The Shadow of Mordor

This week I have felt a bit like Frodo Baggins. Carrying a heavy load, I have felt and seen the dark, hovering clouds of Mordor move ever closer. But this is no movie. It's very real. The analogous world of Middle Earth is reality in our time. I need not spell out the analogy except to say that "we are not fighting against people made of flesh and blood, but against the evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against those mighty powers of darkness who rule this world, and against wicked spirits in the heavenly realms" (Ephesians 6:12 NLT).


Fear began setting into my soul this week. Not fear for myself but for my children. H1N1; wars, rumors of wars and impending wars; nukes; Iran; Afghanistan; Pakistan; North Korea; violent crime; sexual predators; internet slime. And the shadow is moving and darkening. This fear began to choke me. I was even fighting back tears feeling the weight of the shadow while grocery shopping at Cub. 


As I was praying through my fear earlier in the week, God brought a phrase to mind: He who dwells in the shelter of the Almighty.... I couldn't remember the rest of the verse. A few days passed and I finally looked it up-- Psalm 91.

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.

I will say to the Lord, My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.

For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence.

He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.

You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day,

nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday.

A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand,but it will not come near you.

You will only look with your eyes and see the recompense of the wicked.

Because you have made the Lord your dwelling place the Most High, who is my refuge

no evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague come near your tent.

For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.

On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.

You will tread on the lion and the adder; the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot.

Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows my name.

When he calls to me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him.

With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.

Fear & Love

How can you believe in a God who is full of wrath? How can you believe in a God that would send people to hell? How can you believe in a God that allows bad things to happen (especially to "good" people)?

The answer: I don't have a choice.

God is God. Being God, He does not need to defend himself. By definition, God is Perfect: He established perfection. God is Truth: He established truth. Although He wants us to know him, whether we do or do not know him does not change who He is-- our relationship to Him does not change truth.

I, and so many others, have cherry-picked the Bible to define our God. Because we can point to Scripture to back our assertions, we believe we are worshiping Yahweh. The modern western church has also succumbed to making God in the church's image instead of the other way around. Individually and corporately, we like to pull out the "nice-ities" of God and gloss over the wrath-- the fire and brimstone of old.

So, I have started over. I have been reading the Bible, Old and New Testaments, and trying to understand God on His terms. And God is getter bigger and bigger for me and I know I am barely grasping His coattails. Ironically, the more I am understanding God's justice and righteousness and what the fear of God means for me personally (and, oh, do I fear Him and His wrath), the more I understand that God is love. the more I understand the cross.

Without Christ's blood shed for me and my acceptance of His atoning work of the cross, I am an enemy of God. God, being perfectly just and righteous, has no choice but to deal with me justly or He is no longer God. A just sentence is physical death and an eternity of separation in the fires of hell. "And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell (Matthew 10:28).

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" (Proverbs 1:7). Fearing and knowing the curse I am under in my natural, sinful self is horrifying. "It is a fearful thing to fall in to the hands of the living God" (Hebrews 10:31). "BUT God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were yet sinners, Christ died FOR us" (Romans 5:8; capitalization added). I cannot fathom the Love that took on God's wrath for me.

Surely  [Jesus] has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows...he was wounded for OUR transgressions; he was crushed for OUR iniquities...all we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned--every one-- to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all...it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief...  Isaiah 53: 4, 5, 6, 10.

I have seen God accused of awful things regarding the death of His one and only Son, Jesus Christ. But it was the God of Love and God the Justifier-- Father, Son and Spirit-- that justified even me. There is no greater love: it is simply incomparable.

The fear of the Lord that comes from knowing Him on His terms brings wisdom. The wisdom to know and to understand "how great is the love the Father has lavished on us; that we should be called children of God. For, indeed, that is what we are" (1 John 3:1). The fear of God is something different now that I confess Christ, but the healthy fear makes me love my Savior even more.