NCarolinian

I have heard it said from the pulpit, God only goes or responds to those churches that desire Him, that seek His presence . The word "only" in this sentence makes the speaker seem to know of absolute knowledge about the exclusive behavior of God. According to Scripture, I believe this is not true. Romans 5:8-10 states, "But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Jesus does not j ust or only go to those or respond to those who seek Him, He sought out His own Disciples and even taught about seeking after The Lost Sheep and The Lost Coin. God is The Pursuer of Souls. Does The Lord reward those who earnestly seek Him? Of course He does! But using the word "ONLY" paints Christ as a spoiled brat that runs off to receive praise from another church or area of the nation or world who is prepared to give Him "proper praise". The time of The Law was conditional, we live in a time of The Spirit of G...

Doors, they are a physical reality and they hold many facts about life metaphorically. This proves true in Scripture. In Matthew 6:6 we read the red words of Jesus instructing believers to use the door in order to acquire privacy for prayer. This is an important element of prayer because Jesus discourages the opposite type of prayer in the verse before (v.5) -  "do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to  pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others." Get secluded with God. Then in Mark 13:34 , Jesus teaches for His own to be on guard and watch at the door for the return of the house owner. Doors as barriers or obstacles are not to be feared with the Lord on your side. Jesus proved that to the resurrected body walls and closed doors were no problem as He appeared to the Disciples -  "On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and ...

Christians whether they acknowledge the concept or not are in a daily struggle that is unseen. "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." (Eph. 6:12) To help with this daily battle there are several outfits that the Lord has made and placed in our Christian Wardrobe to wear during our faith journey. The garment of praise, garments of salvation and robe of righteousness are all promised for the believer in the Millennial Reign of Christ (Isa. 61) , but Christians can start trying them on now. That perfect fitting is coming with those outfits. Another "hat" or outfit that the Christian is charged to wear is the evangelist attire. The Great Commission is the foundation of these threads (Matt. 28:16-20) and 1 Peter 3:15 supports that foundation nicely by stating - "Always be prepared to give an answer to e...

In   Ephesians 6:18-20 , in just three verses Paul uses some form of the word   pray , five times. Paul does not display prayer as a weapon or Roman gear piece like the other pieces mentioned. However, I believe the reader cannot avoid the conclusion that Paul had one last major item that could be metaphorically applied to prayer - The Spear.  This idea comes from Mr. Rick Renner and I will be summarizing thoughts from his chapter - The Lance of Prayer and Supplication within his book,  Dressed To Kill .  T he Roman spear or lance came in a variety of different sizes, shapes and lengths. Modifications went all the way to adding more iron to the correct part of the weapon in order to either throw it further, create more damage or both.  The different variety of spears or lances in the Roman army represented different strategies to approach their enemy.  One of the many known Roman army spears was the P ilum . This was a distance specialist weapon. The p...

We have now come to examine The Sword of the Spirit. The verse in Ephesians 6:17 reads - "Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." Since we have already dealt with the helmet of salvation, our focus will be on "the sword of the Spirit" . The previous pieces of armor - the helmet of salvation, breastplate of righteousness, belt of truth, shoes of peace and shield of faith - have all been observed as mainly defensive or protective gear pieces of the Christian's faith-outfit. Now, the study turns to the believer in Christ stepping out in his/her faith and taking the active role of fighting the good fight as Paul charged Timothy in his first letter -  "Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses." - 1 Timothy 6:12 According to the research Mr. Rick Renner has provided in his book Dressed To Kill , ...

In Romans 6:16 , Paul instructs the Christian to spiritually arm himself/herself with The Shield of Faith by saying, " In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one." (NIV) The King James Version of this verse states - "Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the firery darts of the wicked."   A special note about the first part of the verse in the King James Version translation is that the phrase "Above all" in "Above all, taking the shield of faith..." according to the original Greek,   epi pasin , describes position in battle and not importance in the line-up of armor pieces. "Faith is designed to be out in front where it can completely cover you in every situation of life!" (p.353, Renner) I mention this special note because Mr. Renner brought up an excellent observation due to the phrase "Above all" -  ...

Shoes, most of us wear them daily to traverse our world to and fro. There are so many variations now-a-days, trying to keep up is a challenge. We have athletic shoes, dress shoes, work shoes, casual shoes, things called flip-flops, sandals and boots. When Paul mentioned the shoes of peace in Ephesians, he was looking at the shoes of a Roman soldier. These shoes were sandal-like at first glance but had an additional feature about them.  The Roman soldiers marching to war would make a loud sound when approaching their enemy. This was not just due to their shear huge number of troops, but what was on the bottom of their shoes. The shoes of Roman soldiers had knobs, spikes or ancient cleats that they used not only to get a grip on their terrain but also to "keep the peace" if the case warranted.  This visual image aligns with the Christian's life by remembering the earlier stated perception in Ephesians 6:12 that life is not only a physical and mental challenge, but a spirit...