor - the breastplate of righteousness, to protect your heart, the belt of truth to hold you together, you're feet fitted with readiness, the shield of faith.
And now the helmet of salvation.

So often our heads lead our hearts. We will know in our heart we are saved, but so many intellectual arguments against Jesus and his love hit us every day, that sometimes the biggest battle is to win over our heads.
How amazing to know God gives us a HELMET of salvation - we can KNOW by reading His word we are saved. And His word? What is it? Why, its the sword of the Spirit!

We will wage many battles as followers of Christ, be prepared, be ready, and keep God's word with you, it is your sword, it is your weapon against those that will tell you that Christ is a lie, that there is no God.

God has given us what we need to fight this battle. We just have to take it.

Tomorrow's scripture focus: Ephesians 6:18

Tomorrow's Bible In a Year Passage passage: 1 Samuel 15-16; Psalm 91; Acts 2

As a little postscript - if you're fighting an intellectual battle about God, there are a million resources out there - including the series "Faith without blindfolds" my husband taught for the Easter season. You can listen to them here.

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

Friday, May 2nd

Today's passage from the Bible In a Year Reading Plan is 1 Samuel 5-6; Psalm 88; John 20

Today's scripture focus is Ephesians 6:13-14

Ephesians 6:13-14

English Standard Version (ESV)

13 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. 14 Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness,

Accompanying Mark Driscoll sermon: I am Victorious
Accompanying David Legge sermon: The Christian Warrior's Armor Part 1
Accompanying John MacArthur sermons: The Belt of Truthfulness, The Breastplate of Righteousness, and The Belt of Truthfulness and The Breastplate of Righteousness

I think it's so important to note the word "whole" in v13.  We need to put on the whole armour of God.  The devil is looking for a chink in our armour. Any unguarded spot, any weakness, he will exploit. We can't fight with only a sword, or only a shield - we need to the whole armour of God.  And when we use the whole armour of God, v13 tells us that we will be victorious.

Note as well that says to "take up".  We don't need to make the armour - it's God's armour, not ours.  He has it ready for us.  We need to take it, and stand firm. We have the doctrine, we need to put it into practice.  We have our position in Christ, and we need to live it out.

The first item of our armour is the belt of truth.  In battle, they would wear a belt and tuck their skirt into it so that they could run and battle unhindered.  Doing so was getting ready to fight.  Here Paul is telling us that in order to get ready to fight, we need to gird everything with the truth.  The belt also held the sword up.

Legge: there's no point in you using the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, if your life is not bound up with the truth of God.

Driscoll adds that we need to live in light of the truth, not believing the devil's lies.   Lies lead only to bondage, while truth sets us free. We need to filter our emotions through truth.

And truth, of course, is only found in the Word of God.  We need to know and study the Word, so we will know the truth.

MacArthur:
But it’s more than just the content because later on there’s another piece of armor called the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. So we’re not so much talking about the fact that we go to war wielding the Word of God here, as we are talking about aletheianot as truth, content, but as truthfulness, attitude. In other words, it is that we are seriously committed to the battle. Because we believe the truth, because we love the truth, we go to war for the truth. We pull in all the loose ends. This is sincerity, if you will, truthfulness, integrity, true dedication. It is not so much content as it is commitment. Attitude is the real issue here. We have a heart for the battle. We’re not out there unprepared. We’ve got all the loose ends pulled together. We’ve put on the sash that holds our weapons and marks us as soldiers. We have a heart for battle. We’ve counted the cost. Like Jesus said, you don’t go to war unless you count the cost. The true Christian loves the truth and is ready to fight for the truth. We will earnestly contend for the faith once for all delivered to the saints. We’ll go to battle for the truth, but we’ll go to battle truly for our own spiritual protection.

We’re not talking so much, remember now, about advancing the gospel here as we are about defending ourselves against Satan. And you will never, my friend, you will never win the spiritual battles that come day by day against your formidable enemy unless you are seriously committed to that victory. If you’re just going to flop your way through your Christian experience, you will be a consistent loser. If you’re content with all the loose ends of your life, all the little sins, if you’re content with your infrequent interest in prayer, your infrequent interest in worship, your indifference toward great spiritual truth, if you’re content with your small understanding of the greatness of God, if you’re content with the sins in your life, you are an encumbered soldier, ill prepared for the battle, get ready to be defeated.

To borrow the language of Hebrews 12, another metaphor all together. If you’re going to run the race, you have to lay aside the weights that encumber you. You don’t see somebody running the hundred meter sprint with an overcoat. You get rid of what encumbers you.

We also need the breastplate of righteousness. The breastplate covered and protected the most vulnerable area of the body. Righteousness is what protects us from the arrows and sword of the evil one.

We don't have any of our own righteousness. Indeed, our righteous acts are as filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6).  No, our righteousness comes from God. But, as believers, we're already wearing that righteousness that was imputed to us by grace through faith.  He's already put that on us.  Here we are commanded to demonstrate righteous behaviour.

We have to choose to walk in righteousness.  One of Satan's lies is to convince us that if we are tempted we are already sinning, so we may as well go ahead and do it.  That is not true.  Jesus was tempted, but He was perfect and He never gave in to that temptation.  We don't have to give in to temptation.  We don't have to give in to sin. We can choose to walk in holiness - in His strength.  And, when we do fail, we can come back in repentance, and take up that righteousness again.  We need to be committed to walking in holiness.


Monday's scripture focus:  Ephesians 6:15-16

Tomorrow's Bible In a Year Passage passage: 1 Samuel 7-8
Sunday's passage: 1 Samuel 9-10
Monday's passage : 1 Samuel 11-12, Psalm 89, John 21

Thursday, May 1 ~ Miriam

Today's passage from the Bible In a Year Reading Plan is 1 Samuel 3-4; Psalm 87; John 19

Today's scripture focus is  Ephesians 6:10-12

The Armor of God

10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

Wow.  Depending on where you are at spiritually, and possibly even your current circumstances, these verses can be motivating or disheartening, don't you think?  There are two sides to everything.  It says "be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might."  So that means that we don't have to do it all by ourselves.  Motivating and encouraging, right?  But then our struggle is against the rulers, powers, world forces of this darkness, spiritual forces of wickedness.  Whoa, wait a minute.  That sounds hard and scary.  And it is.

So what do we do with that?  Before we can be effective as soldiers in God's army, we need to know against whom we are fighting and for whom we are fighting.  Driscoll says the following in his sermon I Am Victorious:

So, we need to know our enemy. The first thing in any fight is, well—who are we fighting? 

Satan was created by God. So, he’s not God; he’s not equal to God. You need to know this. He doesn’t share all of God’s attributes. God can be everywhere; Satan can’t. God knows everything; Satan doesn’t. God reads your mind and thoughts; Satan can’t. He’s created; he’s also fallen. He’s rebelled against God. He’s turned his back on God. He’s declared war on God. He’s also very powerful as a spirit being, akin to an angel who has turned to the dark side. He’s very powerful. He’s also been observing human history for thousands of years, so he understands how to read people. He can’t read your mind, but he can read your life and your body language. And we’re not all dealing with Satan because he is limited, but he has demons at his disposal. These are fallen angels, rebellious angels, who joined him in his war against God.

Friends, they are real, and they are really at work in the world. You need to understand this: under Satan’s motivation is ultimately pride. Satan is the most proud being in the history of creation. Meanwhile, God is utterly humble. We see this in the Lord Jesus. Satan has done such a good job in our day that self-esteem is not a vice; it’s a virtue. Independence is not a vice; it’s a virtue.

Some of you don’t even believe in Satan and demons, but let me say that the root of demonic work is always sourced ultimately in pride. “I don’t need to listen to someone else; I’m smart enough. I don’t need to submit to someone else; I can take care of myself. I don’t need to follow someone else; I’m the authority in my own life.” And Satan will, in every way, tempt and test your pride. He fell through pride. The angels who fell with him and became demons fell through pride. And he will tempt you ultimately through pride. You need to know that he is real, that he is really powerful, and that he is really at work. You also need to know that we need to be careful not to make too much of him or too little of him.

The question is: how in the world am I going to live, how are you going to live, in the clench—Satan and demon’s hand on you, exhausting you, trying to destroy you, your business, your family, your relationships, your ministry, our church? Let me say this: you’re not going to make it for a lifetime. You cannot make it for a lifetime. You can’t motivate yourself for a lifetime of war. There’s no shortcut to a lifetime of war. You’re going to need strength that is beyond you, strength that is apart from you.


So, he says, “Be strong.” How? “In the strength of his might.” Jesus is going to need to give you his strength, because yours won’t do. You get that? You can’t serve Jesus for a lifetime without Jesus’ strength. You can’t love your spouse for a lifetime without Jesus’ strength. You can’t raise your children for a lifetime without Jesus’ strength. You can’t be a faithful church member for a lifetime without Jesus’ strength. You can’t be a faithful Christian leader for a lifetime without Jesus’ strength. It’s his war fought by his strength, and this is ultimately the person, the presence, the power of the Holy Spirit—that Jesus gives us the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit who empowered the war life of Jesus against temptation and exhaustion and sickness and opposition and criticism. How Jesus persevered, how he was strong, was by the power of the Holy Spirit, and he sends that same Holy Spirit to us to empower us.

Thank you, God, for making us new creatures.  Fill us with the Holy Spirit and equip us for whatever battles are before us.  Help us to keep our courage by remembering always that it is with Your strength that we fight and not our own. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.

Tomorrow's scripture focus:  Ephesians 6:13-14

Tomorrow's Bible In a Year Passage passage:  1 Samuel 5-6; Psalm 88; John 20