“Take the Helmet of Salvation”
-Ephesians 6:15
In honor of today being the fourth of July, the day we celebrate our country being set free, I decided to blog about our freedom as Christians. Salvation is where it’s at. It breaks the bondage that sin holds against us. America broke away from the taxation of the English parliament just like we break away from the payment of our sins. Christ has paid it all. We are free, so let freedom ring.
John 5:24 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.”
SAVED. DELIVERED. RESCUED
Let those three words sink in for five seconds.
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(I knew you wouldn’t count to five)
Seriously, be still in your crazy day of running around setting off fireworks, sparklers, flipping burgers, doing this, doing that. Just sit back and ponder these three words, and what they mean to you.
So often we get caught up in going here and there that we forget to take time daily to remember what Christ did for us on the cross. It is so easy to take it for granted, because we have heard the story of Christ’s crucifiction so often. We just get used to it. We become way too familiar with the fact that Jesus paid it all. For YOU. For YOU to be SAVED. DELIVERED. RESCUED.
“Take”
Yes. That says take. Salvation is free. You can’t buy your way into heaven, or save enough sea turtles with a reusable straw to win your way into heaven. (please do help the sea turtles though) It’s not works oriented. It is a choice. You choose to take….. take advantage of something that is freely given to you by the blood of Christ.
Ephesians 2:8-9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”
“Helmet”
Story time: SOooOOOoo when I was little, my brother was planning on becoming some baseball star. He practiced 24/7. We had this baseball thing in our garage that he would hit to practice his swing form or whatever. Any ways, one day I was in the garage with him doing who knows what. But next thing I know I am on the ground. That’s right. I was cluncked in the head by a baseball bat. I will never forget the sensation of feeling like I was falling in slow motion. I had no control. I knew I was falling but I could not do anything about it. Whether he did it on purpose or not is still a mystery. But it is a great example of what life is like without wearing your helmet of salvation. You can not fix anything. Your falling into the pit of sin, and there is nothing to catch you but guilt. Your head is foggy. The weight of the world is on your shoulders. You can not gain control. You feel like everything you do is wrong. The best word that I can describe life without the helmet on is heavy. I looked up the meaning of salvation, and the word safe popped up. It really opened up the meaning of the word for me. And excuse me for this very bad baseball pun, but with salvation YOURRRREEEE SAFEEEEE!!!!! (sorry not sorry) But seriously because Christ bore the weight of all of our sins, we are freed from the wrath of God’s judgement on our sins. We are safe. The word “safe” just brings so much peace. In this crazy, sinful World it is hard to find genuine peace.
So take it. Put it on. Wear it everywhere. You’ll need it. Your gonna mess up, run into a few walls, fall off a couple bikes, or in my case get whacked in the head by your brother with a baseball bat. But you will be protected, because you are SAVED, DELIVERED. RESCUED.
“Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.” Ephesians 6:10-18
Happy fourth of July 🙂
