Dear DieHard, I hope you will be patient with me and read my whole post, though it is a long one. I do love you and so I took extra time with this for your sake!
Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.
In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.
I'm so glad you brought up Ephesians 6:10-18! We are to be strong in the Lord and in His Mighty Power! Amen!
As I understand it, the Belt of Truth was the most important item of armor - you will note it is listed first! - for every other piece was attached to this one, and without it none of the other armor could be worn. As I've also heard, the men of that day, much like Scotsmen, wore a skirt-like item instead of pants, and the belt was absolutely necessary so that he could tuck the fabric in and run, not being "tripped up" - even in our own day there is a darn good reason why men wear belts (;
Also, it is important to note what the offensive weapons of our warfare are, namely, Prayer and The Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God, and the Word of God is the Truth! Without the Word of God the Christian Soldier has no Sword, or failing to have the whole Word of God the Soldier has an embarrassingly broken blade.
If you attempt to "fight the devil" with the devil's own weapons, you will lose every time, for that evil one is the master of evil and the father of lies and all liars. Satan is a fallen angel, an eternally conquered foe, but he is an angel nonetheless, and given reign in this time as prince of "the rulers, the authorities, the powers of this dark world and the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms (6:12)." All who fight with his powers - whether they know it or not - are serving him.
Jude speaks of these things:
And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day; as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.God the Father of Truth is very patient with us, not wanting any to perish, but all to come repentance (2 Peter 3:9). As Oswald Chambers phrases it,Likewise also these dreamers defile the flesh, reject authority, and speak evil of dignitaries. Yet Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil, when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!” But these speak evil of whatever they do not know; and whatever they know naturally, like brute beasts, in these things they corrupt themselves.
God never forces a person’s will into surrender,
and He never begs.
He patiently waits until that person willingly yields to Him...
...The surrender here is of my self to Jesus
Gidday .30Carbine
Back from Honolulu now, sorry for not responding sooner. You write:
> Dear DieHard, I hope you will be patient with me and read my whole post, though it is a long one. I do love you and so I took extra time with this for your sake!
What you say is true and right: I guess I am triggering off on Oswald's use of the word "Surrender". Christ does not require surrender from us: we are volunteers, not POWs.
This is in keeping with Divine Intent: God wants His creation to worship Him of our own Free Will: that is why He made us free will agents, rather than robots and automatons. That is why He gave Adam and Eve the power to choose His way or the other way.
As with Adam, so with us: He wants us to voluntarily choose His way. Surrender plays no part in this choice: He isn't going to beat compliance out of us until we capitulate.
Allah, on the other hand, is quite content with surrender. If you aren't stupid enough to mindlessly follow Allah's Militant Muslim drivel, then it is perfectly OK to surrender and Obey. If you do neither, then off with your head!
Surrender, my arse! I will *never* follow anybody who requires my surrender as a pre-requisite to service. Such a "leader" would not be worthy of the burden of Leadership, and certainly not worthy of leading Christian Soldiers.
Fortunately, Christ does not require Surrender from us. In the finest tradition of all good Leaders, Christ says "Follow Me!" impying Leadership "from the front". He's going first, we follow in support.
Christ does *not* say "Stick 'em up!" -- as He would do if He required us to surrender.
Christ wants His Lads to be like Jehu, son of Nimshi. And He calls us: "Who is on my side? who?" (2 Kings 9:32)