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  Linden
Street Leaflet
May 23, 2010 THE LIVING HELMET
"Take the helmet of salvation . . ." - Ephesians 6:17 Our Helmet of Salvation is Jesus himself. The name Jesus -- Yeshua in Hebrew -- means "Salvation." In Psalm 140:7, David wrote, "O God the Lord, the strength of my salvation [Yeshua], you have covered my head in the day of battle." As we pointed out earlier, the true battle is in spiritual places, and the place of battle is in the mind. It is Jesus who protects our mind as we do battle against the forces of darkness. "But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation." (I Thessalonians 5:8) Jesus is also the head of the body, the church. (Colossians 1:18) So not only does he protect our individual minds, he also protects the mind (the doctrine) of the church, as the church does battle with the ungodly doctrines of our age. And having died for all, he is the salvation of the church. Salvation is not simply a one-time event. It has a past, a present, and a future. At some time in the past, we accepted Jesus as our personal savior. That act grants us the promise of heaven. But that initial commitment also started an ongoing process of regeneration that brings us to now, and contues on into our future. We are saved day by day as the Lord works in us to conform us to the image of Jesus Christ. "Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day." (II Corinthians 4:16) "For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son." (Romans 8:29) Finally, notice in I Thessalonians 5:8 (above) that Paul describes the helmet as the hope of salvation. This does not mean wishful thinking, as we sometime use the word today, but rather a sure expectation of what is to come. Hope is essential to the warrior in battle. A man may survive all sorts of battle injuries, but just as it is difficult to survive a wound to the head, so it is difficult to survive the loss of hope. But we have a sure hope that will sustain us through all the trials of this life. The helmet of salvation covers our head, and Jesus is our surety, our certainty, our hope of salvation in the midst of spiritual battle. Just as our salvation is a continuous process, so the spiritual battle continues day by day. As we are being transformed, the battle may actually intensify, as Satan fights more fiercely against our progress. Do not be alarmed. Take heart in the surety of the helmet of salvation, the Lord Jesus himself, who will sustain you through it all. Linwood Kemp Web Admin May 16, 2010 THE BATTLEFIELD
"For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, once your obedience is complete." (2 Corinthians 10:3-6) It is all too customary to think of spiritual battle as being "out there" in the world and in the marketplace. "There is so much evil in the world," we hear. However, the scripture above gives us a clue as to where the real battle takes place: The battlefield is our minds. It's so easy to blame our woes upon others. Is there someone you are having a hard time forgiving because they have wronged you? Would you be a lot happier if only so-and-so would be nicer? Would you be less fearful if only terrorism could be brought under control? Would you have more patience if only other people weren't so stupid sometimes? In all of these situations Jesus says to "first remove the beam from your own eye." Satan and his forces are constantly at war to gain control of our thoughts and project them upon others. He doesn't want us to know where the real battle is taking place--inside our own minds. The instant he is afforded an opportunity, the enemy sets up fortresses in our mind, which are essentially thoughts and ideas that hold us captive to him and turn us away from the way of God. The verse above says that "the weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world." It is difficult to break down the fortresses of self-justification in our own minds unless we use weapons that "have divine power to demolish strongholds." Those weapons are the armor of God which we find in Ephesians 6 and elsewhere. The most powerful of these weapons is the Word of God, which is "living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart" (Hebrews 4:12). We'll look at this "sword of the Spirit" in more detail later, but for now take note of where the Word of God is put to use: not to battle and pummel others into submission, but to carve the traces of sinfulness from our own hearts. Study the Word of God regularly and let it do its holy work. Put on the armor of God to protect the battlefield of your own heart and mind. Linwood Kemp Web Admin May 2, 2010 WHO IS THE ENEMY?
"Our fight is not against human beings. It is against the rulers, the authorities and the powers of this dark world. It is against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly world." - Ephesians 6:13 (New International Reader's Version) Our enemy is not a man. Our enemy is not man at all. The enemy is a group of evil, cunning and highly organized spiritual entities racked against us. They stand perched on our shoulders, whispering evil into our ears while at the same time doing their best to convince us that they don't exist. We may refer to all of these forces as Satan in the singular because he is their head, but they are really spiritual entities in many different forms, some who tempt us to evil, and others who cleverly set us up to do "good" for the wrong reasons. Our enemy is not a particular political representative, party or organization. We must remember that we fight issues, not people, and we fight those issues for righteousness from God's perspective, not for selfish human objectives. Nor is our enemy our neighbor. Hate the sin and love the sinner. Pray for those whose lifestyle or belief is different from our own. It is God who will judge. Satan so easily takes our eyes off our own faults when we take the time to judge others. Most of the world does not acknowledge the existence of Satan any more. Evil is seen as mental illness, or selfishness, or misjudgment. This is the enemy's greatest achievement because it allows him to walk unhindered amongst us, more or less free to do whatever he wants. So how do we fight against such an enemy? Certainly not with conventional weapons. Our arsenal is spiritual. We make use of righteousness, truth, faith, and prayer. To use these weapons aright we must first know who our real enemy is and where to find him. Don't misdirect your warfare to human targets and material objectives. First of all, our battle is "against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." Linwood Kemp Web Admin Home
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