The Belt of truth
The Breastplate of Righteousness
Fitted feet of the Gospel of Peace
The Shield of Faith
The Helmet of Salvation
The Sword of the Spirit (The Word of God)

The more we choose to work on these characteristics the more equipped we will be for battle. The next couple of weeks I will be going over each piece individually, examining their purpose, symbolism, and application. I can only give my perspective and if you feel the need to respond please leave a comment on the comments page or on the Facebook page. My hope is to generate discussion and apply what need be applied.

Thank you and Gob bless.

Let us begin in verses 1 and 2.

“Sometime later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” “Here I am” he Replied. Then God said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.”

There are two thoughts I want you to remember from here “God tested Abraham”, and “your only son Isaac, whom you love”.

Verses 3-6 talks about Abraham and Isaac’s arrival to where God had told him to go. They had brought all that was required for a burnt offering, all except in Isaac’s mind the lamb that is to be burned. I wonder how much it hurt Abraham to hear his son “his only son, whom he loved” asking him about the sacrifice not knowing that the lamb was Isaac himself. But the most interesting thing happens in Abraham’s response saying in verse 8 “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.”That response shows me Abraham’s trust and love in God. Not only does Abraham understand what he must do, but he whole heartily dedicates himself to the will of God. He has dedicated himself so much that he is willing to give his “only son Isaac, whom he loves” and sacrifice him before God. This was no normal test that we can say we relate to. How many of us would be willing to sacrifice a child let alone your own for God. Imagine the very child that you have rejoiced and struggled with throughout their life, with diligence and love. The same child that you would rather die for, than sacrifice. I don’t imagine that any parent that has a deep love for there child would be willing to do what abraham was going to do.

Verse 11-12 which says, “But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, ‘Abraham! Abraham!’ ‘Here I am’ he replied. ‘Do not lay a hand on that boy,’ he said. ‘Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.’

I don’t believe that God want Isaac killed, that is why this was a test. This test was to show the heart of Abraham. What did Abraham long for most and, how far would he be willing to go. After this God provided a sacrifice for Abraham.Verses 13-14 tells us of a ram that Abraham sees in a thicket and uses the ram as a sacrifice for the burnt offering, Abraham than calls that mountain “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided’.

The chapter ends with what I believe to be the most striking and beautiful events in the Bible.

Genesis 22:15-18

15 The angel of the LORD called to Abraham from heaven a second time 16 and said, “I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17 I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, 18 and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.”

The reminder that I have from this is of Heritage. Through Abraham a Heritage was formed, because withheld nothing from God a promise was made. The promise was of a heritage, family line that would carry kings, and very own son Jesus Christ. Because of Abraham I am apart of this promised line that was given to Abraham from God. Your are apart of this line as well. We where given this heritage, this royal oath through adoption. Just as Abraham was willing to give his son “his only son, whom he loves”, God gave us his “one and only” Jesus to provide the sacrifice for us. This sacrifice gave you and I an inheritance, a blessing, a promise in a family of kings. So I will rejoice and be glad in it, because today is the day the Lord has made, for through the blood of Jesus I am a slave to a greater master. Through the blood of the Lamb we are descendants of Abraham, and we are children of God. That is our Heritage, that is our family, and that is our gift. It took me two weeks to remember that, and I hope that we all will rejoice in it.

These are three fundamental questions that carry by far most of the struggles in our lives. You may have answered one or all of these questions, but are still unsure of the direction; I know I am. I am passionate about God and his creation, but there is no way that I can claim to be good with approaching either one. I am good at expressing my feelings but I am not passionate about having a one-sided conversation (I talk a lot).

There has as of late been a reoccurring thought that I have observed since the beginning of my Christian walk. All Christians have the same goal in mind, but they are divided by their affiliation. When I say affiliation I am referring to the such things as Baptist, Catholic, Lutheran, and so on. They have chosen these affiliations for some reason or purpose that they can either relate to or find comfort in.

What happens however when you two different affiliates come to worship in one place? Arguments happen; with in the structure, musical preference, and sometimes clothing as it pertains to worship. This is always a difficult concept for me to understand, because I seek to understand more about different doctrines, and enjoy hearing what others have proclaimed in the growth of their personal faith.

There are many that would say what i am choosing to do is potentially dangerous, is it? yes, but is it valuable? absolutely! No one in this world can say with full validation that they have all the right answers, so why do so many live like it?

Example:

I approach an individual reading his bible in a coffee shop, I begin a conversation and ask “what church do you go to?” He replies “I don’t attend one” my heart begins to pace, my emotions begin to boil, and for the next 30 mins I am showing him scripture after scripture trying convince him of the importance of Church. Months pass and I see him again, we converse again and he proceeds to tell me that he has become a Catholic and is thinking of joining the Clergy. Again my heart races and my blood boils, and for the next hour I am trying to convince him out of joining the clergy.

I hope you have a problem with the example that I have just given you , because in my opinion the highly persuasive argument that took place is wrong. I found an individual who at one time didn’t attend church, spent time convincing him to attend one. Than once he chose a church and found a minstry that he may very well have had a passion for, and tell him that it’s wrong; I am doing exactly what Matthew 7:4 says about trying to remove the speck from my brother’s eye and neglect the plank in my own eye.

What would be wrong with having him join the Clergy? Nothing. I may not agree with some of the doctrines of the Catholic Church but who am I to tell someone what their faith and ministry should look like. I can spend so much time telling others what they should do and forget that I don’t even now what my ministry looks like. A life with Christ is ever changing, challenging and renewed daily.

What I urge for when it comes to approaching someone of a different faith is understanding. That indivdual has a relationship that you don’t have, it’s neither better or worse, it’s different. I believe that we will always have many affiliations but there will always be one body, and one God. Know that the different parts of the body have attributes that they are good at, bad at, and passionate about, but we should never forget the most important attribute that anyone who calls themself Christian should have; Love (1 Corinthians 13:13).

This however is one of many things that make me uncomfortable. We have been given the opportunity to speak from the living word. There are many who are given the chance to give a sermon, devo or spiritual thought. There is a small percentage however that take this opportunity and don’t see the seriousness of it’s purpose. When someone is entrusted to give a sermon, devo, or a spiritual thought they should think what they are going to talk about, how they are going to present it, use scripture as the guide and show how it applies to our life. For example: If the subject of your speech is “Love God” my first question would be: “What does that look like?’

There have been to many times that I have heard a subject take over a speech, and leave me wondering: “How does that apply?” That’s only because the speech is focused more on a theme rather than making scripture the “meat of the sandwich”. There are times which that is necessary and important, but much like our personal lives, if we choose to put more emphasis on a theme, we begin to lose the very image we are trying to help build.

For Example if you are given the topic of “Perservence”, what will you look to as a means of examination? If you pull from your daily life, how does that affect others? If you use stories from others, what kind of conviction do you have for it personally? But now we must look at the otherside of the coin; the open opportunity of building ministers.

Romans 15: 15-19

¹⁵ Yet I have written you quite boldly on some points to remind you of them again, because of the grace God gave me ¹⁶ to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles. He gave me the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God, so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

 ¹⁷ Therefore I glory in Christ Jesus in my service to God. ¹⁸ I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said and done— ¹⁹ by the power of signs and wonders, through the power of the Spirit of God. So from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum, I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ.

When we are given the opportunity to give a sermon, devo, or spiritual thought we must remember this. Paul spoke boldy because of God’s Grace to be a minister of Christ Jesus. He was given the duty to proclaim the Gospel of God, in order to make the Gentiles an offering before God to be sanctified by his spirit. Paul choose to speak of nothing except the accomplishments of Christ, in order to demonstrate and teach his obedience to God, and to proclaim the Gospel of Christ.

In conclusion I ask that we take every person and every opportunity seriously. Because when you claim the Gospel of Christ, that has a high standard. A standard that should be honored, respected and glorified in all aspects of our lives. So when you give whatever thought you may give, remember that you are not there alone. Remember what you represent, honor it, wrestle with it and challenge What You Know because the opportunity is not your own.

These are interesting questions and something that has been discussed alot, but how many people think about what there saying when they truly think about it. I find it interesting that others see a need to have a legacy, or image in which others are to seen. It’s almost building the thought that eveyone should have one, or people are concerned with the perception of their life. Why? What is the purpose of having a legacy? Why do so many care of their image or what they are remembered for?

Everytime I think of legacy it reminds me of one word “treasure”, something that we choose to focus are hearts and minds. The more that we spend time thinking about our legacy the more we begin to treasure it.

Luke 18:22 says:

When Jesus heard this he said to him, “You lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come follow me.”

I choose this scripture because Jesus was speaking to an individual that was well off financially but poor of spirit. The man did not want to let go of those possessions, he probably spent much of his life building them, that it began to define him; it becamse his legacy. What does Jesus tell him, “Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come follow me.”

Is it a bad thing to have physical wealth? I don’t believe so, but I believe that if we let it control our lives, if we build our own legacy we have missed what it means to be God’s.

Luke 12:16-21 says

 ¹⁶ And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. ¹⁷ He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’

   ¹⁸ “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. ¹⁹ And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’

   ²⁰ “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’    ²¹ “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”

The part that I would like to focus on is the attitude of the rich man. He built so much of his own life and God calls him a fool. He is not a fool because he is rich, he is a fool because of his focus. So what should we think when it comes to legacy, or what should try to be remembered for?

Nothing! Instead we should concern ourselves with what we choose to represent and how we represent it. If we choose to place God in Lordship than what we will be remember for, the Legacy that we will carry is Christian.

“My country was built for the very heart that you have.”

That isn’t word for word but that is the message that was portrayed at the end the movie version of Narnia: The Voyage of The Dawn Treader. That was the last conversation that Reepicheep would have in Narnia with Aslan. That message was incredibly profound for me to hear.

I thought deeply about its meaning and it’s honorable stature. Aslan through the Narnia series has been the symbol of Jesus Christ, and Reeicheep to me in this scene is a servant who fights, and yearns for the one thing that he does not yet have; to live in Aslan’s Country. When I witnessed this scene I became overwhelmed with emotion, every thought in my mind except for this scene had vanished. I broke down in deep reflection because of what this means for us.

John 14:2 says this: “In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you.”

That very thing happened for Reepicheep. Ashlan (Jesus) said that his country was built for some like Reepicheep, and what is Reepicheep? He is the symbol of a servant who longs for eternity and in everything that means. Because of the nature of sin and flesh, the notion can be understood that Reepicheep is not perfect, nor is he righteous but one thing that he has held onto is his yearning.

The kingdom of God is prepared for those who crave it, it is prepared for those who have faith, and it is built for those who are not perfect. I broke down because I know that I can not reach the ultimate goal of eternity, but I yearn for it, I crave it, and I have a passion that is fueled through service. The message that Aslan and Reepicheep have shown me, is that the kingdom of heaven is built for a sinning, filthy, and ignorent servant like me.

I pray that you will understand this and that you will have faith and confidence in the fact that God has prepared a place for you. God built heaven for someone just like you, so yearn all the greater, crave all the more, and take hold of the love of God. Amen.

In the picture my mother was much taller than my brothers and I and wore a big smile on her face. To the right of her was my oldest brother he was a little tallest of us with no smile because he was the serious one. Next to him was me, a little shorter with big buggy eyes and a gigantic smile because, I have always been the goofy one of the family. finally the my youngest brother, he was very short and angry, he fought a lot, and never got what he wanted when he wanted it, so he didn’t smile a lot.

That image had much to communicate and if someone where to look at it now they probably wouldn’t understand why I drew that the way I did. But let me show you another picture.

What do you see in this photo?

What is the most noticeable difference between this and the picture that I had previous described (excluding the age)?

First we are all smiling.

Secondly I am the shortest in the photo.

But if someone where to look at this picture the same way as the other, what would they see? 

They wouldn’t see the differences in each person’s hight, weight, or expression. They would instead see the image an image of beauty, unity, and most importantly family. This photo was taken at my older brother Joe’s wedding, my brother Abe and myself where ushers. That day was very important to him and to the family as well, because that was the day the he chose to welcome his wife Kelly to the family. They have been married for sometime now and have two beautiful children, that are loved very much and I hope that the image that they build together will be far greater than the one we had.

I tell you this story for one reason, “The Image” of family. Not the physical, blood family but rather the family in God’s hands. When you look at the spiritual family what do you see? Do you see beauty, opportunity, and hope. Galatians 5:22 build an image of God’s family, and what that looks like.

“But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control.”

I assume that most of you who are reading this know these by heart. Many of us know the song that we teach kids in sunday school. But who among us can see these things in your churches or your daily life. Sadly I have not lived in this image, and I know that no one fully can grasp it. But even in a broken, hurting, deprived world I have seen it.

There are so many out there, who are committed to building that very image. Much like the drawing from my childhood there will be times of difficulty and struggle. We will have times of anger like my younger brother, there will be times to take things seriously like my older brother. But when we build the image just like the one of my brothers wedding, the world won’t see the difference among us, the image they will see is God’s image, the image of family.

I hope that you may see that image, and I thank all who read this because I am very passionate about God and his created. I am ever thankful for those who call themselves Christian, and the services that they are doing. I love you all and hope that your passion for Christ will be ever greater than my own.

May God bless you all.

I have three nieces and a nephew between the ages of 7 months and 5 years. I can remember when the oldest niece Arry was a first-born, unable to walk or talk all she could do is smile, and cry. Those two basic emotions create to different reactions of joy or worry. The first time I saw her cry I cried with her because of the pain she had from her teeth growing in and I being unable to prevent it. My heart leaps for My nieces and nephew, I would do anything to keep them safe, even if that means death!

My second niece Hazlin taught me a very important lesson. You can’t always prevent them from hurting themselves, but you can be there for them when they cry out to you. I unfortunately have learned this lesson from her more often than I am comfortable with. Hazlin is a runner, and authority if you don’t stop her. If you turned your back for more than 20 seconds she get in to something, or run into the wall (she found it funny at first), will flat out ignore you.

The one thing that these children have in common is their curousity and love. Jesus creates a “faith image” of what children teach us when it comes to the Kingdom.

“But Jesus called the children to him and said, ‘Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a child will never enter it’.” –Luke 18:13-17

Much like Hazlin we run into walls or get in to things that we shouldn’t. Much like Arry we too can’t walk or talk in a way of is understood. But what do we have? We have an adoring father that will be there to pick us up when we cry out him, just as the jews did when the where slaves to egypt. We have a God that would do anything to protect us, and has died as flesh for us so we can come closer to him. We have a God that above all else has called us his children, and that is something worth fighting for.

I didn’t understand everything but one thing was for sure, each person who walked in to that building saw the church and their community as something sacred. Members came early before the service to pray and prepare themselves with the understanding that this was “el la casa de el Dios” “the house of God”. The building didn’t seem like much but it was a place of consecration (a place of dedication to the service and worship to God). The people were very giving and welcoming to me and Jaquar; they treated us as if we were part of there community. There may have been complications in communication, but there was plenty of room for us to act as one body in Christ.

The more I think about that church the more I want to attend it. It reminds me so much of the book of Romans. Even though every person that came through the door brought a lot of problems, sins, and other taxing situations, they came with a open heart in preparation for God. It reminds me so much of Romans 4: 4,5

“Now when man works , his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but a obligation. However to the man who does no work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness.”

I have felt so many different times in my life that I have failed, and I know that the individuals who attend there have as well, but it is through “God who justifies the wicked” that we can come to such a place as church to be credited as righteous, and the ground that we stand on is seen as something sacred. There will be a day when I return to that church, and I know that I will be given the same welcome. We may not always understand each other but we love one another.

Just as that church told me I tell you. “Dios te bendiga” “God Bless you”.