Tag Archives: Shield of Faith

The River Within

05 Monday Feb 2024

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Hello Readers and welcome-or welcome back-to Renaissance Woman and another post on the Shield of Faith!

I had thought last week’s post would be the last on the Shield of Faith but, as I received some feedback on last week’s post, I found one more post was necessary.

What is the Shield of Faith?  The Old Testament refers to God Himself as our shield.  Genesis 15:1 records the word of the Lord coming to Abram in a vision and saying, “Do not be afraid, Abram.  I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.”  Deuteronomy 33: 29 says this: “Happy are you, O Israel!  Who is like you, a people saved by the Lord, the shield of your help…”  There are passages in various Psalms that describe God as our shield.  I want to focus on three separate passages that stood out during my study.  The first I’ve already touched on in last week’s post: Psalm 3:3 says, “But You, O Lord, are a shield for me” and the Hebrew word translated “for” could accurately be translated “around me” or “about me”. Indeed, the New American Standard has “about me” and the New International “around me”.  This Hebrew word (#1157 in the Strong’s Concordance) also carries the meaning of “within”: a thought I will return to in a moment.

The second passage is Psalm 91:4.  Some translations render this passage as “his truth shall be thy shield and buckler” while others have it as “his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart”.  The Amplified covers all its bases and has this verse as “His trust and His faithfulness are a shield and buckler.”

The third passage appears in three different books of the Bible.  The first is 2 Samuel 22:31: “As for God, His way is perfect; The word of the Lord is proven; He is a shield to all who trust in Him.”  The second appearance is Psalm 18:30: “As for God, His way is perfect; The word of the Lord is proven; He is a shield to all who trust in Him.”  The third is Proverbs 30:5: “Every word of God is pure; He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him.”

John 1:1 states “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”  In John 14:6, Jesus describes Himself as “the way and the truth and the life.”  Holding this in mind, I return to the passages of scripture I’ve shared and wonder if they aren’t saying something far and above anything I’ve ever heard before.  Are these passages expressing separate thoughts?  The way of the Lord is perfect, His word is proven, and He is also a shield or is it saying The way of the Lord is perfect, His word is proven, and then the “He” that is a shield and buckler is the He who is the way and the word?  Is the truth and faithfulness that is a shield and rampart some attribute He bestows on us or is the shield and rampart He who is faithful and true?

I listen a great deal to Malcolm Smith and one of the points he stresses over and over is 1 John 4:8; “He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”  “He does not have love”, Bishop Smith says, “He is it!”  I think of this when it comes to these passages of scripture and Jesus.  Jesus does not have the word: He is it!  He does not show us the way: He is it!  He does not simply tell us the truth: He is it!  He does not have faithfulness: He is it!  He does not give us a Shield of Faith: He is it!

And, He wasn’t all of these things sometime in the past and then will be these things again sometime in the future.  He is all of these things in us now.  How is this possible if He is seated at the right hand of the Father, received by heaven until the times of the restitution of all things? (See Ephesians 1:20, Acts 3:21).  If Jesus is in some far off heaven somewhere and we are down here waiting for His second coming, how is He all of these things now?  Doesn’t the Bible say our inheritance is reserved in heaven for us? (1 Peter 1:4).

Yes, it does.  However, the Bible also says we are established in Christ, sealed, and given the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee (or earnest, or downpayment-2 Corinthians 1:21-22).  This Spirit is the Spirit described by Jesus in Chapters 14-17 of John’s gospel.  There is another promise in John 14:23: “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.”  “We love,” John says in his first letter, “because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19) and “the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (Romans 5:5).  I can’t help but to quote 1 Corinthians 6:19 again: “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?” 

In John 14: 18-20 Jesus says, “I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.  A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me.  Because I live, you will live also.  At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.”  The rest of the New Testament tell us of all that is ours because we are In Christ and Christ is in us.  Now.  This moment.  He is in us and we are in Him! The Father and Son have made Their abode in us!  How?  Because we are joined to the Lord and are of one spirit with Him!  (Back to 1 Corinthians 6).

Our Shield of Faith is Jesus Christ and we know this is the truth because the Spirit bears witness in our hearts it is so which brings me back to my thought at the beginning of this post.  The Hebrew word in Psalm 3:3 translated as “for”-thou art a shield for me-also carrying the meaning “within”.  In Christ we live and move and have our being.  If we believe that, it is not too difficult to picture Him as a shield surrounding us.  We are hidden in Him and His life quenches the fiery darts of the wicked one.  But there is another picture I admit I am just coming to see and understand and that is that Jesus Christ is a shield within us.  Jesus says, “’He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water’ But this He spoke concerning the spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive;  for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” (John 7:38-39). 

The river is a symbol I find throughout the Old and New Testaments.  One of my favorite passages is Psalm 46:4: “There is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God”.  I find this same river in Revelation 22:1; “And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb.”  The River also appears in Ezekiel 47 where the prophet is first brought in up to his ankles, and then his knees, and then his waist, and then he must finally swim in it. 

There are passages of scripture where both the word and the Spirit are likened to water (See Isaiah 44:3, John 4:14, 1 Corinthians 12:13, John 15:3, Ephesians 5:25-27).  Faith is our response to who God has revealed Himself in Jesus.  The scriptures are of immense value in that revelation but, the Word is alive in us now.  We live in union with Him via His Spirit in us who speaks what He hears.  That word is energizing vitality.  It is living water within us, water that fill us to overflowing and flows out to the world around us.  I cannot say it too many times: our Shield of Faith-that Shield that is Christ Jesus Himself-does surround us on every side but it is also a river of life within us.

When the fiery darts of the wicked one come seeking to shake our faith and to convince us our God is something different than the One revealed in Jesus Christ, the river of living water that wells up from within us and flows out from us not only quenches them but I daresay sweeps them away. 

There is so much more to be said on faith and the word and I anticipate unearthing even more treasures as I move on to study the rest of the Whole Armor of God.  Until next week, I close with Paul’s prayer in his letter to the Ephesians: “Therefore, I ask…the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith: that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height-to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”

Hallelujah!  It is so! 

Amen.

Unless noted otherwise, all Scriptures are quoted from The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1982

References     

The Comparative Study Bible, Zondervan Bible Publishers, The Zondervan Corporation, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1984

Strong, James, The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, TN, 1990

Guarded On All Sides

29 Monday Jan 2024

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Hello Readers and welcome-or welcome back-to Renaissance Woman! 

This week’s post is another installment in my study on the Whole Armor of God described by the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 6:10-18a.  This post will (I think) be the last on The Shield of Faith which we are told to “take up” because, with it, we “will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one”. 

There is a long standing belief that the Apostle Paul was describing the Roman soldiers either soaking their shields in water or covering them with a wet hide in order to protect them from burning arrows.  I cannot say with absolute certainty that this is not true.  I have added a few books to my reading list to see what arguments are made and sources used for this belief and, since I have not yet read them, I am putting this idea on a shelf until a later time.  What I will say is that my studies on Ancient Warfare has told me this is highly unlikely.  I shared these studies in last week’s post so won’t repeat them here.

My studies have also led me to believe fiery darts or burning arrows were not something a Roman Soldier would face in open combat.  I don’t know if this is true for you but the mental picture that would form whenever I read this passage in Ephesians was one of Roman Soldiers lined up in battle using their shields for protection against flaming arrows being shot at them by the enemy.  Both sermons I heard and images from movies helped to form this mental picture.  If this picture is inaccurate (and I believe it is) what does this mean when we study Paul’s letter to the Ephesians?  Was Paul mistaken?  How does this passage tie in to the warfare of the day?  If it doesn’t describe actual warfare, can we trust this passage?

My study has led me to answers that I find satisfactory.  If you have asked these questions yourself and perhaps not dared to ask them of anyone else, I hope these answers are a help for you as well.  My simple answer is this: I believe the Apostle Paul used actual warfare as an analogy but then built on it in a way that transcends any sort of warfare.  He twice made the point that our warfare is spiritual rather than carnal and our enemy a spiritual rather than one of flesh and blood (See 2 Corinthians 10:4-5, Ephesians 6:12) so I am not at all bothered he would begin with an analogy rooted in actual warfare but then point out our weapons have properties far and above their earthly counterparts.

There is every reason to believe the Apostle Paul wrote his letter to the Ephesians while he was in prison being guarded by Roman soldiers.  I believe that he would not have let such an opportunity go to waste.  I imagine him asking his guards questions, drawing them out, building relationships with them, and looking for those opportunities to share the gospel.  I think these soldiers would have eventually shared their experiences and thus Paul’s passage on the Whole Armor of God was rooted in ancient warfare but, rather than describing battles fought by infantry,  I believe the picture he was painting was one of siege warfare. 

Flaming arrows were an integral part of siege warfare.  The goal of using them was to cause distraction, chaos, and terror.  The arrows didn’t need to start a fire though if even a few succeeded the better for the army laying siege.  These arrows did need to be stamped out and that meant the defender no longer had his full attention on any mounting attack.  As I take this into account along with the fact that the Apostle Paul writes it is the Shield of Faith which quenches these fiery darts, I see both the enemy’s tactics revealed as well as our defense against them. 

I have spent weeks looking at the definition of faith along with the meaning and use of the word in its original language.  I think the dictionary definition of faith is important to know as it makes me careful to listen to what others mean when they use the word while at the same time I am careful to hold the original meaning close.  The original use of the word was one of covenant.  Faith was the response one made to another person according to all that person revealed him or herself to be.  Our faith in God is the same: God reveals Himself to us and we respond to that revelation.  “Faith comes by hearing,” Paul writes in his letter to the Romans, “and hearing by the word of God” (10:17). 

Jesus is the Word who became flesh John writes in his gospel and he goes on to write “No one has seen God at any time.  The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him” (See John 1:14-18).  As our eyes are opened to see Jesus, who is the image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15), we respond to that revelation.  We come to know Him intimately and through Him to know the Father.  This knowing is the definition of eternal life (See John 17:3, 1 John 5:20).  It makes perfect sense to me that the Apostle Paul would state the defense against the fiery darts used in siege warfare-weapons intended to distract and cause fear-was the shield of the faith which originates in the revelation and word of God.  “Has God indeed said…?” the enemy asked in the garden and the tactics have not changed in millennia.  Perhaps not every arrow will start a fire, but if they can lure us away from our stability in our faith and make us doubt all He has revealed Himself to be, the tactics have been successful.

But, the Apostle Paul writes the Shield of Faith quenches every fiery dart and there is no proof a Roman soldier ever used his shield to quench anything.  Protect and deflect absolutely: quench no.  I can see the Apostle Paul warning his readers of how the enemy would attack.  There would be no need to go out to meet the enemy in battle: the enemy would come to us.  The attack would be leveled at the foundation of our faith and trust in Jesus Christ.  We would find ourselves under siege.  The analogy found in Ancient Siege Warfare is a perfect one.  And yet here is where the Apostle Paul transcends his analogy and, in order to understand why he writes the Shield of Faith quenches all the fiery darts of the wicked one when no shield would have been capable of such a feat; we have to take into account several things.  First, the two words used for “word”.  Second, Psalm 3:3 and third, Paul’s understanding of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus is the logos of God (John 1) and our faith comes by hearing the rhema (Romans 10:17).  Logos (G3056)means “something said, including the thought, by implication a topic (subject of discourse) reasoning” while rhema (G4487) means “an utterance”.  There isn’t much discernable difference between the words on the surface but let’s think of it this way: Jesus is the thought of God made manifest in flesh.  He is the living word, God expressed, and is also the revelation of God’s thoughts toward humankind.  The words (rhema) He speaks are spirit and life (John 6:63).  When Jesus faced the enemy in the wilderness, he spoke these words: “man shall not live by bread alone but by every word (rhema) that proceeds from the mouth of God.”  We need both: we must know the Logos of God who is Jesus Christ but we must also hear the rhema that proceeds out of His mouth.

Psalm 3:3 says “But You, O Lord, are a shield for me…”  It would be more accurate to use “around” or “about” in place of “for” in this passage.  The word in the Hebrew is baadi (H1157) and means “in, up to, over against, beside, among, behind, about, within.”  Each of these words is important to consider and the picture here is not just of a shield being carried in front of one but rather a shield that utterly surrounds and protects.  I have no doubt the Roman soldiers would have loved to possess such a shield and I think this is Paul’s point: you, Believer, possess such a shield.  “In Him we live and move and have our being” Paul declared to the Athenians (Acts 17: 28) and I think this is his point in his letter to the Ephesians: the wicked one will lob fiery darts at you in an attempt to destroy your faith but fear not!  Your Shield of Faith is the very life of Christ which surrounds you on every side!  This shield quenches every fiery dart!

The Shield of Faith.  Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.  Man shall live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.  The words that Jesus speaks are spirit and life.  Before Jesus ever declares the words He speaks are spirit and life, He says, “it is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing.”  Jesus later says this about the same Spirit: “However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.  He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you” (John 16:13-14).

I find it interesting that the word used in Ephesians 6:16 and translated quench is translated as quench in another significant passage. The word means “to extinguish” and is used for what the Shield of Faith does to the fiery darts of the wicked one but is also used in 1 Thessalonians 4:19: “Do not quench the Spirit”. 

This is something far too many believers have done.  They have fallen victim to the fiery darts of “the Holy Spirit died out with the last apostle” and the fiery darts of “the Holy Spirit was no longer needed once we had the Bible.”  The Bible is precious to me.  It contains the very words God has spoken to so many others but the fact remains it contains the words God has spoken.  The Spirit gives life, Jesus said, and the New Testament is packed full of the description of our new covenant life in Jesus Christ through the vitalizing working of the Holy Spirit.  Without the Spirit at work in our lives, speaking what He hears to our hearts and minds, and causing our knowledge of Jesus Christ and who we are in Him to come to maturity; the Shield of our Faith cannot quench the fiery darts of the wicked one. 

Paul writes this in 2 Corinthians 11:3-4: “But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.  For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, of a different gospel which you have not accepted…”

The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth.  He is the only trusted voice to lead us into the truth that is Jesus Christ.  Without His teaching, guiding, instructing, and leading, we have not heard the words by which faith comes and our shields are not capable of quenching the fiery darts of the wicked one.  There is no substitution for KNOWING Jesus Christ, and through Him the Father, for yourself.  That is done by the Holy Spirit indwelling us and teaches us.  You must know He indwells YOU.  You must know that YOUR body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.  There is no priest or teacher or any other intermediary that is necessary.  The Spirit has been shed abroad in YOUR heart!  This is the absolute truth.

Maybe this is too much for you to believe.  Read the scriptures I have shared in this post for yourself.  Read to the end of John 6 where Peter says, “To whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life.”  Then ask that the Spirit Jesus promised He would send would open your eyes to see Jesus has kept His promise.  Ask Him to convince you it is the truth that both Jesus and the Father dwell within you in the Spirit, and ask Him to open your ears to hear the words of eternal life.

Faith comes by the hearing of these words of God and this faith is a mighty shield that surrounds you on every side.  It is a living shield fully capable of quenching every fiery dart of the wicked one.

Hallelujah!  It is so! 

Amen.

Unless noted otherwise, all Scriptures are quoted from The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1982

References     

Quenching fire arrows on shields (romanarmytalk.com)

Hebrew Concordance: ba·‘ă·ḏî — 8 Occurrences (biblehub.com)

Green, Jay P., The Interlinear Bible: Hebrew, Greek, English, Volume 2, Authors for Christ, Inc., Lafayette, IN, 1985

Strong, James, The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, TN, 1990

Facing The Flaming Arrows

22 Monday Jan 2024

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iStock Stock photo ID:476332302

Hello, Readers!  Welcome-or welcome back-to Renaissance Woman and another installment in my study on Ephesians 6:10-18a where the Apostle Paul describes the Whole Armor of God.  My focus is still on verse 16: “above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.”

The mental picture painted here is a curious one.  It’s not all that difficult to picture a Roman Legion facing foes who have either tied something flammable to the end of their arrows or soaked the arrows in something flammable like pitch, set these arrows alight, and launched them toward the Romans who would then seek to deflect them with their shields.  As I was researching both the Roman shield and flaming arrows, I found a post on the Rick Renner Ministry site that suggested the Roman Legionaries would soak their shields in water before going into battle so that they would be able to extinguish any flaming arrows that would be shot their way.

An article on ancientfinances.com which quotes the book Suit Up!: Putting on the Full Armor of God by Michael Lantz (which I do not have a copy of and have not read) also describes flaming arrows used in battle and suggests shields would have so many smoking arrows sticking out of them that the shields looked somewhat like a roasting porcupine.  This article also mentions reading comments stating the shields would be soaked in water before commencing battle.  I would like to get and read this book to see what sources Mr. Lantz and Pastor Renner are using because all of the other sources on Ancient Warfare I have studied tell me the use of flaming arrows and soaked shields are not at all likely within the context of open battle.

The first argument against this is the fact that the Roman shield (or scutum) was fashioned of strips of wood glued together with animal based glue which is soluable in water.  During marches, the Romans carried their shields in leather cases to protect them from rain but whether this was to protect them from disintegrating or to protect the design painted on them, I can’t say definitively one way or the other.  My research has given both as reasons for the leather carrying case.  Even assuming the shield wouldn’t disintegrate after being soaked in water, a waterlogged wood shield would be extremely heavy and thus cumbersome in battle. Not to mention how few battles would be fought close by a handy water source…

Second, flaming arrows weren’t used all that often in infantry battles.  Setting an arrow alight wasn’t impossible but firing it long range was which is usually the point of having archers comprise one’s battle formation.  A flaming arrow couldn’t be drawn to the fullest or the archer risked burning his own hand and/or setting his bow alight.  Assuming some sort of guard could be used thus allowing a flaming arrow to be fired long range, there was the chance that an arrow fired at velocity would be extinguished before it ever reached its target. 

Third, there’s the fact that a flaming arrow wouldn’t have much purpose in an open battlefield unless the opposing army was standing in the middle of flammable materials.  Such a thing is not outside the realm of possibility but all of my studies on Ancient Warfare tell me that flaming arrows would not have been practical in a battle where two armies marched out to face one another.

So, if a Roman Legionary would not have faced flaming arrows in the battlefield, where did the Apostle Paul come up with the idea?

The use of flaming arrows was not unheard of.  They were immensely practical in both siege and naval warfare.  In both instances there was no need to fire the arrows over a long range and neither was it necessary that every arrow succeeded in setting its target alight: which is good because my research has told me that approximately 2% of fire arrows ever actually caused a fire.  They were fabulous weapons for causing chaos and for keeping a besieged city or ship occupied in stamping them out before they could start a fire.  There are documented historical instances of flaming arrows being used in siege warfare.  In Weapons Through the Ages, William Reid describes a battle from 429 BC where the Plateans used fire arrows against the siege engines threatening their city.  William Reid also describes Caesar’s battle against Marseilles where his miners used a 20 yard long portable covered passage with a thick, sloping, fireproof roof to safely approach the wall.  Fire was used both to attack and defend during a siege.  

The Romans did use firedarts.  Quoting Adrienne Mayor’s book Greek Fire, Poison Arrows, and Scorpion Bombs, J.W. Elliot says, “Firedarts were used by the Romans in the fourth century BCE by filling the hollow space in cane shafts with petroleum material such as tar, napthta, and asphalt.  These darts were lit and shot from low-weight bows at the target so that the velocity of the arrow wouldn’t put out the flames” (see jwelliot.com link below).  I happen to have Ms. Mayor’s book so I looked up this quote.  The description of these firedarts were described by Ammianus Marcellinus: the cane shafts of these darts were reinforced with iron and punctured with many small holes on the underside to provide oxygen for combustion.  These were extremely effective and, according to Ammianus, the fire flared up on contact with water and could only be put out by smothering them with sand.

Ms. Mayor does describe something called a falarica which were reported by Roman Historians Silius Italicus and Tacitus but this was a machine fired spear with a long iron tip that had been dipped in burning pitch and sulphur.  Ms. Mayor quotes Silius Italicus who wrote the burning spears were “like thunderbolts cleaving the air like meteors”.  Silius Italicus also describes the resulting carnage and the blazing ruins of the siege towers.

All of these quotes are found within the Chapter entitled “Infernal Fire” and, in this chapter, Ms. Mayor describes Assyrian reliefs from the 9th century BC showing attackers and defenders exchanging volleys of flaming arrows and firepots over fortified walls.  Flaming arrows then were used by many cultures of whom the Apostle Paul would have been aware.  The Roman soldiers guarding him as he wrote his letters would have been able to describe the use of flaming arrows but my research has led me to believe that description would have been within the context of siege warfare.

I find this significant.  The Apostle Paul writes this in his Second Letter to the Corinthians: “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God…” (II Cor. 10:4-5).  As I have studied the definition of “faith” I have discovered that the original word is a covenant word and J. Preston Eby gives the closest definition: “Faith is the mental attitude of confident response which is evoked in you by what another person reveals himself to be.”

I have already looked at what the word “stand” means in the Ephesians passage describing the Whole Armor of God and have shared how I am not seeing the picture of warfare described by the Apostle Paul as one of attack and conquest.  Rather, it is a posture of defense.  Psalm 61:3 says this about God: “For You have been a shelter for me, a strong tower from the enemy”.  Psalm 3 also says “But You, O Lord, are a shield for me.” 

Again, whenever I have read this passage in Ephesians, I have pictured a Christian warrior clad in armor and going forth into battle confident the Armor of God could not ultimately be defeated.  I am beginning to picture that Christian warrior defending against attackers armed with and fighting from the unassailable ground of God Himself.  Our faith is a response to who God reveals Himself to be and that revelation is Christ Jesus.  The fiery darts are just one weapon the enemy utilizes to undermine that faith.  The enemy has erected towers, great high things exalted against the truth of the knowledge of God which is eternal life (See John 17:3, 1 John 5:18-20) and these fiery darts are lobbed at us to cause chaos and distract us from his attempts to destroy our foundation.

I am getting a bit wordy and so want to close this week but plan to continue with this next week.  As we go out into the world let us remember that we are the Children of the Most High and no weapon formed against us can prosper (Isaiah 54:17).  Our Lord Jesus Christ is our Shield of Faith and, in Him, we need not fear any fiery dart!

Hallelujah!  Amen.

Unless noted otherwise, all Scriptures are quoted from The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1982

References

THE LAW OF FAITH Part 1 by J. Preston Eby (godfire.net)

Scutum – Roman Shield | Roman Military (unrv.com)

Here’s How To Extinguish The Fiery Darts of the Wicked! | Renner Ministries

Fire Arrows – J.W. Elliot Books (jwelliot.com)

satan – What did Paul mean by “the flaming darts of the evil one” in Ephesians 6:16? – Biblical Hermeneutics Stack Exchange

Description of Scutum, a Roman Legionnaire’s shield. – Ancient Finances

Kiley, Kevin F., All Illustrated Encyclopedia of The Uniforms of the Roman World, Lorenz Books, Aness Publishing, London UK, 2014

Mayor, Adrienne, Greek Fire, Poison Arrows, and Scorpion Bombs: Biological & Chemical Warfare in the Ancient World, Overlook Duckworth, London • New York, 2019, Pages 207-213

Reid, William, Weapons Through the Ages, Peerage Books, London, UK, 1984, Page 20

Resolved to Listen

01 Monday Jan 2024

Posted by in Studies, Whole Armor of God

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Happy New Year, Readers!  Welcome-or welcome back-to Renaissance Woman where, this week, I continue looking at the Whole Armor of God as described in Ephesians 6:10-18a with my focus still on the Shield of Faith.

I cannot underestimate the importance of listening.  So few of us truly listen.  Far too many of us wait for gaps in the conversations or for the one speaking to take a breath so that we may insert our words, take control of the conversation, and steer it where we would.  Far too few of us listen in order to establish deep connections through conversations and far too few of us listen to hear whether or not those connections can even be established.

Take the definition of faith: there are conversational traps easy to fall into and difficult to discern until one has already fallen into them, unless one takes the time to listen.  Two people can come together both using the word “faith” and both can mean the word two entirely different ways.  How the word is meant by the one using it is not clear without careful, intent listening. 

My New World Dictionary offers up 6 definitions for faith and I find it is the first 3 which are used the most often.  The first is “unquestioning belief that does not require proof or evidence”.  The second is “unquestioning belief in God, religious tenets, etc.”  The third is “a religion or a system of religious beliefs (the Catholic faith)”.  It does not take a great deal of listening time to understand which definition is being used.  Sadly, I find those deep connections are difficult to form with those entrenched in these three definitions.  They have no interest in hearing how faith is a covenant word and I have found it is best to remain a listener in these situations.  If you do try and share the truth, you’ll eventually have to take a breath and you will find your opportunity is gone.

When I am in these situations, I keep two passages of scripture close to my mind and heart.  The first is 1 Peter 3:5: “be ready with an answer to everyone who asks…” the second is 2 Timothy 2:23-26: “But avoid foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they generate strife.  And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.”  Listening is crucial in these situations and I don’t mean mere listening to what the other person is saying: I mean listening for the voice of the Holy Spirit in the midst of these situations.  If He gives the words to speak He will also create the opportunity for speaking them.  Speak the truth in love!  If He does not, stay silent!

Silence is a difficult thing for believers.  If we come away from a conversation not having “shared our faith”, we have been taught we have failed God because it is our responsibility to fill the earth with the knowledge of God and make disciples.  After all, “How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed?  And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard?  And how shall they hear without a preacher?” (Romans 10:14).  I would ask, what does it mean to “share our faith”?  Definition 4 of faith in the dictionary is “anything believed”.  I find many believers cleave to this definition and use “faith” when they really mean “knowledge”.

Knowledge is not what the Greek word pistis translated as “belief” and “faith” in our Bibles originally meant.  As I’ve said, it is a covenant word and the closest dictionary definitions to the original intent of the word are numbers 5 and 6: “complete trust, confidence, or reliance” and “allegiance to some person or thing, loyalty”.  I shared J. Preston Eby’s definition of faith and I have not come up with a better: “Faith is the mental attitude of confident response which is evoked in you by what another person reveals himself to be.”

Faith is not knowledge.  When we share our faith with another person, we are not sharing what we know about God but rather who God has revealed Himself to be.  It’s a subtle but disastrous distinction and I believe with everything I am the key to recognizing what we are sharing with another person is love.  “Knowledge puffs up” the Apostle Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 8:1, “but love builds up.”

The Apostle Paul begins that beautiful description of love in 1 Corinthians 13 by writing, “But earnestly desire the best gifts.  And yet I show you a more excellent way.  Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.  And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.”

I’ve been meditating on this passage since watching one of Malcolm Smith’s webinars (linked below).  I listened to Bishop Smith read the passage in its entirety and wondered if the Apostle Paul was saying love was more important than anything, including faith.  That couldn’t be because our God is love and is also the author and finisher of our faith.  Since both are found in Him, they had to both flow and work together.  I spent some time meditating and here’s what I think Paul is saying: since faith is our confident response to who and what God has revealed Himself to be, if that response is anything less than the love of God, then the Holy Spirit still has a great deal of work to do in us.

The Amplified Bible says this clearly in 1 Corinthians 13:3: “Even if I dole out all that I have [to the poor in providing] food, and if I surrender my body to burned [or in order that I may glory] but have not love [God’s love in me], I gain nothing.”  Then comes the description of what the love of God is:

“Love endures long and is patient and kind; love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy, is not boastful or vainglorious, does not display itself haughtily.  It is not conceited-arrogant and inflated with pride, it is not rude (unmannerly), and does not act unbecomingly.  Love [God’s love in us] does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking; it is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it takes no account of the evil done to it-pays no attention to a suffered wrong.  It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail.  Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances and it endures everything [without weakening].  Love never fails-never fades out or becomes obsolete or comes to an end” (Amplified, 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a).

This is the love Jesus meant when in John 13:35, He says, “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” This directly follows His new command in verse 34: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have love you, that you also love one another.”  When we read through these passages, how are we doing on living that sort of love?  When we “share your faith” with another person, how do we think about that person?  Do we love that person?  Do we see that person as someone so beloved by the Father that Jesus was sent?  Or, do we share our faith in an attempt to get-off-the-hook with God e.g.; “I said the words: if they don’t believe them that’s their problem: my hands are clean”?  The scripture is clear: if we have not shown that person the love of God, we are the same as a noisy gong or clanging symbol. 

Of course this love is impossible for us: that’s why it’s called God’s love.  We do not have it within ourselves nor can we show it to others but “with man it is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”  “Not by might nor by power but by my Spirit” were the words of the Lord to Zechariah and those words are as true today as they were then.  It is possible to define faith as “being convinced by argument” and I think many Christians have attempted to do just that: convince others of the truth of Jesus through arguments. 

What about Romans 10:17 which says, “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God”? Doesn’t that mean we should be speaking the truth at every opportunity?  I would ask; are we speaking the truth in love and by love I mean the love of God?  Are we speaking to point out transgressions rather than speaking the truth that “God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them”? (2 Corinthians 5:19).  Are we telling people what wretched, filthy sinners they are or are we speaking the truth that Jesus Christ has “once, at the end of the ages…appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself”?   

James 1:19 says, “So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath”.  As the calendar switches to a New Year, I only have one resolution: that I would be given ears to hear.  Not just what the Father is saying but to what my fellow human beings are saying.  May I listen for that opportunity for the deep connection which is an agape connection.  May I pray this prayer for everyone who crosses my path: “Father, who so loves this person, how are you revealing that love to this person through me in this moment?”  When I receive the revelation of the love that He is, may my confident response-which is my faith-be that love.

“And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

 Unless noted otherwise, all Scriptures are quoted from The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1982

References

THE LAW OF FAITH Part 1 by J. Preston Eby (godfire.net)

The Comparative Study Bible, Zondervan Bible Publishers, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1984

Guralnik, David B., Webster’s New World Dictionary of the American Language, Second College Edition, William Collins + World Publishing Co., Inc., Cleveland • New York, 1953, 1976

Strong, James, LL.D., S.T.D., The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1990

Comfort and Joy

25 Monday Dec 2023

Posted by in Studies, Whole Armor of God

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Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Happy Christmas, Readers! 

Monday is my usual post day and, this year, Monday happens to be Christmas Day. 

I am still in the midst of my study on Ephesians 6 verses 10 through the first part of verse 18.  This is the passage where the Apostle Paul describes the Whole Armor of God.  I have not yet moved on from the Shield of Faith and did wonder what sort of post I could create for Christmas Day that would continue to reveal the true definition of faith.

That might seem silly because of course Christmas is all about faith for Christians.  I find that “faith” in this respect is used to mean “a religion or a system of religious beliefs” which is definition 3 of “faith” in my New World Book Dictionary.  Those who use “faith” mean the set of rules and regulations set down by their denomination, the theology stamped approved by their denomination, and the fiercely held but not always audibly expressed idea that the faith of their denomination is the True Faith: all others are mistaken and have fallen short of the truth.

I suppose I ought to admit I am rather ambivalent about Christmas.  On the one hand, there is everything I have learned about Christmas traditions.  Would it shock you to learn that there is no Christmas movie (that I can bring to mind) that accurately portrays the birth of our Lord and Savior and that the Nativity Scenes where the animals gaze benevolently at the newborn Christ, the Shepherds bow down in worship, and the Three Wise Men offer their gifts, directly contradicts the Biblical story?

Only the Shepherds were there to see the Baby Jesus.  The Wise Men-and there had to be a great many more than three visitors from the East-didn’t arrive until Jesus was a child and, when they visited Him, they did so at the house where He, Mary, & Joseph were living (see Matthew Chapter 2).  There is every reason to question whether His birth occurred in December and there is also reason to question whether the place He was born ought to be translated as “stable”.  All of these things as they are celebrated during Christmas are traditions and are “faith” only in the respect that they are the traditions of a belief system accepted by a wide group of people.

All of these things I can take or leave.  If I have the opportunity to partake of these traditions, fine; if not, equally fine.  It is the people I am partaking with who are important.  I also admit there are some aspects of Christmas I thoroughly enjoy.  Some of the Christmas music is the most beautiful I’ve ever heard.  So beautiful, I don’t always save these songs for Christmas.  You can find me singing “Joy to the World” and “O Holy Night” at any time of the year.  And, accurate or not, I do like the Nativity Tableau because it is a picture of what the Hebrew words translated “remember” and “remembrance” mean.  The two words are spelled the same but are pronounced with different vowels.  Remember is zakar and it means “to mark-so as to be recognized-to remember, to mention”.  The Strong’s also defines it as “to be male” which makes this word worth a devoted study.  The word translated as “remembrance” is zeker and isn’t all that different than zakar being defined by the Strong’s as “a memento, recollection, commemoration.”  The Strong’s also includes the word “scent” and “to burn incense” in these definitions and I like the idea of all of our senses being involved in our remembering.

Remembrance in the Biblical sense of the word is not an intellectual exercise.  The meaning can be seen in these Christmas celebrations: acting it out as if Jesus was being born this very night, celebrating the Word made flesh, recognizing our likeness in His face, and reveling in the indescribable love of God.

Unto us a Child is born.  Unto us a Son is given.

But, this remembrance is not our faith.  We are not acting out a mere belief system.  We are celebrating-or ought to be celebrating-the revelation of God Himself in Jesus Christ.  This revelation of God in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, the humility in the heart of God in that God became one of us-limited in every way as we are, tempted in every way as we are-is the catalyst for a response in us and that response is the definition of faith.

I read J. Preston Eby’s teachings and only recently discovered he’d written a short series on faith.  I am currently on page 3 of the first study but have read enough that there is plenty to ponder.  Mr. Eby opens his study series with this definition of faith: “Faith is the mental attitude of confident response which is evoked in you by what another person reveals himself to be.”

Mr. Eby goes on to write, “The very first thing that you will surely observe about this definition is that it declares that your faith is not something that you decided to exercise.  Rather it is a response produced in you by someone other than yourself!  True faith never accrues to the praise of the one who possesses it, but rather, to the glory of the one who evokes it!  Then, in the second place, the “mental attitude of confident response” known as faith is totally dependent upon revelation, that is, the uncovering or unveiling of another person’s inner being in such a way that he may be seen as he really is.”

Does Jesus have December or a September or an April or some other birth month?  Was He born in a stable or some other type of room?  I do enjoy reading what others have to say on these subjects.  I don’t have time for arguing about it because, whatever the facts may be, the truth is we have an unpredictable God who, maker and ruler of all things, did not choose to be born in a way that fitted His station.  He was born to poor peasant parents, had a manger for His bed, and while angels filled the skies with song, only shepherds were there to mark His birth.

Tomorrow will be December 26th.  Perhaps many of you will begin taking down decorations and packing them away until next year.  Perhaps many of you will find tomorrow to be a bit of a letdown.  Perhaps you sought the Magic of Christmas and needed Santa and Elves and Flying Reindeer in order to find it.  But then, you probably stopped believing in all of that years ago.  You try to create magic for your children but deep inside you know magic is nothing more than illusion and sleight of hand.

None of your days have to be a letdown.  We don’t have to try and stir up some sort of holiday spirit and try to keep it going into the cares and trials of our daily lives.  Jesus is not just the reason for the season, He is the reason for everything that exists: “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.  For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers.  All things were created through Him and for Him.  And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.” (Colossians 1:15-17).

I follow the blog Hebrew Word Lessons and a recent post addressed Christmas.  The point was made about the unlikelihood of Jesus having a December birth but also pointed out the beauty of celebrating His arrival with lights during the darkest time of the year.  The author also writes, “This Messiah (Anointed One), who would come as a child, would be an awe-inspiring, mighty, eternal, peace-bringer.  And He would be a counsellor…an intimate advisor for every human heart.”  John 14:16 refers to the Holy Spirit as the Comforter and the Amplified expands that word with “Counsellor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener, and Standby”. (See also John 14:26-28).  

Today is the day chosen to be the commemoration of God’s coming to earth through His being born a human being.  However you choose to mark today, if you do so choose to mark today, I hope it is a day full of the comfort and joy that belongs to each one of us.  Because that baby is no longer a baby.  He is the risen and ascended Lord Jesus Christ, sitting at the right hand of the Father, with all authority in heaven and on earth His, ever living to make intercession for us, dwelling in us in and by His Spirit. 

When we experience the vitality of us in Christ and He in us, all substitutions pale in comparison. Our reality is we have the Holy Spirit dwelling inside of us.  Emmanuel, God with Us, has become God in Us.  Our very bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit not just today but every day.  He is our Comfortor and His fruit is joy.  The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation, will open our eyes to the magnitude of what it means to live in union with Christ in us: we only have to ask.  And then, having opened our eyes, this same Spirit will strengthen us to live our lives in response to all we have seen: a life of faith.

Unless noted otherwise, all Scriptures are quoted from The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1982

References

THE LAW OF FAITH Part 1 by J. Preston Eby (godfire.net)

Revisiting COUNSELLOR ‹ Hebrew Word Lessons ‹ Reader — WordPress.com

Guralnik, David B., Webster’s New World Dictionary of the American Language, Second College Edition, William Collins + World Publishing Co., Inc., Cleveland • New York, 1953, 1976

Strong, James, LL.D., S.T.D., The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1990