Devotion
Put On the Armor of God
Frances Taylor
St. Paul warns us that there will be evils to fight in the day to day of our lives, and so tells us to put on the armor of God. We're in a battle even if we don't know it. Satan has been doing battle for the souls of men and women from the beginning, starting in Eden and won't end until the end of time. We aren't much better at recognizing him now than Adam and Eve. How do we protect and defend ourselves? Paul, gives us the answer but we don't always listen to him. We get up in the morning and prepare for our day: washing, eating, dressing, etc. but what about praying. Do we ask God each day to bless us in our comings and goings, to bless our work and our play, to be with us each moment of the day? This is putting on the armor of Christ. Asking Jesus to walk with us! I fail in this many times as well. Usually I remember to say thanks for another day, and I ask God to protect my loved ones, but I don't always remember to ask God to be with me. This is the final week before Holy Week, and Satan will be working overtime to lead us away from our Redeemer. Let us be ever vigilant.
Prayer
Lord, it is so easy to go on our way, forgetting that Satan is active in our lives as well as in our world. Make us ever more aware of your presence during these days. Amen.
See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven:
Inspiration
To reject the truths taught in God's Word, spoken by his prophets and apostles and by Jesus Christ his Son, is a grave offense. In the days when Hebrews was written, there were still true prophets in the Church, speaking from God. Today, we have his written Word as our "prophet. " If a preacher preaches truly according to the Book, we are in a grave sin if we reject it.
Prayer
Help me, O Lord, to discern when your Word is being taught correctly and when it is not. Teach me to embrace your truths and love them. Help me to walk in them and meditate on them. Let me not sin in rejecting the plain teachings of the Bible. Amen.
Night Prayer
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.
Inspiration
Sin rules our lives until we accept Christ as our personal Lord and Savior. When we invite Him into our lives, our old sinful heart dies, and God creates within us a new one, where sin no longer rules our life; God does! Our thoughts and actions begin to change because we no longer desire a sinful lifestyle. We joyfully devote our lives to serving Him and inviting others to understand His promise of salvation.
Prayer
Dear Lord, we are sinners born again and recreated to live according to Your will. We are grateful for Your love and the peace we experience by abolishing our old sinful self. In Jesus' Name, Amen.
Devotion
Satan Has Been Defeated
Frances Taylor
Salvation and power have come with Christ and Satan has been defeated. Sin and death have been conquered by the actions of one man, Jesus the Christ, the Son of God, both human and divine who came into the world to bring the Good News of salvation by living, dying and rising for us. As Christians we claim to believe this but our actions sometimes deny it. Unfortunately, people seem to resurrect Satan all the time. We allow him to lead us away from God, forgetting the way to the Father that is love, and giving in to Satan's path of hatred, anger, pride, lust, chaos and destruction.
Satan, of course, doesn't present these as bad things, he makes them seem attractive. He presents sin as goods to be desired, as things to make us happy or give us pleasure. It can be hard to stay on the path that leads to God when the world seems to be crowding us and pushing us off of it. How easy it is to forget the sacrifice that bought our freedom! Which of us ...
