Today’s guest blogger is Laura Motola.  As we focus on spiritual warfare with our memory verses for February, Laura will be sharing her reflections on spiritual warfare.

In 2 Kings 6:15-17, we read,

“When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. ‘Oh, my lord, what shall we do?’ the servant asked.  ‘Don’t be afraid,’ the prophet answered.  ‘Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.’  And Elisha prayed, ’O LORD, open his eyes so he may see.’ Then the LORD opened the servant’s eyes and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.”

If only our eyes could be opened and we could see the spiritual battle going on around us!  We are at war!  The enemy of our souls wants to destroy us.  He wants our Christian lives to be ineffective and unproductive.  He wants us to feel unworthy and unloved.  He wants us to hold on to bitterness and resentment, and to feel anxious and afraid.  “But thanks be to God!  He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor.15:37).  One of the ways we can have victory is to put on the armor of God.
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Today’s guest blogger is Jim Quigley.  Jim has been a part of NewLife since August, after moving up from New Jersey, and is an engineer who also works with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes at Trinity College.  As we focus on spiritual warfare with our memory verses for February, Jim will share the second part of what he wrote, “Preparing for battle.”

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 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.”  (Ephesians 6:10-17)

How often do you see a football player in a game without his pads and helmet on?  Or a marathon runner without sneakers on?  If you were a betting man, would you put your money on the team that didn’t use baseball gloves or the one that was fully equipped?  Sure, you could run a marathon without sneakers and you could play football without pads.  But the risk of injury greatly increases and you could very well be sidelined for the rest of your career.  A team has a better chance of being victorious and avoiding injury if they are using the proper gear.  While this may sound obvious, far too often we see Christians marching out to battle stark naked as it were, with nothing to protect them.  And far too often they get hurt badly.  But God has provided us with armor to wear for the spiritual battles that we face.  But again, we tend to dismiss its importance, neglect it all together, or think that we can just suit up when we need to.  But the spiritual battles we face are constant and the enemy is not going to wait for us to get our armor on.  We need to be ready every day to engage in spiritual warfare and that means we need to be geared up and game ready at all times. 
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Today’s guest blogger is Jim Quigley.  Jim has been a part of NewLife since August, after moving up from New Jersey.  As we continue our focus on Scripture memory in 2010, Jim is going to share with us about the blessing this practice has been in his life.

“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”   (2 Timothy 3:16-17)

Like any discipline, Bible memorization is an activity that is not always enjoyable or easy.  But memorizing Scripture is crucial to going deeper in your relationship with Christ.  We can see from 2 Timothy 3:16-17 that knowing Scripture will help us to teach and train better so that we can serve the Lord better, being ready to do every work God has in store for us.  Knowing God’s Word is essential in spiritual warfare as well.  In Ephesians 6:10-17, the Lord has provided us with plenty of armor to protect ourselves from the enemy, but only one weapon:  the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.  We don’t need any other divine weapon.  No Golden Gun of God or Javelin of Jehovah, just the Word of God.  Once you wield the Sword of the Spirit, temptations are cut down, demons flee, and the prince of darkness himself is defeated.  The Word is so strong that even the enemy tries to use it against us with malicious intent to get us to fall.  Take, for instance, when Jesus is tempted by the devil in the desert (Luke 4:1-13).  Satan on his second temptation quotes Scripture in hopes that Jesus would buy into his lies.  Jesus counters this temptation (and the other two as well) with Scripture and with each swing of the Sword, Satan concedes and flees.  What is also important from this is that Jesus could have said ANYTHING and it would have been Scripture for us.  But instead, He chose to use existing Scripture as a model for us when we are tempted.  Memorizing Scripture will help sharpen our Sword so that we can use it to ward off the enemy. 
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Today’s Pulse of NewLife is written by guest writer Anthony Varesio.  Anthony and his wife Carrie live in Glastonbury, and have been attending NewLife for about eight months.

Testimony of Gratitude

This past week I found myself in the hospital with a rather disconcerting medical situation.  As I lay in my cardboard hospital bed, attached to a rat’s nest of tubes and wires, I awaited for the revolving parade of various medical professionals to poke, prod, scan, and otherwise find ways to make my stay a “spa of discomfort”.   The spaces in-between offered time for me to sip on a brew of my family woes, financial challenges, the haunting of tasks and responsibilities that I inevitably must face and a myriad of other troubles that have been gnawing at me for some time.  I craftily created a cozy little hot tub of self-pity in which to bathe in.  Then my first hospital meal was served……. Read more »

Today’s post comes courtesy of my friend Ben Dubow, who blogs over at www.faithautopsy.com.  In one of his latest posts, he referenced A.W. Tozer’s Five Spiritual Vows.  Tozer was a 20th century Christian & Missionary Alliance preacher and author who died in 1963, and whose words are incredibly challenging.  You can read Tozer’s whole discourse at http://www.neve-family.com/books/tozer/FiveVows.html; Ben’s well-done summary is below:

5 VOWS FOR SPIRITUAL STRENGTH:

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Today’s post is written by guest blogger Eddie Mui. Eddie lives in South Windsor with his wife, Fabiola, and young children Joshua & Sarah. He’s the one often playing the funny looking drum-like instrument (it’s called a cajon) on Sundays, and will be leading worship this Sunday.

“A Mighty God, A Mighty Savior”

“The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.” (Zephaniah 3:17, NIV)

Imagining or believing that God is all-powerful and mighty isn’t necessarily a hard thing to do. If He was even deserving of being called God with a capital “G”, one would expect that He would be. Otherwise, would He really be God?

Indeed, it’s not a foreign concept that God or a god would be endowed with extraordinary power, might, and authority. Greek and Roman mythology espoused many gods with certain power and authority over various elements of nature and the universe. Zeus was the most powerful and leader of all of gods and goddesses on Mount Olympus. Mythology attributes them with respective authority over mankind, the sun, the sea, over war, love and beauty, over Hades and death, etc. To each, they had their jurisdiction, but Zeus was all-powerful above them all.

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(Today’s Pulse was written by Marcia Mackey in 2005.  As I preach on wisdom from Proverbs, it has been my hope to give voice to some of the more wise and experienced members of our congregation, who can share from what they have learned along their journey with the Lord.)

 Do you want to be a shepherd who feeds only yourself?  A cloud without rain blown along by the wind?  An autumn tree without fruit and uprooted twice dead?  Do you want to be a wild wave of the sea foaming up in your shame?  A wandering star for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever?  DO YOU??  (Jude 1:12-13)

To say yes to any of these would definitely make you a fool.  Why?  A fool is someone who turns his back on God or just does not want to believe in Him or thinks God is not right nor good enough for him.  “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God’” (Psalm 14:1).  “Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools” (Romans 1:22).  “But fools detest turning from evil” (Proverbs 13:19b).  Even if you do not totally reject God but are just lukewarm then you are still a fool.  God says in Revelation 3:16, “So because you are lukewarm - neither hot nor cold - I am about to spit you out of my mouth.”
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Today’s Pulse of NewLife is written by guest writer Tammy Choleva.  Tammy and her husband John’s family was one of the original families of our church, and they have recently returned to NewLife with their six kids, Trevor, Jeremy, Aaron, Gabriel, John, and Danielle.  As I preach through Proverbs on the subject of wisdom this summer, my hope is to use the blog to give voice to many of the more experienced members of our congregation, so that they can share what they have learned through their journey with the Lord.

No Longer a Slave to Sin

“…knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.” Romans 6:6 (NKJV)

Back some time ago after I was saved by the grace of God, I was given a revelation of truth.  I remember at the time having been disgusted with myself over something I had done.  I don’t remember what I had done, but I know it didn’t honor the Lord.  I remember telling God I was sorry, but I also remember stopping and pondering (for quite some time) how in the world Jesus could have been sinless.  I knew He was sinless because the Bible tells me so; yet, I started to think deeply and wonder how that could have been.
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(From the beginning of this blog, I have used this space to reflect theologically on the things we experience in the culture around us.  I would also love to use this space to give more people at NewLife the chance to share, exhort, encourage, edify, and teach the things that God is putting on their heart to share.  In that spirit, here are a few exhortations from our guest writer, Wes Feshler.  Given our current series on the life of Joseph, which deals heavily with the subject of trusting that God is working towards a good purpose even when He seems absent, here are a few of Wes’ exhortations related to that topic:)

(1) Trust God

Proverbs 3:1-8 - My son, do not forget my teaching, but keep my commands in your heart,  2 for they will prolong your life many years and bring you prosperity.  3 Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart.  4 Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man.  5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;  6 in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.  7 Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD and shun evil.  8 This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones.

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(The following is an account of Free Inside prison ministry by guest blogger Gordon Lawrence of NewLife.  If you are interested in becoming involved with Free Inside, contact NewLife or visit the Free Inside website at www.free-inside.com.)

Free Inside was started about five years ago by the current director (and former NewLife pastor) Peter Dewberry, who is the only paid staff member.  All other workers, who number about 50, are volunteers.  Our instructional material is the ALPHA program, and we alternate the 15 week ALPHA 1 introduction to Christianity with ALPHA 2, an introduction to the Christian life.  A normal program lasts two hours.  After a brief introduction, a 35 minute video is shown, followed by the inmates and volunteers breaking up into small groups for about an hour-long discussion.  The program closes with the sharing of prayer needs.  We run programs in the spring and the fall in order to allow breaks for volunteers. 
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