Context. It’s an often forgotten thing in our world. Many people like to take things out of context to use to forward their own agenda or make others look bad.

Taking scripture out of context can dangerous thing. Satan knows scripture better then most of the world gives him credit for. He knows how to twist scripture. He convinces others that they can take only what they want or simply tries to lead us down the wrong path. So be watchful and don’t take a verse alone but read the sounding verses, or chapter, and pray that God would open the eyes of your heart so he can show you the verses true teaching.

So there’s my spiel on context and now here is how I got thinking about this subject.

I was reading Philippians 4 and I came across a very commonly used verse. “I can do all things through him who gives me strength.” (Philippians 4:13) Great encouragement, God is with us giving us strength through all things. But this is not then end of the chapter. Paul goes on to say “Yet it was kind of you to share in my trouble.” (Philippians 4:14) Yes God gives us strength but he also gives us friends and other Christians to help us through the hard times. For the rest of the chapter Paul commends and thanks the saints of Philippi for helping him in his time of need. We are not alone in our walk with Christ. The Holy Spirit is with us but we also have saints around us who we can lean on when we need it and I find that I’m often in need of a cruch.

I thank God for giving me strength and I don’t thank him enough for my friends and the saints in my life.

I finished reading Ephesians a day or two ago. Over all the book is possibly my favorite but I want to talk about is in the last chapter, chapter 6 verses 10-20. The armor of God.

My dad and I had a talk about this about a week before I read the chapter. This is going to be a bit of a summery of the conversation and also my own thoughts and interpretation.

Armor has a single purpose to protect your body from harm during combat. In this case our sprite is the thing at risk. The important thing to know here is that as Christians we are in the middle of a war. It’s God and us verses Satin and his demons. Two things that are critical to remember is that it’s not just us verses Satin and that Satin is a defeated foe. He isn’t shooting for victory, because he has already lost and he knows it, but he is trying to increase the casualty count. He wants us to lose hope and fall in to despair. This way we drift away form God and can no longer truly advance his kingdom. The bad news that we gained an enemy by accepting Christ; the good news is that he is already defected and God gave us armor to protect us.

The Belt of Truth - The belt keeps our pants up it. It holds the weapon to our body. Yes it’s a basic piece but it is essential to the armor.

The Breastplate of Righteousness - Think of the Breastplate like a bullet proof vest. It protects our vital areas from attack. The key to this piece of armor is that it can be compromised. If your armor has a weak point your enemies will find it and exploit it. Our rightness is in Christ but I believe that it also has to do with our integrity. If we have a blemish or a rotting hole in our integrity it allows for the enemy to land a crippling blow. Also if your armor has a little rust spot it may not seem like that big of a deal, however rust spreads. In you don’t try to fix that part of you integrity it will start to take down other parts that may have been strong before. I know that I have holes in my integrity and satin does exploit them and it’s hard to patch those holes but stay strong because God will help you.

The Boots of the Gospel of Peace - Paul never refers to boots, shoes, sandals, or Stiletto heels. He simply says to “fit our feet with.” As far as I’m concerned we should fit our feet with steel plate military boots because we are at war and I wouldn’t want to ware my crocks to a battle field. We are to be peace makers because that’s what the gospel says. But these are boots they are meant to be used not just stand around. To me I see this as a call to action. We are not being to told to be pacifists because pacifists have a tendency to be lukewarm and this makes God sick (read Revelations 3:16). Keep in mind that his is in a spiritual war not at physical one.

The Shield of Faith - Our shield is the most intriguing part of the armor given to us. Our shield is dynamic not static. The stronger our faith the bigger our shield gets. Paul says that the shield will be used to extinguish the flaming arrows of the evil one. This reminds me of the movie Gladiator. In the opening scene the Romans are being shot at by flaming arrows. The soldiers raise there shields above there heads to block the arrows. The thing I find cool and interesting is that they overlap their shields so that their comrades won’t get hit as well. Simply put we are stronger in groups. Fellowship and studding the word all increases our faith. We can also watch each others backs so that we all stay strong. Our shield is also how we can compensate for the holes in our integrity, at least to a point. Our integrity will also affect our shield size. A shield covers a zone on your body but you also need to stay alert to do this. DON’T SLACK OFF. Try and get the biggest shield you can.

Helmet of Salvation - Your head is a critical part of your body. It keeps the the thing that run the body, being the mind, safe. Your helmet is one of your parts of your armor that you can't take off it is our salvation. God says in Deuteronomy that he will never leave us nor forsake us. Our helmet makes us fell safe. Its comfortable and is strapped on nice and tight. He will never leave us nor forsake us, isn't that the most comforting thing in the world?

The Sword of the Spirit - this is the word of God. The Bible. Actually its better. Hebrews says the the word of God is sharper than any double edged sword and that is living and active. The word of God is our only weapon and its all we need. I had the idea to relate a sword to a gun, to make it more modern. but after thinking about it I realized that I can't do that. there are several metaphorical reasons for this but I'm going to mention 2 of them. First that a gun is no good in hand to hand combat, which we are in. Satin isn't off in the distance taking pot shots at us. He is in our face getting feel for how we react, watching our movements. But we have armor and a weapon to fight him back with. Second a sword is lethal as long as it is exposed. The enemy has be mindful of it because he can impale himself on it. a sword can be used to cut through the thick and nasty things in our lives and fight and defeat our enemy.

Maybe I got to deep in to the metaphor, but i like it and it give me courage to take on myself and the world.

Our enemy is defeated he just doesn't want more people to know. Satin can't stand up to the power that Christ has given us. His bark is loud and vicious sounding but it is only fear that he uses to control us. Don't give in to that fear.

This isn't just a fight, its a war. But have hope we have won already some just simply don't know the news.

So fight hard my friends and comrades I'm right here next to you sword drawn waiting for orders from the King of Kings.


Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The LORD is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.

He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.

Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;

but those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.

Isaiah 40:28-31


The LORD is my light and my salvation—
whom shall I fear?
The LORD is the stronghold of my life—
of whom shall I be afraid?

Psalms 27:1

Recently I head the comment “its amazing that we do the things we do sober” or at least something to that effect. My response was a bit of a joke, “hey at least I can remember it”. For some reason this 2 seconds worth of conversation stuck with me.

Its currently 1:00 in the morning (I wrote this by hand first about a week ago) but I keep mulling this over despite my better judgment.

So why is it that I don’t drink or that my friends don’t drink or use drugs. I think there are a couple of reasons for this. The obvious, clichéd, but none the less solid or good is that it is the Christian thing to do. But the question to my self is “why is that stopping you.” I’m not perfect, NO ONE IS. I don’t always do what Christ commands me how would this be any different? Second is the logical. We all know that it destroys your liver and a host of other problems. The counter point is that energy drinks increase you likelihood of developing diabetes. So that argument is nullified. also in the logical category is that I don’t think it would be fun to be drunk or wake up in a pool of my own excrement. Being logical, fun isn’t logical hence it is fun. (confusing? Welcome to my mind)

But what is the push for teens, and how is the high school culture presenting this kind of thing? Basically, peer pressure. If your at a party drinking is the “in thing.” But from experience and observation the “in thing” is rarely fun and never truly in the interest of others. I believe that the true reason why or/and how we got to this point is deep, dark, and sinister than most people, no matter what the demographic, want to admit or believe.

People are looking for some sort of filler, or simply a “good time.” But is drug use/abuse a “good time”? How often do the intoxicated do something they regret? Or has a longer effect on the people around them that is for the worse? Drugs and drinking kill sound judgment and cast common senesce overboard, if it was there at all.

I can say, in total honesty, that I do not regret a thing I have done for a “good time”.

I find comfort in knowing that only in bad company can I be found at fault for having good morals.

There are absolute rights and wrongs, but there are gray areas to just not as may as people like to believe.

Where has the average high school student gotten an undertone of hated for truth and the world. How long can my generation hide behind the facade of relativism, which is simply hiding our corruption, before we realize that it we destroy our society?

I realize that I wrote a lot and that I did ramble a bit but please don’t dismiss it as random babble.