The Sword of Damocles – Part 2

Hear ye! Hear ye! Part 2 of John: Volume 27 of our Heavenly Citizens series is available.

Light for the blind, Shepherd for the sheep, Life for the dead, King and Servant and Sin Offering for the people. His name is Jesus.

Enter through the Door of the sheepfold and meet your Shepherd. He is one and the same, Door and Shepherd. John Chapters 8-14 will take you where no man has gone before, and it’s not on the Starship Enterprise. It is into the heavenlies, and all while your feet are still on terra firma. Everyone is welcome.

If you hear his voice calling you, then sign up for class and get your copy of John: Volume 27 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. Click here! Download your copy instantly! Oh, yes, one last detail. Don’t be late for class.

And take…the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God [Ephesians 6:17].

Damocles wanted to live like King Dionysius, so Dionysius obliged. He had Damocles outfitted in kingly garb and bedecked with jewelry. He sat him at the table and served him a gourmet meal. Damocles ate until it came out of his ears, before he even noticed the catch, this oddity in the room. There above his head, right where he was seated at the banqueting table, was a sword suspended by a single horse hair, dangling over the crown of his head.

Damocles nearly toppled over in his chair, frightened out of his wits. “What is that doing there?” he blurted out to King Dionysius.

Dionysius stared him straight in the eye and soberly explained, “You wanted to know what the life of a king is like, didn’t you? Well, now you know not only its pleasures but also its precariousness. And I see by your reaction that you don’t much relish the life.”

All of this was too much for Damocles. He fled the life of the court fawner and returned to real life as he once knew it, nevermore to be seen or heard anywhere near the throne room.

From this tale of ancient mythology has come the adage, “the sword of Damocles”. It refers to a situation which potentially brings with it harm or catastrophe, an imminent peril which looms on the horizon.

In our Bible verse today we have the sixth and final piece in “the full armor of God”. Paul phrases this piece of armor as “the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God”. There is a gourmet’s meal in those words, dear friends. We shan’t miss out on any of it either.

I am seized by the import of “the sword of the Spirit”. It is defined as “the Word of God”. Hmm. What implications accrue from such a definition? Much in every way!

Our Pentecostal and Charismatic brethren make a big to-do about the Holy Spirit. In many ways they are absolutely right on target. I mean, if we look at a good many of Christian preachers, they pound the pulpit and assert unabashedly, “Around here we follow the Bible!” Then in the next breath they commence to preaching denominational soap box issues and doctrinal statements. Well, so much for following the Bible! One can only conclude that they equate their doctrines with the Bible itself!

Such Bible believers are no closer to the truth than some of those who emphasize the Holy Spirit in contrast to the Bible. When we insist on knowing where their beliefs are located in Scripture, they shuffle the feet and stutter a bit, and end up asserting how the Holy Spirit told them what they claim.

We will see where this leads in our next study. Let’s commit our ways to the Lord Jesus now and enjoy His fellowship a while.

To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Numbers: Volume 4 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please click on the “Shop” tab at the top of this page, where you will find a complete list of my books. Each book is available in both paperback (Createspace) and eBook (Kindle).

#ephesians6 #armor #spiritualwarfare #devil #demons #military #war #sword #holyspirit #wordofgod #evilone

The Sword of Damocles – Part 1

Hear ye! Hear ye! Part 2 of John: Volume 27 of our Heavenly Citizens series is available.

Light for the blind, Shepherd for the sheep, Life for the dead, King and Servant and Sin Offering for the people. His name is Jesus.

Enter through the Door of the sheepfold and meet your Shepherd. He is one and the same, Door and Shepherd. John Chapters 8-14 will take you where no man has gone before, and it’s not on the Starship Enterprise. It is into the heavenlies, and all while your feet are still on terra firma. Everyone is welcome.

If you hear his voice calling you, then sign up for class and get your copy of John: Volume 27 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. Click here! Download your copy instantly! Oh, yes, one last detail. Don’t be late for class.

And take…the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God [Ephesians 6:17].

Back in the day… No, even further back than that. You still don’t have it right. Back still further, say circa 350 B.C. Back then there was this tyrant named Dionysius. He ruled over the city of Syracuse in southern Italy.

Dionysius was famed for his inordinate wealth. It would seem that he enjoyed opulence like none other in that day. The tastiest dainties he feasted upon. The most sumptuous wardrobe he bedecked himself in. Pretentiousness with the flashiest jewelry was a trademark of his. Why, he even kept many a court flatterer on the payroll, so he could daily feast on their audio servings of how fantastic he was.

Yes, Dionysius was the envy of the Mediterranean world back in the day. During Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls heyday, the prevailing shibboleth to make the rounds of the airwaves stated, “I want to be like Mike.” Well, back then it was said, “I want to be Dionysius.”

This one particular courtier actually drank the Kool-Aid. He swallowed the hype, making him the best toady Dionysius had on staff. Day in and day out without letup, Damocles practically stalked Dionysius, inundating him with envious praise and adulation.

As we might have expected, Dionysius soon tired of the charade. That is what it was to him, it was so over the top. He didn’t know Damocles was for real, that his flattery wasn’t meant to be disingenuous. Damocles, it would appear, was the original rock-‘n’-roll groupie!

Finally Dionysius took Damocles aside. Allow me to fabricate for your consumption a likely scenario in this conversation. He asked Damocles, “So you think my life is glamorous, do you?”

Damocles responded without hesitation, “Oh, yes indeed, good King Dionysius. Would that I could be a tenth of the man you are!”

“Oh, so you would like to be me, would you?” shot back Dionysius’ retort.

“Yes, good king,” rejoined this simpleton courtier. “Without reservation I affirm your question. ‘Twould be a dream come true!”

To which Dionysius replied, “Okay, then. So be it. You will live my life for a while.”

Then the king gave the order to prepare things for Damocles, so that he could enjoy the life of Dionysius. Straightway Damocles was bedecked in luxurious garments and the jewelry of his choice. He was seated at the banqueting table, which was filled with scrumptious dishes like Damocles had never imagined he would enjoy. So Damocles dived in mouth first, not bothering to come up for air until his tummy was sated.

Let us take our leave of this study at this time. We will return to it on the morrow. Enjoy your quiet time with Jesus now.

To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Joshua: Volume 6 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B00507WC86

Hard Hat Area – Part 4

Hear ye! Hear ye! Part 2 of John: Volume 27 of our Heavenly Citizens series is available.

Light for the blind, Shepherd for the sheep, Life for the dead, King and Servant and Sin Offering for the people. His name is Jesus.

Enter through the Door of the sheepfold and meet your Shepherd. He is one and the same, Door and Shepherd. John Chapters 8-14 will take you where no man has gone before, and it’s not on the Starship Enterprise. It is into the heavenlies, and all while your feet are still on terra firma. Everyone is welcome.

If you hear his voice calling you, then sign up for class and get your copy of John: Volume 27 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. Click here! Download your copy instantly! Oh, yes, one last detail. Don’t be late for class.

And take the helmet of salvation [Ephesians 6:17].

Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty for man’s sins. Jesus then rose out of death three days later in a new spiritual body apart from sin. The Word of God proclaims this truth to man and offers him Jesus’ payment for his sins and a new resurrection life, if man will but believe the Word of God, acknowledge his sins to God, and ask God to grant this salvation to him.

This is what it means to be saved, at least in part. The other part is that Jesus not only paid the penalty for my sins. He also rose out of death for my justification, so that I can live a new resurrection life. This too is what I receive by grace through faith. I am not only saved from death as the penalty for my sins. I am also given a new resurrection life, in which I can live free from sin and serve the Lord righteously.

But not every person is saved. This is not any fault of God’s, mind you. He did His part, and He freely offers it to each and every person (i.e., grace). The fault lies with the individual person. To receive this free gift from God, each person has to hold out his hand and ask God for it. Anyone who is not saved has failed to do so.

To receive God’s salvation we must believe the Gospel (i.e., faith). The Gospel teaches man that he is a sinner and separated from God by his sins. He is dead in his trespasses and sins, you see. The Gospel then notes how Jesus paid the penalty for his sins and freely offers it to him.

In Biblical faith the man believes this, thus acknowledging that he is indeed a sinner and dead in his sins. He asks the Lord to forgive him for his sins and grant him the free gift of God in Christ Jesus. In doing this the man dies on the cross “in Christ”, and he then rises out of death “in Christ” as a new resurrected person.

All of this bears relevance to “the helmet of salvation”. The helmet covers the head, wherein is the brain. The brain makes sense of what we see and hear and directs the hands and feet as to what to do. When Satan accuses the Christian of being a phony, of still being the same old sinner and not a new creation at all, the Christian must needs be “transformed by the renewing of the mind” to withstand the assaults of the evil one.

Only by means of daily feeding on the Word of God can the Christian’s faith grow into maturity and remain strong and vibrant. By keeping his focus on his salvation, the Christian doesn’t depend on his own righteousness. He depends on “the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus”.

No matter how much truthful negativity Satan may spew at him, the Christian thoughtfully considers Who Christ Jesus is, what He did for the Christian, and why Satan’s accusations won’t hold water at the bar of God. This is another way of saying that the Christian is wearing “the helmet of salvation”. His thinking, his understanding, is based on the Word of God as it pertains to the Person and Ministry of Jesus Christ his Lord, not on his own reasoning and goodness.

So are you wearing “the helmet of salvation”? The Roman legionnaire might find his helmet hot and itchy, but I can promise you “the helmet of salvation” is the most comfortable head gear ever!

To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Numbers: Volume 4 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please click on the “Shop” tab at the top of this page, where you will find a complete list of my books. Each book is available in both paperback (Createspace) and eBook (Kindle).

#ephesians6 #armor #spiritualwarfare #devil #demons #military #war #helmet #salvation #evilone

Hard Hat Area – Part 3

Hear ye! Hear ye! Part 2 of John: Volume 27 of our Heavenly Citizens series is available.

Light for the blind, Shepherd for the sheep, Life for the dead, King and Servant and Sin Offering for the people. His name is Jesus.

Enter through the Door of the sheepfold and meet your Shepherd. He is one and the same, Door and Shepherd. John Chapters 8-14 will take you where no man has gone before, and it’s not on the Starship Enterprise. It is into the heavenlies, and all while your feet are still on terra firma. Everyone is welcome.

If you hear his voice calling you, then sign up for class and get your copy of John: Volume 27 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. Click here! Download your copy instantly! Oh, yes, one last detail. Don’t be late for class.

And take the helmet of salvation [Ephesians 6:17].

Paul employed the visible physical realities of the battlefield and the Roman legionnaire’s armor, in order to teach invisible spiritual truth about spiritual warfare and the Christian’s “full armor of God”. Let’s continue to vet this matter.

So there was this Roman soldier out on the battlefield, bedecked in his several pieces of armor. For purposes of today’s study we want to take note of the helmet on his head. What useful purpose did it serve? I mean, it was uncomfortable. It couldn’t breathe so it had to be hot and itchy. Why would the soldier want to wear it anyway?

In answer all we need do is take a gander across the battlefield at the enemy troops. Some had bows with flaming arrows on the bowstrings. Without the helmet to shield his head, what would become of the Roman soldier, should one of those arrows land on the crown of his head?

And then there were all the cavalry soldiers with their lances and swords. They came galloping up, towering over the Roman soldier on the ground. When they swung their swords or jabbed their lances, the Roman soldier’s head was the first part of his body to receive the not-so-welcome blow. Without the helmet to shield his head, what would become of the Roman soldier, should one of those blows land on the crown of his head?

And let us not leave out the masses of infantry, as they attacked the Roman soldier. Each one carried a spear and a sword, all for the purpose of inflicting bodily harm to the Roman soldier. Without the helmet to shield his head, what, pray tell, would become of the Roman soldier, should one of those spears or swords hit him upside the head?

Isn’t it obvious why the helmet was considered to be part and parcel of the Roman legionnaire’s armor? The same rationale explains why the Lord included it as one of the integral pieces of “the full armor of God”.

In the Christian’s case, this helmet involves “salvation”. And that is the crux of the matter, when it comes to deciphering this piece of armor in the spiritual armory of the Christian, dear friends.

What does the word “salvation” speak of? The word “salvation” is the noun form of “saved”. We are saved by grace through faith. The word “grace” refers to a gift from God given freely, without charge. The word “faith” means that we hear the Word of God, believe what He says, and act accordingly.

The Word of God tells us how the eternal Son of God took upon humanity circa 7 B.C. He always is God. From the point He took upon humanity, thenceforth throughout all eternity He is also a real man. He is the God-man.

This God-man Jesus Christ died on the cross circa 27 A.D. Being God as He is, Jesus had no sin of His own. The wages of sin is death, but Jesus had no sin. Why, then, did He die? He died not for His own sins, but for the sins of all mankind past, present, and future. He paid the penalty for man’s sins, so now man doesn’t have to pay it.

That is what it means to be saved, at least in part. We will expound further on this topic on the morrow. Allow the Holy Spirit to pour this teaching over your mind and fill your heart with it now. See you tomorrow.

To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Numbers: Volume 4 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please click on the “Shop” tab at the top of this page, where you will find a complete list of my books. Each book is available in both paperback (Createspace) and eBook (Kindle).

#ephesians6#armor#spiritualwarfare#devil#demons#military#war#helmet#salvation#evilone

Hard Hat Area – Part 2

Hear ye! Hear ye! Part 2 of John: Volume 27 of our Heavenly Citizens series is available.

Light for the blind, Shepherd for the sheep, Life for the dead, King and Servant and Sin Offering for the people. His name is Jesus.

Enter through the Door of the sheepfold and meet your Shepherd. He is one and the same, Door and Shepherd. John Chapters 8-14 will take you where no man has gone before, and it’s not on the Starship Enterprise. It is into the heavenlies, and all while your feet are still on terra firma. Everyone is welcome.

If you hear his voice calling you, then sign up for class and get your copy of John: Volume 27 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. Click here! Download your copy instantly! Oh, yes, one last detail. Don’t be late for class.

And take the helmet of salvation [Ephesians 6:17].

Hats and helmets! Hats and helmets! How to decide which to wear? Ah, that is the question. If we’re on the sidelines during the football game, we would choose a hat, or more specifically, a cap to wear. But if we’re out in the trenches of the football field with the big uglies, well, we had best be wearing the helmet!

You see, the context determines what to wear, does it not? Yes, it does. We mustn’t forget Rule #1 for Bible study, “A text without a context is a pretext.”

If I am going to the office in a suit and tie, a helmet would be rather odd-looking on my head…unless I drove a motor cycle to work. But if I worked atop the frame of a skyscraper welding steel beams together, a baseball cap or a top hat would be out of place. In that location under those conditions a hard hat is called for.

So what is the context of Ephesians 6? Well, Paul itemizes the pieces of “the full armor of God”, to be used by the Christian in conducting spiritual warfare. Okay, then what sort of outfit is suitable for going to war? Should the soldier bedeck himself in a tuxedo and top hat? You think? Wouldn’t we expect to see him outfitted in camouflage attire with a helmet on his head? Yep, I do believe that would be the likelihood.

The Christian is to march off to conduct spiritual warfare. The fifth piece in “the full armor of God” is “the helmet of salvation”. Marching off to war with a helmet protecting the head: that seems about right.

Oh, but this is not just any old helmet. This is “the helmet of salvation” with which we have to do.

Someone is befuddled, “Huh? What in the world is ‘the helmet of salvation’? Never heard of the thing!”

And that is not surprising, kind sir, because it is a special piece of armor developed by the Lord for exclusive use by His soldiers, as they conduct spiritual warfare on His behalf. The Lord even owns the patent on this helmet. No one else can make use of it.

In order for us to get a handle on the makeup of “the helmet of salvation”, we would do well to press F5 and refresh the old noggin a bit. In Scripture the Holy Spirit employs visible physical realities to teach invisible spiritual truths.

In the case of Ephesians 6 the visible physical reality is physical warfare, while its counterpart in the spiritual realm is spiritual warfare. Other visible physical realities are the pieces of armor worn by the Roman legionnaire. The spiritual counterparts to these are “the full armor of God”, as Paul enumerates them in Ephesians 6.

Oh, dear. Not again. We are out of time. We’ll have to wait another day to learn more about this matter. But we can still grow from what we’ve already devoured today. Just sit a while with Jesus and see for yourself.

To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Joshua: Volume 6 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B00507WC86

Hard Hat Area – Part 1

Hear ye! Hear ye! Part 2 of John: Volume 27 of our Heavenly Citizens series is available.

Light for the blind, Shepherd for the sheep, Life for the dead, King and Servant and Sin Offering for the people. His name is Jesus.

Enter through the Door of the sheepfold and meet your Shepherd. He is one and the same, Door and Shepherd. John Chapters 8-14 will take you where no man has gone before, and it’s not on the Starship Enterprise. It is into the heavenlies, and all while your feet are still on terra firma. Everyone is welcome.

If you hear his voice calling you, then sign up for class and get your copy of John: Volume 27 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. Click here! Download your copy instantly! Oh, yes, one last detail. Don’t be late for class.

And take the helmet of salvation [Ephesians 6:17].

One of my favorite books—well, actually two books—are Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass. The books regale both our intellect and fantasy with a farrago of memorable characters, each one well developed by the author. Not a one seems able to tire us out in the repetition of reading.

In the first-named book, two such characters function as a couple. I make reference to the Hatter and the March Hare. Another character, the Cheshire Cat, labels the both of them as “mad”. This has given credence to an elaboration of the name Hatter to the Mad Hatter.

Well, still one more character in the story, the Queen of Hearts, heard the Mad Hatter sing at her celebration. Being unable to find anything good in anyone, the Queen of Hearts barked her usual order against the Mad Hatter, “Off with his head!” His crime according to her was that he “murdered time”!

The Mad Hatter escaped with his head nonetheless, but Time retaliated by bringing himself to a halt vis-à-vis the Mad Hatter and the March Hare. This meant that, for those two characters, time stood still at 6:00 PM forever. This was tea time for the British, which is why the Mad Hatter sporadically exclaims “Tea Time!”.

We won’t analyze the story or interpret any of the characters. That is not our goal in this study. I bring up these characters, or more specifically, the Mad Hatter, because of our Bible text. The Hatter, aka the Mad Hatter, derived his name from the distinctive hat he wore.

Our Bible verse has to do with a hat too, which is why I thought of the Mad Hatter, a most famous character with respect to hats. In our Bible verse the Apostle Paul notes the fifth piece in the full armor of God, which the Lord furnishes the Christian for conducting spiritual warfare. Paul labels it as the helmet of salvation.

No doubt you are thinking, “A helmet isn’t a hat, teacher.”

Oh, but I beg to differ. Both items are worn on the top of the head to cover the skull. A helmet is simply a hard hat, and it is used in war rather than peace time. It is meant to serve as armor which protects the vital organ known as the brain. Man would have a difficult time functioning sans the brain.

Yikes! Instead of time standing still for us, it’s had the audacity to run out on us! We’ll have to wait for the morrow to arrive, before continuing this analysis. Use your time wisely now. Jesus is waiting.

To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Joshua: Volume 6 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes, available at:

http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B00507WC86

https://sites.google.com/site/heavenlycitizensinearthlyshoes/