I love the Lord of the Ring Trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien. Many are familiar with the movies: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King. I would encourage anyone to prayerfully watch the movies and/or read the books, starting with the Hobbit. (These movies are not for children under 13 due to its visually graphic nature. PARENTS: PLEASE WATCH THESE MOVIES WITH YOUR CHILDREN). Silmarillion is important as a “history book” for the Lord of the Ring Trilogy.

WHOM DO YOU SERVE? That was a line from, The Fellowship of the Ring. Saruman was the head of the order of “Wizards” whose task was to guard and care for the “earth”. Each “wizard” had oversight over different regions. Due to Saruman’s arrogance and desire for power, he became corrupted by Sauron, an evil entity. Saruman “created” a group of “monsters” (for lack of a better description) called Uruk-Hai. In the movie he asks the lead Uruk-Hai the question, “Whom do you serve?” The Uruk-Hai answers, in a graveled, garbled voice, “Saruman.”

WHOM DO YOU SERVE? THIS IS AN IMPORTANT QUESTION WE MUST ASK OURSELVES IN THIS DAY THAT WE LIVE IN.

The best way to address this question is through the following scriptures (using NIV): 1) Revelation 3:14-18: “To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation. I know your deeds that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So because you are lukewarm-neither hot nor cold-I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes (clothes of righteousness) to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.” 2) Revelation 3: 1-4: ” To the angel of the church in Sardis write: These are the words of Him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation for being alive, but you are dead. Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God. Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; hold it fast, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you. Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me, dressed in white for they are worthy.” 3) Romans 6:15-23: “What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under Grace? By no means! Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey-whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness…But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” 4) Psalm 84:10-12: “Better is on day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked. For the Lord is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor; no good thing does He withhold from those whose walk is blameless. Lord Almighty, blessed is the one who trusts in You.” 5) Joshua 24: 14-24: “Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. but if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord…Now then, said Joshua, “throw away the foreign gods that are among you and yield your hearts to the Lord God of Israel. And the people said to Joshua, We will serve the Lord our God and obey Him.” 6) Deuteronomy 30:11-20: “Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach, It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, ‘Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?’ Nor is it beyond the sea, so you have to ask, ‘Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?’ No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it…This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may Love the Lord your God, listen to His voice, and hold fast to Him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.”

Hebrews 3:7-14: “So as the Holy Spirit says: Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the wilderness, where your ancestors tested and tried me, though for forty years they saw what I did. That is why I was angry with that generation; I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.’ So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’ See to it brothers and sisters, that none of you have a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness, We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the end.”