The Word, Gods Word, The sword of the Spirit

The sword is the only weapon in the full armor of God that is both defensive and offensive.

Five of the six weapons in Ephesians 6:14-17 are mostly defensive weapons. The belt of truth protects us from the lies of the devil, the breastplate of righteousness protects our heart, the shoes of peace protect us from negative attitudes, the shield of faith protects us from the devils fiery arrows and the helmet of salvation protects our mind from the thoughts the enemy sends our way.

If you had a sword, a beautiful and mighty sword that you displayed on your wall, it’s no good to you, when the enemy walks in the door if it’s on your wall.  By the time you get it down, the enemy has already won the battle. 

And that’s the way the Bible is. It’s no good to you if all it does is sit on a shelf or on your night stand gathering dust and it’s rarely opened. It doesn’t do any good when you need it to fight the enemy.

Say you have a sword and you want to learn to use it. Let’s imagine it’s a big, thick, heavy sword like you see in the movies of Biblical times or the times of gladiators.

When you first pick it up and try to swing it or jab it a couple of times, your arms get tired and you give up and you say “that’s too hard”.  But you pick it back up and  the more you practice with it and the more you  learn you to stand properly and your posture’s right and you start swinging it a couple of times a day, pretty soon you learn to use it. You learn to do it just right; you learn to use it to block blows from the opponent. You learn to strike. You can use it as defense and you can use it as an offense to attack.

The same is with the Word of God. If you open it just a little bit today and just get the feel of it; then tomorrow  you pick it up again and  you do it some more and then a little bit more, you will soon find that  not only can you hold it,  it’s actually become useful. You stand right, (in the Word of God), you have your posture just right (in Jesus) and before you know it, you’re a warrior!

You have that sword and you don’t want to be without it. It goes everywhere you go, in your heart, and any time the enemy comes at you, you have it there for defense. You have it there for protection or attack when you see the enemy hurting others around you. When you see him headed your way, you stand ready and you go after him and you chase him away because he knows you know how to use that sword.

Let’s open our Bibles and be the warriors we are meant to be!

One of the homework assignments this week  in the study of the Apostle Paul centered on his voyage to Rome. Paul’s “Umbrella of Faith” in the storm covered all that were on board the ship and all the lives were saved when the ship was destroyed as it ran aground on the island of Malta. After that, many on the island became believers and were healed.

I have an umbrella. For the most part, it rides in my car behind the seat. Often, when it’s raining, I leave it in the car and dash to the building hoping I don’t get drenched or I carry it without opening it, because it’s really not raining that hard.

How often do we treat our faith that way? We have it; we just don’t use it like it is meant to be used. We carry it along in case it’s needed but we never open it. We jump out in the middle of a storm, thinking we can handle it  on our own or we think it’s not bad enough to bother Jesus about.

We need to open our faith umbrellas! Rain or shine. They cover us when life is raining down on us and they keep us cool and calm in the sunshine.

The beginning of faith is like a little paper umbrella in a fancy drink. It’s not very big. Then, as we study God’s Word and we place it in our hearts, the umbrella of faith grows and begins to cover us.  Soon, we notice that our umbrella is quite large and we have family members, friends and even a stranger or two under there with us.

This made me think of my church. When it’s raining or, like last week, sleeting, you can see volunteers walking out, with large umbrellas, offering protection from the elements to those coming in and going out. What an awesome metaphor of how our church family covers each other and those we come in contact with, in faith.

Umbrellas: I don’t think I will ever look at them in the same way, ever again.