Mary Elizabeth Whitlow's Page

Stand

Taking up the armor of God and bearing fruit

Introduction

Could there be two more disparate images of the Christian life than the battle cry to put on the Armor of God in Ephesians 6 and the Fruit of the Spirit listed in Galatians  5? Yet, when the Israelites were living in “the land of milk and honey” promised them by God, they were constantly battling to preserve the fruitful land and the “peace on every side”…

Elijah's challenge at Mt. Carmel stood above religion.

Though the prophets of Baal ritually shed there own blood,

Elijah's altar, drenched in a lavish baptism of water,

Was licked dry by God's…

A couple weeks ago when the weather was warm and beautiful, I took a long walk through the woods, made longer by getting myself thoroughly lost.  While I wandered, God reminded me of a call He has been continually placing on my heart.  

"Take my yoke, for it is easy and my burden is light."  I never want to believe that, being a nose to the grindstone kind of girl with worrywart tendencies.  Yet, He keeps calling me to joy.  What He asks of me is prayer, praise, writing, and pursuing…

Bread, warm, crusty, nourishing...the staff of life.  So much is evoked by this word, and the reality it stands in for.  Very few homes with the means to buy it are without it.  It is the foundation or compliment of nearly every meal.

"This is my body, broken for you."  The loaf is raised, the matzo is broken, and we take in again the reality of Jesus as our Bread of Life.  He paid the ultimate price so we could have, without price, His sustaining nourishment for our starving…