WHY FEAR? WEAR A HELMET

I’ve been tied up lately with work on my new teen novel, Joe the Dreamer: The Castle and the Catapult. I hoped the Amazon link would be up today, but perhaps tomorrow. I apologize for neglecting my blog.
Anyway, this post continues a new emphasis for January only: GO INTO THE NEW YEAR WITHOUT FEAR. But I probably will have guest writers on other subjects, too, so keep checking us out.
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John, my third cousin, roared down the road in his motorcycle when a drunk pulled into his path from a bar. The impact threw John into the air. He landed upside down in the bar’s parking lot, skidding across the pavement on his helmet.
He escaped serious injury because of the strong protection on his head.
More than one life has been saved because of a helmet. Perhaps that’s why our spiritual armor described in Ephesians 6 includes a helmet. We need the helmet to protect an important aspect of our journey with God.
The Apostle Paul, the author of Ephesians, tells us we need armor like a helmet so we’ll be able to stand against the “wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”
That’s New King James. The same scripture in The Message described our battle like this: “This is no afternoon athletic contest that we’ll walk away from and forget about in a couple of hours. This is for keeps, a life-or-death fight to the finish against the Devil and all his angels.”
So whether we lived in the First Century when Paul wrote this warning or if we live in 2013, we shouldn’t go out into the world vulnerable to the enemy’s attack.
What is the helmet and how do we get it?
Ephesians describes it at the “helmet of salvation.” Romans 10: 9 tells us “If thou wilt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in thine heart God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” Salvation is “being saved.”
Because of sin, all humankind is destined to die. But Jesus came to save us from that destiny. The Father promised it in Genesis 3:15 right after sin entered the world.
So if we’re “saved” we have a helmet of salvation. The helmet can guard our hearts and minds; it will protect our capacity to believe, resist the devil, grow spiritually, and be thankful for God’s love and mercy.
Each of us knows how important our brain is to everything about our bodies and the ability to think governs every area of our lives.
So, I recommend this helmet. Salvation changed my family and brought wonderful things into our lives. It changed me and gave me abundant life.
But I must not forget our enemy prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. We need more protection and I’ll talk about that later.