The Cosmic Battle

One thing leads to another and then another.  So, I have often heard it said and more times than not, it has proven to be true.  Back in the early days of November, l started reading a book about Advent as a way of getting my mind wrapped around the season which was lurking ahead on the calendar.  "Advent" was the name of the book written by an Episcopalian priest named Fleming Rutledge.  As she developed the Advent theme, she did so depicting a cosmic struggle between good and evil, God and Satan, but one in which we also were the third character on the stage.   

Her book was the one thing which sent me to another which was Paul's letter to the church at Ephesus.  When we think of Ephesians, we often think only of the eighth verse of the second chapter which has words which flow off our lips with such ease, "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; is is the gift of God."  While this verse is one of those must be memorized verses, Ephesians also enables us to see teh Apostle's view of the cosmic struggle which comes to a conclusion with those words in chapter six about the wiles of the devil and the need for the whole armor of God.  

This message about a cosmic ongoing struggle is something we often push to the edge of what we see God doing in the world.  We see Him expressing love, offering forgiveness, and being an abundant source of mercy and grace.  We often forget that the battle we see evidence of at Calvary is still raging. The ultimate victory has been won, but Satan still lurks in the shadows seeking to destroy and undermine everything which speaks of goodness.  Satan is the evil one who would separate us from God.  We live complacent to the battle, but it still rages around us, nonetheless.  Let no one think we are but bystanders for we are players in this cosmic battle as well.