Armor of God: Belt of Truth and Breastplate of Righteousness

 
“Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place” – Ephesians 6:14
 
“You can’t handle the truth” – a famous quote from Jack Nicholson from A Few Good Men.  And to some degree he was spot on.  We have become deaf to the truth in the world today.  Politicians tell us what we want to hear, just to get elected.  Corporations tell us all the good they are doing for the world while at the same time steal our data, sell it, and use it for their gain.  Financial Institutions loan us more and more money at exorbitant interest rates, creating an unmanageable amount of debt, crippling families everywhere; while at the same time charging penalties and fees for not having a large enough balance in the bank.  Corruptness flows from every nook and cranny of our society, and if we indeed knew the truth it would cause outrage and revolt as never seen before.

I posit that mankind doesn’t want to know the truth, for in knowing the truth one must then decide how to respond to such knowledge.  If you truly knew the truth behind decisions made on Capitol Hill, you would never vote the same again.  If you knew the truth behind the technology inside of your iPhone, Android SmartPhone or your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat account you would turn them off instantly.  Observe your daily walk, and ask yourself do you truly know the truth about everything that is going on around you.  You’ll soon admit that the answer is an unquestionable No.  But yet, you’re okay with this arrangement.  Why?

By our nature we want to avoid conflict and just live our lives peacefully, unhindered by others around us.  By expanding our view of the truth of how this world operates, we open up questions and concerns and bring direct conflict into our daily decisions.  Yet, there is a single point of truth which we are drawn to stand on, and that is the truth of salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord.  The world will become corrupt and filled with unrighteousness.  Read Revelations and discover the wrath of God upon those who will abide in the flesh and align with the worldly influences rather than the truth He has provided through His Son Jesus.

To fight this war against the world, we must first fully embrace the truth and righteousness found in and through Jesus Christ.  Acknowledge that He alone is the Son of God and the path to righteousness and eternal salvation.  Not through Buddha, Allah, many Gods of the Krishnas, Joseph Smith or Mohammed will you find salvation.  Jesus Christ states in John 14:6 “I am the way, the TRUTH, and the light, no-one comes to the Father except through me.”  His word is the single absolute truth for mankind’s eternal soul.  The world will fall away, but you are not of this world when you are a follower of Jesus.  You are simply in this world at the present moment, while waiting for your final destination.

The world will continue to press down upon you with false claims – there is no God, man evolved from apes, life began from an extreme change effect in a primordial soup and has continued to evolve into our intelligent being over billions of years, all paths to God are the same (Buddha, Hari Krishna, Allah, Taoism, Mormon, etc.).  Why don’t they want to see the truth?  The reality is that they are afraid of the truth.  For the truth represents a narrow path (Matthew 7:13-14) and the prideful, self-centered, sinful life of mankind does not fit through the narrow gate.  By acknowledging and accepting Jesus Christ as the truth and only way, he or she must then acknowledge their transgressions and turn from those ways toward righteousness.  This is a deal breaker for many and therefore the revolt by claiming it to be untrue.  This is the foundation of the war my friend; God’s truth vs. Satan’s lies.  This is why the belt of truth must be the first piece of armor you put on every morning.  For without this foundation of truth, you cannot stand firm in your actions and decisions that day.


Prayer:
Heavenly Father,
Your word is alive in our lives.  We look for Your truth within Your gospel and choose to hold onto that truth as our lifeline to You.  Help us to be loving to those who are blind to Your truth, and yet place the words upon our lips to share this truth with them.  Help us to be wise in our testimony as we share it with others.  Let us place our light on a candlestick and not hide it under a bushel, that all may see Your truth represented in our life.  In Your name we pray - Amen



© Sondove Enterprises, 2019
For more Daily Thoughts go to: http://sondove.blogspot.com
If you would like to be added to the email distribution please click here: Daily Thoughts 

The Final Eclipse

“This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.”   John 3:19

My thoughts:

Just listen to or read the news headlines on any given day.  The world is full of evil and darkness.  The heart of the child is being corrupted by the sounds of the keyboard and mouse.  I fear that the social skills of this generation are built upon the weak foundation of the world wide web, google and twitter.  The simple fact that 88 percent of teenagers (13-17) have or have access to a cellphone, and 91% of teenagers have access to the internet and spend an awful lot of productive time using both.  This has become the new way of communication and it is breaking down the basics of humanity at it’s core.

Granted, not all teenagers are lumped into this single bucket, but consider that many of them spend more time on their phones, tablets and laptops than actually speaking with another person in a friendly, social environment.  Sure, they speak in class, at the dinner table and when involved in extra-curricular activities; but I have found that much of their “free-time” is now spent in Snapchat, Instragram, Facebook, Twitter and other electronic means of communication.

Why is this so important, or why should you care?
Hypothesize with me if you will.  If God is all about love and sharing His love with our neighbors, families and friends; then if the evil one of this world can remove that interaction from our lives, it gives him a much easier path to instill self-centeredness, greed, entitlement and anger into these lives.  There was a time when violence wasn’t the path to resolving conflict.  Looking at the youth of today though, that seems to be their method of coping with issues that arise in their life.  Be it the protestors (either side), the shooters, the cop-killers or the cyber-bully – they all fall into a similar stereotype.  Look at these individuals and you will find someone who is: self-centered, focused only on their happiness, angry with those that disagree, unremorseful to inflict pain on someone who opposes them and looking to blame everyone else in the world except for themselves.  This persona is the exact antithesis of what God has called us to be.

It is a darkness in the world that has etched it’s way into our lives slowly, but methodically so we wouldn’t notice it immediately.  But, suddenly, though we know where the light switch is, we have found ourselves very comfortable sitting in the darkness and looking at the sliver of light in the corner.  We know that evil is all around us, but fear and to some degree comfort, have settled in such that we aren’t inclined to actually do anything to bring light back into the situation.  That’s the state of our world.  Too many self-proclaimed Christians are sitting in the dusk between the ever increasing shadow and the diminishing light in this world.  Unless we decide to stand up, I truly fear that darkness will overtake mankind and the desire for light will be gone completely.

I suggest you take this to heart and look into the darkness that covers most of our college campus’ today.  I’ve watched interview after interview of our college students boldly staring into the camera and claiming there is no God and that this world is designed strictly for survival of the fittest.  This generation of young people are walking away from the light without any knowledge or concern that they are stepping straight into the shadows of evil. 

We know it’s happening, yet we are willing to sit idly by and watch, then we too have accepted the fact that it’s acceptable for darkness to take our children away from us.  You and I are called to grab their hand and help them find the light once again.  Don’t turn from this problem, it will only get worse.  The scriptures have made it clear that this world will get darker before the coming of our Lord.  Look around yourself and you can see it is happening.  Choose to help those who are blind find their way back.


Be Blessed,

Rich

Join us on Facebook @ 10 Minute Reader Daily Thoughts or on Twitter @Sondove
If you would like to be added to the email distribution, please send an email here.