FAITHFUL FRIDAY: The Strange Truth: Put on the Full Armor of God

Hello everyone, I'm your host Carl Lady Brown, and I want to say welcome to episode thirty three of The Strange Truth. What a week? What a week? Right? What a week it has been? Hopefully you have been listening to all the really great shows on PBA, the Proper Broadcasting UH network. I would encourage you to go over to UH proper broadcasting dot com and check out the website over there anything for your uh prepping needs. Uh you should be able to find, you know, any question, right, you should be able to find an answer over there. At PBN. UH you know, they have uh you know, uh daily shows where uh you know, important UH prepping topics are discussed uh every day. So I would suggest if you're listening to this podcast, then you go over to PBN and check them out. You know, uh it's uh, it's it's just an awesome asset, So make sure that you utilize it. And if you if you go over to PBN and if you like what you if you like what you see, then I would suggest that you you go over uh you know there and uh you become a member of of the website, because then you're you get access to even more really really great stuff. So it's been kind of a chaotic week, right, you know, in the world at large, right, Uh, you know, we have that whole disaster in Afghanistan. Uh, you know, Biden Saigon, right, and Uh, the fallout from all of that, the repercussions is, you know, it's you know, for years to come. And there's just so many things happening right now, and and the world is filled with so much uncertainty that I decided, and and you know, I've been thinking about it for a while too, to shift gears, to pivot a little bit and and uh and and to pivot to the spiritual side of things. Uh for this podcast, you know, I I I just want to say that, you know, it's one thing to you know, physically prepare right. You can you can get your water, you can get your food, you can you can you can start homesteadying, right. You can. You can you know, start a garden. Uh, you can start uh, you know, keeping animals, right, and and you can you can do things to physically shore up Uh. You're prepping uh situation, you know, you know, make sure that you have enough fuel uh, you know, for your generator, for your home, right, and you know all that right. You know, the the the physical, this world preps, right that you can do and and hopefully you are doing those things because they are seriously important. But but there is another kind of preparation that needs to be done, especially if if you are a Christian, because you know, in in testing and trying times, when when your back's against the wall, then a lot of times the answers won't come from some book or from some podcast, right, But the answers might come from the Holy Book. Right. It might come from you praying to God to help you in a very difficult situation. Right. The strength and is the the mental reserves that you might need in a really bad, you know, emergency. Right. A lot of times the answers, you know, can only come from one source, right, and that's our heavenly Father. So I just want to switch gears and just have this discus USh, right. You know, you know, you know you hear the different hosts on PBN, right, and and you know you hear sometimes they'll say, well, you know, it really does seem that there's something going on at on the spiritual level that that we're just you know, we we and you know that we we we we're just not we don't have access to to to that to that uh information, you know that that knowledge, right, because a lot of times there's that sense of, well it's kind of out of our hands, right, you get that sense that you know, throughout history, right, they've they've always been trying times. I can't imagine, you know, what it would what it must have been like through the world wars and and all that the really bad you know, devastating uh, you know, genocides that have taken place across the world. Uh, and and the you know, the wars that have been fought, and you know, and just the atrocities that sometimes hold groups of people have had to endure for generations, right, And and for those people, I'm sure it must have seemed like maybe the end right that was prophesied was near. But here we are, many many years later, centuries later. Here here we are right still waiting for the king to return. So, you know, there's a lot of people right now saying, well, you know, we are living through the end times, and and it does appear that we are at the cusp of something significant that's going to happen, right. You know, you know, there is man time, and then there's God time. Right. You know, God does things in his own at his own speed, in you know, in his own time, right. Uh. So while we are living through our own difficult at times here right, then you know, we we have to make sure that we do the things that all you know, uh Christian pilgrims need to do, right, which is you need to make sure that you pray. You need to make sure that you you maintain your faith uh in your walk, right, you need to maintain uh your spiritual awareness, right, and and to read your Bible and to continue in your studies because you know, as I said, right, there's there are certain things that are outside or or knowledge base, right because we are only flesh and blood right at this point anyway, right, and uh we need to continue, uh you know, maintaining or or Christian walk. Uh. And and I just want to say right that, yeah, you know, right now, when you look at everything that's going on in our world, right, you have to understand that our world has always been fragile. Right. You know, this this uh, this uh, this reality that we we now inhabit, right, has always been pretty fragile. Right. Uh. You know, you know our world today we have all these foreign powers vying for supremacy, right, vying for power. Right. Uh, we're living through a time of economic uncertainty. Right, They're devastating environmental events, uh and uh you know going on right wildfires, droughts, storms, pestilences now that are killing you know, plants and animals and fish and and people. Right we're living through, uh a pandemic right now, and hopefully it doesn't get any doesn't get any worse. Right again, I think something startled the deer and you can hear them in the woods. Right. The wildlife has just been going crazy in the last couple of weeks. And uh, you know, and there is, of course, getting back to our topic, right, there is you know, ethical and moral decay in every facet of life, you know, whether it be uh you know, government, or family or or even in our even in our religious institutions. Right, there is this moral and an ethical uh uh decay that we are all dealing with. Right. There is you know, the curtailing of individual freedoms, which you know, which really troubles a lot of people because they see it as the onset of tyranny. Right because you know, throughout history, right, history is replete with you know, people who are in power taking away the individual rights of their subjects, right, or what they deem as their subjects. And then once they have taken those rights, then of course they institute their own form of tyranny upon the people. Right. So you know, there's all these things that are really troubling you know, people across or nation today, right, you know, and of course you know, the persecution of Christians, right, the persecution of the Christian lifestyle, right. You know, the increase in agnosticism, right, and atheism right, and people you know who are once Christians right now going into different faiths, right, and leaving Christianity pretty much behind. Right. You know, the greatest gift given to humanity is being rejected by a lot of people. And they're rejecting it because you know, it's been a lot of times the message, the Gospel, right, that message has been really warped by by human beings. Right. You know, the best things in any human hands, right, tend to enter you know, the whole world, and everything is in a natural state of entropy. Right, Everything tends not towards order, but towards disorder. So you know, two thousand years ago the Gospel was given right and over the centuries, right, Uh, you know that gospel because it's been in the hands of men, right, it has been you know, corrupted in certain you know cases, right and and uh and because of that, right, because people are we're not perfect, we're imperfect beings. Right and because of that, uh you know that filter, that imperfect filter a lot of times, Uh, you know that has driven people away from from the good News, from the Gospel because they can't see it as you know, being part of their own lives. Right. If you're listening to this podcast right now, and if you're on the fence about it, I I want to invite you in Okay, you know, the greatest gift that anyone can receive is the word of Christ and the promise that Christ is. You know that that that He gave, that God gave to us. Right. You know we have to remember that we are eternal beings. Right, you know we do have a spiritual side to oursels e and uh you know and you know right now, you know I light the whole you know, computer analogy right where you know the the hard drive, right, the hard drive holds the software. The software is is the soul. Right, our bodies is this is the hard drive. Right, the body holds the software. The software is eternal. That software it can get you know, it can move from one vessel to another, that consciousness, right, it can move from one existence to another existence, right to use that analogy, you know. And and we have to understand that every single human being is an internal right, is an internal entity. And and this physical existence that we're in shapes where we go after this, you know, this pilgrimage, right, this this physical pilgrimage through this life, right through this existence. So I will encourage you to go on what is probably the best experience anyone could ever have, right, you know, finding out an understanding and trying to understand right, who God is, what the promise that He's given to us is right, and just understanding you know, the Christian Way is probably the one of the most fulfilling lifetime journeys anyone can ever embark upon. So I want to welcome you to this podcast if you are a Christian, if you are on the fence, right, I don't want to scare anybody away. I just want to say that Chris Tanity is the most welcoming, the most healthy, right, the most it is just the most fulfilling thing you could ever ever take into your life. Read the Gospel before yourself, read your Bible before yourself, begin your own journey, your own spiritual journey. And that's where I want to keep this podcast for the next few minutes. I want to keep it on a spiritual plane, right, because when you look at or a week this week and everything that popped into the news, you realize that you know there is another battle being fought, a spiritual battle that's being fought over us, over our very existence, for every human soul, for every human being, there is a war being raged that we are not we're not privy to, right. I just want to read a little bit here from the Bible, right, And this is a well known passage, And if you're Christian, I'm sure that you know this passage, but I'll read it to you. And he says, 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, and the breastprey of rightiousness 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 errors of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. So when the dark times come, and if you're experiencing dark times right now, understand that God, right, Jesus is your comforter. Right, the Holy Spirit is your comforter. You can go to Jesus. You can go to God with any problem you know. You can pray on it. You can, you can you can read your Bible right, you can find comfort in others who are in the way just like yourself. Right, and and you can find that comfort that only the Gospel can give. So, whether it be money problems right now, like you're experiencing problems, you know, financial issues, whether it be relationship issues, whether it be just fear of what's going on with our world, with you know, with our government, with you know, you know, with our rights, you know, whatever the fear might be, right now that you may have, Okay, just lay it at the feet, Just lay it at the feet of God, right, and he will show you the way. He will show you the way. There is a great spiritual battle that's being fought, Okay. In one of my previous podcasts, right, I compare the United States to the Northern Kingdom of Israel, right that you know, you know, the Northern Kingdom they were very cosmopolitan, right that they they had all these different faith groups worshiping, right, and and the true faith was was being pretty much put on the back burner and extinguished, right you know. Uh, And eventually, right they got to such a state that you know, God decided, well it was time just to remove them right from the earth. Right and and he used their enemies to do the job for him. You know. In all my other podcasts, I've always say, if your Christian police pray for this country, because I think that it is only because of the prayers that you know that are being offered up. You know, it's you know, those prayers are probably all that's keeping our country afloat right now, keeping us all together at this point. But even with the you know, uh y you could see right when the Northern Kingdom was the king, one of the signs of the king was losing uh territory, right, you know, all the territory that David and Saul right had had won for them in in battle, right, Uh they lost uh you know uh with the pres with the uh, with the following you know, the preceding kings, right with the uh the kings that came after Solomon, right and uh. You know, one of the signs of of God's uh uh uh misfavor is the losing of territory. And and we just lost a major piece of regular estate in Afghanistan. Right, what is God trying to tell us? Right with all the evil that is going on in our city streets, all the you know, the the the murders an and and the uh, the you know, the corruption I in places of government in our country, in the abandonment and in a lot of cases of of of Christianity in in in the in the mocking in some cases of Christianity and the persecution of Christians. Right, all signs pointing to something right might be coming, and you know, put on the armor of God, right, because when it comes, you want to be ready for it in the best way possible. I just want to read from p you know, the Psalms, Right, I'm going to read two psalms, Psalm one and Psalm two. And in those Psalms, right, you'll see number one, right, you know, the blessings that God gives to people who you know, who practice his his his his ways and who seek after him. Right. And then you see in Psalm too you'll see, uh, basically a conversation between the Father's son and the Holy Ghost. Right, and they have an interesting conversation as to what they perceive is going on on the earth. Right. So for all the people who've been saying to himselves that hey, you know what, uh, you know, there's something going on on the spiritual plane here. This is you know, this is there are certain things at work that we have no real you know, understanding of. Right. You know, I want to say I do agree with that point of view. Right, So here's someone blessing on the godly. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the council of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord. And in his law doth he meditate day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season. His leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. The ungodly are not so, but are like the shaft which which the wind driveth away. Therefore, the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish. Stand strong Christian stands. Strong folks stand strong in the way of the Lord. Here is Psalm too. Why do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing. The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us. He doth siteth in the heavens shall laugh. The Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath and vex them in his sore displeasure. Yet I have set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree the Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my son. This day have I begotten thee ask of me? And I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break thee with a rod of iron, Thou shall dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Be wise. Now, therefore, oh ye kings, be instructed, Ye judges of the earth, serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling kiss the sun lest he be angry. And ye perish from the way when his wrath is kindled. But a little blessed are all they that put their trust in him. You know, there is the Lord basically saying, you know, why are the people rebelling? Why are the people you know, you know, trying to fight against God? Right? I want to read a little bit of Matthew Henry from Matthew Henry's commentary. Matthew Henry wrote a great commentary in the seventeen hundred right, and I just want to read a little here what he said about that Psalm Psalm too. And he says, here we are here told who would appear as adversaries to Christ. As this world is the kingdom of Satan. Unconverted men of every rank, party, and character are stirred up by him to oppose the cause of God. But the rulers of the earth generally have been most active. The truths and precepts of Christianity are against ambitious projects and worldly lusts. We are told what they aim at in this opposition. They would break a son of the bands of conscience and the cords of God's commandments. They will not receive, but cast them away as far as they can. These enemies can show no good cause for opposing so just and holy a government, which, if received by all, would bring a heaven upon earth. They can hope for no success in so opposing so powerful a kingdom. The Lord Jesus has all power, both in heaven and in earth, and is head over all things to the Church. Notwithstanding the restless endeavors of his enemies. Christ throne is set up in his church, that is, in the hearts of all believers. The kingdom of the Messiah is founded upon an eternal decree of God, the Father. This our Lord Jesus, often referred to as what he govern himself by. God has said to him, thou art my son, and it becomes each of us to say to him, thou art my lord, my sovereign. The Son, in asking the heathen for his inheritance, desires their happiness in him, so that he pleads for them ever ever lives to do so, and is able to save to the uttermost, and he shall have multitudes of willing loyal subjects. Among them Christians are the possession of the Lord Jesus. They are to him for a name and a praise God the Father gives them to him, when by his spirit and grace he works upon them to submit to the Lord Jesus right. So once you're converted, you are the possession of the Lord right. And he will take care of his own right. He takes care of his flock, he takes care of his sheep right. And you know, men struggle, people struggle, men and women struggle. Humanity struggles against you know, against the Gospel. They struggle against God all the time. Our biggest stumbling block to happiness is ourselves, right all the time. And in this in this world right now that we're living in, in this world of serious uncertainty, of this fragmenting of our lives. Right, COVID came in and blew up a lot of people's personal and professional lives, right, you know, before that, right, you know, a lot of people's lives were not going the way they wanted to. Right. You know, they've you know, people have suffered through hard financial times, illnesses right that have devastated their families. Right, And we have to we have to understand and that all of this, right is happening because we're living in a world. We're living in Satan's world right now. He's the one governing this world that we're living in. Right now, there is a massive war, spiritual war that's being fought every day for each and every one of God's you know, creations, for every for every person. And Satan and his you know, you know, his his lackeys, right are doing everything in their power to subvert, to lie, to obfuscate, right, to prevent right, the truth, from being known, from being revealed to to you know, to humanity. Right, they're they're always working against the will of God. And you know, but once once the sinner realizes that, hey, you know what, I am a sinner and the biggest stumbling block to accepting God is myself, my pride, my own self sense of superiority and worth. Because those are all the sins that got the Satan in trouble himself. Right, he believed in his own ego, he believed in his own sense of self, his own righteousness, right, and in that he rejected, right, he rejected a superior lifestyle. And now he accuses every one of us, Right, Satan is there is our accuser. Right. He goes before God and he says, you know, look at this guy right here, look at what he's doing. Right, And of course Jesus is our defender. Right. So you know, you have Jesus who is the key, right, he is the key, and you know, only by accepting him can we unlock right the eternal kingdom. So put on the armor of God, folks, because the world right now is in a sad state. Right, we are going to be tested very very seriously in the next couple of days, the next couple of weeks, the next couple of months, the next couple of years, We're gonna be tested severely in our faith. And we have to stand strong in that faith, because without that faith, there is nothing right. Without that faith, we are lost. Now, I just want to read one last thing before signing off, Okay, and I want to read a little bit from from Hebrews, right, And you know you can hear the Bible, you know, I'm flipping through the Bible here, right, but I'm reading from Hebrews eleven and faith before the flood. Just listen to this. Now, Faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen. For by it, the elders obtained a good report. Through faith. We understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. By faith, Able offered onto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous God testifying of his gifts, and by it, he being dead, yet speaketh by faith. Enoch was translated that he should not see death and was not found because God had translated him, for before his translation he had this testimony that he pleased God. But without faith it is impossible to please him. For he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him by faith. Noah, being warned of God of things not yet not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an arc to the saving of his house, by which he condemned the world and became ear of the righteousness, which is by faith. We're all in the world of Noah now in our own time. I believe we're living in a time of Noah. Hey, folks, we're living in a time of Noah right now. This is our Noah time. We know that at some point, right there is going to be trouble. What that trouble looks like, no one really knows at this point. But we know that, you know, we know that God is not finished. Right, It's all a work in process. And with everything right, there's highs and there's lows. Right, there's times of great activity and there's times of there's times where you know, things are calm and peaceful. We've now entered into a time it appears of great activity, right of chaos. And as I said before, right when you look at our world with the foreign powers vying for power and supremacy, right with the economic uncertainties we're facing today, with the devastating environmental events, you know, the wildfires, the droughts, the storms, the pestilences right that are killing you know, plants and fish and animals and people. When you look at the ethical and moral decay in every facet of life you know in our world right now, when you look at the curtailing of individual freedoms, when you look at the persecution of Christians in our world today, then you know that we're entering a time of troubles. So make sure that you prepare right. You have to prepare spiritually okay to all Christians and to anyone else who you know, if you're listening to this, hold on to the way, hold on to the Gospel, the truths of the Gospel. Make sure that you continue in your studies. Read the Bible. Folks. There's a lot of people right now, if you're on the fence, right, they've never read the Bible. Really, They've heard things from other people. They've seen all the stereotypical stuff on TV. Right, but they've never really read the Bible, never really read the word, done their own study on it. Read the Bible, find out about the way right, the truth and the life. Find out seek out good teachers, seek out fellow pilgrims, right, seek out God in your daily life. Invite Him in, Invite in Jesus into your life. Okay, this is where I'm going to leave it for today. Right. You know, I know, you know you listen to this program, right, you listen to PBN, and you know, you know we do the whole prepping thing, right, you know, the physical prepping, right, but you know we also have to take care of the spiritual part of our lives as well. Okay, and I want to say, make sure that that spiritual part is not neglected, all right, you know, read your Bible, find your way back to Christ if you've kind of let that part of your life go. Okay, it is. It is the greatest gift ever given to humanity, the greatest story ever told, the greatest sacrifice ever made, right of a God that so loves his people that he would sacrifice his own life for them. Think about that, folks. It's a beautiful thing, right, beautiful thing. Okay, So I just want to say, right, you know, if you if you found this podcast, uh, you know, Uplifting, I hope that you will pass it around and share it. Uh. If you go over to PBN and you listen to any of the podcasts on the podcasts from PBN, right, and you find them useful, uh, then then please share them and pass them around. Okay. You know, you know, if you know, if you go over to PBN and you like what you see and tell other people about it, right, you know, there's something really special going on at the Proper Broadcasting Network, right. You know, if you go on Purple Broadcasting dot Com. Right, Uh, there's something really special going on. You know, there's something there that you know, what can I say? Right? You know, no one really understands it, but it's all seeming to coming. It's all coming together at PBN, and we're all here trying to save lives and to spread the word right about preparedness, about about you know, you know, empowerment about faith. Right. So you know, if you find something and you and uh and that you enjoyed and then share it with somebody else, right, Also, disaster Coffee dot com. Right, going over to Disastercoffee dot com and and and and get yourself some good uh coffee, right. Uh you know, it is the coffee that every conservative should have on their shelf, right because uh, you know, we have to support our or or conservative uh Chris, uh you know or conservative brothers and sisters out there, right, and you know, and uh we have to and and of course the money that they make, you know, part of it goes to uh, you know, a really good cause helping people in need and everything else. So if you're conservative, I say, disaster Coffee dot com right, start your day and get through your day with uh a cup or two of that really special brew. And if you're looking for really good tech, right, you know, uh prepper tech, like you know, get more power or you know, waterfill treasure needs, and go over to Grenovative dot com right, Grenovative dot com and and see what they got to offer there. Okay. So there's a lot going on on PBN, Okay, and I encourage you to uh you know, look look look it up, right, look look us up and uh and and and share us with the rest of the world. Okay. So, uh, I just want to end with the Lord's prayer, right and uh, and then you know I want to say, have a great weekend, have a great week right. Whenever you're listening to this, I really hope that uh, you know, it will bring some calmness into your life. Okay, you know, you know all the really chaotic things happening, right, hopefully just listening to this podcast will well will calm your world down a little bit, re center you, right, and and and give you that give you a little bit of energy to go about your your day and and to continue in your spiritual and prepping journey. Right. So, uh, the Lord's prayer, Let's borrow hearts everybody our father who aren't in heaven. Allow it be thy name, thy Kingdom. Come give us this day or daily bread, and forgive us or truspasses, as we forgive those who truspass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Dian is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen. All right, so have a great, great day what's left of it? And until next time. This has been the strange truth