Our battle is many areas. Here is the first one we have. While God has created a great World it has been infected by the virus of selflishness that leads to sin. We have the rulers, authorities, powers, and power systems of this dark world we are living in and the second is the spirtual forces of evil in the heavenly realms that are behind the seans. The verse 13 says Theirfore put on the full armor so that when the day of evil comes you may be able to stand your ground and after you have done everything you will be able to stand. Verse 14 opens with stand firm then. What we have to realise as crazy as it may sound to some people, every Christian knowns their is this invisible battle and war going on This isnt just for the big day of evil since it isnt capatalized, but this refers to anyday of evil or suffering. Whenever their is attack of any kind going on in your life you will be able to stand your ground. If you do not have the indwelling Holy Spirit of God, the third part of the Holy Trinity you can read God's word or in other terms the bible everyday and get nothing out of it. However when you confess CHrist as your saviour with a truthful heart then you know you are saved and changed and the Holy Spirit will breath life into the words of the Bible and bring life to them and you, but this time the everlasting kind. The second part of the armor of God is putting on the breast plate of righteousness-1st John Ch 1:9 says: if we confess our sins then God our Father will be faithful and just, forgiving us of our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. The devil loves us too keep secrets, but God already knows our problems and wants us to confess our sins to him and repent. Choose God. Next we put on the belt of truth-This means walking with God always and in all aspects of life. When we do this we are growing in our faith constantly-it is something God does because of our time spent with him and his word (super important). Then we have the shield of faith-it helps us block attacks on us, then we have the helmet of salvation-his power is dwelling in us -greater is he in us than those in the world, which leads us to have favorite scriptures and prophets to build us up and to help us in our personal ministry by the Holy Spirit since he knows the beginning from the end. I always end each night in prayer before I rest my eyes, also try to pray each morning, and I definetly pray throughout the day-this is our time spent with God who is strengthening us. Finally we have the Word which is the sword that strikes down evil. Hope you enjoyed this message, God Bless you! 

One of the great things about Lent is that we can use it to remind us where we come from, where our hope is found, whos and who's we are. It is snowing once again where I live today, the days grow shorter and shorter, the cold New England Nights tend to be long. Even so with the well lit, well heated modern world it easy to forget just how frightening it was during extreme whether to those who came before in Christ and God (old testement times as well), just how much they longed and prayed for God the Father to protect them and to send them a saviour to save them from this cruel world where sin and death are so prominent. They where so aware of their need for a saviour. However while it is easier to overlook with modern tech. we should remember and it is evident that our need for a saviour is every bit as great, we are just as helpless in the face of tragedy, dispair, death, remorse, and sin. Our need is every bit as great - it just isnt so in our face or as apparent at times-it is easier to ignore or deny. Though Lent is time to renew this understanding and to give up something material to spend time with God that you would normally be doing something esle with-to slow down and notice. Happiness is in relationships which I will say more about later on in this message. Our culture is geared towards greed and material wants. In the book of Deutoronomy -You and your parents have just spent fourty years wandering in the wilderness-you had no land no home, no comfort, no security, you thought that was difficult, actually that was the easy part.  The difficult part is afterwards because that is when you forget where you came from and why you are here. We forget to give thanks. We think of the I rather than the you. We lose the art of relationship. Marriages fail, communities grow weep, societies grow cold. As Moses says this is all a result of forgetting to serve God with Joy and gladness of heart. Their is a diffrence between material goods and Spiritual life and fruit. We are always told we need the latest this and that through advertisement and proproganda, yet when we buy these items we are still empty. Eternal life comes through relationships-Relation with God, with neighbor, with self, and the rest of God's creation. Right relationship with God is putting God first at the center of things, understanding that God is most important and that NOTHING can replace God. If we are in right relation with God through the cross of Jesus who restored what was broken between God and human beings, then all the others will fall into place via God is love. Have a Blessed Lent and God Bless.

Why are we here? We are here as Christians or disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ to serve God's mission here on earth, this beloved planet of his. Through God we are sent heal and reconcile, to repair the world, to build the beloved community of Jesus Christ's body here on Earth as the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, the Goal is for the advancment of God's Kingdom here and now. The Spirit of the LORD is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free,
and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come!---Then Jesus basically goes on to say today this has been fufilled in your hearing. Our job, continuing this advancement today. The year of the Lord's favor is to be like the Garden of Eden Paradise. It is about restored relationship with God, humanity, and creation. Jesus calls you to be whole, to be loving, Jesus doesnt tell us to claim superiority. As the saying goes we aren't perfect, just SAVED (for the result of sin is more sin, the result of sin is death, but Jesus saved us through the cross). This is why we experience the whole of God in Jesus, for he is the son of God, our saviour who sets us free from the fear of death, the fear of judgment, the one that teaches us about God our Heavenly Father, about love, justice, and poverty. Our mark as Jesus's disciples should be to be loving. By this people shall know that you are my disciples, that you love one another. Jesus says he has but one purpose in this world is that you may have life and have it abundently. It is a call to life, it is a call to love, it is a call to be all you can be in God. Those of us who are disciples of Jesus have a single responcibility and that is to try and help in the advancment of the Kingdom of Heaven where every person has a better chance to become a child of God, love God fully, to know him, to be all they can be in God. When we remember this is our call, when the Christian Church begins to remember this is our message and we beggin to be faithful to this message, we will see such a mighty transformation, that the whole world will once agian begin to look again to the body of Christ and see life, love, and wholeness, for folks that is what God is all about, and that is what myself and other disciples of Jesus must also be about

Lent is a time where Anglicans in solidarity with other Christians around the world are getting ready for the glorious resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ on Easter Sunday. Historically this is a time where church members are waiting in solidarity with those who are to baptized at the Easter Vigil. It is a time to focus on prayer, study of the Word, fasting, and in some denominations alms giving. Each of these done with and in communion with those preparing to be baptized strengthens our on faith and helps us to grow in it, it becoming ever more meaningful and at the center of our lives. I believe it is also time to take a step back and see how we are communicating with other Christians as well as with the rest of God's wonderful creation. We must be looking to advance God's Kingdom now and forever more. Lent this year is once again sending us on a journey to Easter, the bodily reserection of our Lord and Savior. We often associate Lent with our Lord's forty days in the desert. This is appropriate because Lent is suppose to be a time of trial or testing. Also it is a lean time to thin down our self righteous egos. Allowing some selfishness to die. Easter itself is about new life, to appreciate what the Lord is doing for us or is offering us, we are talking stock and note of how dead this year has made us to his call to love and service. If we are doing it correctly our dessert trip shall helps us remember our desire, need, and quenching thirst for God. Lets give up some earthly possessions and come forth and worship, pray, and give thanks to the Lord. Have a Blessed Lent season. 

    God Bless