THIS PRESENT DARKNESS - WEEK 11 CHAPTERS 37 - 40

THIS PRESENT DARKNESS by Frank Peretti

We're rounding the corner to the finish line on this great book! We will have today's post and next week's post, and that will wrap up This Present Darkness. I'll put out a post today on what our next book club pick will be and lay out the schedule.

I'm finding with this book, there's always a significant theme or image that really resonates with me. In our reading each week This time it's Tal, the mighty warrior, blowing his trumpet. It signals the Heavenly Host that the wait is over. It's time to put things right. Oh, and it's a signal to the evil forces as well. Their heyday is coming to an end.

The first part I'm going to bring to the table is the juxtaposition of a typical Sunday, summer day in Ashton and this particular summer day in Chapter 38. The very air is crackling with the presence of the demons, and it's affecting everything in a very negative way. The town is groaning (Romans 8:22) as if under tremendous pressure and pain, and it's building. Kaseph, indwelt by The Strongman, approaches.

Second, how interesting to watch the demons fall for their own tricks. Rafar stands on the high point and calls out to Tal. PRIDE and CONCEIT ooze through his call, don't they? We know what that's going to get him don't we? Later, in Chapters 39-40, the DECEPTION that Lucius uses against Rafar to secure his falling is fantastic. Lucius has been waiting for this moment, hasn't he? He's been lurking in the shadows for the opportune moment to dethrone Rafar and humiliate him. The fascination of all of this? Watching it play out in the human form between Brummel and Langstrat. The ending? Brummel shoots Langstrat, and Lucius stabs Rafar.

The third, and last part I'll touch on in this post, is Sandy Hogan. We're going to circle back around to deception; the revelation of who Madeline really is. Wow, what to say here? Deception is all around us. It comes to us in so many attractive and desirable forms. Just like Sandy, we follow it down a path willingly, believing the entire time that we have control until it is too late. The chains of the deception wrap around us and bury us. (I'm getting an image of Marley dragging his chains across the floor as he talks to Scrooge. Every year that passed he formed another link that became his own undoing.) For our present day, those chains can be spiritual guidance, addiction, sex/pornography, illegal practices, how we treat others, etc. Link upon link, chain upon chain. There's only one name that has the ability to free Sandy, and one name that can free us as well.

Any thoughts to add? I'd love to hear them! Share in the comments.