THIS DAY WE FIGHT

In his book, "This Day We Fight" - Breaking The Bondage of a Passive Spirit, American pastor and author, Francis Frangipane recounts a scene from the third film in the Lord Of The Rings movies, The Return of the King. Quoting from page 32 of the book: In a scene from the third Lord of the Rings movie, The Return of the King, Aragorn seeks to inspire his hopelessly outnumbered men against what seems like sure defeat: Hell's swarming legions have amassed before them and the courage of Aragorn's fighters is weakening.
    
Riding along the front lines of his gathered, but rather lowly, army, he shouts:
I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me. A day may come when the courage of men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship. But it is not this day.....This day we fight! By all that you hold dear on this good earth, I bid you stand, men of the West!

Francis Frangipane goes on to say: Let us also put aside our fears and the burdens of a passive spirit. Let us take up the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. And let us war on behalf of righteousness. A day may come when the world will succumb to the forces of evil. But it is not this day. This day we fight.

The day we committed our lives to Jesus Christ, and He became our Saviour and Lord, we were enlisted in an army, but unlike a soldier in a physical army who may after a time decide to leave the ranks of the military and return to civilian life, our commitment to fighting our enemy is a life long one, and we dare not remain passive in our stance toward our foe, Satan, for if we do not take up the offensive position against him, he will seek relentlessly to weaken us to the point of being ineffective in the Lord's army. After all, as Jesus said in John 10:10, the thief (Satan) has his unwavering aim to STEAL, KILL and DESTROY - Us.

As I was pondering the quote above from Francis Frangipane's book, "This Day We Fight", I thought about the passage in Ephesians 6 where Paul encourages the Christian to "Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil."
Four times in the verses Eph.6:10-14, Paul admonishes his readers to STAND.
Verse 13 says: Therefore, take up the whole armour of God, that you may be able to WITHSTAND in the evil day, and having done all, to STAND.

As I read and watched the impassioned cry of Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings, I was amazed at the last sentence: ..........................."I bid you stand, men of the West".

It seems that as each day passes, all that we hold dear in the West, as in Western nations and society is being attacked and eroded. For those who do not hold to a Biblical worldview, there are no longer any moral absolutes. What once was white is now black with all shades of grey being accepted in between.
Truly, the words of Isaiah the prophet spoken some seven hundred years before Christ are true of our times:
"Woe to those who call evil good
 and good evil,
 who put darkness for light
 and light for darkness,
 who put bitter for sweet
 and sweet for bitter. Isaiah 5:20 NIV
Whether it concerns issues such as Abortion, Same sex Marriage, Euthanasia, or all the implications of Political Correctness, the need has never been greater than today for Christians who are committed fully to the Lordship of Jesus, and who are committed to obeying the Word of God, the Bible - To STAND FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS, and TO KNOW WHAT we are standing FOR, and AGAINST according to the unchanging standards of Truth and Righteousness in the Word of God.
To Be Continued........................................