{"id":10619,"date":"2013-03-25T00:01:14","date_gmt":"2013-03-25T04:01:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=10619"},"modified":"2013-03-24T15:32:01","modified_gmt":"2013-03-24T19:32:01","slug":"girls-with-swords-chapter-1-you-are-a-target-pgs-3-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2013\/03\/25\/girls-with-swords-chapter-1-you-are-a-target-pgs-3-6\/","title":{"rendered":"Girls With Swords: Chapter 1 &#8211; &#8220;You Are A Target&#8221; (pgs 3-6)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Our daily reading schedule for this week can be found by clicking <a href=\"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/bible-studies-schedule-2\/\">this link<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\">*****<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\" align=\"center\"><a href=\"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Eph6_13.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter  wp-image-10671\" alt=\"Eph6_13\" src=\"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Eph6_13.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"275\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>We do not have to leave our homes to know that an epic battle is waging. On any given day, point your internet browser to any major news website and you will see how desperate Satan is. Violence, anger, hatred, jealousy, greed, envy and judgment seem to permeate our society. In fact, it may even discourage some of you; make you doubt our God and His goodness.<\/p>\n<p>Sisters, it is time to recognize and understand that <b><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">we<\/span><\/b> are a part of this battle. As Christians, we are automatically targets of the enemy. Satan will stop at nothing to tear apart our relationship with the Lord. That is his business. <em><strong>It is his <\/strong><\/em><strong>only<\/strong><em><strong> job.<\/strong><\/em> He wants to keep us away from reading the Bible. He wants to prevent us from fully participating in a Bible\/Book study by distracting us. He does not want us to be in fellowship with other believers so he will use our insecurities or past hurts to prevent us from moving forward in our faith journey. Anything is up for grabs. Not one of us is immune. If he sees a spot to weasel his way in, he will <i>try<\/i> to do it. I use the word *try* because <em><strong>we hold the ultimate power.<\/strong><\/em> We can look to God to help us through these difficulties, or, we can allow the situation to take us captive and restrict the Spirit&#8217;s work in our life.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Which will you choose?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>I say this not to scare you, but to warn you.<\/strong><\/em> The battle is being waged. Thankfully, we have a Mighty Savior who sends us to the frontlines fully equipped to fight the enemy and to <span style=\"text-decoration: line-through;\">beat<\/span> <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><b>crush<\/b><\/span> him at his own game.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p align=\"center\">Therefore, put on every piece of God\u2019s armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then after the battle you will still be standing firm. Stand your ground, putting on the belt of truth and the body armor of God\u2019s righteousness. For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the Good News so that you will be fully prepared. In addition to all of these, hold up the shield of faith to stop the fiery arrows of the devil. Put on salvation as your helmet, and take the <i>sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.<\/i><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><strong>Ephesians 6:13-17 NLT<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The Lord gives us many defensive weapons in our arsenal to fight the enemy. We have a belt, body armor, shoes, a shield, and a helmet. However, there is just one offensive weapon: t<i>he sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What is the Word of God?<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>For the Word of God\u00a0<i>is<\/i>\u00a0living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart (<strong>Hebrews 4:12, NKJV<\/strong>).<\/li>\n<li>All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip His people to do every good work (<strong>2 Timothy 3:16 and 17, NLT<\/strong>).<\/li>\n<li>Your Word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path (<strong>Psalms 119:105, NLT<\/strong>).<\/li>\n<li>In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the <em>Word was God<\/em>. He existed in the beginning with God. God created everything through Him, and nothing was created except through Him. The Word gave life to everything that was created, and His life brought light to everyone. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it (<strong>John 1:1-5, NLT<\/strong>).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>When we tuck God\u2019s Word into our heart, we are able to defeat the enemy <em>immediately<\/em> when he tries to attack us. Before Jesus started His ministry, Satan tempted Him in the wilderness. For forty days and nights, He fasted and was very hungry (<strong>Matthew 4:2<\/strong>). He refuted Satan\u2019s attempts at trickery <em><strong>by repeating the truth from God\u2019s Word<\/strong><\/em>. \u201cThen the devil went away, and angels came and took care of Jesus\u201d (<strong>Matthew 4:11<\/strong>). By claiming God\u2019s truth and promises and wielding them as a weapon to the enemy, <strong>Satan had no choice but to flee<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Can I get an AMEN to that?!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Ladies, I know life is difficult. It can be busy. I truly hope and pray that you will delve deeply into this study. Commit to it. Make it a part of your daily quiet time with the Lord. <strong>It has the potential to impact your life in a radical way<\/strong>. God wants to use us to reach the lost, to save those that we may think seem gone forever. No one is beyond saving. <strong>No one.<\/strong> We can be a hero in God\u2019s army of warriors. But, ultimately, <b><i><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">it is our choice<\/span><\/i><\/b>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Who\u2019s with me?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">*****<\/p>\n<p><b>Let\u2019s Pray<\/b>:<\/p>\n<p>Heavenly Father, as we begin our study of this book, please let the truth from Your Word soak into the depths of our souls. We want to be prepared for the battles that are coming our way and to be a hero fighting for You, Lord. Please remove anything that will prevent us from focusing solely on this study. Help us find a daily quiet time with You to read and study what You want to teach us through this book. We know You have already won the battle, Lord. We thank You that You are a God who loves us so much and who equips us with all that we need to fight the enemy. We have all that we need in You. Guide and lead us in the weeks to come. We pray this in the precious name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\u00a0*****<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">If you are interested in joining us for this online Bible study, please click <a href=\"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/sign-up-for-girlfriends-coffee-hour-online-bible-studies\/\">HERE<\/a> to complete your enrollment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Our daily reading schedule for this week can be found by clicking this link. ***** We do not have to leave our homes to know that an epic battle is waging. On any given day, point your internet browser to any major news website and you will see how desperate Satan is. Violence, anger, hatred, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10671,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[2093,1266,2095,2096,425,1985,2094,2107,550,2091,1986,2089,2090,723,2092,2097,1140,1145,2088],"class_list":["post-10619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-womens","tag-2-timothy-316-17","tag-christian-womens-fellowship","tag-ephesians-613-17","tag-epic-battle","tag-girlfriends-coffee-hour","tag-girls-with-swords","tag-hebrews-412","tag-how-to-carry-your-cross-like-a-hero","tag-jennifer-mleczynski","tag-john-11-5","tag-lisa-bevere","tag-matthew-411","tag-matthew-42","tag-online-bible-studies","tag-psalm-119105","tag-sword-of-the-spirit","tag-womens-online-bible-studies","tag-word-of-god","tag-you-are-a-target","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Eph6_13.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p39pHp-2Lh","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10619"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10619\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10674,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10619\/revisions\/10674"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}