Hi Sweet Friends,
I have warfare, particularly spiritual warfare, much on my mind as of late. Several reasons: our family recently rewatched The Lord of the Rings trilogy; our church ladies and friends are doing The Armor of God study by Priscilla Shirer; and I have become keenly aware, in my own life and the lives of others, of the attacks of the enemy of our souls on us individually, our families, our relationships, our church, our community, our nation, and more. We are at war. This war has been raging long before we ever entered the story. Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 tell the history of the evil one behind the power of evil kings. Scripture tells us of a beautiful servant angel of God who tried to create a coup against his own Creator. He and his followers were cast from heaven and given reign on earth. Revelation 20:10 tells us that complete destruction is their future, but why wait? Why not end the rebellion and destruction immediately before any more damage can be done? I don’t know. For purposes we can only guess at and try to justify in our own minds, satan (lowercase intended) has been allowed reign and rule on the earth, but only what God has allowed him. God tells us in Psalm 24:1 that everything on earth is His. Abraham Kuyper said, ”There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: Mine!” We know that satan has been granted access and audience with God at times, as in Job. He accuses the saints before God in Revelation 12, constantly seeming to taunt God and seek our destruction. Satan is the one who convinced Eve in the garden that she could be like God if she just did what he said, and sin has been part of our story ever since. Like a bee up your nose, he is relentlessly irritating and lying and trying to cast doubt and diminish the work of our Savior on our behalf. Why not be rid of him immediately? It’s a mystery to me. But don’t despair, Colossians 2:3-4 tells us that all answers are in Christ. All of God’s love and grace and purposes for humanity culminate at the resurrection of Christ. So while we, His rescued saints, wait to shed our earthly bodies and live eternally in His presence, we must realize that we are under constant attack. We are at war.
I know little of physical war. My father was rejected from being drafted in the Korean war because a burst eardrum as a child made him ineligible. Kevin’s dad was rejected from service for the same reason. My parents’ generation made huge sacrifices during the wars of the ‘40’s, ‘50’s, and 60’s. Everyone loved or knew someone who lost their life. Everyone sacrificed material goods and endured shortages for the sake of the cause. Women who had never been employed did hard labor in factories to replace the lost men. Many orphans and widows and grieving parents were left. Everyone was called to sacrifice. So much was at stake. But not so since my generation. Many make great sacrifices to serve our country and protect our freedom, but the majority of the general public can live seemingly unaffected. One may choose to be a soldier ( and thank God they do) but no one is required to do so. We can live and move and enjoy our way of life with very little cost to ourselves. Seldom do we realize we are riding on the backs of those who gave it all. Someone had to push hard against the darkness for us to live in the light. Pleasure and comfort are the American pursuit, not sacrifice. As in all things, if we don’t see the cost, we won’t appreciate the value. We must see the bigger story taking place beyond our smaller one.
It makes me think of the Shire in LOTR (The Lord of the Rings by J. R. Tolkien). It was a beautiful, peaceful, fun loving place. It was home to the main character and savior in the story, Frodo. It was a protective bubble for Frodo. His friends, family, and all that was dear to him were there. He had never been anywhere else. He didn’t know of the dark story playing out beyond the Shire, where evil was on the move to rule and to reign. Frodo didn’t go looking for trouble, it came to him through the selfishness of someone else. Isn’t that how sin came into the world in the first place, because of someone’s selfishness? Often our first awareness of the cruelty of sin is because of the selfishness of someone else. Often, it’s just our own desperate search for love and validation and protection that opens our eyes to the cruelty of sin. We are born into it. It is our natural state until we realize we need a savior and the King of the world has provided for our salvation in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. I often look with sadness at a rundown house. The grass and bushes are high and covering the house. The house itself is rickety and falling in. What happened? Nothing. And that’s the problem. Someone just stopped fighting and pushing back the overgrowth and decay. No one purposed to make it look beat up and neglected. It’s just the natural course of the world when it is not pushed against. And our natural course is one of depravity apart from a new life in Christ. We don’t have to go looking for sin. It is upon us.
For those who have accepted the payment of the life of Christ for their sin state, they are out of the enemy’s reach, but not his influence. We no longer sin because we have to, only when we choose to. God will be much at work for the rest of our lives exposing those parts of our minds and hearts and behavior that are not like Him, that which doesn’t accurately reflect His character and heart, the real identity of who we are. It’s a long process. It hurts. We resist. But God is very, very faithful. He loves us too much to leave us in a state that is less than who He is. We have the life of Christ. We made an exchange. It’s no longer our life we’re living. All of life is about learning who we really are. And then it’s about behaving like who we really are. God is very committed to seeing it through. We often fight back at the discomfort of it. Just hang on, there’s so much more going on than discomfort.
It took me years to be able to watch the orks and kings and sacrifice and selfishness and battles and victories that make up the LOTR movies. The evil is portrayed so putridly that you can almost smell its stench in your living room. So much fighting. So much constant battling. It wears me out. I am a comfort seeker and conflict avoider. My answer to all discomfort is to hide under the table and pull a curtain around it. Just tell me when it’s over. Sacrifice and selflessness are always such emotional things for me to witness. Kindness, especially in strangers, always makes me cry. Why would a policeman or fireman risk his life for me and those I love? How is it that people who don’t even know Christ can do such heroic and selfless acts of fighting to save a life? It’s the image of God in us that motivates us to act selflessly whether we know Him or not. Kindness always means that someone is pushing against the darkness in this world and is making a sacrifice. I’ve given up trying to verbally express my gratitude to veterans when I see them out because my blubbering and crying embarrasses us both. The image of God portrayed in selflessness in others always overwhelms me. After years of seeing the images of the LOTR movies and hearing my family discuss it, I was finally drawn in. I still don’t have all of the ridiculous names and places down, but I know the story and the expressions on the faces of the beloved actors that faithfully execute the passion of the author as he tells the old, old story in a new way. There is one great story. And it’s true. But God has gifted men with imagination and brilliance to express the great, true story in different ways. It is a wonderful gift. A faithful image bearer will portray evil as putridness and destruction and death. He will also portray goodness as selflessness and sacrifice. Love and faithfulness will be the motive and the theme of the story. Just as it is in our story.
I have learned much of warfare from watching the LOTR movies. I’ve learned of the need for proper weapons to fight the enemy. I’ve seen the need to have protective armor in order to not succumb to the enemy’s weapons used against us. Unity is a must when we are at war. If the enemy can get us alone, we are at our most vulnerable. In the movie, a small hobbit has volunteered to take a ring that was left to him and throw it into the firey pit from which the enemy made it. The enemy possessing this ring will mean total rule for him and the end of life on earth as the characters in our story have known it. The mission: destroy the ring before it gets into the enemy’s hands. It’s a long, dangerous journey. Frodo, the ring bearer, can’t do it alone. Such beloved characters arise in this story. Such faithful friendships and loyalty and faithfulness and sacrifice that seem beyond human ability. And yet, we know it is possible because we’ve seen it ourselves, we pray for it, we long for it. It is the image of God in us. A group of eight unlikely characters vow to help little Frodo on his journey to destroy the ring and save the world. They’re not all sure they can trust each other in the beginning, and yet they’ve made a pledge to protect the ring and its bearer with their very lives. They call their group the fellowship of the ring. Don’t you love the word “fellowship”? Doesn’t it conjure images of belonging, togetherness, loyalty and protection, and being part of something bigger than just you? I love that our church has the word “fellowship” in it. May we grow into the meaning of that word as a body. May we rightly live out God’s intent for His church, the body and bride of Christ, to His glory and for the sake of the world. The fellowship in LOTR endures so much hardship, battling from outside and within, being constantly pursued by the enemy. At one point, the little hobbits are acting carelessly, not being on guard when one of their protectors rebukes them and says with such fervor, “I know what hunts you.”
Lesson one in warfare: know your enemy. Do you know what hunts you? Do you really know the severity of your situation? I always wanted to live in The Little House on the Prairie and Anne of Green Gables stories. They lived in a simple, small, protected world. I never wanted to live in a LOTR story. I never wanted to have to fight and sacrifice and be inconvenienced. I want to just do me. But, as Aragorn says to King Theoden who does not want war, “Open war is upon you whether you would risk it or not.” Open war is upon us whether we realize it or not. The fact that we exist means we have an enemy. If you don’t know your enemy you will never know how to fight, how to defend yourself, what weapons to use. How will you know him? We introduced our enemy at the beginning of this letter. We read the great story, the word of God, to tell us about our enemy. We learn how to push back, how to have victory. Our enemy is a liar. It is his main weapon. He can do nothing but lie and is constant with his attacks. Every thought in your head that raises itself against the knowledge of God, that speaks falsely about who God is and who you are to Him is from your enemy. It feels like it is coming from you. It’s not. Recognize it as warfare and start fighting. If satan can have us believe that our thoughts are ours, then the spiral begins of, “I’m a bad person. I must not really love God. I must not have the life of Christ in me. No one would like me if they really knew me. I’m all alone. This will never change. I’m hopeless.” You know you can track with me because you hear it and battle it every day. So do I. Our only hope is to battle the lies with the truth of God’s word. John 17:17 tells us that God’s word is truth.
Ephesians 6 is the scripture reference for our ladies’ study that teaches us how to battle. I have to tell you that I’m a chicken and a sissy. At the first sign of trouble you will see my rear end hanging out from under the table as I’m furiously grabbing for the curtain to pull around me, hoping it’s got enough fabric to cover my rear end. I need to learn to fight. I must know my enemy and how I can put him to run. Can you imagine the impact in our lives and our church and our world if we did it together? Those very words cause the enemy to shake. He knows he is in trouble if we can recognize his schemes, call him out, and pummel him with the truth of God’s word and all that God has given us to fight him. Let’s do it together.
Some of the most precious and touching and heart wrenching scenes in LOTR are when the fellowship fights together. When a friend stands in front of a friend with sword drawn and says, “Not as long as there is breath in my lungs will you get to him.” When little folk encircle the ring bearer with their backs to him to protect him with their lives. When the horn is blown calling for aid and the fellowship stops everything and runs as hard as they can with swords drawn and arrows pointed to fight for the one who can’t hold off the enemy alone. When a friend stands over a fallen friend too weak to fight with a sword and says, ”I’ll protect you. I’ll fight for you,” and swings with all his might at the enemy. When a fellow warrior takes the arrows and gives his life for a friend. When a friend carries the friend who is too weak to go on. Sacrifice! Selflessness! That is the one great story. That is the path of Christ. That is what we are called to. Loyally fighting for and with each other. We can do it because Christ did and does it for us. We have the life of Christ in us. All that He is, is already in us. He made us to do it together. We really can love and carry each other and push against the darkness together and show the world the great story of God and His great love and provision for us, His creation. It doesn’t happen by being big and powerful and tough. It happens through humility and selflessness and sacrifice and great love.
One great difference in our story and LOTR is that we’re not waiting to see if we win. God has already won. It was never a question. He’s never not been in complete control. It’s a matter of battling well, joining Him for His purposes, loving Him and others more than we love ourselves. He calls us into sacrifice and fellowship and love. Warfare is the process by which we shed all that is not Him in us. Let’s battle well, sweet friends. I love you. I need you. And as great as the impulse in me to run and hide is, I want to fight for you and with you. We were made to glorify God together. Lord, make us faithful.
Leave a Reply