SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/23/2019 10:06 PM
My Worship Time Focus: PT -1 “The
Shield of Faith”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Ephesians
6:16
Message of the verse: “the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming missiles of the evil one”
Now before we jump into looking at the shield of faith I
want to quote an introductory paragraph from John MacArthur’s commentary since
this is the first SD that we will be looking at from his 28th
chapter of his commentary “The Believer’s Armor—Part 2.”
“In addition to all introduces the last three pieces of
armor. The first three—girdle,
breastplate, and shoes (vv. 14-15)—were for long-range preparation and
protection and were never taken off on the battlefield. The shield, helmet, and sword, on the other
hand, were kept in readiness for us when actual fighting began; hence the verbs
taking up and take.”
Let us begin to look at the shield that the Roman
soldiers would use, and they would use two of them for different types of
battles that they were in. The first one
was a circular type of shield about two feet in diameter which was used for
hand to hand combat. The second one was
about two feet wide and four feet high, and this was used actually to help the
people behind them along with those holding it.
There could be a formation about a mile or so long and behind those
carrying these shields would be the archers who would shoot arrows at their
opponents in war as the line would continue to move forward. This second kind of shield is what Paul was
writing about here to be used by believers.
The name of this shield is the thureos.
Let us look for a moment to Ephesians 4:13 “until we all attain
to the unity of the faith, and of the
knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature
which belongs to the fullness of Christ.”
The highlighted section here is not the kind of faith that Paul is
speaking about here when describing the shield of faith. What he is talking about here is basic trust
in God—the faith in Christ that appropriates salvation and continues to bring
blessing and strength as it trusts Him for daily provisions and for help. The substance of Christianity is seen in
Hebrews 11:6 “And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must
believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.” This verse teaches us that we are to put
total trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, God’s Son as the crucified, buried,
risen, and ascended Savior; obeying Scripture as His infallible and
authoritative Word; and then looking forward to the Lords coming again. When we studied the book of Habakkuk we saw
the following in 2:4 “"Behold, as for the proud one, His soul is not right
within him; But the
righteous will live by his faith.”
The highlighted portion is what we want to look at as it is quoted three
different times in the NT, Rom. 1:17; Gal. 3:11; and Heb. 10:38. Paul uses the first part of this verse in
Romans 1:17 (The just), and then shall live is seen in Gal. 3:11; and finally
by faith is used by the writer of Hebrews in 10:38 just before he moves onto
the “faith chapter” which is chapter 11 of Hebrews.
I remember when I was working at my
job at the foundry we has some people who liked to spout about their knowledge
of the Bible, and the subject of faith came up and one of the men began to
talking about faith in the boards that we were standing on which covered a drop
of around 200 feet. When it comest to
Biblical faith the object has to be the Lord Jesus Christ, or perhaps the Word
of God, not some kind of thing we trust in like getting to a destination in our
car as we have faith that the car will get us there.
We will continue looking at the
subject of the shield of faith, Lord willing, in our next SD.
Today’s quotation
from “Love in Action” helps us understand what we looked at yesterday from Acts
4:34-37.
“It should not
surprise us to learn that Barnabas sold some of this expensive real estate and
gave the proceeds to the church. By this
act of charity, Barnabas illustrates an important principle: Encouragers perform while other pretend. The impact of Barnabas’ story is probably
strengthened by its placement right next to the story of Ananias and
Sapphira. This couple also made a gift
to the church. It is the contrast
between these two “acts of love” that forms the basis of our principle,
Encouragers perform while others pretend.
When Barnabas gave his gift, he gave it all, keeping back nothing for
himself. His gift was genuine, sincere,
without hypocrisy.”
Now we continue
looking at several pages from Warren Wiersbe’s book “The Strategy of Satan.”
“When you have
taken these three steps, you will have surrendered yourself totally to the
Lord—body, mind, and will. The Spirit of
God will be able to work in you and give you victory. The Holy Spirit uses the Word.
“To the end he may stablish your hearts
unblameable in holiness before God,
even our Father, at the coming of our
Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints.”
Now to Him who is able to do far more
abundantly beyond all that
we ask or think, according to the power
that works within us” (Eph. 3:20)
“When God’s
Spirit is at work in us, he produces humility
and not pride. Humility is not thinking
meanly of yourself (“I’m not worth anything! I can’t do anything!”); humility
is simply not thinking of yourself at all!
The Christian must be honest with himself and with God. That is why Romans 12:3 is in the Bible”
3 For
through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more
highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound
judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.”
10/23/2019 10:50 PM
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