Test Your Armour

     We are told to "Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil."  What is this armour?  "Having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.  And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.  Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication..."  
     To be filled with truth and dressed in the armour of strength and knowledge, I need to be praying and be in the word of God.  I need to put everything to the test through the Word, through Jesus Christ.
     I need to T-est
                    E-very
                    S-ingle
                    T-hought 

Fruit of the Spirit

     We are warned in Galatians 5 about living by the acts of the flesh: "sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery;  idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions  and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like."  When we become Christians, we are to be more Christ-like. 

     We need to exchange idolatry for faithfulness; hatred for love, fits of rage for peace and calm, dissensions for forgiveness; and the like. 

     There is to be a different kind of fruit growing within our lives:

F- orgiving spirit     

R- ejoicing in suffering

U- ttering daily prayer

I- ntimately seeking Jesus

T- emptation resistance and Truth living

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control." 

Keeping the Faith

     Many often ask, "How do I keep my faith when bad things happen?" or some may say, "How do I tell others about Jesus when I may be scorned or laughed at?"

     Paul gives us an example of what we must do and trials to expect.  But it is all worth it for the cause of Christ.
     After Paul's conversion on the way to Damascus, he lived his life for God.  In 2 Corinthians he describes many of the trails he faced as a missionary to the people.
     "Paul was jailed, beaten and at death's door.  He was flagged 5 times with the Jew's 39 lashes, beaten by Roman rods 3 times, pummeled with rocks once.  he was shipwrecked 3 times, and immersed in the open sea for a night and a day.  He was in hard traveling year in and year out.  He had to ford rivers, fend off robbers, struggle with friends, struggle with foes.  He'd been at risk in the city, at risk in the country, endangered by desert sun and sea storm, and betrayed by those he though were his brothers.  He knew drudgery and hard labor, many a lonely night without sleep, many a missed meal, blasted by the cold, naked to the weather.  He knew daily pressures and anxieties of all churches.  He felt humiliation.  He even had to crawl through a window in the wall, let down in a basket, and run for his life"
     Why did Paul do it all? And, how did he keep the faith?  The answer is given.  The Lord said, "My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness."  Paul states, "Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.  I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then I am strong."

Light in the Heart

     I always prefer light to darkness.  Not only do I want my yard to be lite up, but I want my heart to be bright and shiny too.  Maybe, that is why I enjoyed reading The Message version of 2 Corinthians. 

"We don't fence you in.  The smallness you feel comes from within you.  Your lives aren't small, but you are living them in a small way.  I'm speaking as plainly as I can and with great affection.  Open up your lives.  Live openly and expansively!"

     If I can remove the smallness in my life by the way I live and think, and with love toward others, then I believe my heart will be lite with light through Jesus Christ. 

     To enhance my understanding I also read the KJV and the NIV versions.

KJV: "O ye Corinthians, our mouth is open unto you, our heart is enlarged.  Ye are not straitened in us, but ye are straitened in your own bowels.  Now for a recompense in the same (I speak as unto my children,) be ye also enlarged."

NIV: "We have spoken freely to you Corinthians, and opened wide our hearts to you.  We are not withholding our affection from you, but you are withholding yours from us.  As a fair exchange-I speak as to my children- open wide your hearts also." 

Guys In Camo

The following is a story out of my book, Guys in Camo.  If you enjoy the story, you will find plenty more in the book which can be downloaded to your e-reader from Amazon. 

https://www.amazon.com/Guys-Camo-Mary-Crisp-ebook/dp/B005CB8O1E/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=guys+in+camo+book%2C+mary+crisp&qid=1560797131&s=gateway&sr=8-1

DISTURBING THE PEACE

I have never had to worry about not making any noise as I loaded up my dogs from a hunt before, but here it was midnight and I found myself trying to call in my dogs and get them back to the house without making any racket or calling attention to myself in the dead of the night.  I felt like a burglar trying not to get caught, and it was all from trying to help out a neighbor;  well, partly anyway.

I had lived in Village for years; Village being a small  residential area consisting of houses within about a four square mile radius, more or less, in each direction.  A neighbor living on the outskirts of this little town had a cornfield in a garden behind her house, and she had been complaining for several weeks about a problem she was having with coons eating up her corn. 

She finally asked me if I would come over one night and get rid of those coons.  That was right down my alley.  I had a pair of young dogs I had been training, and I was eager to get them into her cornfield and see if they would jump a coon. 

She lived within walking distance of my house but since I never knew when I might need my truck to round up my dogs if they headed into the woods and out of hearing range, I loaded  the dogs in my pickup after dark one night and drove the short distance to her house.  I dropped the tailgate and walked the dogs to her garden spot.  The dogs sniffed and paced around and were soon barking in the corn patch.  They treed and headed out into the woods away from all the houses, which is just what I had expected.  I followed and soon found the coon up an old tree not far from the clearing. 

During the time it took me to follow the sound of my barking hounds, I had decided the night was much too young to just kill that coon and stop the hunt.   I wanted the coon to come off  the limb of that tree and hit the ground alive so I could let my dogs have the pleasure of a good coon fight, and I was feeling up to a little excitement myself. 

We were at the edge of Village, and the dogs were in the woods away from all the houses so I thought just a little ruckus and disturbance wouldn’t hurt a thing.  I flashed my light up into the tree, found the coon and shot just to the left of the frightened coon, deliberately missing it.  Before my shot stopped echoing that coon was on the ground running for its life and my dogs were right behind it  barking and baying for all they were worth.  But the coon headed in the wrong direction.  Rather than going deeper into the woods, it headed back across the opening into the cornfield, out across the road, and back down the woods toward all the houses in our little community.  

I jumped into my truck hoping to head off the dogs that were hot on the coon’s trail.  Naturally the coon and the dogs beat me. The coon crossed the opening where our little church sat, went across the road and headed toward those little houses sitting in a  neat little row, all of which were built on pier and beam structures and sitting on cinder blocks up off the ground.  I didn’t know what to do as I watched the coon lead the chase underneath one house and then the other.

 I had the window of my truck rolled down and could tell by the commotion that one  of my dogs almost caught the coon under the first house, but the coon surprised my young puppy when it attacked and sent my dog reeling backward with a yelp.  By the time my dog recovered from its shock my other dog had caught up with the chase, and both dogs lit out once again on the coon’s trail underneath every one of those houses.  They were barking and baying all the while.  It was late into the night and the folks who lived in those houses had all gone to bed.  There were no lights on anywhere at first, but then I began to see lights coming on one by one in every house on the row.  It was then that I decided to just continue easing down the road in my pickup like a casual by- passer.  I didn’t want those folks knowing whose dogs those were and that I had caused all this ruckus.  

I eased up behind the big store at the crossroads which sat at the corner and just at the end of all that row of houses.  Then  I turned and drove south about a half mile down the road to a little oil field.  I stopped to wait for the chase to get to me.  Sure enough, from the sound of the dogs they were headed my way.  The dogs caught that coon about 100 yards from me and the fight was on again.  I listened to the coon squalling and the dogs barking and growling for about ten  minutes.  They finally got that coon killed and then all got quiet.   

I continued to wait a while longer before I started calling for the dogs, urging them to come quickly still trying to get them loaded and back at home without making any noise and hoping that the lights in the neighborhood were off and no one was roaming around trying to figure out what was going on.  

I never did go hunting no more in town.    

One With Him

If I had to choose my favorite number, it would be the number "ONE".  Why?  Simple! There is One God, One Savior, One Lord, One Master, One Creator, and One Redeemer.  All are one and the same.  He knows all, planned all and, because of my salvation, I am one with Him.

Ephesians 4:4-6 "There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all."

Mirror, Mirror!

     "Mirror, mirror, on the wall.  Who is the fairest of them all?"  

     Have you ever looked in the mirror to see, really see, who you are.  Forget the beauty, the not so pretty, the flaws, the wrinkles.   Just look deep.   Who are you?  What do you see?  What do you want to see? 

      James 1:22-24 state, " But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.  For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:  For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was."

     Do you see, in the mirror, a person so distracted by the world, you forget the important things of life?  Or, do you see inner spiritual growth?   Do you see a caring heart?  Do you see a forgiving heart?  Do you see a doer of the Word? 

     "Mirror, mirror, on the wall"...Who am I? What do I see?  Better yet, what do others see when my face is reflected before them?