The Breastplate of Righteousness

It's been awhile.. and I have no excuses to offer..

Lets look at our scripture again..

Ephesians 6:11-18 (Amplified Bible)
Stand therefore [hold your ground], having tightened the belt of truth around your loins and having put on the breastplate of integrity and of moral rectitude and right standing with God.
What is Righteousness-
Righteousness is right standing with God. Being able to stand before God pure and blameless in his sight.

2 Corinthians 5:21 (New American Standard Bible)
He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Righteousness is given to us when we are saved but we must maintain this righteousness by acting on the commandments that God has given us.. In other words we have FAITH that we are made righteousness but we know that Faith without works is dead.

James 2:26 (New American Standard Bible)
For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.
Thus, we act according to the righteousness bestowed on us, and bare the fruit of righteousness in our lives. Righteousness is not what we do, but rather who we are influencing what we do...
For example... Abraham...

Genesis 15:5-9 (Amplified Bible)
And he [Abram] believed in (trusted in, relied on, remained steadfast to) the Lord, and He counted it to him as righteousness (right standing with God).

Abram not only believed but to show that he believed God's promises he left his family and moved to the WILDERNESS... the desert.. now if that is not Faith and dedication I don't know what is. But the point is that he not only had faith, but Abram had actions to match that faith. He didn't just talk the talk... He also walked the talk...

Now a breastplate was a piece of amour that was worn as protection or an item of status..

So lets look at protection first.

Now directly underneath the breastplate is the heart. We all know that physically, the heart is a vital organ, without the heart the body can not survive. The quickest way to kill a man is to stop his heart from beating. Its the same for the spiritual heart, When we become spiritually dead because of sin our heart stops its communication with God. Thus the quickest way for the devil to spiritually “poison” a person is through the heart.. Because of this God warns us to take up protection.

Proverbs 4:23 (New American Standard Bible)
Watch over your heart with all diligence,
For from it flow the springs of life.

Righteousness is a way to avoid having sin enter our lives. Following the commandments that God has given us guards us from the sin that so easily entangles us. Righteousness is not a one time deal, its an everyday sort of thing... like putting on you clothes.

Ephesians 4:22-24 (Amplified Bible)
Strip yourselves of your former nature [put off and discard your old unrenewed self] which characterized your previous manner of life and becomes corrupt through lusts and desires that spring from delusion;
And be constantly renewed in the spirit of your mind [having a fresh mental and spiritual attitude],
And put on the new nature (the regenerate self) created in God's image, [Godlike] in true righteousness and holiness.
Constantly being renewed... Constantly means again and again.. not just once.

Now as to the Item of Status...

Righteousness is your Item of Status... It declares that you are a child of the King.. The bible says that they will know them by what they do..

Matthew 7:11-19 (New American Standard Bible)
"You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? "So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit.
“A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit.
Thus by putting on Righteousness you are showing to others that you are a part of the body of Christ.

1 Peter 2:8-10 (Amplified Bible)
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a dedicated nation, [God's] own [a]purchased, special people, that you may set forth the wonderful deeds and display the virtues and perfections of Him Who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.

God bless you all
-MiniMug

The Belt of Truth!!

Ok so lets start with the main verse...

Ephesians 6:14 (Amplified Bible)

Stand therefore [hold your ground], having tightened the belt of truth around your loins

Let's look at "girding your loins". I take it to mean binding up everything that hinders you from running your race. Lies entangle like no other, so keeping the truth as a belt to keep your members from tripping you up sounds great to me. This reminds me of Elijah:

1 Kings 18:44-46 (Amplified Bible)

And at the seventh time the servant said, A cloud as small as a man's hand is arising out of the sea. And Elijah said, Go up, say to Ahab, Hitch your chariot and go down, lest the rain stop you. In a little while, the heavens were black with wind-swept clouds, and there was a great rain. And Ahab went to Jezreel. The hand of the Lord was on Elijah. He girded up his loins and ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel [nearly twenty miles].

WOW!!! Thats just cool! Just think of what God can do with you if you are prepared to gird up your loins for him.

Job 38:3 (Amplified Bible)

Gird up now your loins like a man, and I will demand of you, and you declare to Me.

Job 40:7 (Amplified Bible)

7Gird up your loins now like a man; I will demand of you, and you answer Me.

Take responsibility of your words and actions, make sure they are spoken and acted in truth.
Gird up the loins of your mind; get rid of everything that could hidden or trip your  the lies of the world.

1 Peter 1:13 (New American Standard Bible)

Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

1 Peter 1:13 (New King James Version)

Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;

BE READY at the drop of a hat... keep your loins girded...

Luke 12:35 (New King James Version)

  Let your waist be girded and your lamps burning

Be ready to speak the truth..

Proverbs 12:17 (New King James Version)

  He who speaks truth declares righteousness,

      But a false witness, deceit.

John 8:32 (New International Version)

Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

I LOVE JESUS!

STAND Therefore!

EPHESIANS 6:10-18
10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.
11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to STAND, against the wiles of the devil.
12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withSTAND in the evil day, and having done all, to STAND.
14 STAND therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness,
15 and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
16 above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.
17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God;
18 praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints

I'm going to be blogging about the armor of God for the next 7 -8 weeks. We've been studying it in my bible study and God has been revealing some amazing things in his word.

But first I want to think about Standing and Putting on the armor of God.

Paul tells us to "put on the whole armor of God" then again tells us to "take up the whole armor of God." I'd like to point out that he doesn't say "put on some of the armor of God."
Without the full armor we will only be half protected. Look at this verse

Romans 13:12 (Amplified Bible)
12The night is far gone and the day is almost here. Let us then drop (fling away) the works and deeds of darkness and put on the [full] armor of light.

Putting only half the armor on is like mixing light and darkness. Guarding yourself is certain ways and leaving other part open to sin and corruption. Notice in

1 John 1:5-7
This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

We can't continually walk in darkness and in light, thus Paul encourages us to put on the entire armor of God... Full protection from the enemy of Darkness.

Ok, so we know to put on the whole armor of God, But after that what happens. Well I've found myself a lot of times after i put on my armor, sitting or laying down spiritually; In this sort of passive attitude. But think about this.. God doesn't call us to be passive.. He said STAND, notice Paul says it more than once, He says it FOUR times.

may be able to STAND
may be able to withSTAND
having done all, to STAND
STAND therefore

Repetitions usually mean importance right? Once you put on the armor of God STAND, don't sit, don't Cry, don't pout, don't sleep. Stand. Be ready, Be at attention. You are representing a Mighty Man of Valor. You are representing the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. STAND, its a lot easier to defeat a sitting or sleeping army.

1 Peter 5:8 (New International Version)
Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

So be ready, be alert and self-controlled, put on the WHOLE armor of God and then STAND. With confidence and dignity in the person God has made you to be.

Philippians 1:6
And I am convinced and sure of this very thing, that He Who began a good work in you will continue until the day of Jesus Christ [right up to the time of His return], developing [that good work] and perfecting and bringing it to full completion in you. 

Fruit

Matthew 3:10 - And even now the axis laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown in the the fire.
Good Fruit         Other Fruit
good fruit             ok Fruit
                            bad fruit
                             no fruit

Revelation 3:15-16 - I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were hot or cold. So then because you are luke-warm I will spit you out of my mouth.

Proverbs 11:3 - The integrity of the upright will guide them, But the perversity of the unfatihful will destroy them.

I am convicted.  enough said...

Living a life of worship

School is officially started and I'm getting into the swing of things. It looks to be quite a busy term, however I'm looking forward to deepening my relationship with God through the scheduled nature of my life.

So to the topic of interest for this week...Living a life of worship.

Worship is not an activity that we restrict to church setting. Worship is a lifestyle, in addition to the time we set aside to focus on praising and giving thanks to God.

Worship-  To regard with ardent or adoring esteem or devotion;
                The reverent love and devotion accorded a deity.

Worship is soo much more that church every Sunday morning and Wednesday night. To be true worshipers the bible says we must worship in spirit and in truth.

John 4:23-24
But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

Your spirit should be in constant communion with God(1 Thessalonians 5:17, Ephesians 6:18). Because we are new creatures in Christ and dead to the old man. Our new man is of the Spirit or constantly aware of the spirit. Which in turn means we should be constantly aware of God's presence in our lives on a second to second basis. There should(in a perfect world) never be a time when thoughts of God are not on you mind, In some way shape or form. We should be fascinated with the thought of him,  yet our minds are so trained on the flesh that we "forget" about him for the periods of time that we are not in Church or doing our devotions. And in those times that we "forget" about him, we forget who he made us, and who we are destined to become. We are Christians, Christ followers bearers of the holy name of God. When you bear someones name you are a representative of that family. We represent the body of Christ, our lives should be a reflection of Jesus' life.

Romans 12:1-2

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Offering your body... We carry our bodies around EVERYWHERE... using our bodies is not restricted to Church time. Wherever your body goes it should be glorifying God. NO EXCEPTIONS!! A living sacrifice.. Your spiritual ACT of worship. Worship is using ALL your time energy and resources to express our love for God. God extravagantly* expressed his love for you by sending Jesus... why not do the same for him.
John 14:15
" If you love Me, you will keep My commandments."
Romans 13:9-10
Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law. The commandments, "Do not commit adultery," "Do not murder," "Do not steal," "Do not covet," and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: "Love your neighbor as yourself." Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.
So by this we see that loving God is keeping the commandments of which the GREATEST is "Love your neighbor as yourself." I'm pretty sure we all love ourselves a great deal thus we should love other as least that much... In fact we should love them MORE because we should see people how God sees people, and if he love you Extravagantly, he love the next guy just as much.

In accordance to the word, this weeks endeavor is to make my lifestyle one of Worship.
By loving EXTRAVAGANTLY.
 * There is a whole different blog in this word right here... Check this out.. this is how God loves us.
Extravagantly
1.spending much more than is necessary or wise; wasteful:
2.excessively high:
3.exceeding the bounds of reason, as actions, demands, opinions, or passions.
4.going beyond what is deserved or justifiable
5.wandering beyond bounds
Now may the Lord of peace Himself give you peace always in every way. The Lord be with you all.(2 Thessalonians 3:16)
-MiniMug 

OK, so with this Summer gone.. and yet another promise to keep myself on track falls by the wayside. I decided that I'm going to blog a couple times a week to track my progress. Sorta like an online journal I guess. I don't know who (if anyone) will read this.. But here goes...

First, let me introduce myself..
You can call me Mini-Mug...
i would define myself as your less than average Christian.
who takes advantage of God's amazing Grace on a moment to moment basis.
I'm constantly working on my self control and love.

So this spring and summer I believe that God has been working on my life in the area of commitment.
This is the question. How Committed I'm I to His Cause???

Now for the answer. I don't know. A quote from Jesus comes to mind.. "The Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak" Yup that would be the one. There are times when I just don't want to resist the devil anymore and I give in. OK, let me be completely honest here.. there are ALOT of times, sometimes I feel that I give in more then I resist. Yuck, God forgive me for being weak. I feel like I have to get my flesh under control before I move on with God. I'm the only thing standing in my way. I have so much more to descover about my God.

Job 26:14
Yet these are but [a small part of His doings] the outskirts of His ways or the mere fringes of His force, the faintest whisper of His voice! Who dares contemplate or who can understand the thunders of His full, magnificent power?

I've barely scrached the suface of the wonderful things God has in store for me. Yet I can't seem to get over myself. and you know I know where the problem is starting too. Its in my thoughts, I let myself think about ungodly things and then it just goes from there.. you know the saying you are what you eat.. well I've been feeding my mind the wrong things. I can see how just over the summer I've become rude and disrespectful to the people around me..

Luke 6:45
The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.

I haven't been planting the right things in my mind and heart, and I definatly havn't been pulling out the weeds. I see myself not keeping the garden that God gave me.. So for this week (and the rest of my life) I'm going to be planting the right things and weeding out the bad. I have dominon over my body and I will bring it under subjection.

Galatians 5:24 (Amplified Bible)
And those who belong to Christ Jesus (the Messiah) have crucified the flesh (the godless human nature) with its passions and appetites and desires.

I will keep my thoughts under control. Thats all I got... So I leave with just a few more sriptures that come to mind.

Matthew 26:41
All of you must keep awake (give strict attention, be cautious and active) and watch and pray, that you may not come into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.

Job 29:14
I put on righteousness as my clothing; justice was my robe and my turban.