I confess. I’m a bread snob. Really. I only like really good bread. Especially homemade bread my wife makes. It’s awesome. Without her homemade bread in my sandwich eat day I don’t like my lunch very much. It’s that important. Bread is like the most basic of all foods. It’s so good and so necessary [...]

This story is worth retelling. It happened in the early church, more than 1900 years ago. Let’s read Acts 16:22-34:
22 The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates tore the garments off them and gave orders to beat them with rods. 23 And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them [...]

Have you found it hard to keep up with the readings? You may have noticed I’m a little behind, and even hit and miss. Such is the nature of our commitments, as we are not entirely consistent people. Do you do everything you say you will?
As weak people, we need a strong God. Thankfully, the [...]

The reading for today is 1 John 2:15. Let’s read it and the surrounding verses (1 John 2:15-17):
“Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes [...]

It has been said, “love is a verb.” What we mean is that love is not this sappy, emotional “feeling,” where we just have a sense of happiness. With Valentine’s Day around the corner, it’s good to refocus our minds on what love is and is not.
Let’s read of God’s incredible love; in John 3:16 [...]

Let’s dive into the text. Ephesians 6:17 reads:
“Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”
Two items, one to protect the head (helmet), and one as a weapon for battle. This is serious stuff.
We read of the key offensive weapon the soldier has (we also have prayer [...]

One tension in all of this is to realize that God probably did not have in mind a disjointed soldier with random pieces of metal on his body. A ready soldier must wear all of his armor, and is essentially naked without any one piece.
Roman soldiers had lots of armor attached to their bodies, but [...]

After looking at the belt of truth and breastplate of righteousness yesterday, today we consider an often forgotten piece of armor: footwear.
Let’s read Ephesians 6:15:
“… and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.”
In the history of wars and battle, a consistent little-known fact shows up as one of [...]

Now we get to the pictures of each piece of armor. Today, the Belt of Truth.
Isn’t it funny to put on the belt first? Isn’t that just an accessory that we put on after we’re all dressed? Well, not exactly. In those times a soldier would put on his undergarments (first layer of clothes), and [...]