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Category Archives: Ephesians 6

Soldiers of Christ, Arise

The title alone might cause someone to pause and wonder if this might be a call to arms in the physical sense. Nothing could be further from the intention here. The call is to spiritual arms. The battle belongs to the Lord, but He has also given us everything we need to do battle.

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. (Eph 6:12)

This morning’s daily devotion from Spurgeon’s “Morning and Evening” devotional is about the battle believer’s of Christ face everyday. Some days are more intense than others. This reminds me of times I’ve put on the armor of God and walked right into battle and in the very second I’ve presumed to have all the armor on, been cut down. I think we’ve all been smacked down right out of the gate. and to make the matter worse, we might think of this as a failure. But we do learn from it. We do battle every minute of every day. We have the Almighty Creator and Sustainer already engaged, and there with us. Fight On!

I really liked the one verse of the hymn mentioned in Spurgeon’s devotional so I had to look it up for the additional verses. The hymn “Soldiers of Christ, Arise” was written by Charles Wesley (1707 – 1788).

1. Soldiers of Christ arise,
and put your armor on,
strong in the strength which God supplies
thru his eternal Son;
strong in the Lord of Hosts,
and in his mighty power,
who in the strength of Jesus trusts
is more than conqueror.

2. Stand then in his great might,
with all his strength endued,
but take to arm you for the fight
the panoply of God;
that having all things done,
and all your conflicts passed,
ye may o’ercome thru Christ alone
and stand entire at last.

3. Pray without ceasing, pray,
(your Captain gives the word)
his summons cheerfully obey
and call upon the Lord;
to God your every want
in instant prayer display,
pray always, pray and never faint,
pray, without ceasing pray.

4. From strength to strength go on,
wrestle and fight and pray,
tread all the powers of darkness down
and win the well-fought day.
Still let the Spirit cry
in all his soldiers, “Come!”
till Christ the Lord, descends from high
and takes the conquerors home.

Soli Deo Gloria!

Image used from dannysinquefield.com

Standing in the Battle, Part 5 – Sermon Notes

27 May

The Shield of Faith – Ephesians 6:16

The following are my notes from our pastor’s sermon this morning.

I – Know what faith is.

With the shield of faith you will be able to extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one. Flaming darts = discouragement, temptation, depression, disunity, etc. Our faith is not our own. It is firmly rooted in the relationship with Christ.

Faith is not positive thinking.

Great examples of faith are found in Hebrew 11.

1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.

17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son,

30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days.

31 By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies.

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Displaying Christ from 9 to 5

17 Apr

This past Lord’s Day our local pastor, Mike Rue, exposited on the scriptures found in Ephesians 6:5-9. This section of scripture is usually sub-titled “Slave and Masters” in most bible translations. Culturally we can relate to this section
of scripture as “Employees and Bosses”. The text provides answers to the following: How, as Christians, do we behave within the confines of our daily grind, (job used in a popular negative term) and relate to our bosses or employees.