Protection 5 ~ Shield

Hello Everyone!

Our topic for our series on "Protection" this time, is....

*********SHIELD*********

Here is another Brooklyn Tabernacle video.

Yes, I know that we just had one last posting,

but as the famous baseball manager, Yogi Berra once said

"It's like deja-vu, all over again." (hehehe! :D )

The song is entitled "Thou Oh Lord".

It is based on Psalm 3:1-4, which has our beautiful word in it..."shield"...

Here are the words to view as you watch, if you want to.

^"1Lord, how are they increased that trouble me! many are they that rise up against me.

²Many there be which say of my soul, There is no help for him in God. Selah.

³But thou, O LORD, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head.

⁴I cried unto the LORD with my voice, and he heard me out of his holy hill. Selah." (Psalm 3:1-4, King James Version)

This word in the Bible, means a lot to me.

The Lord started to urge me in November 1991 to get into His Word

every day...

Up until then, I read my Bible, but I did not make it my

"first-thing-in-the-morning-focused-effort...what-would-I-miss-for-that-day?-

feeling..."

I KNEW without a shadow of doubt that God wanted me to commune with Him

as never before.

And sure enough, that next February 1992, my life was never the same.

God was protecting and preparing me.

What a Savior You Are! (as the song in my sidebar sings about)

During that time of living with the Bible...actually on occasions,

sleeping with the Bible by my side...

the word "Shield" "popped" out at me it seemed,

everywhere I read.

Duh...I finally got clued in (this was all new to me)

that God was trying to tell me something.

A puzzle, if you will, that I needed to meditate on.

Over the years, I have had the meaning of that word "unlayered"

to me. Unlayered, as you would cut open an onion.

This would happen to me, just when I needed that new knowledge.

Here are some of the things I have learned:

• The Lord is our Shield. He is holding up this shield when we are in battle to extinguish the fiery darts of the enemy when he is attacking. Darts of bitterness, darts of unforgiveness, darts of anger. -Ephesians 6:16

• The Lord is our Shield. He goes before us in our pathway of life. Whatever comes to us...goes through Him first!

• The Lord is our Shield. He is our Protector, our Armor-Bearer!

• The Lord is our Shield. He is very close to us, to be able to protect us.
  
  

The word "shield" occurs 51 times in 49 verses in the New International Version.

To view them all click on this link.

The verses start out with:

"After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: 'Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.'" Genesis 15:1

And they end with:

"In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one."
Ephesians 6:16

I encourage you to do a Bible Study on this wonderful word.

Take one Scripture per day, or however God leads you;

write it out, look up a commentary and then write down what it means

to you in your own words.

This is a suggestion; there are many different ways to study the Bible.

For more examples, please email me and I would be happy to talk

in more detail.

Here is a picture of a shield and a buckler:




Shields come in all shapes and sizes.

The above picture is the most common.

The round shield is a buckler.

It was used in hand-to-hand combat to ward off the blows of

an opponent's sword. It could also be used to hit the enemy as you would

use a club.

Below is a picture I found on the Web of a painting that a lady did

from a vision from the Lord.

I included her website address below, if you would like to see more of

her work.

Psalms 91:4

“He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.” -Psalm 91:4

http://anointedcanvases.com

Also, in my research, I found that some versions of the Bible use the word

"rampart" instead of buckler in Psalm 91:4.

A rampart is a defensive wall of a castle or a walled city.

So you see, the same idea...a defensive wall between you and your enemy.

Here is a picture of a rampart:

“He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.” -Psalm 91:4

The image suggests not only the thought of protection but those of fostering, downy warmth, peaceful proximity to a heart that throbs with parental love.

(author unknown)

From the perspective of the protected, God is warm and tender; from the vantage point of the attacker, God is as strong as steel.

From:

http://bible.org/seriespage/psalm-91-psalm-safety

W.O.W.....

I like that last statement...strong as steel!

That's what I am talkin' about!!

Please enjoy another wonderful CBN video of God's Divine Protection:

Dear Lord,

How can we even begin to thank You

for being our Protector?

Only in heaven will we know the full

extent of Your protection.

Yes, we have troubles and trials,

but You go in the pathway before us...

You are our Armor-Bearer,

You are our Shield!

Thanking Him today,

Debbie G.

Protection 1 ~ Eagles ~ Wings

Hello Everyone!

I am excited to begin our new series on "Protection"!!!!!!!!!!!!

God's protection.

This Bible Study was put on my heart to do at the end of 2008;

the last few days in December and the first few days of January 2009.

My sweet husband was in Detroit, visiting family.

(At that time, I did not have paid days off...now I do TTL!)

I was unable to join him because we needed for me to work.

He was on Christmas break from being a substitute school teacher

here in Williamson County, TN.

Anywho....I was alone.

I am USUALLY pretty comfortable in this situation.

I found myself needing a new theme, book or new Bible Study

to do. I had been studying Philippians for this blog,

but must confess to allowing my "personal" time with God

lacking, because I felt that I was getting the Word of God in me.

I knew better and God convicted me and gave me that "sweet

urging" in my spirit that I needed to get back to doing both studies

and time with Him.

So.........I asked the Lord what He wanted me to study.

Have you ever done that?

It is so exciting to do that and get the answer and see the results.....!!!!!!!

He told me "Protection".....

Some of you may be saying, "I wish I could hear from God like that".

I am NOT bragging on myself, because I will be the first to tell you

that the Creator of the Universe WILL SPEAK to your spirit.....

IF, IF, IF you will QUIET yourself before Him and LISTEN!!

He is no respecter of persons, Romans 2:11

In my new Holman Illustrated Study Bible, Christian Standard Bible

Version (shewwww..!)

...that I had just received for Christmas...

the chapter headings for the Psalms were entitled in a way

that I had never seen before.

I found 8 Psalms that had the word "Protection" in the title.

This lead me to study those Psalms, as we will do over the course

of time in this series.

The 8 Protection Psalms that this Bible had labeled are:

• Psalms 17 • Psalms 64
  
• Psalms 31 • Psalms 91 ~ (oh yeah...)
• Psalms 56 • Psalms 121 ~ (one of my personal favorites)
  
• Psalms 57 • Psalms 141

I am sure that there are others that could be labeled as a

"Protection" Psalm, but these are the 8 that were burned into

my heart, mind and soul...

In those Psalms, I kept coming across words that correlated

with the word "Protection" and here they are:

• Shadow
• Wings (Eagle's Wings)
• Hedge
• Hem
• Watch/Watches
• Refuge
• Shelter
• Shield

For my first post in this series, I am going to talk about....

Wings and Eagles.....

If any of you have ever heard or read Joyce Meyer's teaching

on the characteristics of eagles, you know that it "dovetails"

(pun intended) with the characteristics of how to be a positive

Christian.

I was wanting more of a spin on that teaching to include

how God protects us. It is a great message, though and I highly re-

commend it!

Here is a video of Joyce teaching on part of the series:




Here is where you can purchase her series.

As far as I can tell, it is out of print.

If someone knows differently, please advise us!

Here is another wonderful, fact-filled article about eagles.

The most well known Scripture about eagles IWDTS

(I Would Dare To Say).....is

Isaiah 40:31 (King James Version)...

"But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength;

they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not

be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint."

I really appreciate this Scripture, but to me it is more about

renewed strength, rather than protection,

unless you really dwell on the last 3 words.

In researching for "eagle/s" and "wing/s" in the Bible,

I typed the words in the search box at

www.blueletterbible.org and found that there are:

• 28 instances for eagle/s
• 89 instances for wing/s
  

(In the New International Version.)

Don't worry

we will not be looking up every 117 verses! :D

Four verses "jumped" out at me:

• Psalm 17:8-9 in The Message Bible:

"Keep Your eye on me; hide me under Your cool wing feathers
from the wicked who are out to get me, from mortal enemies closing in."

AND

• Exodus 19:4 in The Holman Christian Standard Bible:

"You have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I carried you on eagles' wings and brought you to Me."

AND

Deuteronomy 32:11 New International Version

"...like an eagle that stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, that spreads its wings to catch them and carries them on its pinions."

I don't know about you, but I didn't know what a "pinion" was.

Here what my computer dictionary said:

"Outer part of the bird wing, including the flight feathers."

Well...aren't all the feathers on the wing a "flight feather"?

Click here

for a "gr8t" explanation of this pinion/flight feather situation.

(And they say there is no God....)

Here's one excerpt that I could not resist:

"(The primary feathers) are the largest of the flight feathers and are the farthest away from the body, attached to the skin of the wing on the 'hand'."

hmmm...He catches us when we fall...And He carries us in His hand...!!!

Some commentators say that it is not natural for eagles to carry their

young on their wings or backs.

But here is an eye witness to this feat:

"In his classic work on birds of prey, Arthur Cleveland Bent presented much detailed information about the nesting habits of the golden eagle, Aguila Chrysadtos canadensis (Linnaeus). He reported material derived from an observation published in 'The Condor' as follows:

Dr. Loye Miller (1918) published the following account, as given to him by one of his students:

'Last summer while my father and I were extracting honey at the apiary about a mile southeast of Thatcher School, Ojai, California, we noticed a golden eagle teaching its young one to fly. It was about ten o'clock. The Mother started from the nest in the crags, and roughly handling the young, she allowed him to drop, I should say, about ninety feet, then she would swoop down under him, wings spread, and he would alight on her back. She would soar to the top of the range with him and repeat the process. One time she waited perhaps fifteen minutes between flights, I should say the farthest she let him fall was 150 feet.

My father and I watched this, spellbound, for over an hour. I do not know whether the young one gained confidence by this method or not. A few days later father and I rode to the cliff and out on Overhanging Rock. The eagle's nest was empty.' (Miss F. E. Shuman.)" (1)

(Now...I don't think this is an eagle's wing by any means...

but I just couldn't keep from posting it.

I like the way the light is shining on it.)

"God reveals Himself throughout His Word. Sometimes He shows Himself powerful and mighty. Other times He is a still small voice. But one of the most beautiful and revealing pictures of our Lord is that of the mother Eagle. If we could only live moment by moment in the assurance that God is our Protector and Sustainer, our Power and Strength. Like the mother eagle, God teaches us of His ways. Like the mother eagle, God protects us from all enemies. Like the mother eagle, God nurtures and loves us. May we be always mindful of that love and nurturing." (2)

"God's love and care was shown for Israel already, as He bore you on eagle's wings. It is said that an eagle does not carry her young in her claws like other birds; the young eagles attach themselves to the back of the mother eagle and are protected as they are carried. Any arrow from a hunter must pass through the mother eagle before it could touch the young eagle on her back."(3)

WHOO HOO!!! Talk about protection with a capital "P"!

That reminds me a the word "shield" in all of this...

Nothing can come to me that doesn't pass through the Lord first!!!

Praise the Lord!!

You ARE my Shield and You ARE my Protector!

Allow me to end with this video...Plz enjoy!

(Friendly reminder: click the pause button on

the Playlist on the sidebar to be able to hear

this video.)



Amen!

Lord, help me to rise up as the eagle's wings, know that You are always
my Protector and Shield!

Debbie G.

References:
(1) Science in Christian Perspective
MOSES AND THE EAGLE
FREDERIC R. HOWE* AND GEORGE F. HOWE"
From: JASA 20 (March 1968): 22-24.
(2) http://ll.newsforchristians.com/sermons/sermon027.html
(3) David Guzik Study Guide for Exodus 19 at:
www.blueletterbible.org