The Hidden Nature of the Word (Mark 4:10-12, Mark 4:33-34)

 Mark 4:10-12

Mark 4:33-34

The Armor of God (Eph. 6:10-20)

 Eph. 6:10-20

I laid these out for us to think 🤔 about some what systematically over next few days. 

Brain storm on above pictures and let the Lord guide you to fill in the blanks. Think through your knowledge of God and scripture and color in the picture to some degree as you ready your heart for this Sunday morning. 

Notice the framework of how one is the means to a gift. The Gospel brings about our salvation. The truth brings about our righteousness. And the word gives life to our faith. 

As we fail to share the gospel less people come to know salvation. As we fail to share truth less people know how to walk in righteousness. As we fail to interact with the word less people have faith. 

Just as a seed planted doesn’t grow overnight neither do we fully grasp the word of God. Start thinking 🤔 through these ideas 💡 today. Pray over them. Go find those scriptures that come to mind and have them ready for Sunday morning to share.

The Gospel and Our Salvation 

Remember how the gospel message broke through in your life? How did that simple illogical Bible message that you once either mocked or didn’t understand change everything for you?

Notice the gift of Our salvation. We once where tossed to and fro with no real hope or security in this world. But that all change when we became a child of God. Our salvation is a gift that hold us grounded and anchored to the creator of all things. No matter how crazy our lives get we are held by the keeper of all things. 

Jot dow some notes about how you came to salvation by the gospel and maybe a experience where you realized the way Our salvation keeps us. 

Romans 8:(ESV): 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

Hey sorry late on this. We have been running hard to try and get away to the Lake House this weekend. 

So thoughts for days 2, to consider is the pair “The Truth” and “Our Righteous”

When I consider the role of the “Breast Plate of Righteousness” I can’t help but to think of being conformed into the image of Christ. That He is our righteousness. And just as the armor of the breast plate protects our heart and soul in the same way the righteousness acquired at the Cross from the perfect “Lamb of God” makes us righteous. It is not our own acquired righteousness by our works, obedience or stewardship, but a gift from the Lord that we find refuge in. His righteousness is a hiding place for our weary broken hearts and protection for our souls. 

When I consider “The Belt of Truth” I think of “speak the truth in love”. It is through the gospel that God has spoken the truth about our condition. It is not positive to look in the mirror and see ourselves in sin. It is a shameful and hurtful thing to bear. But it is by that truth that we see our need for the righteousness of Christ to protect, cover, save and redeem us. 

Think about what the righteousness of Christ means to you?

Think about how you are yielding to the work of and His means to conforming you into His image?

Think about how He conformed and radically changed Paul, Peter, Stephen and Apollo’s. They were never the same. 

Think about how your have to submit to certain truths to find the love of God. To find His directions. We can’t do it our way. We wrestle in the flesh and in the spirit to surrender to His truth. Where are you struggling to submit to God? Where is He knocking at the door calling for you to come? What is stopping you? What do you have to lose? 

Pen some things down. Where do you need to change? What do you need to release? 

Here is some scripture 

Romans 3:21–26 (ESV): 21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. 

Romans 6:15–19 (ESV): 15 What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. 19 I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. 

So hope you guys have had a great week and have taken a few moments to ponder the armor of God these last few days. 

On day one we took a head to toe look with the roles of the gospel and our salvation. How the gospel brings us into salvation and how salvation protects us from being tossed to and fro mentally. How it calms the raging storms in our minds. 

On day two we took a look at the truth and our righteousness and how that plays a role in conforming us into what God designed us to be and how is protect the core of who we are. 

Today on day 3 we come to the pair “The word and Our Faith”. A sword and a shield. As on day one the armor was shoes and a helmet and day 2 essentially pants and a shirt covering the core of the body, today the armor is at the hands to be yielded. In the right hand a sword and in the left a shield. One to block the attacks and another the destroy strongholds and to loosen bondage.  

The word is consider to be our sword. And our faith is considered to be our shield   Consider these things today and jot down some notes. What role does the word play in your life? What victory does it bring about? What about faith, how do you actively use it to defend the attacks you face daily?

Hope you guys have a great day. We are traveling this morning to Houston, but I look forward to joining you in the morning by Lake Livingston to visit one another and unpack this picture Paul has penned down for us so that we can find an anchor to hold on to in the attacks we come into in this Christian life.