WHETHER YOU WOULD RISK IT OR NOT

(Post by: Madie Hobbs)

Here we go again! Can anyone guess what today’s blog post is about? It is about (drumroll please), The Lord of the Rings! Whoop, whoop! I know, I know, I am obsessed.

But I was once again watching ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers’ and something new hit me that I think can really speak to the position America is in right now. So here is a little bit of backstory.

In the ‘Two Towers’ the main thing that is focused on, is whether or not Men will stand up to the evil quickly overtaking Middle Earth. Gandalf (a Wizard), Aragorn (a man), Legolas (an Elf), and Gimli (a dwarf), go to the city of Rohan, where the king’s mind has been poisoned by a servant of the Dark Lord Sauron, Saruman. Gandalf rebukes Saruman, and the king is released from his hold. Later on, Gandalf, encourages the king of Rohan, Théoden, to draw Sauron away from his people and fight him.  

Now, this is the part that really hit me anew when I was watching the movie. Théoden’s response to Gandalf is, “I will not risk open war.” When he says this, Aragorn feels that he must speak up. “Open war is upon you, whether you would risk it or not,” he states. 

That just really stuck out to me in a new way, even though I have seen that movie many, many times. The Lord immediately brought to my mind the fact that this is how the American church has begun to think. We think that the war between Good and Evil is optional.

I would even go so far as to say that some of us don’t even think that we are in a war. Like the king, we believe that if we do not want to risk an open war, then it will just leave us alone. But people, this is most definitely not the case. We are in war, whether we would risk it or not.  

In this week leading up to the most crucial election in the history of the United States of America, we are at war. In the streets of some of our cities where there are violent rioters, we are at war. In our families, we are at war. In our churches, we are at war. In our schools, we are at war. In our workplaces, we are at war. Our world, is at war.  

“Proclaim this among the nations: Prepare for war! Rouse the warriors! Let all the fighting men draw near and attack.”  -Joel 3:9 

So, let us ask ourselves, what or who are we at war with? Why do we need to fight? First, we are not at war with flesh and blood. This is not a tangible war like WWII. This a war against evil; against the devil and his schemes.

Secondly, we need to fight because if we do not, sin and evil will completely take over our world. As of right now, we are not fighting against this evil. We are turning a blind eye to the rioters on our streets who are ruining people’s businesses and hurting people, the media who is lying to us about everything, the Black Lives Matter Organization that doesn’t really stand for African-Americans, but encourages flat-out satanic activities, and much more.

We are not proclaiming to the nations that we must prepare for war. For goodness-sake, we are not even discussing this in our churches where people claim to believe in this war. I really love this quote by Winston Churchill, that I feel we should all live by. 

“Never give in, never, never, never, never-in nothing, great or small, large or petty-never give in except to convictions of honor or good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming force of the enemy… Do not let us speak of darker days: let us speak rather of sterner days. These are not dark days; these are great days-the greatest days our country has ever lived; and we must all thank God that we have been allowed, each of us according to our stations, to play a part in making these days memorable in the history of our race.” -Winston Churchill 

I believe that we can turn this war around. I believe we can win this war, if only we would be willing to risk everything for this just cause. I believe revival can break out if we would only lead the charge.

As Christians, we need to be praying, for the leaders of our Nation, the leaders in our churches, people who do not know Jesus. Then, we need to put action to our prayer. We need to go out and teach people about Jesus, teach them why we need to stand up against this evil.

Show them what this thing looks like. Show them how to pray, how to evangelize, how to choose leaders. We need to get out and vote, not only for this presidential election, but we need to vote for local leaders also. Those who will stand up against abortion, Socialism, and things that are blatantly evil.

Vote for leaders who believe in the Constitution and the way our country was founded. Vote for leaders who will let us keep our God-given rights as Americans. We need to explain this war to our friends and family.

We need to call people to arms. This is where it starts y’all. We already know that we have victory over the enemy because of Jesus’ resurrection, but when are we going to start showing the devil that?

When are we going to show him that we believe it? We are running out of time. We are allowing the enemy to beat us into submission, and most of us do not even know it. We have got to start standing up against the evil that is very quickly overtaking our world. We have got to fight back.

Because open war is upon us, whether we would risk it or not. 

SO WHAT’S YOUR RESPONSE? 

=How can you stand up to the evil in your everyday life? 

=Do you believe that we are truly in war? 

=What are you going to differently?