The armor of God is not something you wear.

We tend to think of the armor of God as something you put on, external pieces of battle gear that you wear on the outside to protect the life inside:

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. ¹⁴ Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, ¹⁵ and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. ¹⁶ In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷ Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

In this passage, even the words "put on," take up," and "take" could imply protecting yourself with something you lack or don't yet have, and therefore must "put on."

But what if the armor and its protection extends from the inside - out, rather than outside - in?  Wouldn't that make sense, given the reality of our new and noble heart?

So what does that look like?

1. You already have the Truth moving within you, having permanently given his heart and mind  to you.


2. You've already been transfigured into the righteous radiance of Christ's own goodness.


3. You're already poised to bring the restoring shalom ["peace"] of Christ to others around you.


4. Jesus has already given you the settled and faithful confidence he has in the Father.


5. You've been rescued and renewed by the saving life of God.


6. The mind and heart of Christ, voicing his affection for you and counseling your heart, dwells within you richly.

 We can certainly "put on" or practice or rehearse the armor of God, remembering what we've already been given.  But the armor is an internal powerhouse:  The power and protection move from the inside - out.

Are our spiritual values cultural or scriptural?

Some of what we may think are biblically-informed perspectives of ours may in fact be more culturally-formed than biblical.  This happens to everyone: whether you're comfortable in the organized church or not; whether you're a staunch defender of doctrine, or part of the grace movement.  It happens to each of us.

• For example, if you were born before WWII and think it's your duty to serve Christ -- because after all,  he's forgiven you and you owe him your sacrifice -- then your convictions may have more to do with you being part of the "Builder" generation where duty and sacrifice were values.  You may have a difficult time understanding the radical nature of grace.

• On the other end of the spectrum, if you believe Jesus allows multiple ways to God and that his grace allows for a variety of paths, this may have more to do with postmodernity's infiltration into your consciousness  -- particularly the decades of the freethinking 60's and 70's. Within the church in recent decades, there has been a resurgence of unconstrained and unfettered thought, in part arising out of post-modern ideas of 'freedom':  "Don't you dare tell me how to think, or what conclusions I should draw.  Jesus permits 'all things' now."
  

This shaping happens to everyone.  Me?  I'm a 'Tweener' born in the gap between the Baby Boomers and the Busters.  I don't belong anywhere - yet inherit values from both.

Now, I'm way oversimplifying the complexities here.  There are more factors that influence our thoughts -- for example, our experiences and our wounds will color our thoughts about God.  On the other hand, some of our convictions are clearly revealed to us by God and are true to his self-revelation.  

But...it ought to at least move us to identity our assumptions and their sources.  After all, we are interested in what is real and true, aren't we?

Emotions -- friend or foe? You may be surprised.

Emotions can't be trusted.

Strong emotions will lead you into sin.

Believing the right things is more important than feelings.

Just do your duty, whether you feel something or not.

Love is a 'verb.'

Reason and the intellect are more trustworthy than the heart.

What do you think of these typical typical responses to emotions and their place in the Christian life? Are these statements true? 

I've discovered a book called, Feel -- the power of listening to your heart, by Matthew Elliott.  His claim is that much of what the Christian community has taught about emotions, is in fact, not biblical.  The Church has bought into secular psychology and philosophy rather than a biblical position on the place of emotion in our lives.  It's actually a bit surprising.

The author claims,
I realized this idea [the suspicion and villification of emotion] was the prevailing Christian view of emotions - and this "Christian" view was essentially platonic [from Plato], a secular perspective in line with the view of Descartes, [William ]James, and - if you can believe it - none other than Charles Darwin."  p.20

What have you been told about emotions and their place in the Christian life?

I'll be following up this conversation on emotions in upcoming posts.

Heart ...and mind.

C.S. Lewis said:

"God is no fonder of intellectual slackers than of any other slackers. If you are thinking of becoming a Christian, I warn you you are embarking on something which is going to take the whole of you, brains and all ..."

Christianity is clearly about the heart -- the deepest you, the spirit, the command center of human personality. Contemporary Christianity has badly missed this. However, I've seen a disturbing trend. Those of us who talk about the heart can neglect the place of the mind in apprenticeship to Jesus -- or even forget that, "You can been given the mind of Christ."

Heart and mind work together.  Both come under the transforming renewal of Christ's work for us.

We must not vilify the Christian mind, particularly because it, too, has come under the restoring work of Christ.

 Have you noticed this as well?  Do you agree?