{"id":11,"date":"2010-01-18T15:07:02","date_gmt":"2010-01-18T22:07:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.imagingtheheavens.com\/?p=11"},"modified":"2011-06-29T06:43:08","modified_gmt":"2011-06-29T13:43:08","slug":"under-construction-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.imagingtheheavens.com\/?p=11","title":{"rendered":"“Armor of God”"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n[Translate]<\/a>\"\"\n
\n<\/div>\n
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\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Good Morning! God has blessed us with another beautiful day — rain, wind, snow
\nand all — for every day in the Lord is a good day!<\/p>\n

I’m driving up to our remote JMSM Observatory this morning to replace some electronic
\nequipment. Yeah… stuff always breaks down :-) The Good News is that Jesus is the
\nsame yesterday, today, and forever! Praise the Lord !<\/p>\n

Please pray for me, that I have safe travel in this marginal weather today. Lord willing
\nand the creek don’t rise, I’ll be back in Las Cruces early this afternoon.
\nAnyway, I was thinking about all of you this morning so I decided to share some
\nthoughts, and an astro-image that I took recently. A Brother recently expressed that he
\nwas battling lustful thoughts and actions in his life — seems to be a constant battle with
\nmen in this world, which I’m sure we can all relate to. This brought to my mind some of
\nthe direction that God gives in His Word about putting on armor to do battle with the evil
\none — that is say — Spiritual Battle, and Spiritual Warfare!<\/p>\n

In Ephesians 6:11, God’s Word says, “Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be
\nable to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.”<\/p>\n

Many times, being caught up in the middle of temptation, we fail to realize our situation
\nand the presence of the enemy, and we don’t fully understand what putting on God’s
\narmor means. As a result, we go to battle unprepared, which when you think about it,
\ndoesn’t make much sense does it? Afterall, why would we subject ourselves and engage
\nin full battle circumstances against any enemy, without any defenses?<\/p>\n

Think about how sensitive we are to worldly things. We can look up at the sky and
\ndiscern the weather. We can look upon people around us and sense minute things about
\nthem. But when it comes to discerning the evil one, it turns out to be a whole different
\nstory. How quickly, instantly in some cased, are we caught by the subtle deception
\nspewed out by Satan. The Bible speaks about this matter, and gives caution to us
\nregarding being captive by the world. The truth is, as Brothers in Christ, although we are
\nin the world, we are no longer of this world. How then, if we have Christ in us, can we
\nthen thrust Christ into our (any) sinful behavior. Clearly we must consider our
\nresponsibility — our Spiritual Responsibilty.<\/p>\n

So… what is this “armor of God” ? Ok — Let’s get ready for battle !<\/p>\n

– We must girt our loins with the Truth, Eph 6:14. This is what holds everything
\ntogether.
\n– We must put on a breastplate of Righteouness, Eph 6:14. This covers our chest, and our
\nheart.
\n– We must shod our feet with The Gospel, Eph 6:15. This allow us to stand on God’s
\nWord as our Rock.
\n– We must carry a shield of Faith, Eph 6:16. This is what protects everything.
\n– We must put on the helmet of Salvation, Eph 6:17. This is what covers our head, which
\ninfluences our thinking, our hearing, and our seeing.
\nNot so hard to do, right? The simple fact is, we are all sinful by nature. Therefore, we
\nmust strive to be obedient. The big question is, “Be obedient to what?” In a worldly
\nsense we are obedient by what controls us — that is, our sinful nature. By contrast, in
\norder to be obedient to God, we must put into practice “Godly Principles”, and apply
\nthem to our lives.<\/p>\n

Some of these principles apply to spiritual warfare, hence the importance of what God’s
\nWord says in Ephesians 6:11. In a real sense as Christians, when it comes to spiritual
\nwarfare, we are all soldiers in Christ. Grasp this concept as a reality in your life, and as
\npart of your Christian walk — for as long as we are in his world, we are engaged in
\nspiritual warfare.<\/p>\n

So… the next time circumstances allow the evil one to present temptation, have on your
\narmor of God, be prepared for battle 24\/7, stand against the powers of darkness, hold on
\nto the power of His (that is the Lord) might, that you may withstand “the fiery darts” of
\nthe evil one and that of his demons. Do this and the next battle (spiritual battle) you
\nencounter will give victory to you in Christ.<\/p>\n

What a blessing is is to know the Lord. Amen! As men, our walk in this world is a
\nconstant challenge. That’s just part of God plan for our lives. Take heart Brothers, for
\nwe can rejoice in all that we encounter, for as it says in Romans 8:28-31,
\n“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who
\nare the called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to
\nbe conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many
\nbrethren. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these
\nHe alos justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified. What then shall we say
\nto these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?”<\/p>\n

Knowing this, we can find comfort and strength by trusting in God, and being obedient to
\nHis commands. In all this, God intends us to be strong, even when we face difficulty in
\nthis world. Reflecting on all of the above, we know where the battle lines are drawn.
\nMake this your day to raise your sights, put on your spiritual armor (that is the armor of
\nGod), break the enemy’s (that is the evil one) hold in your life, and proudly be a Soldier
\nin Christ.<\/p>\n

Right now, before you do another thing, put on the “ARMOR OF GOD” !<\/p>\n

The attached image is an astrophoto taken by me recently from our remote mountain
\nobservatory. This object fits nicely into my heartfelt message to you this morning. It is
\ncommonly called “Thor’s Helmet” and technically known as ngc2359. It is a Planteary
\nNebula located in our Milky Way Galaxy. Beautiful — isn’t it ! God’s creation displays
\nHis glory, and this object gives a hint of His power and majesty. So, when you look upon
\nthis image of “Thor’s Helmet”, don’t think of the figure of greek mythology, rather focus
\non it as a reminder of God’s glory in the heavens, and a way of remembering to put on the
\nfull armor of God.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

That’s it guys — I’m out the door headed to the mountains!\u00a0 Have a blessed day, and make
\nit a point to share Jesus with someone today.<\/p>\n

“This is the day which the LORD has made; Let us rejoice and be glad in it.” (Psalm 118:24)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Your Brother in Christ,
\nMike Sherick<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Translate] <\/p>\n

Good Morning! God has blessed us with another beautiful day — rain, wind, snow and all — for every day in the Lord is a good day!<\/p>\n

I’m driving up to our remote JMSM Observatory this morning to replace some electronic equipment. Yeah… stuff always breaks down :-) The Good News is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.imagingtheheavens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.imagingtheheavens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.imagingtheheavens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.imagingtheheavens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.imagingtheheavens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"http:\/\/www.imagingtheheavens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1325,"href":"http:\/\/www.imagingtheheavens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11\/revisions\/1325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.imagingtheheavens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.imagingtheheavens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.imagingtheheavens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}