Children of all ages sit in front of the television watching . . . watching . . . watching the reality of evil.  It is there right in front of their eyes and they see it with their minds, feel it in their souls, hide it in their hearts. 

It is an evil which fully encompasses their world.  They are not protected as much as they would hope that they are.  They are right in the middle of the evil and it is relentless to eventually destroy them.

Why?  Why does evil seek to destroy and how can it be stopped? 

The Las Vegas mass killer had time to kill many.  He destroyed countless lives.  He perpetrated his evil upon the innocent and this country is still paying the price for his insanity.  Where does this evil come from?

Popular to many is a new series, “Stranger Things,” which shows a “Shadow Monster” hovering over the town of Hawkins to control, to kill, to take over.  Is it just a fantasy, a hyped up version of a destroyer or is there some reality to this horror story?

How can evil become so resident within our minds that we act out what the Destroyer wishes?  There are sanitariums filled with people who have embraced a full version of evil and yet, there are also people walking the streets, living next door to you and I, in government, teaching our children, behind the pulpit who have taken a vow to allow evil to inhabit them.

Many embrace this evil for the power and status it offers.  No longer the outcast or the one bullied when evil takes hold and gives strength and confidence.  For some who have been abused and mistreated, evil is thrust upon them and they have not the ability to fight it off.

Still, we live in a modern society with drugs for every occasion, every ill.  Most people go to some sort of counselor, mentor, theologian, priest, pastor, psychologist.  We’re more educated than any other era, and yet, evil is still rampant and now, more tolerated and embraced at its base.

To be exact, evil is not relative and neither is good.  There are absolutes determined and presented by a Holy God, but we don’t operate well with absolutes and would rather appear more tolerant, more educated, more advanced, more loving and our world is taken over more each day by the Destroyer.

Perhaps, not the “Shadow Monster,” that appears hovering so menacingly over Hawkins, but in reality, the evil does cover the homes, the cities, the schools, the countries and it’s kept in place by our choice.  Not by mere cowardice is it allowed to take over and control our society, but by tolerance and acceptance of the lesser forms which we believe to be for our advantage.

You may speak of your freedom all the way to entrapment, but if you would just open your eyes and SEE the evil that you have embraced, held onto, welcomed, invited in, adorned yourself with, then you would no longer be able to point your crooked finger at the government or the people who sell guns or those who deal drugs or perhaps, other religions.

There is a spiritual concept known as a “spider hawk” which is a dominant and powerful principality that preys over territories not protected by the Righteous and it can enter the mind, control a home, cause havoc and death in cities and ruin a country.

The reality of evil breathes out its purpose moment by moment, but we turn a deaf ear just as we have to the words that God has given us to protect us.  We turn a deaf ear to that which does not bring us what we want, happiness, security, peace, financial gain, popularity, prowess, fame, etc. 

We cannot fight this entity on our own.  We cannot even fight it as a group of intelligent, well-read, educated people.  It takes more than that.  It requires a Sword wielded by the Righteous to stop the Destroyer.  Any hole in the armor affords the enemy victory to his side and death to ours.

Follow me through these ten riddles to open your eyes to SEE the evidence of a force unconquerable, but by ONE.