The Best Died Young (continued…)

Continuing our return to Enchanted City, where Amanda, has sneaked into the court to observe the trial of the King.

Seeing! thought Amanda. If she could see into the King’s mind. Closing her eyes, Amanda aimed her gifts at the great soul of the man standing in disguise before her. A wave of enormous sadness overcame her. Tears began to stream down her cheeks and she was tempted to withdraw her sight. “Nay-nay-nay,” intoned the song of doom. The King’s mind was entering into every dark place in Enchanted City—no, more—taking all the darkness into his very center.

Amanda could see nothing. The dark blindness overwhelmed her, but somehow she realized that her sight labored by the side of her dear King, the one she loved most in all the world.

“My Liege Lord,” she whispered in her heart, and the man in front of her stirred slightly, as though he had heard and recognized her words with his own soul. It was then Amanda realized that nothing could be done, that for now, there was no light in the King, that he had for some reason of his own knowing joined with this deepest and most impenetrable darkness. “

Through him Amanda stared into the shadow of death itself, into the night of all nights that begins and has no ending, and she withdrew, opening her eyes, unable to bear any more the grimacing features of total despair.

It was then she saw them, circling the rim of the court• yard, standing beyond and above and over the Burners and Breakers: gorgeous, brilliant, shining—the Bright Ones! They were translucent, shimmering. As Amanda glanced quickly at the miserable creatures sitting on benches, cold, shivering with fear, hopeless, glad for one wretched moment of reprieve at the expense of the most beautiful man who ever lived, the princess realized that no one else was aware of these creatures of indescribable glory.

Unknowing, they were all surrounded by these exquisite, unseen beings who glistened like raindrops on cobwebs blown by the wind, who turned like gossamer milk pod seeds in the brilliant sunlight, who raised their eyes filled with star glory, and stretched their wings, tip to tip, now gold, now silver, now pure light on light. The Bright Ones bent their graces toward the man in the center of this trial, preventing any interruption of purpose from breaking his intense concentration. Their looks focused on the King in the center, holding off tenderness, staying any loving-kindness lest goodness distract him from the work of breaking the Enchanter’s spell, which held all the city in its grip. They were not helping him; they were only keeping him from being interrupted. Amanda could see that they, too, wept.

The Princess turned her moist and opened eyes to the King. Now she understood that he was deliberately restraining his own power. He was not defeated by the gathering evil oppression in this hold of the fire wizard.

The King was holding himself in, containing command and nobility, silencing his majestic authority, confining his royalty in order to descend by the way of mind and spirit into the center of dark agony, the very secret evil crux of the Enchanter’s domain. He was preparing himself to be the willing victim who would lift the enchantment from the city.

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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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The Best Died Young

The world shouldn’t kill its good men and women. Dreamers are too rare to begin with. But sometimes the world destroys its best.

Jimmy Carter was a national leader and a man of noble dreams. He still is. If we• heard that authorities somewhere had arrested him and beaten him in Rodney King fashion, and in the process of carrying out supposed justice they had killed him, we would be shocked. “What has the world come to?” we would ask.

When Gallup polls ask who are the most admired men and women, what names are predictable? In 2011 the list of the top ten included:

• Barack Obama
• George W. Bush
• Bill Clinton
• Rev. Billy Graham
• Warren Buffett
• Newt Gingrich
• Donald Trump
• Pope Benedict XVI
• Bill Gates
• Thomas Monson

Let them all live to old age. Don’t kill the good ones off.

Thank goodness there were no headlines twenty or thirty years ago declaring “Billy Graham Shot And Killed While Sharing God’s Good News”!

When attempts of deranged individuals or hired assassins fail and the pope lives or President Reagan is only wounded, I thank the Lord.

Yet how can it be that in the long history of the world the finest of all persons would be arrested as a young man and roughed up and tried and spit on and convicted of blasphemy by the Jewish high court? That both Herod and Pilate would remove themselves from the process of justice and say to a hired crowd, “I’ve whipped Him senseless. Isn’t that enough for you? All right, then, what you do to Him next is your responsibility, not mine.”

Have I gotten past your mind to your feelings yet? That’s what I’ve been attempting to do.

Fiction has a way of putting us in touch with our emotions and giving us new insights. Like C.S. Lewis in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, a fiction writer says in essence, “Let me take you to another world. If you can see what’s happening there, maybe you can better comprehend what takes place in your own world.” Let’s return to Enchanted City, where another young woman who loves the King, Amanda, has sneaked into the court to observe his trial. All seems discouraging and unfair and hopeless and heavy.

“First witness,” cried the Clerk.

It was the Chief Herald, the one formerly known as Doublespeak. His friends said that he was Doublespeak no more, but Doomster, the one who pronounced judgment for the Enchanter. The emblem of the fire wizard was emblazoned on his elegant purple jersey; he wore brass armbands and a circlet of gold upon his head. “Why, I heard, I heard with my very own ears this man, this prisoner there, proclaim another kingdom, where the subjects live in the light. He attempted to entice me, me, the Chief Herald to the Enchanter, to treason.”

Someone in the courtroom called out, “Treachery!” Another shouted, “Death to pretenders!”

The Clerk banged his gavel for order. The man in the center of the courtroom spoke not a word.

Amanda studied him carefully. His shoulders sagged as though he was suffering great sorrow. He seemed drawn within himself—the proceedings in that place made no difference. It was as though he had walked into a great aloneness and was not even present.

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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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How much learning would take place in our schools if students were never tested? What if they were also not asked to turn in any homework, write reports, do additional reading or complete projects? Imagine the results if all that was required of pupils was to listen quietly as the teacher lectured.

My assumption is that a relatively small amount of learning would actually take place.

More and more I am coming to the conclusion that preaching by itself is not all that effective a way of discipling Christians. Said differently, to see significant changes in the behavior of God’s people requires more on their part than merely listening to sermons. Especially this is true if the messages they hear contain no practical information on how to en-flesh what is being taught.

For significant life changes to characterize God’s people, I hold a conviction that some kind of gentle accountability is going to be required. Because it’s not practical for the pastor to do this kind of follow-up with everyone in the congregation, a system needs to be devised involving more church members in the process.

In God’s providence I believe these kind of changes are starting to mark the American church scene, even as they already have in places where, in spite of persecution, the church in various places around the world is flourishing.

———————————————

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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Anti-Establishment (continued…)

By Passover of His final year, it looked as if the crowds were following Him. They were crying, “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!”

Even a few months back, who would have thought this possible? It made the religious right nervous. They would have to do all they could to defeat Him before the groundswell became too great to stop.

This is not an appropriate place for me to express my feelings about the various Boomer Presidents of the United States. But I don’t hesitate to tell you that I really like this King Jesus I see in the Scriptures. He was one of a kind! For someone in His early thirties, He showed remarkable maturity.

Unfortunately, it’s hard to describe Jesus in fresh terms. So much has been written about Him. These words from Tales of the Resistance describe a fictional king. They might give us a fitting picture of King Jesus as well.

Thespia had fallen hopelessly in love with the King. Oh, not the actor/king (though he was handsome and her ardent admirer), but the mythical king of the play—the one who was strong but not brutal, who could laugh with joy and weep with freedom, who never leered at beautiful women, who told stories to children and gentled the fears of the old, whom the young men followed because he was the bravest of all, who found beauty in the ugly, and whose very words spoke hope.

Like Thespia, I too love this young King. I like the man, and I like His plan—His dream for the world.

I believe that if we all lived as He did, if we all said, “Jesus, Your thoughts will be my thoughts. Your ways, Jesus, will be my ways. Your rule, Jesus, the rule I swear allegiance to above all else”—this sad world would become a most wonderful place almost overnight. We would know the joy of having food for all, dignity for all, peace over all. In fact, I don’t think there’s any other way to make the world work. I really don’t!

You love this King too, don’t you?!

———————————————

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