Armor of God

Armor of God

On a recent trip to the Blue Ridge Parkway, we stopped in an old stone church in Lexington, Virginia.  The R.E. Lee Memorial Episcopal Church was begun in 1840.  It's on the edge of the beautiful Washington & Lee campus.  I'm a sucker for stain glass (my husband frequently asks, "And why are you taking another picture of stain glass?"), and this church has some unique windows.  Let me share them with you -

I love the passage in Ephesians 6 about the Armor of God and this stain glass perfectly represents one of the items that is imperative to our desire to "be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might."  I like this picture of the "helmet of salvation" listed in verse 17.  This helmet has a nice plume of feathers along the top and a bold golden Maltese cross on the front.  Certainly Salvation is the number one piece needed to make us strong in the Lord.

Next, we have the "sword of the Spirit," which is the Word of God, and also listed in verse 17.  The next verse continues the Spirit theme, adding "praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints."  And speaking of the Spirit, the glass below is meant to represent that gentle, holy person -

The pure, white dove that settled upon Jesus was our first glimpse of a representation of the Holy Spirit - "And the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Him, and a voice came

from heaven which said, 'You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased" Luke 3:22.

Robe of Righteousness

Robe of Righteousness

"I have clothed you in My righteousness and holiness. I see you attired in these radiant garments, which I bought for you with My blood....it is a pure gift."  from Jesus Calling by Sarah Young.

This picture of my granddaughter Marisa shows her happily admiring a beautiful white dress and cloak she is trying on at the store.  It reminds me of the beautiful, pure robe of righteousness that Jesus clothes us with when we are redeemed by His cleansing blood of salvation.

Imputed righteousness means that because of our faith in Jesus, God looks at Jesus' righteousness as if it were our righteousness.  God's Son Jesus is without sin and completely righteous.  We humans are born in sin and in our natural selves are completely without righteousness.  But, something wonderful and mysterious and miraculous happens when we accept Jesus as our Savior.  He frees us from the wages of sin AND He wraps (covers) us in His pure righteousness.  Thereafter, when God looks upon us He no longer sees our sin, but rather He sees His precious Son's righteousness which we have been given as a priceless gift.

Marisa twirled in delight when she tried on that elegant white garment.  May our hearts "twirl in delight" by God's promise that we, His children, are clothed in the elegant white garments of Christ's righteousness and have His perfection counted as ours by our Holy Father God.

"For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him" 2 Corinthians 5:21