… praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints …

Ephesians 6:18

For the past few weeks, we have been considering the battle we face as Christians. In Ephesians 6, God tells us that this battle is not physical, but spiritual. The enemies we face are not human, but are the rulers of darkness in the heavenly places.

God has provided us with several pieces of armor so we can fight this battle. Our belt is truth, our breastplate is righteousness, our footwear is the gospel of peace, our shield is faith, our helmet is salvation, and our sword is the Word of God.

All these things have been provided for us. Victory is possible. But there is something else we must do if we are to stand in the battle—we must pray.

The passage above makes it clear how all encompassing our prayers must be. This is not just prayer at mealtimes, at the beginning of the day or before we go to bed at night. This is not just prayer during a church service or a Bible study.

We need to pray at all times. We must pray with all kinds of prayers and requests. We must always keep on praying. We must pray for all the saints. All. Always. This is not a part-time effort. We aren’t fighting a part-time battle.

In Luke 4:13 we are told that after Jesus had resisted the enemy’s temptations, the devil left Him “until an opportune time.” Ephesians 6 tells us our alertness is related to our prayers. When we fail to pray, we are giving our enemy an “opportune time” in our own lives and in the lives of those we fail to pray for.

For the Kingdom,

Ray King

The Doorpost devotions originally ran in the Samaritan Ministries Christian Health Care Newsletter.

… and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

Ephesians 6:17

We have been looking at the pieces of armor we must use if we are to be obedient in our struggle against the powers of darkness. Ephesians 6 tells us this is a spiritual struggle and names all the pieces of armor we need for this. The final thing we need is our sword.

Every piece of armor we have considered so far is defensive. The sword is the first item that can be used for offense as well as defense. This passage tells us that in the Christian life, our sword is the word of God.

How can we use the word of God defensively? We can see Jesus’ example when He was tempted by the devil in Matthew 4 and Luke 4. He didn’t rely on clever arguments or His own willpower. He used the word of Truth to combat the enemy’s deceptions.

He also used the Word as an offensive weapon when He ministered to people. “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account” (Hebrews 4:12-13). God can see into every person. His Word works in our lives, dealing with things we have managed to hide from others and possibly even from ourselves. It does the same when we use it lovingly and graciously as we minister to others.

If we are to use our “sword” effectively, we must know it well. We must be ready to use it at any moment. Scripture memorization is the most effective way, if not the only way, to truly be prepared all the time. Otherwise, we are almost certain to be caught without our sword. We must always be hiding more and more of God’s Word in our hearts so we can be increasingly effective in our struggle with the powers of darkness. If we are unwilling to do this, we probably really aren’t serious about standing as a soldier of Jesus Christ.

For the Kingdom,

Ray King

The Doorpost devotions originally ran in the Samaritan Ministries Christian Health Care Newsletter.

Part one of a series.

By Michael Miller

Blood covered Virginia Grace McDonald.

The 11-year-old daughter of Samaritan Ministries members James and Stacy McDonald had fallen out of a tree face-first onto a landscaping boulder at the McDonalds’ Mapleton, Illinois, home. Another of the McDonald girls brought Virginia Grace into the house and frantically called for James and Stacy.

“When I got to the bathroom, it looked like a homicide scene,” Stacy says, remembering the April 2012 accident. “There was blood everywhere, and it was pouring out of her mouth and nose. I couldn’t even tell where the blood was coming from.”

Stacy yelled for James. He grabbed the car keys, and they headed for the hospital.

“The next thing I know, I’m in the car with a bunch of towels and my bottle of geranium oil,” Stacy says. “I don’t even remember grabbing it. I knew that geranium oil helped with nose bleeds and other types of bleeding. I didn’t know where to apply pressure because I couldn’t see where the blood was coming from. It was gushing. I was afraid she was going to bleed to death on the way to the hospital, so I started praying for her and applying geranium oil—a few drops on her tongue, because geranium oil is food-based.

“Within seconds the bleeding stopped.”

Virginia Grace recovered after a stay in the hospital, where Stacy also used frankincense oil to help the swelling in her face go down.

Geranium oil has astringent properties, causing contraction of body tissues, which can help to stop bleeding. Frankincense is believed to be effective in treating the skin.

Chalk up one—or two—for essential oils.

The use of essential oils in the McDonald household, though, is not reserved for emergencies. James, a pastor at Providence Church in Morton, Illinois, uses a few drops of peppermint oil in a glass of water to help him stay mentally alert and clear when preparing a sermon. Stacy, who is an independent distributor for Young Living oils, also treats her family with lavender for burns, blends like Thieves for prevention of illness, lemon for indigestion, and vetiver for sensory issues and its calming effects.

They aren’t alone. Use of essential oils has increased rapidly in the U.S. over the past several years, expanding to topical and internal use from its original aromatherapy application. It has also become big business, with large, direct-sales companies like Young Living and doTerra and dozens of small online companies distributing oils for topical, aromatic, and internal use.

Read the rest of this article…

Here are links to articles in the June 2013 Samaritan Ministries Christian Health Care Newsletter.

• In a reprint from the Wall Street Journal, former medical practitioner Dr. Ed Marsh talks about how the physicians’ personal relationships with patients are being extinguished.
• Rob Slane urges us to sing the Psalms in both family and church worship. By doing so, he says, we’re singing God’s thoughts.
• Douglas and Lisa Cherry and their daughter Kalyn are the focus of this month’s Member Spotlight. Kalyn was the victim of sexual abuse, but the Cherrys have taken that tragedy and turned it into ministries that are reaching thousands. The Cherrys also talk about why they joined Samaritan Ministries.
• Part one of a three-part series on essential oils. Their use has been controversial in the past 100 years, but thousands swear by their use for healing and good health.
• Ray King reflects on John 15:7 in this month’s Doorpost.

Share the pieces with your friends.

By Rob Slane

This article is nothing more and nothing less than an encouragement for families and churches to sing the Psalms. For the record, I attend a church which holds to a position of exclusive psalmody. However, I am not here arguing for this position, not least because I have never been fully persuaded by the arguments that are usually given for exclusive psalmody. Neither is this piece a technical examination of the Scriptural reasons as to why psalm singing is important.

Rather, I just wish to set out a few very simple reasons why psalm singing is needed, especially in the times we are living in. If your family and your church do not currently sing psalms, I hope that by the end of the article you will at least have been challenged to give them a go. If your family and your church do already sing psalms, I hope that you will go away with a desire to sing them with more joy and gusto.

So, caveats aside, why ought psalmody play some part in your family and church worship? I have three simple reasons. Firstly, God gave us the Psalms and exhorted us many times in His Word to sing them. Secondly, the Psalms are specially designed to shape the way we think about worship and life. Finally, in times of great wickedness, the Psalms are God’s way of causing his people to actually believe that deliverance will come.

As I said above, this piece is not an argument for exclusive psalmody. It is, however, a case for what you might call inclusive psalmody. The Psalms, which form the largest book in the Bible, were clearly meant to be sung, and the Bible gives many exhortations for us to sing them. This is most clearly seen in the Psalms themselves: “Sing to Him, sing psalms to Him; talk you of all His wondrous works” (Psalm 105:2); “Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving; Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms” (Psalm 95:2); “Sing unto the LORD with the harp; with the harp, and the voice of a psalm” (Psalm 98:5).

Read the rest of this article…