NCarolinian

A word about belts - they hold things together and things can be held from upon them. Now-a-days cell phones and other gadgets clip to our belt for easy access. Our belts today are also used to keep some of our pants up around the waistline. When Paul examined the Roman soldier, he noticed the belt held the breastplate firmly in place, the shield and sword were stored on the belt when not in use and there was even a notch for a lance/spear to rest. Mr. Rick Renner in his book Dressed To Kill , supports this notion by saying, "Only the loinbelt will hold everything together for us, both as individual believers and as the corporate Body of Christ." (p.266) "When you affix the loinbelt of truth onto the center of your life and faithfully ensure that it stays in place, everything else comes together." (p.268) The soldier can remove his/her helmet shortly to shine it up so it blinds more enemies on the battlefield. The soldier can remove his/her breastplate to fix chinks...

The Roman breastplate was meant to protect the heart and all other vital organs in that vicinity. Scripture does not picture the human heart very kindly to begin with (Jeremiah 17:9), so when Christians have supposedly changed their ways and are attempting to live the Christ-like life, the Breastplate of Righteousness or right-standing with God that guards our emotions, makes sense. Believers should desire to preserve their right-standing and favor with God by thanking and praising Jesus for securing what He could only acquire - our righteousness. Something to notice with this piece is that Paul specifically calls it a "plate" not breast-mail. This is because by then the Roman army had updated to this segmented breast piece of armor from chainmail. While chainmail allowed flexibility of movement, it was extremely heavy and labor intensive to manufacture. The segmented armor that Paul gazed at when mentioning the Breastplate of Righteousness was quicker to make, provided the b...

  Ephesians 6:10-18  has been a well-covered passage of Scripture by many Biblical teachers and preachers. The verses are a call-to-action, a warrior lifestyle to embrace by wearing God's Armor, Not Ours.  Christian's, as all humans, have all kinds of issues - mental, physical, financial, and so forth. But Paul places heavy emphasis of the source of many, if not all our problems, from the spiritual realm. "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 With this in mind, God equips the Christian with armor that supernaturally fits each of us. Paul had as his visual aid a Roman soldier near him as he was in a Roman prison writing to the believers in the city of Ephesus.  Beginning from the top of the body, here are the names of these pieces of the armor of God - the helmet of Salvation, the breastplate o...

Many of my requests to God have changed from - Lord will you touch this or God will you reach down from Heaven and place your hands on this person or situation or Holy Spirit please move in this issue to - King Jesus just say/speak your Word over this. Not that the other ways mentioned are a lesser way of God to move on our behalf, just this is where I am in my faith journey with the Lord right now.  Speaking is all God has to do - be it a resolution of an issue, reward of obedience or gift from His unconditional love. Knowing this, believing this and walking in this is based from The Faith of the Centurion in Matthew 8:5-13 . I hope I get to meet that centurion one day in Heaven. I desire to thank him for his inspiration of faith and much more as I give him a long, uncomfortable bear hug.  The Scripture paints a sense of eagerness and possibly desperation by the centurion with Jesus just entering the city limits and the centurion meeting Him there - "When Jesus had entered Ca...

God is in the details of everything good and I desire to be involved with that.  I love to re-read the Bible. Why would I continue to read again stories I know the ending too? One, they are great events to bolster my confidence, trust and faith in God. Two, there is not a single account where God's intimate involvement is not detected. God's Fingerprints are everywhere, in every story from creation forward. Even at this point in my life, I can reflect and observe God's penetrating assistance at just the right times.  While there are major events throughout history and in our world today that make us question -  why did God not intervene? I have to trust in an over-all design and divine plan, the option is there is no plan, therefore, there is no God and I refuse to believe that.  In Job's life the devil was a major influence, but God was sovereign over all the details.  God used the Behemoth and the Leviathan in His discussion with Job to display His power over ...

Has your name ever been called from where you cannot see the caller for the moment, but just by the voice you recognize the person? Have you ever seen a person from far off and known who they are simply by the way they walk or their posture? When I was growing up, I could tell you without looking, who was walking from one room to the other because of their cadence and who was literally talking behind my back because of their voice. All the times I have been on a team, in a job or part of a church family for an extended period of time - I knew them. Because I shared so much time in my relationships, I could distinguish the many voices in my life from one another – seen or not seen. That is familiarity based on an established bond. This only comes with time spent with that person. Many instances the time is just the quantity that determines the familiarity of the bond, like going to work everyday therefore knowing your coworkers. Many more instances knowing someone’s voice, cadence, po...