Did you know some people say the military salute in all the world’s armies originated from the medieval knights who needed to raise their helmet visors when they talked to one another? Even after the use of helmet visors ended, modern day soldiers kept the tradition, and that is how we came to know the military salute. I didn’t know that. Others say because the knights carried their weapons on their right, this is how we came to drive our cars on the left side of the road (but not in America!). Living in Federal Way or NE Tacoma in the 1st century, you and I don’t see many soldiers on our streets. We don’t see soldiers, period. To see soldiers on city streets, we might have to go to places like North Korea or Russia. But to see soldiers suit up in an armor, for that we might have to go to a medieval renaissance fair or visit a museum. All to say, most of us have not seen a soldier in an armor up close, and we don’t know very much about armors.
Two Sundays ago, I gave a message on Ephesians 6.11–13. We learned from the Apostle Paul we must understand our enemies are not human enemies, but they are spiritual beings we cannot see. We also learned the Enemy uses many schemes to do everything and anything to destroy the plan of God. As Christians, we must know the Enemy is real, we must know our Enemy, and we must prepare for the Enemy daily. In order to prepare ourselves against the many schemes of the Enemy, God revealed to us six important things by way of an illustration, of all things, a soldier’s armor.
This Sunday, my message is from Ephesians 6.14–17. It is the passage that Christians have come to know as the Armor of God passage. Come, and let’s read together, think together, and worship together what is this armor of God that has been given to us by God, and how do we use it in our fight against the schemes of the Enemy. See you Sunday.
Your Friend
Alvin