8 Survival Skills for Changing Times – Part I-5

July 31, 2012 by admin

Introduction – Part 5: What Is a Spiritual Survivor? (continued)

The Apostle Paul writes to the Ephesians, “Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise … because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is” (Ephesians 5:15-17). Here again we notice that need for wisdom and discernment, for understanding.

This series of blog posts is about acquiring skills that will enable you to live through times of change with your values and your faith intact.

The specific challenges I’ll present were first brainstormed by fellow ministers and laypersons who helped me select the biblical truths that would be most relevant and beneficial. I’m grateful for their help. I trust that my work will do justice to their input, because in those meetings there was a distinct sense that the Lord was with us in the process.

All of us believe we are facing days of great change. These could even be the end times, the day when God takes us all home. In whatever circumstances we find ourselves, we are convinced that the Lord makes it possible for His people to be spiritual survivors.

In Fiddler, when Tevye’s daughter Hodel gets on the train to travel far, far away to Siberia to join her chosen fiancé, she says, “Papa, God alone knows when we shall see each other again.” And Tevye responds, “Then we will leave it in His hands.”

I don’t have a specific word from the Lord for you regarding the future. I, too, am content to “leave it in His hands”! But I do feel led to challenge us to be better prepared to live in a world of rapid change, and change that isn’t always as far, far away as we would like.

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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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8 Survival Skills for Changing Times – Part I-4

July 30, 2012 by admin

Introduction – Part 4: What Is a Spiritual Survivor?

When I use the term spiritual survivor, I’m not picturing someone hanging on by his or her spiritual fingertips and in the end just barely making it. Nor do I envision spiritual survivors as Christians who are concerned only about their own welfare.

To me, a spiritual survivor is someone who finds himself or herself in a changing, challenging, and sometimes confusing world, and prays, “Lord, stand with me now. Give me Your wisdom and discernment. And I’ll play the role You assign me for all it’s worth!”

Spiritual survivors have an attitude that says, “Not somehow, but triumphantly!”

That expression comes to me from my years at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois. Then President V. Raymond Edman used to challenge young students to live with great purpose. “Not just somehow, but triumphantly,” he would say time and again. “Brave Wheaton sons and daughters true, don’t be afraid … not somehow, but triumphantly. For Christ and His kingdom.”

In that same spirit I want you as a reader to adopt an attitude for the remainder of the 20-teens that centers on purposeful Christian living. Determine now to live decidedly Christian.

That’s important. You see, I’m almost certain the eight survival skills I’ve chosen to emphasize in these blog posts will stretch you some. They’re not simple devotional thoughts you can mull over briefly and then forget. These survival skills require a response on your part that could be a bit discomforting.

I mention that upfront because I’m still trying to adjust to several of them myself. It’s not that I’m fighting the Lord, but Jesus’ ways don’t always come easily for me. And so I pray, “Don’t give up on me, Lord!”

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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?

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

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8 Survival Skills for Changing Times – Part I-3

July 27, 2012 by admin

Introduction – Part 3: What about North America?

For us in North America, what will the next several years bring about? Will we experience a major economic earthquake, as some are predicting? We can’t help but observe that in many ways our society is starting to unravel, just as Eastern regimes have come apart. Our families are in serious trouble. Children say, “We don’t want to live by the traditions of our parents.” Concerned dads and moms respond, “If we try to bend that far, we’ll break!”

Many North Americans are losing faith in the political process. Crime is on the increase. The moral decline in America is alarming. And because no nation can sin with impunity, many Christians wonder if judgment isn’t coming soon.

Some of the changes in our society are positive. This is a time when Christians are joining together to pray in unprecedented numbers. Like Jean Valjean, we say, “Lord, in our need You have always been there.” Perhaps there’s a new river on the run … a revival river flowing from the temple as the prophet describes in Ezekiel 4:7. First it’s ankle-deep, then knee-deep, then up to the waist, and pretty soon deep enough to swim in—a fast-flowing river bringing life and beauty to all in its path!

One way or the other, you can count on this: Change is difficult, even when it’s change for the good. It tends to throw people off balance.

So how do we live through changing times? And, like Daniel, how do we remain faithful to the Lord in the process?

My personal belief is that God makes it possible for His people to be spiritual survivors, even in days of great change. In fact, during such seasons, He has written some of His best tales of the kingdom.

Our Lord is marvelous at using the backdrop of changing times to speak his lines through characters such as Mordecai the Jew in the Book of Esther. In this account, Mordecai is trying to persuade Queen Esther to participate in a dangerous plot to save the Jews from death at the hands of the Persians. He says, in effect, “Esther, sure it’s a tough spot to be in, but you can be a national heroine. Another day, another place, and that might not be true. You’re just another pretty face. But how fortunate you are to have a lead role in this exciting drama. Why, I believe you’ve come to the kingdom for such a time as this!”

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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?

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

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8 Survival Skills for Changing Times – Part I-2

July 26, 2012 by admin

Introduction – Part 2

One of my favorite characters in Scripture is a handsome young student when we first meet him. Raised to be part of the royal court, he is instead deported to Babylon after his home city of Jerusalem is invaded. But because God has given him the ability to interpret King Nebuchadnezzar’s dreams, Daniel receives a high position within the Babylonian government.

Several times he faces close calls with death because he refuses to worship foreign gods. Once he sees the entire political backdrop change design. What was Babylonian, in an overnight coup, becomes Persian. As we read the account, we hold our breath until Daniel, an experienced survivor, is again made a high ranking official in this new regime.

It’s Daniel who prayed these words (after God revealed to him the substance of King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream): “[Our Lord] changes times and seasons; He sets up kings and deposes them. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning” (Daniel 2:21). That’s what we need in our day—wisdom and discernment.

You see, in recent years we have witnessed tumultuous changes throughout the world. Few observers would have predicted the speed by which some of these transformations took place. Atheistic Communism was suddenly overthrown in the Soviet Union and the next thing we knew, leaders of the Commonwealth of Independent States were asking the West for moral and spiritual help.

At the same time, in many of the Eastern European countries, worn out old backdrops were done away with and new sets were lowered into place—with scenes the church had a hand in painting. God had deposed rulers and changed times and seasons.

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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?

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