I had always known that I had a spleen, but I had never given it a lot of thought. I probably knew its function back in the late fifties when I was a Navy Hospital Corpsman, but that was a long time ago. When I had my recent colon surgery the doctor told me that he couldn't get my spleen to stop bleeding, so he had to remove it along with the cancer. That's when I learned that I wish I had my spleen back. It is part of our immune system. I've got to be careful about being around people with communicable diseases. That means that I will no longer scoff at things like flu and pneumonia shots. I've even had a meningitis shot. Why am I taking your time to write about my spleen? It occurred to me yesterday that we do not have a spiritual spleen; therefore, we need to get immunized against spiritual diseases. God has provided some things to immunize us against the devil. First, there is the word of God - the Bible. (Here I go again telling you to read your Bible.) We can't help but be out in the world around all of its temptations and we need to read and know the word of God to help in our defense. Even Jesus used the word of God to combat Satan during his forty day temptation. Second, there is prayer. We need the protection of prayer every moment of every day. Prayer will prepare us to meet the temptations that we will inevitably face. Third, there is the fellowship of the saints. We need to be accountable to somebody and our fellow Christians can help us overcome temptation. If we know that we have to give account to someone, we will be more careful about what we do. Fourth, there is the armor of God that Paul writes about in Ephesians 6. Among other things, he writes about the belt of the gospel of truth, the breastplate of righteousness and the shield of faith. All of these help to keep us immune to Satan's great ploys. (Read Ephesians 6:10-20 to get the full picture.) God has given ways of escape. Like I now have to take flu and pneumonia, etc. shots seriously for my physical health, we need to take seriously the things that God has given us to maintain spiritual health. There are many more of these spiritual "shots" but these should suffice to help us stay well.
Bro. Joe
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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September 2021
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