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When the Enemy Comes In A-Roaring Like a Flood

Responsibility can overwhelm us at times. Perhaps this email comes into your inbox at a time when you’re feeling it keenly. It comes in many forms, but let me share with you how I have been feeling it recently.

As Melanie has made preparations for the new school year and we have discussed different aspects of the children’s education, I have felt a fresh sense of overwhelm with what we’re up against.

Covid-19 might take the headlines, but there’s a battle continuing under our noses and the enemy would wish us distracted sufficiently to keep us from engaging purposefully in the warfare. This is a battle for the rising generation. It hits me in waves, but it is always there. It is difficult to endure a sense of the crushing weight of a gargantuan system of anti-Christian entertainment and education that purposefully undermines a biblical framework for thinking and living that leads to peace, joy, and successional productivity and advancement. Even when the root of the matter is present in our children, i.e. salvation in Jesus Christ, most of the systems of influence are being twisted today by people with a worldview that is diametrically opposed to the Christian worldview. Sometimes it is subtle, but most of the time it is not.

We once understood that we inhabit a world of order wherein beauty is objective. That the reason for the existence of beauty is that our Creator governs the world with a framework of order and fills it in with the various shades of experience and creativity that excite our senses as creatures made in His image.

As we move from God we drift into chaos, which is evident by the popular influences in the arts of our modern era. To most tastes refined by a Trinitarian worldview, there is little to appreciate in much of the admired creative works and architecture of our day. We are paying a price.

What do we do?

Your job, Christian, is to do what is before you and do it as the loving bond-slave of your Redeemer.

We are not heroes. I can’t save this generation, nor can you. But providence gives us a job to do, whether it is caring for loved ones, raising children, providing for our families, or whatsoever our hand finds to do. Let us labor in faith and look for opportunities to bring the hope of the gospel to our neighbors.

What if you’re suffering and unable to do much at all? Can the Holy Spirit make a suffering Christian shine? Surely the cross is ample evidence of that, where we see our Saviour suffering in a fashion that was winsome to the lost that watched on. Shine, Christian, and as you do what is before you, God will give you victory little by little.

As we think of the current spiritual warfare, I was encouraged yesterday by the lyrics of this song written by Alfred the Great in the 9th century. Would that we had leaders that would express their faith as boldly today:

When the enemy comes in a-roaring like a flood
Coveting the kingdom and hungering for blood,
The Lord will raise a standard up and lead His people on
The Lord of Hosts will go before defeating every foe; defeating every foe.

Refrain:
For the Lord is our defense, Jesu defend us;
For the Lord is our defense, Jesu defend. 

Some men trust in chariots, some trust in the horse
But we will depend upon the Name of Christ our Lord
The Lord has made my hands to war and my fingers to fight
The Lord lays low our enemies but raises us upright; He raises us upright.

A thousand fall on my left hand, ten thousand to the right,
And yet He will defend us from the arrow in the night
Protect us from the terrors of the teeth of the devourer
Imbue us with your Spirit, Lord, encompass us with power; encompass us with power.

Lord have mercy. Church have courage.

Your friend and minister,
Armen


An email to the Faith FPC family. It may be slightly edited to remove sensitive information.

Check out Pastor Armen's Family Worship Companion
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