Wednesday, May 27, 2009
at
8:45 PM
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1 comments
Paul is my favorite writer in the bible. He likens Christians to a soldier—to a warrior. This implies that there is a battle to be fought—that we are at war.
Ephesians 6: 11-12. “Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. 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.”
I forget this too often. It’s easy to do. But there is a very real war against demons, unbelief, and sin. When we don’t face it fully prepared we easily become the victims instead of the victors.
We are expected to use the armor provided for us. A Bible that has never been used is useless for you. But if you’ve got highlights, underlines, wrinkles, and faded pages then it means something. Not that you’re highlighter happy but that you actually read it, study it, understand it, and put it into practice.
My geekness is reminded of a scene in the second LOTR movie where right before the battle for Helms Deep, Aragorn is talking to this kid about the battle and Aragorn asks for the kid’s sword. He takes it looks at it and swings it. (It looks beat up and crappy with a million dings in it.)Then he says, “This is a good sword.”
Sure it was a good sword—it was used to doing what it was made for: Fighting Battles.
Back in the day, I played Football for a few years. Football is by far my favorite sport and I have a great passion for it. One of the things I prided myself on was what my uniform looked like at the end of the game. The muddier, more grass stained and ripped up my uniform was or how many paint marks on my helmet that I had, the better the game. Having a squeaky clean uniform meant you didn’t do anything—you most likely set on the bench and watched the game. This is the same way I look at my spiritual armor.
There’s another set of ‘armor’ I think this could apply to. To take a quote from the book Captivating, Eldredge says, "Hey vanity is okay, it's okay to chase beauty and to expect your man to be a knight in shining armor."
In many ways I don’t think I’m the knight in shining armor type. Armor in this sense, could be a metaphor for lots of things: strength, leadership, humility, being of high character, and being above reproach to name a few. To carry those things out means you don your armor. You use your armor. It's not just for looks.
That’s the way I’ve always seen myself. I’ve never really wanted shining armor. I want it to have so many dings and bends and dirt on it as possible. I’ve never wanted to be a poser. I’ve never wanted to be one of the nicely suited, sitting on the bench, acting like players—or a guy who looks good from afar until you really get to know him. I want to use my armor whether it's as a football player making a tackle, a Christian marking up their Bible, or a guy actually putting strength, leadership, and humility into practice.
To be honest, I think my armor (if it’s not already) will be banged up. I’ve fallen many times. It’s tarnished and broken in some places. It doesn’t shine very well. It’s blackened from failures and stumbles. I don’t know, maybe it won’t look attractive in a room standing next to others with their shining armor on—maybe that’s not what women will desire. I’m not sure, but I’d rather use my armor than make sure it still shines.
Ephesians 6: 11-12. “Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. 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.”
I forget this too often. It’s easy to do. But there is a very real war against demons, unbelief, and sin. When we don’t face it fully prepared we easily become the victims instead of the victors.
We are expected to use the armor provided for us. A Bible that has never been used is useless for you. But if you’ve got highlights, underlines, wrinkles, and faded pages then it means something. Not that you’re highlighter happy but that you actually read it, study it, understand it, and put it into practice.
My geekness is reminded of a scene in the second LOTR movie where right before the battle for Helms Deep, Aragorn is talking to this kid about the battle and Aragorn asks for the kid’s sword. He takes it looks at it and swings it. (It looks beat up and crappy with a million dings in it.)Then he says, “This is a good sword.”
Sure it was a good sword—it was used to doing what it was made for: Fighting Battles.
Back in the day, I played Football for a few years. Football is by far my favorite sport and I have a great passion for it. One of the things I prided myself on was what my uniform looked like at the end of the game. The muddier, more grass stained and ripped up my uniform was or how many paint marks on my helmet that I had, the better the game. Having a squeaky clean uniform meant you didn’t do anything—you most likely set on the bench and watched the game. This is the same way I look at my spiritual armor.
There’s another set of ‘armor’ I think this could apply to. To take a quote from the book Captivating, Eldredge says, "Hey vanity is okay, it's okay to chase beauty and to expect your man to be a knight in shining armor."
In many ways I don’t think I’m the knight in shining armor type. Armor in this sense, could be a metaphor for lots of things: strength, leadership, humility, being of high character, and being above reproach to name a few. To carry those things out means you don your armor. You use your armor. It's not just for looks.
That’s the way I’ve always seen myself. I’ve never really wanted shining armor. I want it to have so many dings and bends and dirt on it as possible. I’ve never wanted to be a poser. I’ve never wanted to be one of the nicely suited, sitting on the bench, acting like players—or a guy who looks good from afar until you really get to know him. I want to use my armor whether it's as a football player making a tackle, a Christian marking up their Bible, or a guy actually putting strength, leadership, and humility into practice.
To be honest, I think my armor (if it’s not already) will be banged up. I’ve fallen many times. It’s tarnished and broken in some places. It doesn’t shine very well. It’s blackened from failures and stumbles. I don’t know, maybe it won’t look attractive in a room standing next to others with their shining armor on—maybe that’s not what women will desire. I’m not sure, but I’d rather use my armor than make sure it still shines.
Posted by
Kyle
