Helmet of salvation

Helmet of salvation - you have been saved and you are continually being saved.
The actual experience of salvation is getting nearer.
Salvation in it's fullest. Entering into eternal glory.

Sword of the spirit

Sword of the spirit - only offensive weapon. Not for protecting a specific part.
Thinking biblically.

Sheild of faith

Shield of faith - able to extinguish fiery arrows. Being busy can mean that the fiery arrows shock us.
Reminds me of the police riot shield we used to demonstrate this protection in a family service recently.
Faith is an activity.

Shoes!!

3) shoes-stability and mobility.
Here I stand I can do no other. Martin Luther.
Chase after relevance can lead us to being irrelevant due to lack of identity and misguided purpose.
Mobility - we are rooted but not stuck in yesterdays battles.

Breastplate of righteousness

2) Breast plate of righteousness. Heart and emotions!
There will be days when you lack confidence. That's when you need a new righteousness. His righteousness has been given to us. It is not the breastplate of performance.We have nothing to offer except the righteousness of God.

Sermon blogging #1

Going to attempt to blog a sermon! This may not end well :)
Terry Virgo preaching on Ephesians 6.
1) belt of truth. Need to deconstruct peoples world vision.this truth is meant to shape our thinking. It is not cold theology but an active behavioural response.

endings (hopefully)

I am currently still trying to finishing the epic battle that is my doctorate. It has all taking rather longer than I anticipated, but can actually see the end now, which is both exciting and terrifying. I am in the process of needing to cut out about 4000 words, which is a fairly painful process given the blood, sweat, tears and chocolate which went into them in the first place.
Not wishing to draw painfully tenuous parallels but this feels a little like the approach I need to take in my life as a whole at the moment. The doctorate has been such a huge part of my life (to the extent that I considered naming my thesis) that it is hard to see beyond that. Life has been very very busy, which I love but I really want to use the time post doc in the best possible way. I love to be challenged and stretched but getting the balance between that and doing what I do well has recently been a challenging one. Am starting to think about what to do next, am excited about being able to spend more time doing what I love doing, hanging out with an awesome youth group, but first things first I need to finish this thing! The way ahead should be an interesting one :)