The Counterfeit Shield

In addition to all this, take up the sheild of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Ephesians 6:16
We have looked at Satan's counterfeit belt, breastplate, and shoes and now we are at another important piece of armor - the shield of faith. So what is Satan's counterfeit shield? A shield of fear. I believe that Satan would rather us cower under a shield of fear than stand firm with a shield of faith. Specifically Satan wants us to focus on self-preservation rather than faith. Self-preservation is defined as "preservation of oneself from danger, injury, or death, the urge to preserve oneself, regarded as an instinct." Self-preservation is instinctual. When we encounter things to be afraid of our first instinct is to protect ourselves. In the spiritual sense, self-preservation can keep us from stepping out into our destiny. In Beth Moore's study of Esther, she says this, "We can protect ourselves right out of our calling." Isn't that what Satan wants? YES! To accomplish that goal, he will tempt us to take up a shield of self-preservation rather than a shield of faith. Does Scripture back this up? Absolutely. You don't have to look any further than Numbers 13 & 14. The children of Israel have been delivered out of slavery. God has performed miracles in order to bring them into the land He promised to give them. Camping right at the edge of Canaan, Moses sent in twelve spies to scout out the land. Ten of those spies came back with the report that while the land was indeed flowing with milk and honey it was also filled with powerful people, fortified walls, and strong cities. Because of their evil report, the people were afraid to go forward and enter the Promised Land even though God had promised it to them. In Numbers 14:33 God tells them, "Your children will be shepherds here for forty years, suffering for your unfaithfulness, until the last of your bodies lies in the desert." An entire nation of people protected themselves right out of their calling because they feared their enemy more than they believed their God. They never got to experience all that God had for them because they chose self-preservation over faith. Are you doing the same thing? Do you look around and see so much to fear that you step back, cower down, and doubt? Is self-preservation more important to you than your God-ordained destiny? Is protecting your image, your ego, and your feelings worth missing out on your calling? God forbid. Self-preservation leads to isolation, discouragement, and depression.
2 Corinthians 5:7 tells us that "we live by faith not by sight." Fear says, "we live by sight, not by faith." The enemy is cunning and he knows that all your attempts at self-preservation are in vain. When the battle rages the shield of fear is easily penetrated. I Peter 5:9 says, "Resist him (the devil) steadfast in the faith." Your first line of defense against the flaming arrows of the evil one is your faith. Don't just read God's Word, believe God's Word. When the enemy comes in like a flood with his arrows of doubt, fear, worry, and deafeat, you can raise up the shield of faith and extinguish each and every one. Isaiah 7:9 says, "...if you do not stand firm in the faith, you will not stand at all." Your calling is waiting - don't back down in fear, but stand firm in faith and be all that God has ordained you to be.

Shoes of Peace

Last week we talked about putting on the shoes of peace and how Satan's counterfeit shoes are preoccupation. (See earlier post if you missed it.) Today, I want to give you some Scriptural encouragement to help you keep your peace in the midst of a world of troubles and trials.

Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you: not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. John 14:27

These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. John 16:33

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Colossians 3:15

Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness.
1 Peter 1:2

I just have to share this devotion by Oswald Chambers from My Utmost for His Highest because he says it so beautifully. Enjoy!!
"Are you painfully disturbed just now, distracted by the waves and billows of God's providential permission, and having, as it were, turned over the boulders of your belief, are you still finding no well of peace or joy or comfort; is all barren? Then look up and receive the undisturbedness of the Lord Jesus. Reflected peace is the proof that you are right with God because you are at liberty to turn your mind to Him. If you are not right with God, you can never turn your mind anywhere but on yourself. If you allow anything to hide the face of Jesus Christ from you, you are either disturbed or you have a false security. Are you looking unto Jesus now, in the immediate matter that is pressing and receiving from Him peace? If so, He will be a gracious benediction of peace in and through you. But if you try to worry it out, you obliterate Him and deserve all you get. We get disturbed because we have not been considering Him. When one confers with Jesus Christ the perplexity goes, because he has no perplexity, and our only concern is to abide in Him. Lay it all out before Him, and in the face of difficulty, bereavement, and sorrow, hear Him say, "Let not your heart be troubled."

The Counterfeit Armor - Part III

The third piece of armor that Paul instructs us to put on is shoes of peace. Why do we put on shoes? Because we are going somewhere. As Christians we must walk our faith out everyday, so Satan will try to keep us from walking the path of peace by occupying our time with other things. That's Satan's counterfeit shoes - preoccupation. When I looked up the word preoccupation in the dictionary here is what I found, "completely engrossed in thought; absorbed; previously occupied; taken; filled." The enemy wants to keep you engrossed in thought and absorbed in things other than the will of the Father. He wants to fill your day, your thoughts, your attitude with his thoughts and attitudes. Think about that definition, "previously occupied" he wants to get you distracted with the routine and the mundane before you fill up with the word of God. If he can start you on the path of preoccupation at the beginning of your day, he knows he is well on his way to stealing your peace before the day is over. Psalms 119:165 says, "Great peace have they who love your law and nothing can make them stumble." I just love that verse. It gives me hope that if I keep myself immersed in the word of God and OBEY it then nothing can make me stumble. If we love the word of God then we will want to obey it and when we obey it we will have great peace. I am convinced that most Christians have Spiritual Attention Deficit Disorder. For some reason we cannot keep our focus fixed on Christ. We tend to burn hot or cold according to our circumstances and feelings. That is not the path to peace. Scripture tells us that a double-minded (wo)man is unstable in all her ways, so it stands to reason that we won't be able to walk the path of peace with regularity when we are constantly diverting our attention away from Christ. Many things can set us on a path of preoccupation - our job, our family, our struggles, our finances, our circumstances, but ONE thing will keep us on the path of peace - fixing our eyes on Jesus the author and finisher of our faith. Ephesians 2:14 says, "for He (Jesus) Himself is our peace." Peace is attainable in this crazy world! It's attainable through a person - Jesus. As He increases in your life so will your peace. The cure for spiritual ADD is the word of God. Remember Psalms 119:165. It's the key to not just peace but great peace. Could you use some great peace today? Then spend some time with the Prince of Peace reading his Word to you.

The Counterfeit Armor - Part 2

Sorry I missed last week, but I am getting back on track this week. We will look at the second piece of Satan's counterfeit armor today - the breastplate. Ephesians 6 tells us to put on a breastplate of righteousness. The breastplate covers the chest area and more importantly it is the protective piece that covers our heart, so you can know that Satan will offer a counterfeit to deceive our hearts. His counterfeit breastplate is religion. Rather than wearing a breastplate of righteousness he wants you and I to put on a breastplate of religion. Righteousness reminds me that without Christ I am nothing. Religion tells me that on my own I am pretty good. Righteousness focuses on Christ. Religion focuses on me. Righteousness is based on Christ's redemptive work on the cross. Religion is based on my own good works. How sneaky Satan is that he would offer us something that looks so good on the outside but in reality has little to do with Christ or the cross. When Jesus walked the earth over 2000 years ago, who gave him the most trouble? The religious leaders. They had their own ideas of how the Messiah would act and Jesus did not fit into their particular religious box. Religion still tries to put Jesus into a neat little box today. Religion tells you if you do this, say this, act like this, then you are acceptable. Scripture tells us that our righteousness is not based on our good works but on the blood of Christ. There is a story in Scripture of a woman who was caught in adultery. The religious leaders dragged her before Jesus in hopes that Jesus would judge and condemn her. If you have read her story, you know that Jesus' response was, "He who is without sin, let him first cast a stone." Religion is ever in the business of pointing out others' faults. When religion confronted Jesus that day, it dropped its stones, but instead of repenting it just walked away. Religion does not want to be confronted with its own sin, so it focuses instead on "fixing" others. When the piercing words of Jesus are spoken, the religious heart will cover its ears and walk away. Religion manifests itself in many ways - ways that often seem very spiritual, but are ultimately deadly. II Samuel 16:7 says that man looks on the outward appearance but God looks on the heart. Religion keeps you and I from the heart of the matter - our relationship with Jesus. It is relationship not religion that God wants from us. If Satan can convince us to wear a breastplate of religion, he will keep our heart from the truth of God's Holy Word that "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in HIM we might become the righteousness of God." (2 Corinthians 5:21)
I want to end with this analogy that I used in class and it seemed to hit home with everyone. Isaiah 61:10 says, "I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels." As women we may not understand all about military armor, but we certainly understand the significance of being a bride. As little girls most of us dream of the day when we will meet our prince and we will become his bride. So consider what God is saying in Isaiah when he compares a robe of righteousness to a bride adorning herself for her wedding day. Maybe it would help if every morning you mentally dressed yourself in a bridal gown of righteousness. No bride wants a wedding gown that is torn, stained, or imperfect. When we wear a breastplate of religion it is the same as putting on a tattered and torn wedding gown. When we put on a breastplate of righteousness, however, we are adorning ourselves in the most beautiful wedding dress we could ever imagine. As a result, like a bride, we will only have eyes for our Bridegroom and pleasing Him will be our only consideration.

The Counterfeit Armor - Part 1

Ephesians 5:13 - 16 says, Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. Be very careful, then, how you live, not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity because the days are evil. Over the next few weeks we will explore the armor of God and Satan's counterfeit armor. Be on guard - Satan has counterfeit armor and he wants you to wear it.
The first piece of armor mentioned in Ephesians 6 is the belt of truth. So, what is Satan's counterfeit? A belt of deception. Satan seeks to deceive us, and he will tinge whatever he tries to sell us with some measure of truth in the hopes that his deception will lead us to believe him and his lies. It is no accident that the belt is the first piece of armor mentioned. In battle, the soldier would use his belt to hold his other pieces of armor, so in a way, all the other pieces hang on this one - we must embrace truth - true truth - the truth of God's Word. By the same manner, Satan will start with a belt of deception and then the other pieces of counterfeit armor will follow. I know of many ways that we can be deceived by our enemy, but here are just a few. Deception says that we should live by our feelings not by faith. Deception says that prayer and studying God's word are not all that important. Deception says that life is all about the here and now and not about the hereafter. Deception says that God's love is conditional. Deception says that control is the answer. Deception will keep you isolated and prevent you from joining in Bible Study with other Christians.
None of us are immune to Satan and his deceptive ways, but I know One who is - Jesus. So it stands to reason that the more of Jesus I have, the more immune I will be to the lies of the devil and his deceptive practices. In John 14:6, Jesus makes this statement, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but by me." At least 81 times in the four gospel accounts of Jesus' life he says these words - "I TELL YOU THE TRUTH." Jesus and Satan stand in complete opposition to each other. One tells you the truth, the other lies. It is time to expose Satan for the liar that he is. Here is what Jesus has to say on this subject - "You belong to your father the devil and you want to carry out your father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me." (John 8:44-45)
Friends, we are living in the last days. Jesus warned us that in the last days deception would run rampant, and I believe that even God's own people walk in deception much more often than we think. In fact, another name I have given for the counterfeit armor is the default armor. Because of our sinful human nature, I believe that if we are not consciously and deliberately putting on God's armor then we are wearing counterfeit armor by default. We must evaluate our motives as well as our actions and see how they line up with the truth of God's Word. Anytime we allow ourselves to be decieved by our enemy then we are wearing his counterfeit armor. It is time to embrace truth and stop being deceived by lies. We must become so intimate with truth that anytime Satan tries to deceive us we will either run away from the lie like Joseph (Genesis 39) or refute the lie like Jesus (Matthew 4). Just saying the armor by rote is not enough. In Ephesians 6 we are told to put on the armor. The word "put" means to bind around onself, to enter, to sink, to go in or under. We must let the truth sink into the deepest places of our heart (see Psalms 51:6), then and only then will we be ready to combat the deception of the enemy. Trust me, Satan knows your weak point, that place where you can easily be deceived and he is just waiting to exploit it. Any place where you are not allowing truth to reign in you is a place ripe for taking by the enemy of your soul. Are you consciously putting on the belt of truth everyday or is it just part of the words that you say and when situations arise you evaluate what will serve you best and then act accordingly? I would encourage you to pinpoint one area of your life where you think the enemy might be trying to deceive you. Find Scripture that will give you truth about that struggle. Begin to meditate on those scriptures everyday. Write them down, let them begin to take root and keep a little journal of positive results you begin to see as you meditate on the truth. Finally, remember these words from our Savior, "If you abide in my word, you are my disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free." (John 8:31-32) Put on the belt of truth daily, study the truth in the word of God, give the Holy Spirit who is the spirit of truth control in your life, and don't let yourself be deceived by the one who seeks to destroy you.

Esther by Beth Moore

We will begin Beth Moore's newest ten-week study on the book of Esther on September 13. We are offering a Sunday evening and Monday evening option. Call the church office or contact us via e-mail if you would like to participate.
Sunday classes will be from 4-6PM in our fellowship hall and will be facilitated by Nancy Pennington and Cassandra King.
Monday classes will be from 6-8PM in our fellowship hall and will be facilitated by Stacy Pennington.
Workbooks will be $10.00 each.

Trust His Heart

Our church family has been reeling this month from the death of so many who were dear to us. In the last week, we lost two dear men who were faithful members of our church - Cecil Hodge and Loy Lawrence. I don't always understand God's ways, but the more I walk with Him, the more I know that I can trust Him. The song, Trust His Heart has been playing in my mind lately. Let me share the words with you ~

All things work for our good
though sometimes we can't see how they could
struggles that break our hearts in two
sometimes blind us to the truth

Our Father knows what's best for us
His ways are not our own
So when your pathway grows dim, and you just can't see Him
Remember you're never alone

God is too wise to be mistaken
God is too good to be unkind
So when you don't understand
When you don't see His plan
When you can't trace His hand
Trust His heart

He sees the master plan
And He holds our future in His hands
So don't live as those who have no hope
All our hope is found in Him

We see the present clearly
But He sees the first and the last
And like a tapestry He's weaving you and me to someday be just like Him

God is too wise to be mistaken
God is too good to be unkind
So when you don't understand
When you don't see His plan
When you can't trace His hand
Trust His heart

He alone is faithful and true
He alone knows what is best for you
So when you don't understand
When you don't see His plan
When you can't trace His hand trust His heart

May the words to this song bring comfort to those who are mourning and remind all of us that we have a loving Father who is always working on our behalf. May God wrap you up in His arms of love today and everyday.