From:
Date: April 17, 2019
Subject: It's April 17; Good Morning Union

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“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power.”     Ephesians 6:10

This morning I saw highlighted in my Bible the armor of God text in Ephesians 6, and as I usually do, I like to look before and after famous pieces of Scripture because I usually find gems that get buried in the familiarity of well-known texts (Like next time you read John 3:16, read on and see verse 17!)

So today I went back before the “belt of truth” and saw the beauty of trust SO THAT I don’t think I can put on enough armor to be able, of myself, to defeat the enemy. “Be strong in the Lord, and in HIS mighty power.” Then sprinkled throughout the description of God’s protecting armor is the command to just stand! Four times God tells me, even before He gets to the importance of each piece of armor, and He reminds me of the essential response of just standing SO THAT He can protect me through HIS mighty power.

SOOO… put on the whole armor of God:

            The belt of truth- HIS truth not mine

            The breastplate of righteousness- HIS righteousness not mine

            The gospel of peace- HIS peace not mine

            The shield of faith- Faith in HIM not in me

            The helmet of salvation- HIS salvation not mine

            The sword of the Spirit (which is the Word of God)- HIS Word not mine

And then stand in HIS power and HIS might, and the victory is mine, and yours too!

Have a great day standing,

Pastor Rich

Quote for the day:      “The one thing that is truly ugly is the climate of hate and intimidation, created by a noisy few, which makes the decent majority reluctant to air in public their views on anything controversial…. Where all pretend to be thinking alike, it’s likely that no one is thinking at all.”  Edward Abbey