The Sanctifying Shield, part 4
We need to be so familiar with God's Word, that our very lives are lived by it
During the Vietnam War, a man visited a Christian bookstore. There on the shelf was a New Testament with this title: The Soldier’s Shield. It was like any other New Testament, except it this one had a plate of stainless steel sewn into the back cover. Bible companies have sold Bibles like that ever since WWII. The idea was, that if a soldier carried his special New Testament in his left front shirt pocket, then God’s Word would protect his heart from that fatal bullet.
Only God knows how many lives were saved from death because of a Bible like that. But would that Soldier’s Shield have been useful if the soldier had put it in his back pocket, if he had left it in his footlocker, or carried in his knapsack? Of course not. The only time that Bible would have protected his heart, would have been if the soldier placed it in the shirt pocket over his heart.
In the same way, the Bible can only protect our hearts from sin and help us keep our way pure is if we put God’s Word INSIDE our hearts, making it so much a part of our lives that its truth protects us from the false thinking and teaching of this world. GOD’S WORD IS TRUTH! You and I need to be so familiar with God’s truth that we know it, and believe it, and live our life by its counsel.
Now, by contrast, if you don’t guard your heart with God’s Word, you will be prone to be influenced by the lies of this world. And if you hear those lies often enough, you will start to believe, what the world believes.
Just as an example, how many of you know someone who believes that the words, “separation of church and state” are found in the United States Constitution, or Bill of Rights, or any of the other founding documents? It’s good if you don’t believe it, because that phrase isn’t anywhere in those documents! Now, it is apparent that current Media believes that it’s there; Congress seems to believe that it’s there as well as the Supreme Court. It would appear that even the President of the United States believes that it’s there. But it’s not. It’s a lie!
You see, the phrase was used by Thomas Jefferson, but he never intended his words to imply the church should be walled off from influencing government. He used that phrase in a letter to the Danbury Baptist Church, to assure them that there was a Constitutional wall that prohibited the national government from imposing its will upon the churches.
But groups like the ACLU, and “Americans United for Separation of Church and State,” have repeated the mantra of “separation of church and state,” implying that it means that the church should never be allowed to impose itself on government, or public schools, etc. for so long now that many people believe the phrase is in the Constitution. But that is a lie. It is not the truth.
In truth, history defies that interpretation. Two days after he wrote these words, Jefferson rode his horse down Pennsylvania Ave. to attend worship services that were being held in the House of Representatives. In fact, the House of Representatives hosted several different denominations in the chambers, for nearly 70 years, until the mid-1800s.
Continued tomorrow
