Armor of God

The armor of God is necessary in our lives more than ever! I don't know about you, but here lately, I feel as if I have been tried and tested in my commitment to my Lord.

I have had "friends" try to lead me and my family down a path of sin. They have tried to corrupt us from the inside. And it's about time it stopped.

Without giving too many details to keep this family friendly, we had a wake up call last night that I'm sure was from the Lord. Why, you ask? Because it finally hit us between the eyes! We want no part of these people! We felt that by trying to be nice and sweet to them, we could possibly win them to the Lord. In this case, they were testing our commitment to our Lord. And that's not going to happen. Not in this house.

I want to say this as a warning to other families out there. Satan is out to attack your families anyway he can! Be on guard. Watch. And be ever vigilant. Becase just as soon as you turn around, your family could be gone and you are left sitting there with no idea what happened. Watch!

Ephesians 6:10-18

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. 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 firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints,

Facebook Fast Followup

I wrote over a week ago now about how I felt led by the Lord to take a week long fast from Facebook. It has been a week, and I have not logged in once!

In this week, I have noticed that not logging on has increased my time with my son greatly. It also has removed some influences from my life and my home that could have been negative. What I mean by that is this; when you look at other people's lives via their pictures, profiles, etc. you have a sense of "Why don't I have that?"

Maybe you have a friend who is not living as they should with the Lord ( I have one like this ). You will look at their pictures, and stirrings can start in your heart.

You could go out and do that.

Look at all the nice stuff she has because she works and you don't.

Wow. Wouldn't it be nice if you had a bigger income so you could go out to dinner all the time as well?

By saying this, I am becoming very transparent before you. These thoughts are not to diminish my husband in the least. He is an excellent provider and husband. What I am saying is if we don't keep our hearts in check, the devil can enter in quickly and sow seeds of discontentment. Once those seeds are sown, it's very hard to rip them out.

This morning I logged in since it has been a week, and my fast was over. I looked, checked my messages, and quickly logged out. I felt just those few minutes on there were a big time waster. I then prayed and asked the Lord to show me if keeping this was something I should do. I felt such a burden in my heart. Then a thought crossed my mind.

Chelsea, I thought you would use the extra time you had to come and sit and visit with me. Why didn't you do that?



What excuse could I give the Lord for not doing that? Nothing!

I then thought of giving the Lord another week of fasting from this, and focusing all the extra time on Him.

A peace flooded my soul.

So, I'm on another week of fasting. Only this time, the extra time will be focused on my walk with the Lord.

I do hope these posts are helping in some way. I pray we all focus more on our walk with the Lord, and less time on ourselves and our fleshly desires.

Deuteronomy 5:33a: Ye shall walk in all the ways which the LORD your God hath commanded you, that ye may live, and that it may be well with you

Just because everyone else is doing it.... Part 2

Today I will be finishing up my post from yesterday on Halloween....

When I mentioned yesterday that I would be speaking about Fall Festivals, I did not mean them in the sense of those hay ride and pumpkin patch style parties. What I mean was more of the "Halloween alternative" parties that are so popular at churches nowadays. Mine and my husband's views on those are also ones of separation.

I do believe that those parties are great ways to reach the lost, and to give other children who would in fact be out trick or treating, or at Halloween parties with their friends. It is a wonderful outreach tool. However, I don't want my children to attend these. Why do you ask?

First off, we again do not want our children to have to see the evil costumes and masks that come to these parties. Like I said before, you will have a lot of lost and worldly people at these festivals. Therefore, you will see a lot of scary and evil costumes. I don't want those images in my children's young mind, nor do I want them to have to be fearful all night while we try to minister. 

Secondly, I feel to a child, this could seem as if mommy and daddy are still in a way "celebrating" this holiday. In our home, we choose to ignore Halloween completely.

Last year, while I was expecting our little boy, me and my husband came up with our own alternative. While the world was out trick or treating, we would be inside ( with the blinds down and the door shut to block out the images of people walking down the street ) decorating for the Christmas holiday. Christmas is huge in our house as we love to celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior. I put up my Fall decorations around the 1st of September, so by the end of October, we are ready for our Christmas decorations to come out. We warm up some hot chocolate, and get out the lights, etc. Then we spend a few hours getting the house ready. While everyone else is outside celebrating an evil holiday, we are inside beginning to celebrate the season of Christ's birth. And we wouldn't have it any other way.

Now, to quickly touch on the Halloween alternative parties at church's. Like I said before, I do believe they are great outreach tools. I also believe that there are plenty of single, unmarried people in church's to work these festivals. I also believe there are newlywed couples without children, and older couples who would also be available to work these. While our children are young, we want to keep them out of this kind of outreach. When they are older ( adults ), we will then let them make the choice to do these forms of outreach if they feel the Lord leading them to do such. 

This is not hypocritical on our part at all, we feel. For instance: My husband could be doing a prison ministry every Saturday morning. We would not want our children to go into that sort of environment. However, when our sons are older teens and adults, my husband could then take them with him to minister. There is a time a place for everything depending on age and spiritual maturity. 

Ecclesiastes 3:1- To every [thing there is] a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

My honest prayer is that every family takes a good long look at their own homes and family life, and can see what they can replace this holiday with. 

Another good resource I have found on this topic is a Dad's and Mom's Corner from the Maxwell family. You can find that here. You can also subscribe to receive their Dad's and Mom's Corner's every month via e-mail. They are a wonderful resource, and I encourage you to do so. 

Just because everyone else is doing it....

"But Mom, ALL of my friends are dressing up! "

How many moms and dads will be confronted with this line come Sunday night? Yes, that's right, it's Halloween again. As if anyone who ever leaves their house could not have known considering all of the things stores have bombarding you right at the front door. Candy, costumes, decorations: You name it, they have it.

But is this "holiday" something that Christians should actually be celebrating? Doing a quick Wikipedia search on the origins of Halloween, you would be shocked ( as I was ) to see what you find. Halloween is as pagan a holiday as you can get.

Courtesy of Wikipedia:

The ancient Celts believed that the border between this world and the Otherworldbecame thin on Samhain, allowing spirits (both harmless and harmful) to pass through. The family's ancestors were honoured and invited home while harmful spirits were warded off. It is believed that the need to ward off harmful spirits led to the wearing of costumes and masks. Their purpose was to disguise oneself as a harmful spirit and thus avoid harm. In Scotland the spirits were impersonated by young men dressed in white with masked, veiled or blackened faces.^[4][5] Samhain was also a time to take stock of food supplies and slaughter livestock for winter stores. Bonfires played a large part in the festivities. All other fires were doused and each home lit their hearth from the bonfire. The bones of slaughtered livestock were cast into its flames.^[6] Sometimes two bonfires would be built side-by-side, and people and their livestock would walk between them as a cleansing ritual.

Another common practice was divination, which often involved the use of food and drink.

The name 'Halloween' and many of its present-day traditions derive from the Old English era.

Is this the type of "holiday" that we want our children participating in?

There is then the argument that we can dress as Biblical characters to make a statement to the unsaved. Yes, this could be an idea. But, unfortunately, the costumes the other children are wearing are getting worse and worse every year. Have you seen the costumes they are selling nowadays? All blood and guts and gore. Certainly something that would scare a small child, if not a full grown adult woman! I don't want to even put my children out in that kind of situation where they would have to be confronted by such things. Even passing out tracts at your front door to trick-or-treeter's has the same dilemma. While your family is trying to show the light of Christ, the child on your front porch looks like something out of the latest horror movie. That image is now burned in your child's brain forever. Yes, it can be said that children show know the difference between real and fake. Try telling that to your poor child who is now having nightmares. There just does not seem to be a Godly, Biblical way to address this time of year, other than just hands off.

John 15:19--If ye were of the world, the world would love his own; but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.

You might be considered weird or old fashioned by not allowing your children to participate, but please don't let that discourage you. Or worse, make you lose your stand on not celebrating at all. The only person that we should be seeking to please with our lives is God.

1 Corinthians 10:31 “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”

Tomorrow, I will be addressing Fall Festivals and my opinions and views on those. Hope to see you then!