A Time for War

When I had to read “A Farewell to Arms” in high school, I found myself reading only half the story. You see, “A Farewell to Arms” is set up so that every other chapter is either the love story, or the war story. I of course, read only the love story chapters.

I think sometimes, we do the same thing with the Bible. We get caught up in the beautiful; the love story. We focus on the grace and mercy and redemption. And I think sometimes we forget that we’re also called to get our hands dirty. We’re called to war.

The Bible could make it no clearer that a constant battle is being fought between light and dark, good and evil, Heaven and Hell (not to sound too, "Lord of the Rings-ish”). The Bible tells us about our weapons (2 Corinthians 10:4; Hebrews4:12) and armor (Ephesians 6:11-17). It tells us about our enemy (Ephesians 6:12; 1 Peter 5:8) about our fight (1Timothy 6:12; 1 Corinthians 15:24).

Ephesians 6:12 says, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”

I think we too often like to overlook these parts of God’s word. Perhaps because we don’t fully understand them. Perhaps because we’re scared of what they mean. Perhaps because we’re unsure of how to respond. Perhaps because we’ve just never paid attention.

We have to remember that it’s not just God pursuing our lives, but the Devil. It’s not just God pursing our children, but the Devil is too. It’s not just God pursing the nations, but the Devil too. And we are called to stand and fight. God has given us what we need, and promises not to abandon us. We see image after image of God’s faithfulness in battle throughout the Old Testament, and our God is the same God today as He was then.

I had a great guest pastor at my church a few weeks ago and his message was on the church and its role in this war. Matthew 16: 18 says, “…on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not overcome it.”

The pastor made the excellent point that gates can’t move, they’re stationary. The gates of hell do not move. They can’t gain any ground on us. We’re the ones who move either closer to or farther from the gates of hell.

We need to be asking ourselves, every move we make, am I moving the church and its cause closer to the gates of hell, or farther from it? Am I gaining ground, or losing it? And of course, what is there to gain or lose? Souls for Christ. How will our actions impact other people and their view of Christ? How will my words represent the God I claim to know, love, and serve? People are the heart of Gods mission. The church should act like a filter for each person walking towards hell. We should be fighting to stop them. To help them find Christ.

There’s a reason we’re built for companionship and relationships. A reason we gather in church as a group. A reason we meet at Bible studies and small groups. There is power in the church (the body of believers, not the building). There’s power in community. Even better than that, we have the power of the Holy Spirit and Christ on our side. There’s power in us because God himself is in us (Romans 8:11).There’s a reason we pray “in Christ’s name”-because it’s powerful! The Devil flees at the sound of it.

We need to always remember the big picture. It’s not all about our 5 year plans, or retirement, or having a nice home, or raising good children, or working constantly just to try and better ourselves. It’s not about securing a job, or saving for the future, or being involved in every possible church activity simply to fill our time with “something good”. It’s about souls. None of these other things are bad in and of themselves, but when we focus on the immediate, or focus just on our own life, we miss the whole point. This is a war. A war that, especially, the beauty-full can fight.

Best of all, because we serve an Alpha and Omega God, we are promised victory. We serve a living God-who has already overcome sin, death, and hell. Because of what Christ did, death has no sting and hell has no victory. One day, Christ will come to claim His kingdom. But until then, you’d better believe we’re at war, with a goal to win any many souls as possible.

Check out a great worship song by Matt Maher called “Christ is Risen”

Towards the end of the song he sings, “Oh death, where is your sting? Oh hell, where is your victory? Oh church, come stand in the light! Our God is not dead, He’s alive, He’s alive!”

I’m praying that we all recognize this war, that we seek to find the place He wants us to fight, and that we’re confident in Christ’s victory.

In Him,
Jill