Living Like You’re at War

The twitter account @HistoricalPics posted this a while ago:

Amazing: Temporary rules posted at Britain's Richmond Golf Club after German bombs hit the course in 1940 http://t.co/7iDNBnbDlR—
Historical Pics (@HistoricalPics) February 02, 2014

Of course, this is a phenomenal example of the courage and resolve displayed by countless Brits to try to live normally, avoid panic, and fight on during the war.  It’s the whole “Keep Calm and Carry On” mindset. But even better, it’s a great illustration of Paul’s point in Ephesians 6.

The rules change when you’re living in a war zone.  For the British, it was undeniable: their golf courses were peppered with craters!  We have plenty of evidence of the spiritual war surrounding us, as well, although we are often fooled into ignoring it.  Since we are living in a spiritual war zone, we should live differently, too.  We put on the armor of God.  We pray at all times in the Spirit.  In Christ’s strength, we resist the devil, who is prowling around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour (1 Peter 5).  In World War II, it was a matter of life-and-death.  In our war, the stakes are far higher.

 

Tags: Romans 7, Romans 13, 1 Corinthians 16,  2 Corinthians 10, Ephesians 6, 2 Timothy 2, 1 Peter 2, 1 Peter 5, Spiritual Warfare

The Presidents Club – LBJ’s Legacy

Here’s how I used a particular story from The Presidents’ Club in today’s sermon on Genesis 3:

President Lyndon Baines Johnson was an outgoing person, and he really enjoyed it when people needed his friendship and influence.  But he had a very tumultuous presidency.  The country, as many of you who lived then remember, was in a great state of upheaval during his administration.  The Vietnam War was incredibly controversial, yet LBJ struggled to find the right way to end the conflict.  Richard Nixon made many shrewd political moves leading up to the 1968 presidential election, and Johnson’s own party began to turn away from him, until Johnson finally withdrew from the race in embarrassment, even though he was eligible for another term.

Once Johnson had left the presidency, he set about shaping and even reforming his legacy.  In Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy’s book The Presidents Club, his obsession about this is described.  Johnson cared a great deal about his own name.  He put all his energy into his presidential library.  He would go to the parking lot of the historical site of his birth and count the states represented by the cars’ license plates, to see how far people had come from.  He wanted to know how many postcards people bought there, hoping that they would outnumber postcards bought at other similar locations.  He even went so far as to get the announcer at the University of Texas football stadium to tell people as they went to the bathroom at halftime that there were extra restrooms nearby at LBJ’s presidential library!

This is a sad thing, isn’t it?  A man who reached the pinnacle of world power and held the office that so many aspire to was brought to this point of caring that much about what people thought of him, struggling with pride to the point of counting and comparing postcard sales.  But the book makes clear that just about every president deals with this same tormenting concern – “How will people perceive me?”  And the reality is, this concern is not foreign to ANY of us.  Pride eats at us.  It is at the root of every sin.  Its temptation worked for Satan against Eve, and it continues to work today.  Watch out for pride.  Humble yourself before the Lord, and submit to His will.  Look for instances of your own pride, and KILL them by giving them up to the Lord and submitting to Him.  God’s Word says that He “resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”  It tells us: “Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord, and He will exalt you.”

 

This illustration would work well with texts dealing with pride, like: Genesis 3, 2 Samuel 24, 2 Chronicles 26, 2 Chronicles 32, Proverbs 3:34, Proverbs 16:18, James 4:6, 1 Peter 5:5, and 1 John 2:16

It would also work with Scriptural texts about pleasing God rather than men, like: Matthew 10:28, Acts 5:29, Galatians 1:10, and Ephesians 6:6

The Songhai of West Africa

Found this in the International Mission Board‘s 10th edition of a prayer guide called “Loving the Lost of the Word Through Prayer.” I can’t find a PDF of it online, but you can order it for free here.  It’s a good resource to order in bulk and distribute to your church to get them thinking and praying missionally.

The Songhai of West Africa, descendants of an old African empire, don’t sing – they think that singing is the work of slaves.  Missionaries are working to reach them, so that the song of Christ may fill their hearts.

The miracle of the gospel leads us to worship through song – there’s a surface-level illustration here.  But not only that, the belief of the Songhai that singing is for slaves is interesting.  Essentially, from the Christian perspective, they’re right; we are slaves to Christ, and we sing in joyful acknowledgement of the slavery that has truly set us free.

 

I think this could illustrate these (and, of course, plenty more) passages: Matthew 25, Romans 6, Romans 8, 1 Corinthians 12, 1 Peter 2, Ephesians 6, Galatians 5