Psalm 73 ministries

 Today was a very special day for me. I play in the worship team of my church, and if you know me, you do know I love music. Per se, you can say I speak three languages: Spanish, English and music! I'm convinced you can express your heart to people when you play your instrument with a very worshipful heart. They can see your emotions and movements when you do so. They can tell you are in the zone. They can tell you are inspired, and that's what happened today! There was a moment in our first  service when we were playing the song "way maker" by Leeland when I felt I was really worshiping our Lord with all my heart. It happened to be a part of the song where I had to play a solo. It's like my hands were being taken over by the Spirit and led to play melodies that  were really speaking what was in the very bottom of my heart at the time. It was a glorious moment. My heart felt at peace with God. My worshipful mood was so evident that one of my brothers in Christ tol...

 Most of us go through life minding our own business and our own sins too. A lot of times we keep on sinning and we don't even realize we're doing it, because sin has been so engraved in our lives, that it feels normal to do certain things; things that no longer seem sinful in our daily life. They have become a habit in our daily walk. But remember the words of the prophet Jeremiah in the book that bears his name, in chapter 17 verse 9 and 10: "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?   “I the Lord search the heart  and test the mind,  to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.” No matter how normal  we can call our habitual sin, it's still sin in the eyes of God and the only reason we call it "normal" is because our heart is "sick" or "wicked" like other translations say. We cannot mock God or outsmart Him, "His thoughts are higher than ours". (Isaia...

 " Praying at all times in the Spirit , with all prayer and supplication . To that end, keep alert with all perseverance , making supplication for all the saints. (Ephesians 6:18 ESV) I know technically prayer is not part of the armor, but do you remember in the beginning when I told you the armor of God was encapsuled between truth and prayer? This is why. Paul ends this section with prayer. How appropriate. In reality, in prayer, you activate the armor of God in your life, to protect you from Satan and his host of evil spirits. I don't want to spend a lot of time in this subject, but I considered it was appropriate to end this series talking a little bit about it. Pretty much Ephesians 6:18 explains itself. Paul wants us to be praying at all times. In which way? In prayer and supplication. Notice supplication is mentioned twice and therefore, it highlights its importance. Paul highlights the fact we all shall be praying for all the saints; we all shall be supplicating for ...

 "And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God" ( Ephesians 6:17 ESV) We have come to the final element of the armor of God, the sword of the Spirit. And Paul doesn't leave it up for debates to determine what it really means. He plainly says: "This is the Word of God". There are so many things about the Word of God that we can mention that it would take a whole series just to cover the surface of its great importance. Talking about the Word of God is a very extensive subject; that's why we'll focus just in a few things. Things that have been laid on my heart and that hopefully,  it will be of great benefit to you. First of all, I would like to mention that the Greek word for sword in this Ephesian passage is the word "machaira". A kind of sword that it was more like a dagger and it was probably between twelve to eighteen inches long. This weapon was definitely lethal in the hands of a skilful soldier. ...

"And take the helmet of salvation , and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." (Ephesians 6:17 ESV) We've spent a long time explaining the armor of God and its protecting abilities against the guiles of the enemy. It has definitely been a learning experience for me and I pray and hope it's been for you as well. And I'm really excited about the next piece of the armor, the helmet of salvation, because it protects our heads, our brain, a very vital part of our bodies. Isn't the enemy of our souls eager to attack that part of our body first? Isn't he eager to infect our minds with lies, deceit, anxiety, doubt, discouragement, depression and whatever else he can come up with to affect our service to God? He knows that all those things, potentially, could be detrimental to the work God has assigned for us and that's why he tries really hard to get in our heads. The Lord designed this element of the armor to really help us protect from such atta...

 "In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one."(Ephesians 6:16 ESV) The Roman soldier used two different kind of shields. One small one for hand to hand combat, and large one to protect the whole body. This latter one is the one Paul is thinking about in this passage. How else can you "extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one"? Archaeologists  tell us that these darts, in ancient warfare, were tipped with some kind of combustible. They were set on fire, so they did not only have the power of wounding, but also of burning. Now you understand why the soldier had to protect himself with a shield of larger dimensions. This shield had the form of a oblong rectangular shape. It  was four and a half feet by two and a half feet; it was a great, big, plank of wood.  It was covered on the outside with metal, and sometimes with even leather. It was also very thick, so when the fiery arrows were s...