Back in February I attended a mission and saw thrilling signal fires lit on mountaintops near Turin, Italy to commemorate the Waldensian liberation. It reminded me of a dramatic concluding scene in the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy written by J. R. R. Tolkien, one of England’s literary greats from a generation ago. In those fantastic novels he communicated spiritual truths through allegorical myths in a fantasy world called Middle-Earth (very much like C.S. Lewis had done, who was helped to become a Christian by Tolkien), In the final episode, the armies of darkness advance and the humans rally to engage an awesome decisive battle. In one drama-packed moment, a massive pile of wood was ignited on a mountaintop with a torch to light the signal fire. Subsequent summons-by-fire spread across the kingdom, from mountaintop to mountaintop whilst the sentinels shout the stunning and triumphant news – “The beacons are lit!”

And that spiritual fire is still burning today in England. From the mountaintop of joy, the message is that Jesus is alive and death has lost! That is the gospel that has ignited a fire on the mountain to punch holes in the thick cloud of spiritual darkness. Now twenty centuries later, we are the ones left here by Jesus to light the beacon for our generation. The brilliant laser light of Jesus’ victory over death means there is nothing in your life that is bigger than He is, and if you belong to Him, nothing can defeat His plans for you.

Today, He’s counting on us who are Christians to light the fire for the people in our world. They can’t see Jesus, but they can see us. The Bible says, “Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” Matthew 5:16. We mustn’t allow the fire to die in our hands.

And if you haven’t yet entrusted your life to that God of Light – if you’ve never committed yourself to the conquering Lord of eternity – then let this be your day to trade away all traces of guilt for His forgiveness, and tear up the death penalty, for His eternal life. You don’t have to live in the darkness anymore. From the mountain of God’s truth, the beacons are lit!

-Pastor Doug Wilson   email: pastordougwilson@aol.com