Armor up

While visiting an art museum in Dallas, a guy approached me and started small talking. Mid-conversation he begins telling me how blessed he is, then points to his arm. Up to this point, I hadn’t noticed one of his arms was missing. He tells me that he lost his arm in a suicide attempt by laying on the train tracks vertically. He said after not dying, He believes in God, he knows he is real and how thankful he is to be alive. I begin to resonate with his feeling of gratitude and gratefulness that he survived, while subsequently declaring the faithfulness of God and his word. It was at this moment, he told me he believes in God, but leaned over and whispered, but can you really believe everything the Bible says because it’s not 100% true. I believe his near death experienced caused him to want experience God again but was looking for him the wrong way.

He went on to say, how he’s been trying to meet God, so he started meditating in a cemetery in hopes of seeing him.

I subtly and immediately started rebuking him with the word of God. I tell him God is a God of the living not the dead. That God can be found in and through his word, prayer, and praise. If a relationship, time, and his presence is what you desire, get in the word. Going to church, listening to gospel music, listening to testimonies, talking about God is fine, but you must read the word! He believed in God as most people do. However, he did not bear good fruit.

Matthew 15:8 says, “They honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.”

Read and meditate on the word for yourself. Had I not known the word, he would have very well-spoken his incorrect beliefs on me. He was confident and quoted scripture, but out of context. If you don’t read nor study the Bible, how do you know what you hear is true or false? Read the Bible and put on the full Armor of God. The helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, belt of truth, sandals of peace, shield of faith, and the sword of the spirit. The armor is protection against false teachers, Gospels, and gives guidance on how to do life.

I was able to extinguish his flaming arrows by studying, believing, and knowing the word of God. The world would have you believe nothing is 100% true, but that is a lie. The word of God is alive and active. I did not argue with him, only quoted scripture just like Jesus did in the wilderness when Satan tried to tempt him.

I will leave you all with the same words I told him. What you believe has no bearing on reality. At the sound of that name, every head and knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess, on heaven and earth and under the earth, that Jesus Christ is Lord! Read and study the word so that you may know the truth.