Related Episodes: Here I Am, Send Me, From Empty to Adopted with Paralympic Swimmer Jessica Long, The Next Right Thing, Mini Episode:Waves of Hope, You’ve Got Talent, Faithful Obedience, Trust and Faithfulness, 5 Loaves and 2 Fish

Yulia Shubina grew up in Central Asia in an area closed to the Gospel. However, through miracles and hard work, she received a Christmas Box at the age of 9 through Samaritans Purse. In that beautiful purple plastic box (which she still has 20 years later), she was delighted with beautiful new toys and supplies and heard for the first time of a loving God through another little girl who gave her a note telling her so. This box was the seed of a 7-year journey that led Yulia to salvation.

Operation Christmas Child sends millions of boxes to children worldwide to supply needs, fun surprises, and most of all the knowledge of a God who loves them and gives hope. Yulia is one of many who have grown to know Jesus as her personal savior through the wonderful sacrifice of families willing to send them gifts. Yulia has a wonderful story that helps us see an intimate view of what God can do through a Christmas box. “Because when God is involved, there is always more.”

Revelation 3:20 – Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.

Resources:
Build a Box online, Click HERE!
Operation Christmas Child: https://www.samaritanspurse.org/what-we-do/operation-christmas-child/
What to Put in a Box: https://www.samaritanspurse.org/operation-christmas-child/pack-a-shoe-box/

In our last episode, we talked about peace. So why are we now talking about war?! Peace and faith are pieces of the armor of God, which God made for us to wear in battle. When we wear peace as our shoes, they balance us and give us firm footing to stand firm in battle. But we also wear shoes to move. Ephesians 6 describes our armor pieces for battle, but what fight are we actually in?

• We may be fighting a battle, but Jesus already won the war. What is this war?
  • Satan declared war on God when he tricked Eve and Adam into sinning, and therefore taking all of humankind as hostages.
  • Despite how broken this hostage situation makes us, God will do anything to get us back.
  • Our ransom price was set high: the death of God through Jesus. However, because God is an all knowing all powerful strategist, he set a plot twist where the ransom price that was meant to be a trick against God actually completely 100% defeated Satan and death’s power over us.
• So if Jesus won the war, why are we fighting a battle?
  • A word that I’ve heard so many times but never actually understood was in Romans 8:37- We are more than conquerors through Christ.
  • I used to think that it meant we were in a team with Jesus to win! But I wasn’t quite right.
    • Conquerors are the soldiers in the battle that come in after the battle was won. Their job was to clear things out, claim the plunder, and kill off anyone left behind from the opposing army.
    • Our job as conquerors in Christ is to come in after Jesus won the war to prove to the rest of the world his victory!
• Another word that I thought I knew the definition for but wasn’t quite right is “faith.”
  • Hebrews 11 is often called the Faith Chapter of the Bible and therefore I have spent some time over the past few months trying to understand it better. But for some reason, the very first verse was confusing to me. Hebrews 11:1- Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see.
  • I was viewing faith as a noun, a thing, but I never thought to think of it as a verb-an action.
    • The Greek word used in Hebrews 11:1 and Ephesians 6 is pistis, which translates as an action, acts of faith, or works
  • So it finally clicked: faith, our actions in faith, are the proof to other people that 1. We even have faith to begin with and 2. That what we hope for, the hope that we have in Jesus, is real!
• Ephesians 6:16- In addition to all of these, hold up the shield of faith to stop the fiery arrows of the devil.”
  • The Armor of God by Priscilla Shirer describes the Roman soldier’s shield this way: It was a large shield typically 2 feet wide by 4 feet long, shaped almost like a door, consisting of planks of wood fused together. The wood was covered by canvas, then by leather. Then iron was built into the center as a hub and also into the extreme edges of the wood from top to bottom. This made the shield able to withstand the hard-hitting strokes of an enemy’s broadsword during close combat. Ancient historians say these shields were so large that they were capable of covering the whole body of a solder when he was crouched down.
• What is our faith shielding us from?
  • The second half of Ephesians 6:16- the fiery arrows of the devil.
    • Roman soldier’s shields were covered with canvas, leather, and had substances poured on them to make them more fireproof.
    • In times of Roman battles, the fiery arrows were not meant to kill (though that would have been an added bonus) but to distract. Satan wants us to be distracted from moving forward, there is nothing that would make him happier than to keep us from conquering.
• A real story from the Bible about how faith was used as a shield and the protection it gives can be found in Joshua chapter 2. The story of Rahab.
  • Rahab was a prominent, wealthy prostitute in Jericho. However, when the Hebrew spies found themselves in her mercy she hid them and kept them safe. She was putting her faith in God and choosing His side of the battle.
  • Because of her faith in God, she was given a scarlet rope to hang from the window as the walls of Jericho fell. This sign saved her life, as her house was the only part of the wall that did not fall. But not only was her life spared, Rahab is one of the few women listed in the direct lineage to Jesus Christ.
• Faith is not something that we can make on our own, God gives it to us. He is our shield.
  • 2 Corinthians 10:4- We use God’s mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and destroy false arguments.
  • Psalm 28:7- The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in Him, and I am helped; Therefore my heart exults. And with my song I shall thank Him.
  • Genesis 15:1- After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision saying “Do not fear, Abram. I am a shield to you. Your reward shall be very great.
• Please note, our shield of faith does not mean that we are shielded from calamity, disease, trauma, or even physical death. Actually, Jesus basically warns us that these are going to be a part of life. But Ephesians 6:11-12 describes what it does do- Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. For we are not fighting against flesh and blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.
• All of this talk about a God of war seems distasteful and counterintuitive in our culture.
  • in A Place of Healing, Joni Eareckson Tada  says so poignantly- Admit it: when your heart is being wrung out like a sponge, when it feels like Morton’s salt is being poured into your wounded soul, you don’t want a thin, pale, emotional Jesus who relates only to lames and birds and babies. You want a warrior Jesus.
  • We have a warrior Jesus who fights passionately for us, and he wants us to fight with him as well.
    • 2 Timothy 2:3- Endure suffering along with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus
    • 2 Timothy 1:7- For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.
    • 1 John 4:4- But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people because the Spirit who lives in you is great than the spirit who lives in this world.
    • Isaiah 54:17- But in that coming day no weapon turned against you will succeed. You will silence every voice raised up to accuse you. These benefits are enjoyed by the servants of the LORD; their vindication will come from me. I, the LORD, have spoken.
    • John Piper said “There is a war going on. All talk of a Christian to live luxuriously as a ‘child of the king’ in this atmosphere sound hollow-especially since the king himself was stripped for battle.
  • Recap: when Paul tells us to take up the shield of faith, it is an action, a command. Unlike girding with a belt (another of God’s armor) which you wear all of the time passively, a shield is not pulled out unless you’re in the heat of the battle. It is a call to arms,l to actively fight, and God himself provided our protection. When we wear our peace shoes and hold up our shield of faith, we are given a full and powerful ability to move forward.
• Please watch this video from the movie Wonder Woman to have a perfect visual demonstration of exactly what I’m trying to say.
• Read this next passage as a battle cry: imagine you are hyped up on adrenaline, so excited because OUR GOD WON THE WAR!! Read this as an exclamation as we move forward and show the world the victory of Jesus Christ and how we are now free!
  • Romans 8:31-37- What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since he did not spare even His own Won but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else? Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for His own? No one-for God himself has given us right standing with himself. Who then will condemn us? No one for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us. Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? (As the scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”) No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow-not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or the earth below-indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.