Cousin Eddie's Words of Wisdom

I love the movie Christmas Vacation.

During one of the scenes, Randy Quaid, who plays Cousin Eddie, makes a comment about a plate in his head.  They had replaced the metal plate with a plastic one to protect his skull after a war injury.  And in his words, "I don’t know if I oughta go sailin’ down no hill with nothin’ between the ground and my brains but a piece of government plastic."

Cousin Eddie, as goofy as he was in the movie, realizes how important it is to protect the brain.  A head injury, no matter how light, can have major effects on cognitive thinking, mobility and vision.  A blow to the head can cripple a person, and often times can result in death.

It's why soldiers, as they go into battle, wear helmets.  It protects their heads from bullets and other weapons. Baseball players wear helmets while batting.  Football and hockey players don't enter the game without a helmet on.  Helmet are important.

It was the same during the New Testament times.  Roman soldiers wore helmets to protect their heads from major blows.  An axe or sword or club or even a fist to the head could leave a soldier incapicitated or worse.  So Roman soldiers wore helmets into battle.

Paul uses this for a metaphor in the Armor of God.  He tells Christian to put on the helmet of salvation.  Now, salvation is the deliverance from the power and penalties of sin. So Paul tells us to wear our salvation on our heads.  Our salvation is secure and protects us from the doubts Satan throws our way.

You see, Satan wants you to doubt your salvation and your relationship with Christ.  If he can cause doubt, he can drive a wedge in our relationship.  He can't take it away, but he can make us feel isolated and alone.  So he tries to attack us through doubt.

Paul tells us to combat doubt with salvation.  Jesus said we can never be taken from him.  So with salvation, we know we belong to Jesus and nothing can take that away.

Don't give into doubt.  Instead, put on the helmet of salvation so you can be equipped to fight the schemes of the evil one.

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