Empower Our Activities With Prayer—Part 7

Fit for a King (continued)

Amanda’s impossible dream was to rescue the Forbidden Princess from the hold of the Enchanter. Her glass-breaking idea was to see this sad young woman come to know the real King, and Amanda prayed for the princess, using his names. Would the King be of any help? Would he answer her prayers? Would he get involved in the rescue?

The next night Amanda left her earphones and headset hanging neatly on their hook, finished her dispatcher’s notes, and crept without telling anyone into the little temple where she hid in the darkest corner. Finally, the gatekeeper turned the key in the outside lock. To her surprise she heard him say, “She’s locked inside.”

Which she? Amanda wondered. Her breath quickened. Eyes shut, looking inward, she was horrified to see the eye of the Enchanter looking straight at her! An evil smile lit up his face. Closing off sight, she hurriedly began the litany of names. This time, she spoke them aloud, urgently evoking the full sum of powers available to her.

“His Majesty the King!” The Forbidden Princess walked to the balcony. “My Sovereign Liege!” The girl leaned over the wrought iron, as Amanda herself walked boldly out of the shadows to the paving stones. “His Eminence!” The eyes of the Forbidden Princess filled with tears. “The Most Benevolent Potentate!” The tears splashed on the stones. “His Supreme Holiness!” The sky overhead began to shine slightly with a faint cast of dawn light. “The Lord Monseigneur!”

The girl broke the silence and spoke, rather wept aloud hysterically, “It is too late—too late! Oh-oh-oh-oh! The Enchanter comes today to take me to the bridal chamber.”

There was a pounding at the gate. BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! Amanda’s heart failed. Too late! The distant echo of the death drums began to sound—oom-bha-pah, oom-bha-pah—calling sentries from the Dagoda to action.

What had she done? Awakened the princess out of her unfeeling numbness so she would be totally aware of , the torture ahead? placed her own valuable gifts of seeing and perfect aim as hostage to the enemy? These loves, these loves, these terrible loves! Would she never learn that love was dangerous? Why risk so much for one miserable girl among so many? Would she never learn about forbidden things?

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Sunday’s coming. Do you have your sermon ready? Is it relevant? Will it effectively motivate your congregation to walk more in step with the Master? What about that Sermon Series you’ve been thinking about?

Or, if you’re someone who plans well ahead, have you asked yourself what you will preach for your Easter Sermon, your Advent Sermon, your Christmas Sermon?

David Mains and Mainstay Ministries can help. We offer a wide variety of Sermon Starters and Full Sermons that will give you Sermon Ideas to help you prepare for regular Saturday or Sunday sermons, Mid-week Bible Sermons, and Sermons for special occasions.

We also offer assistance as you create Topical Sermons, Sermons Series, and sermons for special times of the year. We have resources available to help you with Advent Celebrations, Advent Sermons, Christmas Sermons, Easter Sunday Sermons, Patriotic Sermons, and more.

For more information on how to create better Bible Sermons and how to turn Sermon Ideas into Sermon Outlines, and then into effective, meaningful Sunday Sermons, please click here to visit David Mains’ website.

You will also find a variety of resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries website. Just click here.

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Empower Our Activities With Prayer—Part 6

Fit for a King

If impossible dreams are to come true, they require all the help we can get. If a task doesn’t take much effort, it probably doesn’t qualify as an impossible dream. What seemingly impossible dreams are you daring to dream?

Are you comfortable being around people who dream impossible dreams? I am. I enjoy hearing about grand schemes for making the world better. That’s one reason Christ’s kingdom, or kingship, message is so attractive to me. This world needs a righteous monarch who has both the wisdom to rule and the power to enforce His decisions. But it also needs someone marked by great love for all people. I believe Christ fills both those roles.

I’m happy to identify myself as one of His subjects, more than pleased to be involved in a small part of His marvelous now-and-future kingdom, and thrilled to tap into this incredible plan of His that gives such dignity and meaning and purpose to life. I also find there’s enough room under His colossal umbrella to come up with challenging “impossible dreams” that are sub-points, or sub-dreams, of His.

When my dreams are consistent with Christ’s dreams, I can expect His support in helping pull them off. The more my dreams overlap His, the more I can expect His aid when I need and request it.

Examine your dreams to see if there’s a good reason to believe that the Lord will help you. Will God really benefit in any way if your dreams come true, or are the plans strictly of your own making and unrelated to what He’s about?

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Sunday’s coming. Do you have your sermon ready? Is it relevant? Will it effectively motivate your congregation to walk more in step with the Master? What about that Sermon Series you’ve been thinking about?

Or, if you’re someone who plans well ahead, have you asked yourself what you will preach for your Easter Sermon, your Advent Sermon, your Christmas Sermon?

David Mains and Mainstay Ministries can help. We offer a wide variety of Sermon Starters and Full Sermons that will give you Sermon Ideas to help you prepare for regular Saturday or Sunday sermons, Mid-week Bible Sermons, and Sermons for special occasions.

We also offer assistance as you create Topical Sermons, Sermons Series, and sermons for special times of the year. We have resources available to help you with Advent Celebrations, Advent Sermons, Christmas Sermons, Easter Sunday Sermons, Patriotic Sermons, and more.

For more information on how to create better Bible Sermons and how to turn Sermon Ideas into Sermon Outlines, and then into effective, meaningful Sunday Sermons, please click here to visit David Mains’ website.

You will also find a variety of resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries website. Just click here.

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Empower Our Activities With Prayer—Part 5

Overlapping Desires (continued)

Continuing from Tales of the Resistance.

 “Amanda?” Hero placed a hand on her shoulder, “Don’t go to the temple courtyard so often. It’s dangerous. There’s nothing you can do for the princess, and Big Operator says your work as a dispatcher is invaluable. Hundreds have been helped because of your quick gifts of seeing and aiming.”

Amanda watched him stride off into the night, confident, his back broad; Nothing she could do! Nothing she could do! Then who would help the forlorn girl? But wait—wait, she has promised nothing. Hero had forgotten too much; she had once slayed a dragon singlehandedly in mortal combat. Hero’s job was chronicling Sightings, who was to say her job wasn’t the rescuing of forbidden princesses?

Amanda went back to the courtyard every night. She went at different times between control board duty, taking different alleys and streets, but she told no one because she was afraid they would forbid her-and Amanda had had enough pain from forbidden loves.

What would Mercie do in the city, with her powers confined by enchantment? she asked herself.

Each night when Amanda sat in the courtyard, she silently spoke the names of the King. Whenever the Forbidden Princess came to the balcony, Amanda closed her eyes, took sure aim, and with her powerful gift of seeing, pointed the names right at the girl’s heart.

His Majesty … my Sovereign Liege Lord … His Eminence … the Benevolent Potentate … His Supreme Holiness … the Lord Monsiegneur … His Most Royal Highness … the Monarch of All … the true King … to Him and to the Restoration of His Kingdom!

As Amanda did her lonely work, she watched for the slightest flicker of life in the eyes staring from the balcony, but there was nothing. Guilty memory taunted her—forbidden love, forbidden love. Crucial concentration came hard. Then one night as she sighted inwardly, she was sickened by seeing the evil eye of the Enchanter, searching, darting to and fro—and Amanda understood she was in peril. She knew she should end her vigils, but there—there! That very night, a tear dropped from the corner of the girl’s eye. A sign of life! Amanda knew she had come again to love a thing dangerous to love.

So Amanda returned, hiding in the shadows of the cloisters, scarcely breathing lest she draw the ominous attention of the evil eye in the nearby Dagoda but aiming the Names from her heart to the heart of the girl standing on the balcony. At last, at last, the Forbidden Princess lifted her eyes as though wakening from a trance, and then turned her head toward the shadows as though peering for the silent speaker of the Names.

The girl had been awakened. The Names had done their life-giving work. Now, how to get her out before horror overtook them both? A plan! Slip into the courtyard, hide; then help the princess escape in the daylight, when the city was sleeping.

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Sunday’s coming. Do you have your sermon ready? Is it relevant? Will it effectively motivate your congregation to walk more in step with the Master? What about that Sermon Series you’ve been thinking about?

Or, if you’re someone who plans well ahead, have you asked yourself what you will preach for your Easter Sermon, your Advent Sermon, your Christmas Sermon?

David Mains and Mainstay Ministries can help. We offer a wide variety of Sermon Starters and Full Sermons that will give you Sermon Ideas to help you prepare for regular Saturday or Sunday sermons, Mid-week Bible Sermons, and Sermons for special occasions.

We also offer assistance as you create Topical Sermons, Sermons Series, and sermons for special times of the year. We have resources available to help you with Advent Celebrations, Advent Sermons, Christmas Sermons, Easter Sunday Sermons, Patriotic Sermons, and more.

For more information on how to create better Bible Sermons and how to turn Sermon Ideas into Sermon Outlines, and then into effective, meaningful Sunday Sermons, please click here to visit David Mains’ website.

You will also find a variety of resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries website. Just click here.

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Empower Our Activities With Prayer—Part 4

Overlapping Desires (continued)

Continuing from Tales of the Resistance.

Amanda felt an old indignation rise—she was not a child—but just as suddenly it slipped away. She had learned all too well the folly of arrogance. She had been cold. She was glad for the warmth of his shared rain cloth. He was right, the paths and forest trails were her native terrain; but the hard paving stones of this dark place were his. Now she must learn from him.

The courtyard doors to the street creaked open. A form crept in and Amanda felt Hero tense beside her and grasp the handle of the hatchet beneath his slicker. A Breaker had entered the courtyard. Amanda’s own heart quickened; she had once seen the chalky white face, the piercing eyes, the chilling grin, the cudgel raised to bash her as she lay in pain. To the King, she mentally intoned. To the Restoration. The bell whispered; the girl came to the balcony; the Breaker gazed and withdrew to the streets.

Hero murmured again, “She’s so beautiful even the no-people come to look.”

“But her eyes, her eyes—they’re blank. There’s no life in them.”

“Of course,” explained Hero. “She’s the Forbidden Princess.”

“The Forbidden Princess?” Amanda asked. They were out on the street now, walking back to the Taxi Company.

City wise, the young man told her the story of the beautiful girls gathered together every year to serve as temple keepers for the Enchanter. Chosen for their courage as well as for their beauty, a terrible initiation separated those who were worthy from those who were only fair. The novitiates spent a night in a room with severed bulls heads. Those who didn’t weep or whine were chosen to become princesses who spent the rest of their young lives allowing the curious to gaze on their faces, but forbidden to speak to any admirers.

“How awful!” said Amanda.

“That’s not all. Eventually they become wives to the Enchanter. The children they bear are the Enchanter’s elite guard, Burners and Breakers, the no-people. The Enchanter has had thousands of wives. Most of them shrivel and waste away—heartsickness. His embrace is so terrible that even beauty and courage are not protection enough.”

They stood talking before the overhead garage door of the City Taxi Company and waited for a cab to return rather than bother a mechanic. Sometimes, in the rain, the city was almost beautiful the way the lights danced on the wet stones. A taxi beeped its horn, the crank creaked inside, the door slid upwards.

———————————————

Sunday’s coming. Do you have your sermon ready? Is it relevant? Will it effectively motivate your congregation to walk more in step with the Master? What about that Sermon Series you’ve been thinking about?

Or, if you’re someone who plans well ahead, have you asked yourself what you will preach for your Easter Sermon, your Advent Sermon, your Christmas Sermon?

David Mains and Mainstay Ministries can help. We offer a wide variety of Sermon Starters and Full Sermons that will give you Sermon Ideas to help you prepare for regular Saturday or Sunday sermons, Mid-week Bible Sermons, and Sermons for special occasions.

We also offer assistance as you create Topical Sermons, Sermons Series, and sermons for special times of the year. We have resources available to help you with Advent Celebrations, Advent Sermons, Christmas Sermons, Easter Sunday Sermons, Patriotic Sermons, and more.

For more information on how to create better Bible Sermons and how to turn Sermon Ideas into Sermon Outlines, and then into effective, meaningful Sunday Sermons, please click here to visit David Mains’ website.

You will also find a variety of resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries website. Just click here.

Share and Enjoy