May 15, 2014: Volume 3, Number 14
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30 60 100 MINISTRIES |
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|  Truth or lie? It can be easy to identify simple falsehoods ... but harder to know if you've casually accepted an untruth by distraction or denial.
Today's feature, Telling a Lie or Living a Lie? helps you use a piece of God's armor so you can identify the difference -- and live in truth day by day.
It is the sixth part in a series on practical vigilance which explains the visual head-to-toe word picture describing God's armor (Ephesians 6) as we fight the seven sins He despises (Proverbs 6).
 Let us know in an email how you're using this content to cultivate your spiritual health. And always keep growing!
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SPIRITUALLY HEALTHY LEADER� WORKSHOPS CONTINUE THIS WEEK
| Spiritually Healthy Leader� workshop series equips you to be spiritually fit, manage conflict, maintain healthy relationships, set a healthy pace, overcome leadership challenges, and finish well. The series continues this week with a session about relationships.
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Our new offices at 2425 San Pedro Dr. NE
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$50 per workshop
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Attend any one - any combination of - or all six 4-hour morning workshops.
Join us for Session 2: Healthy Relationships
Friday, May 16: 8:30 AM - 12:30 PM
Learn to identify personal strengths, value the different strengths of others, and how to blend to have better communication and better fit in your relationships at home, work, and in ministry. This session includes your own 20-page, personalized Leading From Your Strengths profile.
Learn more and register today.
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 Feature: TRIED, TRUE, STATE-OF-ART -- ARMOR FOR DAILY BATTLE
PART 6: LIVE A LIE OR LIVE THE TRUTH? | Sixth in a series about personal vigilance
In Proverbs 6, God describes seven sins He hates, starting at the top of the human body and moving down: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that kill, a conniving heart, feet that rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies, and a man who stirs up discord.
Then in Ephesians 6:12-18, God provides a set of practical tools we can use to battle those seven sins, which include the helmet of salvation, the sword of the Spirit, the shield of faith, the breastplate of righteousness, shoes shod with peace, and the belt of truth.
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Image: Amazon
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The belt of truth, cinched around the waist, refers to the same kind of accessory worn by the Romans as they went into battle. It protects the middle of the lower torso - the area that allows us to reproduce.
What Do You Reproduce?
We naturally equate reproducing with having children. Yet scripture points out that we reproduce our thoughts in our actions, behavior, and words: "As a man thinks in his heart, so is he" (Proverbs 23:7, NKJV).
God understands that we may struggle to reproduce truth in our lives. Our bent gives in to reproducing lies of our flesh or from the enemy. A big reason He gave us the belt of truth is to counter the false witness referred to in Proverbs 6.
Telling a Lie or Living a Lie?
When we think of telling lies, our minds naturally go to basic, one-time untruths: "No, I didn't take cookies from the cookie jar" or "No, I didn't spend more during the shopping trip than we agreed" or even, "Do you know what she did?" (when she didn't.) Telling a lie is an active event.
But living a lie can be passive and happen nearly without notice. A witness tells what he has seen or heard. By casually accepting a falsehood or passively skimming over it, a false witness denies the truth. He chooses instead to prevent access to the truth or avoid putting it into action.
A false witness can become so used to living an untruth that he doesn't know he's doing so. Proverbs 6:19 describes a "A false witness who pours out lies" (NIV), defining deception as a continual stream of untruths that brings others into a snare. In other words, a false witness lives a lie by being passive or by living in denial. The issue is further compounded because others are brought down by those untruths, too.
The Belt of Truth Does Not Deny
A false witness is subtle. Your thoughts, behavior, and words that agree with your flesh or the enemy are lies. By giving way to them or repeating what is planted in your mind, you deny what God has done for you. In doing so, you give permission for falsehood to reign in your life and become a witness for it. You deny the power of the truth. You also deny God's transformation in and through you.
The belt of truth can protect you from reproducing those deceptive thoughts. As the belt encircles you, the truth can control you and hold you in check. Since the belt cannot deny the truth, it girds you to battle living a lie, allowing you to embrace and access what God has done for you.
When you put on the belt, you are equipped to face the truth ... and more. You're equipped to live it out.
Armor for Daily Battle, Part 1: Get Your Gear Ready
Armor for Daily Battle, Part 2: The Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Leave Vulnerable
Armor for Daily Battle, Part 3: My Hands Are Full - and That's a Good Thing
Armor for Daily Battle, Part 4: Follow Your Heart or Guard Your Heart?
Growth Point
Put on God's belt to live the truth.
Scripture
Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist. (Ephesians 6:14, NIV) Prayer Points - Most of us envision the belt of truth pointing out where we might go wrong. How can the belt point out what you might omit or deny?
- Name a time when you denied the truth and how eventually God revealed it to you.
- A belt cinches together other articles of clothing. How does the belt of truth do the same for our hearts?
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| What People Are Saying ... |
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"It is so good to read your notes in The Cultivator. The articles always encourage my soul to seek God. Thank you. God bless you!"
Hear more testimonies from Christians in remote areas served by 30 60 100 MINISTRIES staff here.
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