Dear Friends,
When you are facing spiritual attack, your best course of action is to make sure you are wearing the proper footwear.
When the Apostle Paul describes what he calls “the full armor of God,” which we are to wear so we can stand firm against the schemes of the devil, he tells his readers not to go barefoot. They will need the right footwear to provide stability when they are under attack and traction when they are advancing. They will need on their feet what he calls “the gospel of peace.”
In the midst of spiritual battles, Paul says, the good news that because of Christ’s death, resurrection and ascension we can be reconciled to God and have eternal life will settle your anxious soul.
Think about this for a second. When you know – when you really believe – that
God loves you,
that He will never leave you,
that no matter what, He is with you,
He is for you,
He sees you,
And that nothing can separate you from Him ever. Nothing.
When that sinks into your heart and soul, as the Bible says, what can stand against you?
What is bigger than that? What is stronger than that?
The enemy has schemes that are designed to knock you down. To sideline you. To take you out, get you off the field and send you to the locker room.
And the Bible says that when we know we have peace with God, we are able to stand against whatever comes at us. Gospel shoes give you spiritual stability.
This is why we need to preach the gospel to ourselves every day.
In his book the Disciplines of Grace, author Jerry Bridges outlines for us what it means for us to preach the gospel to ourselves each day:
“To preach the gospel to yourself… means that you continually face up to your own sinfulness and then flee to Jesus through faith in His shed blood and righteous life. It means that you appropriate, again by faith, the fact that Jesus fully satisfied the law of God, that He is your propitiation, and that God’s holy wrath is no longer directed toward you.
“To preach the gospel to yourself means that you take at face value the precious words of Romans 4:7-8: “Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him.”
“It means that you believe on the testimony of God that ‘Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus’ (Romans 8:1).
“It means you believe that ‘Christ redeemed [you] from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for [you], for it is written ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree'’ (Galatians 3:13).
“It means you believe He forgave you all your sins (Colossians 2:13) and now ‘[presents you] holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation’ (Colossians 1:22).
“Turning to the Old Testament, to preach the gospel to yourself means that you appropriate by faith the words of Isaiah 53:6: ‘We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.’
“It means that you dwell upon the promise that God has removed your transgressions from you as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12), that He has blotted out your transgressions and remembers your sin no more (Isaiah 43:25).”
It is because of the gospel of peace that we can stand. We know what is ahead for us. The knowledge that we have been reconciled to God and will live with Him forever is bigger than any discouragement or disappointment, any arrow that the devil can shoot at your today.
What gave Daniel the confidence to face the lions?
What gave Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego the courage to face the furnace?
What gave Stephen the courage to face those who wanted to stone him, who did eventually kill him?
What gave Paul and Silas the ability to be singing at midnight in a jail cell after having been beaten with rods?
What gave John Hus the grace to pray for his enemies when they condemned him and sentenced him to be burned at the stake as a heretic?
What gave the Oxford martyrs in the 16th century, Nicolas Ridley and Hugh Latimer and Thomas Cranmer, the grace to face their executions and to say, as Latimer said “I thank God most heartily that He hath prolonged my life to this end, that I may in this case glorify God by that kind of death?”
What gives you the confidence to face whatever the battle, whatever the affliction, whatever is coming at you today, and to say “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me?”
It’s the gospel of peace that makes you ready for these battles.
So put your shoes on. Preach the gospel to yourself. Embrace it. Live your life in light of it. Live like it’s true.
Because it is.
ROOTS SUMMER FUN UPDATE
Saturday night is Christmas in July at the ballpark. Our Roots students are heading out to see the Travs take on the Tulsa Drillers – along with the drone show that follows the game. Pastor Cole has a ticket for you.
And looking ahead to next month – the kickoff date for the regular Sunday afternoon Roots gatherings is August 9.
Parents – plan to carve out some time that afternoon to hear from Pastor Cole about plans for the ‘26-‘27 school year.
CPR TRAINING
Have you been trained in CPR?
Would you like to be?
In an effort to have more of our child care workers, security team members and any other church members equipped to provide CPR in the event of an emergency, we are providing a Red Cross certified training course at our church on Saturday, August 15.
As a church, we will cover the registration cost for any church member who wants to participate in the training.
Here’s the info on the class, along with a QR code to register:
AWANA REGISTRATION IS OPEN!
As you heard on Sunday, the Awana Kickoff night this fall is Wednesday, September 2. And registration for Awana is now open (https://us.list-manage.com/i4BopWbO1Rq?e=da31571acc&c2id=9646fad7312ad0e2da39a919ec1318cf). To make sure your kids have a spot reserved, make sure you register them ASAP!
Don’t forget – if you’re a member at Redeemer and you’d like to minister to and love on kids each week, here’s the perfect opportunity for you to pitch in and serve. Contact Laura White and let her know you’re interested. Laurawhite811@gmail.com (mailto:Laurawhite811@gmail.com)
READY FOR SUNDAY
Here is the preview (https://us.list-manage.com/goxM7Da7uJA?e=da31571acc&c2id=9646fad7312ad0e2da39a919ec1318cf) of the songs we’ll be singing together this weekend.
Ask most people what they know about Samson from the Bible, and you’ll hear about how he lost his strength when his wife Delilah cut his long hair. But there is much more to his story than his crew cut. On Sunday, we’ll see how God used this deeply flawed man to begin to deliver His people from the hand of the Philistines.
See you in church!
Soli Deo Gloria!
Pastor Bob
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