God's Armor, Not Ours.

 We live in a world that tells us we need to focus upon ourselves at any given moment. Do you know why Satan wants us self-obsessed? Because as long as we are caught up in our own feelings, our own ideas, our own thoughts, our own self in any way, then we are not focused on anyone else, including God. Satan sets us up perfectly, make no mistake he takes every single opportunity to arrange for us to be slighted even in the tiniest way. As soon as we feel the inkling of a slight we are shaking off the armor of God and replacing it with armor of our own fashioning trying to protect our own feelings, our so called honor, our perceived dignity, our self-important integrity and God's armor cannot remain upon us if we replace it with our own armor. Why can't God's armor protect us if we are fashioning our own? Because God's armor is SELFLESS, not SELF-FOCUSED.  

The Helmet of Salvation-  Christ's selfless sacrifice.

The Breastplate of Christ's Righteousness- Christ's selflessness as He relied upon the righteousness of the Father.

The Loins Girt in Truth- Christ is truth, selfless truth. Sacrificing truth.

The Feet Shod in the Gospel of Peace - Peace found in the selfless of Christ's sacrifice.

The Shield of Faith- Faith in Christ's selflessness.

The Sword of the Spirit of the Word of God - the Selfless WORD of GOD, the same Word that tells us to sacrifice self for God, for others!

God sacrificed ALL for us, we are called to do no less than sacrifice all for God- by the Spirit of the power of God. We are called to allow God to have His way in us because we KNOW His way is the way of LOVE, pure LOVE unlike anything we can truly comprehend in our sin soaked state of living. 

We need to give up SELF! Self-protection of our feelings, our idea of self-justification, these all need to be given up! Satan will use them to destroy us at every turn eating away at us bit by bit, piece by piece, chipping at our perceived self that we deem more important than so much else.

Vain glory… self-glory- this is something we must not desire! We must not provoke one another in any way, we must not envy one another something we do all too much! God help us, God save us! God keep us from all evil! God keep us from all evil - from every single evil trap Satan lays for us to fall into!

Gal 5:25  If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. 

Gal 5:26  Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another. 

Choosing Christ, Unendingly.

 Gal 5:24  And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. 

Gal 5:25  If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. 

Gal 5:26  Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another. 

Crucified the flesh.

Crucified the affections and lusts of the flesh.

Recognizing the flesh and the Spirit is so incredibly important. When we talk of crucifixion we automatically have an image of our Savior nailed to a cross where He suffered and died for us.  The crucifying was His being nailed to a cross.  

The dictionary also gives us this definition-

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary

1. (v. t.) To fasten to a cross; to put to death by nailing the hands and feet to a cross or gibbet.

2. (v. t.) To destroy the power or ruling influence of; to subdue completely; to mortify.

3. (v. t.) To vex or torment.

From <https://biblehub.com/topical/c/crucify.htm> 

When we are told that if we are Christ's we have crucified our fleshy affections and lusts, we are destroying the power and influence those things have over our lives, we are subduing them completely.

Fleshy affections.

Fleshy lusts.

These come in so many forms and to all of us in many similar ways and yet many unique ways. My fleshy lusts may not be the same as yours, or they could be the same in one sense but not in another. Intensity and such are all factors but the bottom line- we have these fleshy affections and lusts that need to be subdued completely, they need to be crucified. 

We need to live in the SPIRIT and this is the only way for any sort of crucifixion of our affections and lusts to take place. 

Live in the SPIRIT, walk in the SPIRIT. Some will lay claim to living in the Spirit but their walk is not in the Spirit.  If we truly live in the SPIRIT we must be walking in the SPIRIT. 

The Spirit and the flesh are contrary to one another.  We choose. We must live in our bodies made of flesh with all its frailties and imperfections, but our bodies are receptacles of our minds and spirit. God will give us all we need, the Holy Spirit working in us, Christ in us is our hope, and clinging to these truths is where we find that hope of walking in the Spirit, by the Spirit, through the Spirit. We will not suddenly develop powers that allow us on our own to crucify our fleshy affections and lusts, we develop the truth, the Spirit of truth working and living in us. 

Gal 5:24  And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. 

Gal 5:25  If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. 

Gal 5:26  Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another. 

We subdue completely the flesh, surrendering it all to Christ! And as we do this DAILY, we will be confronted with truth that it is a forever choosing, a constant unending choosing over the course of our entire lives. By the grace and mercy of God may we through Him and His power, by the Holy Spirit, all by our Heavenly Father and His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, may we be HIS, known by HIM now and forever! His perfection ours, for we have none without Him!

We Are Buried.

 We are--

Crucified with Christ.

Buried with Christ.

Raised with Christ. 

Gal 2:20  I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. 

Rom_6:4  Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

I still remember my baptism vividly. The day I was buried symbolically with Christ. I can still recall the moment I was fully lowered under the water. I wasn't under the water very long, but I was under completely, fully submerged, all of me, every bit of me was buried. I was crucified with Christ. I was buried with Him by baptism. And when I came up out of that water grave I was raised up from the dead like Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father. On that day I followed the commands of my God, of my Savior and through that I obeyed the direction concerning the death, burial and resurrection of my Savior!  

Do I celebrate Easter? No. Not in the traditional sense. I recognize all its pagan origins interspersed with the religious connotations. I do NOT worship any bunnies, eggs, or any of the fertility symbols. I do NOT worship this day delegated to be Easter as a day God commands. This is a day mankind has contrived on many levels. I do believe a lot of people celebrate this day with the intent to hold it up as celebrating Christ's death and resurrection, just as Christmas day is done to celebrate His birth- though there is no Biblical command anywhere for us to do this, not one.  These days are used and abused in many ways, though the hearts of many believe they are following truths, and in ignorance perhaps they are forgiven, but given the opportunity for truth they then are accountable. God help us all.   I gather with my family, I use what I consider to be secular days set aside to do this, but DO NOT and WILL NOT ever claim these days to be Biblically mandated in any way. I will NEVER worship these days, never. I will worship ONLY GOD and only on the day He has commanded and set aside, the day He made holy, the day He sanctified, and that day is the seventh day Sabbath and it is a weekly day of WORSHIP that by HIS grace and will I am able to set aside and worship Him as He desires! 

God forgive me if I'm wrong even in gathering with family on these days, but I hope and pray all my family knows that I worship God and God alone on the Sabbath day, and no other day.  

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(Excerpt E.J. Waggoner - Articles on Romans Chapter 6)

'We are separated from sin, by death with him, in order that we may be joined to life in him. 

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"Buried with Him by Baptism." 

Baptism, therefore, is burial. 

If people were content to follow the plain reading of the Scriptures, there never would be a question concerning "the mode of baptism." No one from reading the Bible could ever get any other idea than that baptism is immersion. "Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead." Col. 2:12.  Baptism represents the death and resurrection of Christ, and by it we show our acceptance of his sacrifice; and the very act is an actual burial, in order to make the lesson the more impressive.

Why the Change in Baptism? 

How is it that there has been a change from Scripture baptism to sprinkling? The answer is very easy. Baptism is a memorial of the resurrection of Christ. But "the church," by which is meant the bishops who loved the praise of men more than the praise of God and who wished to curry favor with the "better class" of the heathen, adopted the pagan sun festival. And in order to appear to justify themselves in so doing,  they claimed that the rising sun which was worshipped by the heathen was a symbol of the resurrection of "the Sun of Righteousness," namely, Christ, and that by observing Sunday they were celebrating his resurrection.

But they did not need two memorials of the resurrection, and so they dropped the one that the Lord had given.  In order, however, not to appear to throw baptism away, they claimed that the heathen sprinkling with "holy water" which they very naturally adopted with the heathen sun festival, was the baptism enjoined in the Scriptures.

The people trusted in the "fathers" instead of reading the Bible for themselves, and so it was very easy to make them believe that the Bible was obeyed. It is true that there are some who follow the word in regard to immersion,  who also observe Sunday; but the two practices are inconsistent. The word is neglected in one particular  (observing Sunday) in order to provide a memorial for an event which they already celebrate in accordance with the word (baptism). Scriptural baptism is falling into disuse among [many] who observe the first day of the week.  It must be the case that sooner or later they will wholly give up one or the other.

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There is absolutely no Biblical proof whatsoever that the Sabbath day of worship that Christ Himself worshiped on, the seventh day, was changed to the first day of the week, none.  People will cite the resurrection automatically created the change, but Christ did not institute the change anywhere. He did institute an act to commemorate His death and resurrection and that is the Lord's Supper, that is the symbolic breaking of bread representing His body that He gave for us. It is the symbolic drinking of wine that represents the blood He spilled giving His life for us.  Baptism, the submersion of ourselves under the water represents us descending into the dark grave of death, the rising up out of the water represents us rising to new life! These acts were done by Christ Jesus Himself and examples to US.  

Why did mankind insist on adding their own twists on things? Because by and large mankind is ruled by Satan who wants to deceive all those he can into following his lies. He doesn't want mankind studying for themselves the word of God, but rather taking what other men say is truth and believing it. Satan has completed his deception so thoroughly that when Christ returns millions upon millions of people are going to be shocked they are NOT Christ's, that they don't know Him at all and Christ doesn't know them!  Why? Because they cared more for mankind's lies than His truths. The truths that are UNPOPULAR, the truths that are SHUNNED, the truths that make up the very, very NARROW way that few will find!  

Father, God, please…please let me know ONLY Your truth! Please, keep me from the evil of Satan's grand deceptions! Please KNOW me when You return for Your people! Please! PLEASE!  All through Christ Jesus, my Lord and Savior now and forever!

Loved Perfectly.

Everyday.

 Crucified With Christ.

Joh 14:19  Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also. 

Because Jesus lives, we will live. This is our HOPE!  We have NO HOPE in ourselves. It's because JESUS lives that we will live! It isn't because we live, it isn't because we are good, it isn't because we are special in some way of our own making. We live BECAUSE He lives!

If Jesus hadn't lived then we wouldn't have any hope whatsoever.

Each of us is given the hope of eternal life. It is Satan's position to take this hope from all he can. Satan will stop at absolutely nothing at all to take the hope of eternal life from each and every one of us. Satan will deploy tactics so deceptive that people will never even realize who is the evil source of their eternal end.  

What I don't comprehend is the belief not to believe simply because of arrogance great or small that gives a person a tiny bit of self-satisfaction to say they won't be fooled into believing a fairy tale.  Believing in Christ as our Savior gives us a hope, but what hope does one have who chooses not to believe? They will live and one day realize before they are eternally gone that they made the wrong choice not to believe. The horror of that moment will only be equaled by the horrors of the many who for very various reasons will be lost eternally. Those whose beliefs are fueled by self, not Christ. Those who say they know Christ and do all sorts of wonderful things in His name, but their hearts are not known by Christ at all. Those who have never made a personal commitment to know Christ, accepting His death and living for Him.  So many will be lost, many more than those who will be saved all because Satan uses great deception and man chooses self over God!

We've got to stop choosing self over God! And we have to do this by the power of God. Everyday yielding ourselves to HIM! Regardless of what our day contains, each and every day we yield! We seek forgiveness every day as we pick up our cross daily. EVERYDAY!

God help us! Please, God help us! Keep us from the evil that would keep us from You!

(Excerpt)

Crucifixion with Him. 

As Christ was crucified, therefore, being baptized into his death means that we are crucified with him. So we read, "I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me."  Galatians 2:20. Crucified, yet living, because crucified with Christ, and yet he lives. Christ said, "Because I live,  ye shall live also." John 14:19. How can we live a new life? We have no power at all of ourselves; but Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father; and in his prayer to the Father he said, "The glory which thou gavest me I have given them." John 17:22. Therefore, the power that raised Jesus from the dead is exercised to raise us from the death of sin. If we are willing to allow the old life to be crucified, we may be sure of the new.

"Our Old Man" Crucified. We shall be in the likeness of his resurrection. If we are crucified with Christ, our sins must also be crucified with Christ, for they are a part of us. Our sins were on him as he was crucified, so of course our sins are crucified if we are crucified with him.

But here is a difference between us and our sins when crucified. We are crucified in order that we may live again;  our sins are crucified in order that they may be destroyed. Christ is not "the minister of sin" (Gal. 2:17). It was the life of God that raised him from the dead, and in that life there is no sin.

A Separation From Sin. The reader will notice that the separation from sin is in death. That is because death is in sin. "Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death." James 1:15. Therefore nothing less than death will effect a separation. We could not separate ourselves from sin, because sin was our very life. If it had been possible for us to effect the destruction of sin, it could have been only by the giving up of our lives, and that would have been the end of us. That is why there will be no future for the wicked who die in their sins; their life having been given up (or rather, taken from them), they are out of existence. But Christ had the power to lay down his life, and to take it again; and therefore when we lay down our lives in him, we are raised again by his endless life.

Remember that he does not give us our own life back again, but that he gives us his own life. In that life there never was a sin; and so it is that our crucifixion and resurrection with him is the separation of sin from us. This thought must be borne in mind when we come to study the next chapter.

United to Him In Death.

 

(Excerpt)

Articles on Romans by E. J. Waggoner

Chapter 6

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 In beginning the study of the sixth chapter of Romans, it must be remembered that we have but a continuation of the fifth. The subject of that chapter is superabounding grace, and the gift of life and righteousness by grace. As sinners we are enemies of God, but are reconciled, that is, freed from sin, by receiving the righteousness of Christ's life, which has no limit. No matter how greatly the sin may abound, grace does much more abound.

Crucified, Buried, and Risen "With Christ" Romans 6:1-11

1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? 2 God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? 3 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? 4 therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death; that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: 6 knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. 7 For he that is dead is freed from sin. 8 Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him; 9 knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. 10 For in that he died, he died unto sin once; but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. 11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

An Important Question. "Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?" The student will doubtless recall a similar question in the third chapter, verses 5, 7, and the answer in verses 6, 8. It is another form of the question,  "Shall we do evil, that good may come?" The answer must be apparent to all, "Not by any means," for this is really the force of the words improperly rendered, "God forbid."

Although grace superabounds where sin abounds, that is no reason why we should willfully pile up the sin.  That would be most emphatically to receive the grace of God in vain. 2 Cor. 6:1.

2Co 6:1  We then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain. 

The Reason Why. "How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?" It is simply an impossibility, and there is really no question as to whether or not we may do it; for it is certain that if we are dead to sin, we can not live in it at the same time. A man can not at the same time be both dead and alive.

Now the previous chapter has emphasized the fact that we are reconciled to God by the death of Christ, and are saved by his life. Reconciliation to God means being freed from sin; so that being "saved by his life" means that we have "passed from death unto life." The life of sin that was enmity has been ended in the life of Christ.

"Baptized into Jesus Christ." Baptism is the symbol of putting on Christ. "For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ." Gal. 8:27. "For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles." 1 Cor. 12:12, 13.

Where Christ Touches Us. It is in death that we come into contact with Christ. He touches us at the lowest possible point. That is what makes our salvation so sure, and so sure for every one without any exception. Sin and sickness are tributary to death. 

Death is the sum of all the evils possible to man. It is the lowest depth, and it is there that Christ comes in contact with us. We become united to him in death. As the greater includes the lesser, the fact that Christ humbled himself even to death proves that there is no ill possible to us that he does not take upon himself.

Baptized into His Death. "So many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death." And what is it to be baptized into his death? Verse 10 tells us: "For in that he died, he died unto sin once." He died unto sin, not his own, because he had none; but he "bare our sins in his own body on the tree." 1 Pet. 2:24. "He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities." Isa. 53:5. Since in that he died, he died unto sin, it follows that if we are baptized into his death, we also die to sin.

A New Life. "Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more." "If we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him." It was impossible for the grave to hold Christ. Acts 2:24. Therefore, just as surely as we are baptized into the death of Christ, so surely shall we be raised from a life of sin to a life of righteousness in him. "For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection."

To be continued….

Living Water