Lighthouse Bible Studies

by Katy Kauffman

They built the wall, but the danger wasn’t over.

The enemies of the Jews hated them. During the rebuilding of the wall of Jerusalem, the enemy mocked them, plotted to attack them, and enticed Nehemiah four times to leave the work and meet them outside the city (Nehemiah 2:19, 4:7-8, 6:1-4). Relentless. The fifth message they sent was a letter that claimed Nehemiah and the Jews were rebelling against the foreign king who ruled them at the time. They persisted in trying to stop the work, but God’s people finished it, and the wall was restored. 

We have a relentless enemy today. Our spiritual enemy Satan doesn’t want to see us restored—redeemed from past mistakes, healed from hurtful words and actions, and set right in how we think and feel and act. Satan wants us to live bruised, beaten, and discouraged. Defeated.

by Katy Kauffman

It attacked my baby tree. It wasn’t enough that this woodpecker had attacked the new metal vent caps on the roof. Now he was going for my precious baby tree. I call it a baby, because this fifteen-foot tree is special to me. For thirteen years, he didn’t grow much, and then last year, poof! His branches went a bit wild, finally growing, and I didn’t have the heart to trim them.

I watched as the woodpecker attempted to drill a hole in this tree. But then, he looked at the tree and flew away. I realized it was the life of the tree that made the woodpecker retreat. Instead of finding rotten wood to carve a home out of, he found life.

Our spiritual enemy Satan tries incessantly to find a weak spot in our lives. In our thinking, our desires, our relationships, our fortitude. He wants to drill a hole in our joy and peace. While he can never inhabit a believer’s heart, he and his forces will do everything they can to harass a child of God. The beautiful but pesky woodpecker taught me something about spiritual victory—it’s the life in a soul that makes the enemy retreat. It’s Jesus’ life within us that enables us to be overcomers. Mark Chapter 9 illustrates this in another way.

by Katy Kauffman

I met my first wolf as a preteen visiting the city zoo in Paris, France. He was black, and I think he liked me. As I walked back and forth in front of his fenced habitat taking pictures of the wolves, he followed me. Head down. I got a kick out of this and started walking faster back and forth in front of him, hoping he would keep following me. He did. My mom called out for me to stop. I think she was wiser than I. Not too long after that, I encountered a different wolf. As a teenager, I began having tormenting, negative thoughts. After a while, my mom realized they were coming from a spiritual enemy.

by Katy Kauffman @KatyKauffman28

Awake, awake!

Put on your strength, O Zion;

put on your beautiful garments,

 O Jerusalem, the holy city!

Isaiah 52:1a NKJV

Awake to light, awake to hope!

Awake to strength replacing weakness.

Awake to beauty displacing misery.

Are you ready for the onslaught of good that will come?

Of God rising, His wings drowning out the cries of hopelessness.

Of God fighting, His sword clashing with the lies and schemes of the enemy.

by Katy Kauffman @KatyKauffman28

The lie shot through my mind, an arrow launched by the enemy. You’re not good enough to draw close to God. You have too much sin.

I knew that wasn’t the truth—God wants His children to draw close to Him. But I was missing an essential element of believing the truth—living it out. Many of my prayer times weren’t joyful celebrations of God’s goodness, but struggles and regrets over my lack of it. Satan’s scheme was working, and I needed rescuing.  

How do you respond to Satan’s lies and schemes? Do you recognize the arrows that he launches toward your mind and heart? Arrows that make you doubt God, His love, and your relationship with Him?   

I will never get over the thrill of reading Psalm 18 and cherishing God as our Champion and Hero. This week as I design the July issue of Broken but Priceless: The Magazine, I would like to share with you a poem that fits into our Delighting in God’s Goodness series. I hope that this poem, which has appeared in Broken but Priceless and on my blog, blesses you this week and reminds you of Who fights for you.

Why do I cower so much in the night

And depend on my failing wisdom and might?

My enemies may be too strong for me,

But my God is the powerful One, the Almighty.

I will cry out to Him when danger draws near.

I will call on His name when my heart beats in fear.

O God, rescue me from the onslaught of attacks.

Calm my heart and remind me of the facts—

You are greater than any strong enemy.

You ride on the wind and walk on the sea.

You light coals on fire with one single breath.

The earth shakes when You’re full of wrath.

I was chained. You wouldn’t have been able to hear clanging links as I walked by, or see the chain that was metaphorically wrapped around my heart and mind. But for years, I struggled with chains of my own making. When I realized that they were hindering my walk with God, I wanted to be free. I just wasn’t sure how to do it.

Have you been there? Even children of God battle bad habits or detrimental ways of thinking, feeling, and acting. Jesus died to set us free from sin’s power in our lives, but we can still walk hindered. We can let fear, anxiety, anger, loneliness, and so forth hinder what God wants to do in our lives and how we relate to Him and other people. But it doesn’t have to be that way. We can break free and stay free. The strategies to do it are in our new book.  

“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 sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 
Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion.
Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere.”
Ephesians 6:14-18, NLT

Paul addressed the Christians in Ephesus how to remain strong in the Lord and in the power of God by comparing God’s protective armor to that of the Roman soldiers. The first post on the armor described the belt, vest, and shoes that Christians need to fight in spiritual warfare. Paul directed them to buckle the belt of truth around their waists, to cover their hearts with the impenetrable vests of righteousness, and to walk in boots of peace of the gospel of Christ.

Part two describes the outer shoe guard, helmet, sword, and binding cover of the armor of Christ. Paul reminded them in addition to wearing the shoes of the gospel of peace, to cover their heads with the helmet of salvation and to wield God’s Word, the sword of the Spirit. He urged them to bind all these together with prayer for defense against the enemy.

The shoe guards. The open-laced boots left the soldier’s shin exposed, therefore he wore a greave or shin armor to protect the tibia from attack. A blow below an unprotected knee rendered the soldier unable to maneuver. A metal exterior with a padded interior comprised most greaves. Often they covered only the shin, but a greave could be worn on the back of his leg by buckling them together. 

“And this is why you need to be head-to-toe in the full armor of God:
so you can resist during these evil days and be fully prepared to hold your ground.  
Yes, stand—truth banded around your waist, righteousness as your chest plate,
and feet protected in preparation to proclaim the good news of peace.”
Ephesians 6:13-15 (VOICE)

Why did Paul choose armor to illustrate our being protected against a spiritual enemy? Rome ruled the country and the people. Roman soldiers dwelled in every province into which Paul traveled. The citizens knew exactly what constituted an armor. By addressing the pieces of armor to which Paul refers, we gain a better mental image of what he may have been attempting to paint.

The belt. Paul urged the Ephesians to gird themselves with truth. A soldier wore a tunic with a belt around the loin which is the waist. The belt held the tunic up and supported the sword, demonstrating readiness to serve.

As a corrections officer my son wears a uniform that requires specific items at all times. On his belt, he must wear his tazer, two sets of cuffs, pepper spray, radio, baton, and gloves. At 150 pounds and six feet tall, I picture his belt as completely covered. He must be prepared for any circumstance. 

How do you respond to Satan’s lies and schemes? Today I want to look at the second prayer in our series on prayers from the Bible. Prayed at a desperate time, this prayer is a model that helps us to counteract the voice of the enemy. 

Tucked away in the chapters of Isaiah is a short but powerful prayer. Hezekiah, king of Judah, faced threats from a fierce enemy, King Sennacherib of Assyria, who planned to besiege Jerusalem. Hezekiah took a letter filled with the enemy’s threats to the temple of God, and spread the letter before Him—a perfect picture of faith and dependence on God. In the letter, the enemy boasted that he had conquered other nations and their gods hadn’t been able to save them (Isa 37:8-13). Earlier he had even said that the God of the Jews had sent him to destroy their land (Isa 36:10), which was a lie. Just like Hezekiah’s enemy tried to use lies to frighten him and the people, Satan uses lies against God’s children today to make us afraid.