Do Your Devotions with Suncoast Youth Group: TUESDAY, April 29th, 2008

TUESDAY, April 29th, 2008

Hey everyone! Great Job yesterday! Tomorrow night is going to be lots of fun. Bring your Bible and Bring a firend. Think about it: if everyone who came last week brought just one friend then we would have over 60 teenagers in there! WOW~! Lets Do It!

A Few Thoughts From Yesterday:
Jon and Jessica: Good joke, although I didnt get it at first... (Considering your resource) They used some lame joke book on my shelf that had a thousand jokes in it (not too many of which were funny)
Cary: Ummm... you are crazy! Do you realize that you said that your authority "just needs to back hand you somtimes" whenever you get an attitude... Dont let your mom see that, you just gave her permission to back hand you. :)
Kacey: Dont worry, I didnt get the joke either.
Jeff: You are funny man, one minute you are slamming someone for the "lame joke" and the next minute you are like... "we should respect other people and treat them like Christ would" Ha! LOL Glad you got on today!
PDawg: Hello there, we are glad that you are on here... what does "incessant ramblings" mean? :) Just kidding.

Ephesians 6:10-20
10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.
11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
14 Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness,
15 and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
16 above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.
17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God;
18 praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints—
19 and for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel,
20 for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.

Once again! There is so much in this passage, there have been entire books written on this passage so feel free to write your own. :) When I read this passage It helps me grasp the fact that we are in a spiritual battle. A REAL, Give it all you got, fight to the death, battle! We are living day to day and we are either fighting and winning, or losing this battle. Did you win this battle today? Well, the truth is, winning is not based on what we do to make "our team" win. Winning is simple based on if we CHOOSE to get on the winning team. That team is Gods team. If you choose to go into battle on Gods team, here are the requirements for battle. You must wear truth and righteousness (that means you must know it and live it). You must have the gospel (Gods glan of saving the world) on your feet. (that means always have it on your mind every where you go) In this battle your shield will be your faith, and your helmet is Salvation, the coolest part though is your sword. What is the Sword? (just take the "s" off) it is the word. That is your weapon in this battle. And finally Dont forget to pray diligently as you enter this battle.

Everyday teenagers, your battlefield is School and when you go to school without these things, it is like entering the battlefield without any armor and without and weapon. Be ready for this battle you face. It will begin again tomorrow morning as you walk out the door of your house.

And remember, our enemy is not the people we face, (that is why God tells us to have on our mind at all times His gospel) our enemy is Satan and we will only win with Christ on our side.

I feel like William Wallace in the movie Braveheart, as he encouraged and prepared his men for battle. :P

18 comments:

FoOtBaLl XtReMiSt (cary) said...: ALRIGHT!!! FIRST ONE!! (lol and its already 4:30 in the afternoon :<) this passage is saying that we need to put on the WHOLE armor of God! Not just the belt, not just the helmet, the WHOLE armor of God. like P lizzle said... we are in an every-day battle... and the bible says that life is like a vapor (woosh.................:] hehe) one second its there and the next... GONE... this passage encourages people to put on everything because this is a REAL war and you need to be equpipped with everything you need to fight back.... teehee :]; April 29, 2008 at 4:24 PM
FoOtBaLl XtReMiSt (cary) said...: and pastor lee... by the way IM A MAN!!!! IM 40!!! (hehe remember that on ESPN??) i thought it was hilarious; April 29, 2008 at 4:25 PM
Kacey! said...: Pastor Lee, I will get you a jet ski with a truck! What color?

These verses are saying that we need to protect ourselfs against Satan with the armor of God: the belt of truth, breastplate of righteousness, sandals of peace, shield of faith, helmet of salvation, and sword of the spirit God's word. We can't fight Satan with guns and weapons. We have to prepare ourselves spiritually, and fight him with the armor of God. We need to have the full armor of God. We need to use all of them to fight and win!; April 29, 2008 at 5:23 PM
Jillian said...: hi well im over at sarahs house and were doing this together =] and then shes gonna make her own account so here we go

Sarah:
thats so true we are living a battle everywhere we go not just at school cause even though im out of school i still get challenged from satan alot and the only way 2 get rid of all that is 2 just put God first and put all the armor on and you can defeat not only satan but everything you face everyday.

Jillian:
well this passage is saying that we need to be prepaired to fight the spiratual battle everyday and to win it doesnt mean to cary your bible to school it mean that you need to know what its says and to memorize verses so when ever you come to a situation and you are struggling you can just be like oh yea i know a verse that can help with this and it makes everything better so you dont fall into satans temptations =]; April 29, 2008 at 5:57 PM
Sarah Watkins said...: ok now this is my account =]; April 29, 2008 at 6:02 PM
weird high school kid said...: Alright its time someone finally beat Kacey in her record for years longest devotion so well hear i go.

Wow this passage reminds me of so much like many things pastor lee has preached on and especially Phil when he preaches to the church. So god wants us to be strong so we can do good things for him instead of being torn down by satan, demons, or the stupid idiots here on earth. So in order for us to have this strength god wants us to have we must put on the armor of god. Now obviously god doesn't mean hey here's this armor so go put it on and start killing this guy and this guy and so on and so on. God is using the word armor as something that will prevent you from being ignorant when some fool comes at you with a strawman argument about the bible. So first we have the GIRDLE OF TRUTH!!! which is so that you wont believe the stupid lies that some people say of the bible. For example i know a guy that said "Hey you know how the bible says that god will protect his chosen people, well while my pastor was at a confrence when he woke up in the morning his teeth were gold. It was a gift from god cause when the nazis pulled out all the golden teeth the jews had." First of all this person is insane. Second i was talking to him and his pastor isn't even jewish. And third he goes to a church where they speak in tounges, claim that they are so full with the spirit that they faint, and he believes that pastor chip is satanic??? Alright i don't know about you but i beileve that if you are slaming the devil and working against him that you are in the lords army. Alright enough of that so next we have the BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. So this is a pretty cool one since think where are all your vital organs. Obviously your chest otherwise, for you that don't know, your breast. Notice how Publix sells chicken breasts not chicken chests. Anyways righteousness acting in an upright and moral way. If we live a life of nothing but sin then what good are we as christians. God wants us to live in a righteous manner so that we aren't dead christians. I think thats why righteousness is portrayed as the breastplate since without it someone can just come up and stab out your heart or puncture a lung. So the next piece of armor is the SHOD OF PREPERATION OF THE GOSPEL OF PEACE. Whew that was a long title so obviously we need to be prepared with the gospel of peace. Now how are we supposed to use this you might ask well here's how. Lets say some big tough guy from school comes up to you and says "Yo your god is bleepedy bleep bleep and is so bleeping bleep that i just want to bleep him up, satan is my main man." Well being a normal fleshly human being you would propably get angry and either start yelling and cursing at him or beat the living daylights out of him. Well if you have the SHOD OF PREPERATION OF THE GOSPEL OF PEACE you wouldn't yell at him or beat him up. You would most likely respond in a calm and peacefull manner, and simply state, in a nicer way I'm about to put it, that he is stupid for thinking that way and that although satan may bring happiness for a season god will give you eternal happiness and peace. Kinda like one old stale moldy brownie that has been sitting outside for three weeks on your front lawn(sin) or a lifetime supply of warm freshly baked double chocolatechip brownies with frosting and a tall glass of nice cold milk(gods promise of eternal happiness). Now we get to what i belive are the more serious pieces of armor god has given us. So we have the SHIELD OF FAITH. Now in the passage we read how we are to use it against fiery darts. So earlier i was talking about the ignorant fools right, well this shield is more for those people that are serious about deystroying christianity. with a strong shield of faith our faith in god shall not be faltered when we hear somethings that might seem as though its whats right. So with only two more pieces of armor left I'll talk about the HELMET OF SALVATION first. Pastor lee always says that our heart(morals) or soul(spirit) is in our mind or brain. now a helmet would protect these things and ensure their safety. just like how the bible ensures us how once we are saved no matter we do we are going to heaven wether we like it or not, which hopefully you do. John 10:28 says and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. with this verse god shows us that there is nothing we can do to lose our salvation. So finally we come to the last piece of armor which to me is more like a weapon the SWORD OF THE SPIRIT. God doesn't want us just sitting on our butts doing nothing for him. Nor does he want us to just wait for oppurtunities to come to us. The reason why god has given us a sword is so that we can take the initiative and go on the offensive. something as simple as a pastor or a misionary would be a great example. Now god doesn't expect us all to be pastors or whatnot, but that maybe go out and talk to a co-worker or be like chris neil and be a witness at blockbuster when you go out to rent a movie. Remember we are at war with the whole world and we need to capture the enemy and bring them to our side. we all need to go out and as randy houge would say GO TELL!!!

I hope i finally beat kacey at her book for a devotion skills. Hey kacey keep up with the good work with your killer devos.; April 29, 2008 at 6:38 PM
Amy said...: We should put on the armor of God every single day to protect us from sin and temptation. We have to stand for Christ and not be ashamed. I am on God's team and I will never go to the dark side. "The sword of the Spirit which is the word of God" - that is my favorite piece of this section in the Bible. The sword: my protection, my armor, my sheild, my weopon in a battle. These are the things that the Bible is definetly! I rely totally on the Bible and trust it God completely. My battlefield is getting tempted at school to do wrong( cheat, steal etc.)and I need to use the (S)Word of God in that battlefield with love and wisdom toward my friends and classmates everyday.; April 29, 2008 at 8:10 PM
Jessica M said...: The full armor of God.... this is our uniform for our fight in the battle of this war. Maybe you seem to be an emotional hero and what I mean by that is you might be the one who can handle a lot of pressure or maybe that you can work long hours day after day (like my sister) but it all comes down to if your battle against the world and your "Christian life" is up to par.
I know that the most important thing in my life is my strength in the Lord. The devotions are something that is going to help me to make that all stronger than it is now. Just like a soldier preparing for war needs to train before he enters, we as Christians need to train so that we know how to defend ourselves and God's will for our lives when we step at in the battlefield known as the world.
As Pastor Lee talked about, our real battle is Satan. He is the enemy and has great control over how we think and our actions. In places such as the workplace, school, daily activities and such the work of Satan can easily come out because we live in such a sinful world. But if we put on the full armor of God, than those temptations we will be able to deflect. Satan is the one who opposes you. It is he who seeks to destroy your bodies and souls into eternal blackness. However the blood of Christ has guaranteed our deliverance from that awful end. Just walking through the doors of school can be a battle. I grew up in a private Christian school but now I go to public but before than people would say o there is nothing bad there they are all perfect they have no temptations, but I found that there were more temptations and greater sins in the private school than in the public schools.
I have been in a REAL spiritual battle before and it is not fun but because my parents knew that God had a plan for our lives and they just followed Christ, He took care of us like He has always promised He would and will always do for my family and I.

Be at church tomorrow!!!! I’m going to be there so you defiantly want to come! Hahaha; April 29, 2008 at 8:19 PM
Anonymous said...: "Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil".
Meaning the armor is your salvation and you need it to withstand satan and his wickedness.
Be Strong in the Lord and dont let anyone bring you down. Wow Im Deep.lol
Jonathan Massey; April 29, 2008 at 8:31 PM
Tylermon33 said...: what i got out of this was to put on the whole armor of God so you can go against the devil. you need everything that the Bible says like the breastplate of righteousness because you need to be righteous before you go into battle with the devil. also the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, girded your waist with truth, your feet shod with the preperation of the gospel of peace, and lastly the sword of the spirit. you need faith, salvation, truth, peace, righteousness and the spirit which is God and the Bible before you go into battle with the devil. you need all the armor not just some of it but ALL of it if you plan on beating the devil and you can't do it by yourself you need God to help you.; April 29, 2008 at 9:15 PM
McCue said...: Holy dude this is inspiration passage madness. This passage is the fundamental tool to help us through all of life I think. These are general analogical principles that we can use to battle evil within , the world and within ourselves every single day.
I think above all else this passage tells me that if you rely on Christ for your strength and defense then you become a physiological, mental, and spiritual behemoth. Nothing can stop you if you wear the whole armor for God.; April 29, 2008 at 9:37 PM
HADOKEN!!! said...: I love the symbolism in this passage. It tells us that God is an armor that protects us from evil during our daily lives. It says that He is a helm of salvation. This passage just makes me pumed to be a warrior for Christ.; April 29, 2008 at 10:25 PM
Rachel☺; said...: i dont have enough smart things to say to write a book like some of the rest of you did, but ill write a,,pamphlet i guess. and woww; the chicken chest thing. lol. it took me forever to read all you guys' devotions! they were good though :]
okay, well, i dont know if its just coincidence or what but i hear a lot about the end days coming really soon, which is the big battle that you need to be spiritually equipped for. It says in the bible how completely mad the world is going to be and by then we should really have our armor on and get it together cause all the things that seem insane now are going to be happening all at the same time then! D: verse twelve kind of sets off the whole point of the passage. the real battle and the whole reason we need to be so protected. satan is following us around waiting for us to let our guard down! like that one verse where hes a hungry lion [or something like that] seeking to devour us. well, it was kinda like that but a lot more sophisticated; ive got bad memory with that stuff. towards the end of the passage it also talks about how we can use our armor to speak to others about the Lord and i guess you could say if you were cheesey like me; warn them theyre under attack. if life is the battle, we can think of armor like our clothes. i dont know about you but i wear clothes everywhere i go; so when we get dressed in the morning, we should think about how much more we can be putting on to win the daym and honor God.; April 29, 2008 at 11:55 PM
Rachel☺; said...: im glad i was pretty much the last of the day cause my devotion is mad embarassing, i feel so dumb sometimes lol; April 29, 2008 at 11:58 PM
Anonymous said...: we needto make the bible our sheild and a helmet as the bible says when god confronts the sinners at a battle all his believers will be behind him in battle

joshua sandefur; April 30, 2008 at 10:20 AM
Aznricerunr[PN] said...: um that sardine game was really fun and gareth said that he wants to play it.

This is saying that with god you can do everything with the help from him and the faith that no evil can harm us. We need to tak the helmet of god and show people how to walk with the lord and be a real christian. we should also be pround of our lord and tell everyone about him show them his ways.; April 30, 2008 at 8:13 PM
Daemis WolfBorn said...: This is probably my favorite couple of versus in the whole bible. Put on he armor of God so that we don't fall in the wickedness of the devil or sin. We have to be warriors and tell other people about the holy word of God and save others.

:-D; April 30, 2008 at 9:23 PM
Anonymous said...: Wow! This is AMAZING!!! I actually understood all of it! I totally understand about putting on God's armor (being the truth & faith in him) I agree COMPLETLY w/Cary! You can't just put on 1 piece of armor & just expect it to preotect you. You need it ALL!

I myself am currently struggling w/some of my own issues & this passage TOTALLY make me wanna jump in there & fight w/my EVERYTHING! Not just w/the belt, or just the helmet; May 1, 2008 at 7:41 AM

TUESDAY, April 29th, 2008

18 comments:

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