Disciple Up # 158
Wrestling with Change
By Louie Marsh, 5-6-2020
12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Ephesians 6:12 (ESV)
People, other people that is, are the least of our problems most of the time. Paul focuses here on spiritual struggling but there are other kinds. We are surrounded by and living in a veritable ocean of change. Everything changes all the time and this change never stops!
Culture changes, beliefs change, knowledge changes and increases so quickly that no one can keep up with it. The weather changes all the time, your mind changes constantly, your body is going through change until the day you die and even after you die it changes. Everything changes and every change, no matter how small, adds a certain amount of strain and stress to our lives. Some of this is good stress, much of it is bad stress, most of it is hidden stress, that is we don’t recognize we have it, but it’s there none the less.
More About Change: https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-7-stages-of-human-development
This classification system is somewhat arbitrary, and there is one system which includes conception to birth as the first stage.
However, most agree that the first stage is infancy, representing birth to the age at which speech is in its primary phase, or about the age of 2. The child explores communication and the expansion of emotions.
The next stage is early childhood, extending to about the age of 6 – learning basic skills, including using basic and early interpersonal skills.
Middle childhood expands social skills and learning skills in school, and physical and athletic activities.
Adolescents begins to recognize special relationships and bonding, such as recognizing the basis of significant emotional relationships; selecting other areas of interest to hone one’s skills in these.
Early adulthood includes mating and possible procreation / propagation, selecting career pursuits, expanding recreational pursuits; this lasts from age 20 to 45 years of age.
Middle adulthood lasts from 45 to 65, and completes what is often the most productive years in both work and recreational pursuits, and preparing for the senior years.
The senior years begin at age 65 until death it is thought that in this stage, one works less, enjoys benefits including retirement, greater ability to direct one’s schedule (without working, hopefully) enjoying younger family members, but begins to confront the deterioration of health inevitably associated with advancing age.
Some Examples Of Dealing with Great Change From the Bible
18 The sons of Noah who went forth from the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. (Ham was the father of Canaan.) 19 These three were the sons of Noah, and from these the people of the whole earth were dispersed. 20 Noah began to be a man of the soil, and he planted a vineyard. 21 He drank of the wine and became drunk and lay uncovered in his tent. 22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside. 23 Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned backward, and they did not see their father’s nakedness. Genesis 9:18-23 (ESV)
Noah did this to return to the world before sin entered it? He sinned to return to innocence?
https://www.chabad.org/parshah/article_cdo/aid/3475426/jewish/Why-Noah-Planted-a-Vineyard-and-Got-Drunk.htm
1 Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Genesis 12:1-3 (ESV)
26 In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, 27 to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. 28 And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” 29 But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. 30 And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” 34 And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” 35 And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. 36 And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. 37 For nothing will be impossible with God.” 38 And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her. Luke 1:26-38 (ESV)
Churches Dealing with COVID-19 CHANGES
Wrestling with Change
- If you can’t beat ‘em – join ‘em!
- Use changes momentum to propel yourself in the right direction.
- Recognize what needs to be and must be changed in your life.
- Recognize what cannot and must not be changed in your life.
- Stand tall and don’t let anything or anyone move you off of God’s will and Word – 3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. 4 The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. Psalm 1:3-4 (ESV)
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