Work – Counted Faithful

Arm Yourselves “The Mind of Christ”

Back in January, I wrote a blog entitled Arm Yourselves. Last night in church, I saw the piece of paper that I had scribbled notes on about this subject and I realized that I didn’t share them all with you yet. So today, I am going to finish my thoughts on this subject.

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The word ‘arm’ in this phrase means to furnish or equip with weapons, to furnish with something that strengthens or protest, to equip or ready for action or operation, to prepare oneself for struggle or resistance.

“Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin;”

I Peter 4:1

In the previous post of Arm Yourselves I talked about how we need to arm ourselves with the Word of God. Today, I want to talk about arming yourself with the ‘mind of Christ.’

What mindset did Christ have?

If we can figure out the mind that Christ had and arm ourselves with it, we will have a better chance of living a perfect, pleasing life unto God.

Arm yourselves with the mind of a SERVANT. When I think of Christ and His mindset while He was here on earth, I think of a servant. If you follow the life of Christ, He was concerned about helping others, about serving others. “After that he poureth water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded.” John 13:5 One of Jesus’ last acts here on earth was that of a servant, washing the feet of His disciples. Being a servant requires you to be selfless. Being a servant requires you to focus on the needs and well-being of someone else. Too many Christians have a selfish mindset and don’t want to help and serve others. The ministry is serving others. When you are armed with the mindset of a servant, you have a better chance of avoiding sin. Why? Because sin is a selfish act. Find a place to serve, find a person to serve, find a purpose to serve. Arm yourselves with the mind of a servant!

Arm yourselves with the mind of a SOLDIER. You are probably wondering, did Christ have a mind of a soldier? I think he did. A soldier is a fighter, a soldier is someone who stands and fights for a cause. Christ had a cause that He had to stand and fight for while here on earth. He had to get to the cross a sinless man, Satan tried to tempt and derail Jesus from fulfilling His mission. We need to have a mindset of a soldier. We need to have a mindset to stand and fight for what is right. If you look around today, you will see a lot of Christians falling by the wayside, a lot of Christians being defeated by Satan. It is time that we stand and fight against sin and wrong! When you stand and fight against sin, you lessen the likelihood of falling into sin! Arm yourself with the mind of a soldier!

Arm yourselves with the mind of a SOUL WINNER. Probably the greatest mindset that Jesus Christ had is that of a soul winner. “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” Luke 19:10 Christ came to seek and to save the lost! His greatest objective was to see people saved. This mindset takes a combination of the previous two and puts them into action. You have the mindset of a servant when you are concerned with the eternal well-being of someone and you have the mindset of a soldier when you fight back laziness and selfishness and go out and witness. Being a witness for Christ is not easy. It isn’t easy to be a soul winner but each one of us, if we are going to have the mind of Christ, need to be a witness for Him. Arm yourself with the mind of a soul winner.

We will not be able to make it far in the Christian life without the Word of God. We will not be able to put into action what we learn from the Word of God unless we take the mind of Christ.

Be a servant!

Be a soldier!

Be a soul winner!

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Withstand In The Evil Day

“Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.”

Ephesians 6:10-13

It is time for Christians to wake up and realize we are living in an evil day! We are living in a time when God is being thrown out of the courthouse, the schoolhouse, the family’s house and even the church house! We are living in a day when sin is so prevalent it is normal and accepted! We are living in an evil day where righteousness is frowned upon and wickedness is uplifted!

What happened to our will, our desire, our passion to stand and fight! Do you realize that your life and your child’s life is at stake here? Satan is doing everything he can to destroy Christianity and things of Christ, and we are sitting here allowing him to!

It is time we realize that we are in the fight of our lives! It is time that we stand up for what is right! Stand against what is wrong! Stop letting the world and the devil control what we do and say!

A few weeks ago, I wrote about doubling down on our Christianity. About becoming more zealous and fervent for what is right! The worldly crowd is getting louder and louder while we get quieter and quieter. I was thinking about this, are they getting louder because more and more ‘Christians’ are joining them? Just a thought…

I want to take one phrase from the verses above, “…that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day,…” Withstand means to stand up against:oppose with firm determination, to resist successfully; to be proof against: resist the effect of; to stop or obstruct the course of. We need to withstand in the evil day. We need to oppose, we need to resist, we need to stop and obstruct wickedness.

The preparation to withstand. To be able to withstand, we have to be prepared. How do we prepare? By putting on the armour of God. We see that God gives us the armour to put on in the following verses. This armour protects everything we need from head to foot. If we forget even one item, we are at risk of being defeated by Satan. He starts with the girdle of truth, that is why it is important to be honest in everything we say and do! He then goes to the breastplate of righteousness. The piece that covers your heart. We need to have a righteous and clean heart before God. The we are told to cover our feet with the gospel of peace, be a soul winner, be a witness for Christ. Then we are to take the shield of faith, realizing that we are not in this fight alone. Then the helmet of salvation. It doesn’t matter if you know everything about Christianity but don’t know the Christ that saves you. Without salvation, you will never be able to fight Satan like you should. Then we are to ourselves with the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God. It is important to read, study, meditate and memorize the Bible as it is our only weapon of attack. Be prepared everyday to withstand the wiles of the devil, to be able to withstand Satan’s attack!

The performance of withstanding. When should we withstand? Easy, whenever wrong presents itself. We live in such a day when we are worried about who we will offend. Have we thought about how much we are offending God when we give into the world and into the ways of Satan. We have too many Christians sitting on the sidelines watching the fight, we need more Christians to stand up for Christ and get in the fight. The Christian life isn’t no tea party, it is a battle, it is a fight! Let’s not give into the Satan and his wicked ways! Let’s learn to say no! Let’s learn to turn from wickedness! Let’s learn to be bold about our faith and what is right according to the Bible. Whether you are standing alone or with a crowd, as long as you are standing for right, continue to stand!

The progression of withstanding. I was thinking about when would be the time to stop standing, and there is no time to stop standing. When we think we can stand no more, stand. When we think the fight is won, stand. Too often, we quit too soon, we give up, we stop…we have to keep pressing forward and continue fighting! We have to continue to progress in our fight, if we stop, we will regress. It is going to be tough. It is going to be hard, but that is when we need to rely on God to carry us through! We cannot fight the battle against Satan and the wickedness of this world without Christ! We need to progress and go forward in our walk with God, in our service for Christ! We need to withstand no matter what!

Be one who withstands in the evil day! Don’t give in or give up!

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Rightly Dividing Or Wrongly Distorting

In II Timothy, Paul was writing to TImothy who was a young preacher. He is finishing up his second letter to Timothy with a chapter of exhortation, a chapter encouraging Timothy to continue in the faith, to continue serving God.

Paul starts the chapter with telling Timothy to be strong and to endure hardness as a good soldier. He is encouraging Timothy that times will come when it will be hard, but keep on going.

At the end of the chapter, we see Paul telling Timothy to be mature in his walk and in his service. Timothy is told to flee youthful lusts, avoid foolish questions and be willing to be taught.

In the middle though is a verse that is good for every preacher, it is good for every Christian. It is a verse that acquires work to be successful in what it says. It is a verse that also shows that if you don’t follow it, you will be ashamed.

“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”

II Timothy 2:15

Study – state of contemplation, an application of the mental facilities to the acquisition of knowledge.

Approved – to have or express favorable opinion.

Ashamed – feeling shame, guilt, or disgrace; feeling inferior or unworthy.

We see Paul refer to Timothy as workman. We then see the workman’s tool at the end of the verse, the Word of Truth, the Word of God.

We see the exhortation of study! Contemplate, apply you mind to acquire knowledge from the Word of God.

We see the goal of studying, approved unto God. Paul didn’t tell Timothy to study to be approved by man but by God. When we focus on what man thinks, we won’t study and learn the Word like we should.

We see the warning of the lack of studying, ashamed. Why would he be ashamed? Because he would be lacking in knowledge of what God wanted him to learn and to share with others.

What does the phrase ‘rightly dividing’ mean? I looked up the definition of divide and it means to separate into two or more parts, areas, or groups. So why would Paul say to separate the Bible? When studying, you can find exact meanings of words and phrases when you break them down to the most basic level. You can gain a better understanding of words and phrases when you know what every part means and how it applies to the Christian life.

One of the biggest things that a preacher or anyone who use the Bible in anyway is making sure not to take a verse out of context, especially when trying to make the Bible fit their opinion, instead of making their opinion fit the Bible. It is easy to make the Bible fit what you have to say instead of making what you say fit the Bible.

Everything in the Bible is in there on purpose. Nothing is missing, nothing needs to be added. Every word has a purpose. That is why we as Christians should study and study, to make sure our life matches up with the Word of God.

The lack of study mentioned in II Peter 3:16-17 “As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction. Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness.”

There is so much in these two verses! Peter was writing to the beloved, to those who were saved, to the Christians. In these verses, he mentions that there are some things that are hard to understand in the Bible, yet there are those that wrest those hard things and also the other scriptures. Wrest means distort the meaning or interpretation of (something) to suit one’s own interests or views. People wrest or distort the Scriptures, whether the easy things or the hard things, to fit their own views.

As I was reading these verses, I could see why and how someone could distort the hard things of the Scriptures, especially those who didn’t study the Word and those that were unstable in the Christian life already. But then he mentions they wrest the other scriptures also, the easy things to understand. When they do this, they do it to their own destruction. You can only distort the Bible so much into your way and view before it catches up to you.

The next thing in these verses is Peter telling the Christians to be careful of these people that distort the Scriptures. These people will try to make you agree with them and see their way and views of the Bible. The Bible calls these people wicked as they lead people away from the truth of God. He ends the verse with the warning that you can fall from your steadfastness of holding the Scriptures. Many great Christians, with strong standards and beliefs have fallen because of the distorted view of someone they let influence them.

In churches today, we have many people taking the Bible and fitting it to their lifestyles instead of fitting their lifestyle to the Bible. Our opinions, our thoughts, our preferences should match the Word of God. If the Bible says it is wrong, it is wrong. If the Bible says it is right, it is right. There is no gray area with God.

You have to choose that whenever you use the Bible in anyway, whether through preaching, talking to someone else, writing a blog like this, or using it anywhere; you have to decide whether you want to rightly divide or wrongly distort what it says. The difference between the two is one is what God says and the other is what man thinks.

If I ever say or post anything that uses Scripture, I do my dead level best to make sure I rightly divide the Word of Truth and keep my opinion out of it. I do not want to wrongly distort, use the Scripture wrong and led someone to destruction.

I try to make it a habit that whenever I use Scripture in any posts and even in conversation with friends, to quote what it says verbatim from the Bible so that I do not put my own words in.

I can get into the subject of how every single word in the Bible is there for a purpose and just by using a different word can change the whole meaning of the verse or the chapter. Taking out a word or adding a word can distort the meaning of what God actually wanted us to know. Be careful that when using any Scripture, you are quoting and using it the way God intended it to be used, when you don’t you are wrongly distorting and could cause others to fall.

My standards, my beliefs, my convictions are all based off my own personal study of the Word of God. I decided long ago what I believe and I am still growing and learning and studying as I want my life to be pleasing unto God. When it comes to certain areas of life, I have no opinion on the matter, I have the Word of God.

Decide today that you will study the Word and rightly divide the truth to live a life approved unto God.

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It is my dream one day to be creating content full-time, inspiring and motivating people to be faithful through different streams of media.

Please consider making a donation through PayPal.

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We appreciate your support!