Hell Shall Not Prevail

Hell Shall Not Prevail

God can bring a stunning victory out of what looks like a disaster.

As a sophomore in high school I was second string on the Kelliher football team at end position. We were now traveling to our third game of the season at Littlefork, Minnesota and I hadn’t yet played in a game. The circumstances couldn’t have been much worse, a cold and rainy night, facing the best team in the conference on their turf.

Though we tried to pump ourselves up and convince ourselves that we could win, it was an uphill battle mentally for our team. Our chances looked bleak, at best.

Littlefork was a powerhouse. One of their best plays was an end sweep that looked like the “company from hell.” Three players would pull out and run interference for the ball carrier and it resembled a stampede coming at the left side of our defensive line.

One quarter into the game, they had already run up the score. Coach alternated two seniors at left defensive end and neither was able to do much damage.

Finally, in frustration he turned and yelled over his shoulder, “George, get in there!”

This unexpected move on his part sent cold chills of fear down my spine, but I didn’t have time to think about it. I ran onto the field and took my position, just as their quarterback called the signals. The first play was the end sweep. Here they came, the “company from hell,” running right at me.

This was the ultimate test. Now, everyone was going to see what I was made of. I didn’t know what I was made of myself, but this sudden test would reveal it.

The first player hit me around the waist . . . and my training kicked in. “Keep your eye on the ball and don’t let the ball carrier get outside of you. Box him in!”

The blocker peeled off and hit the ground, and the second took his shot. I managed to stay on my feet and push him down, while staying even with the ball carrier. By the time the third blocker took his shot, we were almost to the sidelines. He too, hit the ground as my hands did their work, and then I was staring into the eyes of the ball carrier. It was just him and me . . . a face off! His eyes were mean, radiating pure defiance, and before I could tackle him, he lowered his head and drove his helmet into my gut.

We both went down in a pile. To my surprise, there was a mighty roar from our sidelines. I had stopped him dead in his tracks . . . just a one-yard gain.

After that, they abandoned their signature play, the end sweep, and began pounding our interior line.

We fought valiantly in a field that had turned into pure mud . . . and lost by a sizable margin. I played my heart out, rushing the quarterback on pass plays like there was no tomorrow.

Though our team lost, it was a permanent promotion for me, personally. I didn’t know it until Coach complimented me in the locker room after the game. “You played a good game, George.”

I didn’t know what I was capable of untiIl I was tested in the worst of circumstances, and I was a bit surprised. That “game from hell” earned me the starting position at left end which I held throughout the remainder of my football career at Kelliher High School. In my senior year, I was awarded the All Conference Medal and made honorable mention for All State.

You may not know what you are made of until you are severely tested, and when you are tested, you may be pleasantly surprised.

Many years later I was thrown into another “game from hell.” After the shootings at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, an opportunity to produce an event fell into my lap. The circumstances were anything but favorable. I was working full time, so I had to work on the event around my job. The load was crushing. In the middle of the timeline I got Pneumonia. After a brief rest I was forced to return to work early because I was the main producer and the company had a $20,000 video to produce for Super Value. They provided a chair for me to sit while I was directing, because my knees were still shaky.

Working on the event after work, we prevailed and the event was tremendously successful. It drew 2000 people over two nights in Rush City, a town of 1500 people. When the altar call for salvation was given, people filled the entire front of gymnasium and backed up into the aisles to the middle of the venue. For years after, we received stories of lives transformed at the event, Littleton Meets Minnesota.

When we are tested, we are never to lay down and quit. We are warriors in the greatest battle of all, the battle for the kingdom of God. As a nation, we are now being severely tested, arguably the greatest test in the lifetime of this present generation.

Joe Biden and his team are doing their best to stamp out traditional Christian values and turn us into a Marxist nation. Our freedoms are being taken away one by one, and spiritual slavery has begun its assault on nearly every aspect of American life.

Americans, what will you do? Will you spinelessly buckle under, lay down beneath the attack of the Godless left, and subject your children to sexual debauchery and moral chaos?

Our God is a Warrior (Isaiah 42:13). His battle cry echoes through the land. Come and join His mighty ranks. We’ll march on hell and its gates will not prevail (Matthew 16:18).

The Christian Fatalists* may try to convince you that we are now done as a nation. God is bringing his judgment and our future is now to come under a Marxist government. Don’t listen to them. We are not done, not by a long shot. Take up the cry of our fearless ancestor, John Paul Jones, who in the midst of the bloody battle shouted at the enemy, “We have not yet begun to fight.” He went on to take the enemy ship of the British oppressors.

If we lose this battle, our children may never learn of his bravery because the left is trying to erase the greatest elements of our history as a nation. Our children may never know who we were and who we are, the greatest nation that ever graced the face of the planet. We became that nation because God shed His grace on us, the same God that the radical left now wants to push entirely out of our government.

Christian, stand up! Stand up for morality, for righteousness and justice, and don’t let the godless in government run over you with their signature end sweep.

God is watching us to see if we will return to repentance, humility, and relentless intercessory prayer for our nation. The two ranks of the battle continue to grow, godless Marxism verses Christian morality and the traditional values that made us a great nation. The stakes couldn’t be higher, freedom and liberty or captivity and slavery.

In the last election countless Christians sided with godless Marxism. Have we learned anything?

It is now time to decide.

Choose this day whom you will serve! Joshua 24:14

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*Go to the previous article on this website – March Newsletter, This Means War.

Photos designed and taken by Lorraine