The Full Armor of God and the Phalanx

This latest posting is brought to you by King Leonidas. King Leonidas, leading 300 of Sparta's finest into battle with Xerxes and his minions so Greece may remain free . . . until it spends itself into eternal debt slavery. And so Gerald Butler can have a Bad-A$$ movie about it.

If you are unfamiliar with the movie “300”, you are unqualified to read this blog or be my friend. Go watch it now. Seriously. I mean it.

Watch the movie or I'll kick you down this conveniently-placed bottomless pit!

Now that you've seen it (and hopefully remembered to return here) let me use it as my analogy to my latest series of thoughts / rantings.

In Paul's letter to the Ephesians (Chapter 6 verses 10 – 18) Paul writes about wearing the “full armor of God”. He speaks of the Belt of Truth; the breastplate of righteousness; the readiness to be fitted onto your feet; the shield of faith; the helmet of salvation and, finally, the sword of the spirit.

In light of this; here are some thoughts that I have had recently:
The spiritual battle has been waging for a VERY long time. We have only now joined it. Some of us have been in the struggle our whole lives. Others have been “asleep” and have only recently joined in the cause and still others are still asleep; blindly coasting through their comfortably numb lifestyle.

For us (the ones that have always been awake and the recently awakened), we joined a battle that is in-progress. Should one wake up to a battle, there is always panic. Here is my fear: That far too many people wake up, see the onslaught and will only pick up the sword of the spirit and nothing else. For if one wakes up to a battle, would one take the time to strap on articles of clothing / armor? Or would one simply grab a weapon and fight? This is a mistake.

To take the analogy further: What we (as Christians) need are the Full Armor of God; The boot-camp for training in a safe and stable environment (loving home / family / Church - hopefully all three); and a proper phalanx. What is a phalanx? It is a military term for a formation of soldiers. Here is where watching 300 would help, but I will let King Leonidas explain it.

There are those Christians that try to go it alone. Except no man is an island unto himself and Jesus himself had the Disciples go two-by-two when they split up.

SPLITTER!!

I think the phalanx should be reviewed in that we need to stay in formation. Or in other words, we need to be on the same page with each other! If one of us falls, there is now a gap in our ranks. If one of us goes off course, we have a gap in our ranks. We need to keep aligned. We need to remember what was spoken in Paul's letter to the Romans (Chapters 14 and 15).

Saved

When you think of something as “saved”, what do you think of? On a computer, documents and programs are saved to the computer. They are stored in files. When someone saves the files, they are saving them TO a specific file or folder. No one thinks of saving something FROM the trash. The same works for food (unless you're on an airplane and have slept through the food distribution. In that case, the stewardess may or may not attempt to throw away your food as though it were trash). This is how being “saved” should be thought of in the spiritual sense. We shouldn't think of being saved means to avoid going to Hell. It should be thought of as being able to spend eternity with the Lord who created the heavens and the earth. How many people go to Church because they are afraid of Hell? How many actions and activities do people partake in because they are afraid of punishment? Do you get  car  i nsurance so as to avoid getting ticketed for not having insurance? Or do you get car insurance to pay for damages in the event of a crash? This isn't meant to be accusatory, but I have to wonder about people. The joy that would come with being with the Father is all I need to hear. I need not be afraid of what would come. For I have confessed with my mouth that Jesus is Lord. I am not doing this for “fire insurance” or any sort of “feel-good” sensation that many people seek out. Some Churches have that “cheer-leader” look and feel to them. That's not to say they have gone against Jesus; more along the lines of losing some of the “meat” of the Gospel. We are told on many occasions by Jesus (and later Paul) that there will be troubles. There will be difficulties. That we may be persecuted, ridiculed and arrested for preaching the word. We shouldn't fear preaching the Truth if we believe we are saved. Now, when I say that I believe what I believe not through wanting the aforementioned “fire insurance", I mean to say that I truly believe and attempt to convert that belief into action. I do not sit through services, soak up what is preached, then go home to feel good and forget. I implement what I learn into my life. I bring up parts of the Gospel in everyday conversations. I take what I learn to shape how I make decisions throughout the day and week. Sometimes when I find something in the Bible that challenges what I have already established as a habit, I take to changing that habit. Other times, when said habit is a little bit more entrenched, I take to prayer and fasting to do what I believe God is asking of me. Admittedly, sometimes this is harder than other times. Taking this a step further; I would combine the two greatest commandments that Jesus gave us and the Great Commission to spread the Word. That is to say, I believe I am to spread the Word, to be all things to all people (easier said than done), and to speak the Truth in Love. This is what it means to be Saved. What do you think? Do you agree, disagree? Thoughts, questions, concerns? Objections?