Today's devotions: "arrows for God's army"

We made it to church this morning--yay! I didn't even try sitting in the sanctuary, I brought some devotional books and sat in the fellowship hall. I did devotions for a while and then went to help out in the kitchen for a while.


I've been working through the book "Be fruitful and multiply" by Nancy Cambell lately. I haven't picked it up in a while though, so it was wonderful to dive back into it.

Today's chapter was on the subject of children being like "arrows" for God's army.

Psalm 127:4-5
As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies at the gate.

The whole chapter talks about how, just as a man who goes off to war wants his quiver full of arrows, so should we as parents. The more "arrows" we have, the more weapons we have to use in our war against Satan and his evil.

So many parents are stopping after just one or two children, and then wonder why the world is so bad. The main point of this chapter is: if every Christian couple has a "quiver full of children" (let's just say even 5 children...) that's over double the number of children we would be raising up for God. How many more evangelists would we have? Missionaries? Godly council men? Teachers? Pastors? The list goes on and on. Our world is just getting worse and worse and worse, and that is party our faults as Christian couples, who limit ourselves to just one or two children.

Today's "highlightables" are:
(this poor book isn't even half way read, yet nearly the entire thing is underlined, highlighted and marked up!!)

"Satan hasn't forgotten God's word. He knows that if he can limit the arrows from the Christian parents, he can limit the light that will expose his darkness."

"Satan, who comes to "steal, kill and destroy," seeks to destroy newly formed life in the womb by abortion. But he has an even better plan than that--and it has been successful. He seeks to limit the godly seed before it is even conceived. By doing this, he limits the army of God. If the Christian church had not listened to the humanistic lies of the enemy and limited their families, the army of God would be more powerful in this hour. The enemy's camp would be trembling. Instead they are laughing. Contraception has limited the army of God even more effectively than abortion."

"Arrows do not just happen. It takes hours and hours of patience to straighten and sharpen an arrow that can effectively hit the mark. This is the task that God has given to parents. We are the "arrow sharpeners," preparing arrows for God's army. The more "straight arrows" we prepare, the more we help God fulfill His plans on earth."

I absolutely love this book. I'm only on chapter 6, but seriously, those 6 chapters are sooo marked up and underlined. There is so much of this book that needs to be shared with other couples. I recommend this book to every married couple.

This book has opened up my eyes and changed my heart so much. Jeff is going through it with me, and we've both decided to re-read it every other year. It's something that we need to be constantly reminded of--Always knowing what God's vision is for the Christian family.