LXX

I SOUGHT THE LORD AND HE HEARD ME, AND DELIVERED ME FROM ALL MY FEARS

PSALM 34:4

BROCK STORM (DESTINY KNIGHT-STORM’S HUSBAND)

Destiny giggled, and I glanced at her with a raised eyebrow. This in turn caused her to laugh. We were only minutes into our trek to Minneapolis. I was driving her pale yellow Volkswagen Bug, complete with a flower on the dashboard. For some reason, Destiny always found my rather large form piloting this less than large and somewhat dainty car amusing.

Her amusement always amused me, and right now it did my heart good. She had recently found out her father was dying. She then confided a childhood secret to me that only her Aunt Belle had been aware of. Her father, an outwardly religious man, had behaved inappropriately toward her for a period of time. It played a role in their strained relationship over the years. Yet the abuse was subtle enough that I got the feeling her dad was unaware of how deeply it affected his daughter.

Destiny is a woman of strong faith and an inspiration to many. Yet, with the closeness of our relationship, I knew she had brief periods of fragility and vulnerability. She especially had regret over her years as an adult entertainer. In the last couple days since she had found out her dad had an aggressive form of cancer and likely only a week or two to live, she was as troubled as I had ever seen her.

After her two minute period of merriment, she quickly returned to a quiet and subdued demeanor. I gave her space to think. To be honest, I didn’t know what to say. Soft jazz played quietly on the radio. It was the only sound for about twenty minutes before Destiny spoke.

“Time is such a deception,” she said.

“What do you mean?”

“I was just thinking,” she continued. “You know what I told you the other day. You know about my dad and me and watching ‘Baywatch,’ how creepy it was, and how it ended?”

“Of course.”

“It occurred to me that after that final, um,  incident I told you about. My dad never called me by the pet name he used for me ever again.”

“Your pet name?”

“Yeah, like you know how you and most of my close friends call me Dee. Well, when I was little, Daddy called me Chickadee. I mean, usually my dad was a stern, serious man so mostly he called me Destiny. ‘Destiny, did you do your homework?’ ‘Destiny, you need to clean your room.’ ‘Destiny, you’re gonna be late for school.’ But when I was little, on rare occasions of lightheartedness, he’d be like, ‘Chickadee, do you want to go fly a kite?’ ‘Chickadee, do you want to go to the park?’ I loved my daddy when I was his Chickadee.”

Destiny shook her head, and then she became quiet and still. It was odd hearing Destiny refer to her father as daddy, I racked my brain trying to recall if she had ever called the man she loved, but disliked, daddy.

“What did you mean by time is a deception?” I asked.

She shrugged, kicked off her shoes, and put her feet on the dash. “I’m mean, in one sense, Daddy calling me Chickadee seems like yesterday, and, like, where did the time go? Like flying a kite as a little girl. It’s as if I can still feel the crisp spring air on my cheeks, and the puffy white clouds in a bright blue sky. I remember the thrill of the kite soaring up with the breeze, and fluttering so intensely I hoped it wouldn’t break. When I think about it, sometimes it feels like it could have been yesterday. Yet other times it seems like a really long time ago, like a couple lifetimes.

“I’d have to say, flying kites is probably my best childhood memory. I often imagined I was flying, too. As a matter of fact, the first time I heard and read about the second coming of Christ in 1 Thessalonians chapter four, I recalled the feelings I had flying kites. We shall rise up into the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Completely restored to innocence. There’s nothing like the innocent wonder of being a child.”

“Yeah, I know what you mean,” I replied with a sentimental smile. “I’ve thought the same thing about playing in the creek, the woods, riding bikes and go carts. Six and Seven’s dad building us a tree fort when we were kids. The world seemed open to infinite possibilities, and the weekend was like a big adventure. Then Monday would come with the sad reality of back to school.”

“I was the opposite. I loved going to school.”

“I thought you told me you barely graduated high school.”

“That’s because in high school I was a major stoner and skipped school a lot. In elementary school I got straight A’s, most of middle school, too.”

“So smokin dope made you a dope?”

She giggled. “Let’s just say, it was a main ingredient. You never indulged, did you?”

“Not really, I mean I tried weed and drank a little, but I got into too many fights as it was. I didn’t need to become one those belligerent drunk guys actually looking for a fight. I had Seven’s obnoxious personality doing enough of that. I always felt like I needed to have my wits about me. I never knew when a fight would break out, and I was usually part of it when one did.”

We were quiet for a minute, then Destiny quickly became subdued again. “I’m scared, Brock.”

“Yeah?” I replied sympathetically as I placed a hand on her thigh. She took hold of it and squeezed.

“What if this visit goes really ugly?” she asked.

“Nothing can go really ugly with how beautiful you are.”

She gave a polite chuckle, and then sighed. “You know what I mean.”

“Dee, it’s time you took your own advice.”

“Huh?” She replied meekly, with wide eyes. She looked so cute. Her honey blonde braid was draped over her left shoulder, and a stray lock hung above an eyebrow like a crescent moon. If I weren’t driving, I would have leaned over and kissed her.

“I can’t count how many times I’ve heard you encourage someone with a variety of quotes. Like, you will keep Him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Him, because you trust in Him. Trust in the Lord forever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength.”

“Isaiah 26, verses 3 and 4,” Destiny grinned, and I knew I was headed down the right path.

“Another one you use as much if not more. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear: because fear has torment.”

“1 John 4:18,” she replied.

“Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”

“Ephesians 4:32.”

“And one not directly from the Bible. Be kind to unkind people, they need it the most. Kindness has converted more sinners than zeal, eloquence, or learning.”

“I have one for you,” Destiny said, smiling sweetly, as she leaned over and kissed my cheek. “The thing that counts most in the pursuit of happiness, is choosing the right traveling companion. I’ve done this!”

“Me, too,” I replied with a grin. She kissed my cheek again.

A couple hours later, google maps told me to take a right and that we had arrived at our destination. Destiny sighed. “Wow, a hospice rather than a hospital. I guess he’s really not coming out of here alive.”

She asked me to pray. After I finished, we walked into the building hand in hand. A nurse led us to a room, lightly knocked. She then told another nurse that Mr. Knight’s daughter was here and asked if it was okay to come in. She said it was.

Destiny gave a little gasp when we caught sight of the frail, gaunt man lying in the bed. He was so thin, his eyes seemed to bulge from his skull. “My little girl,” he croaked.

“Hi, Daddy,” Destiny greeted with a warm smile. I had never met Destiny’s dad, I had only seen pictures. He was a mere shell of a man, and barely recognizable.

“You came,” he said with a big grin. The smile seemed so odd in such a gravely ill man. Despite what Destiny had confided to me about her father. It did my heart good to see how much her visit meant to this man who was clearly knocking on death’s door.

After Mr. Knight gazed adoringly at his daughter for a minute, his eyes shifted to me. Destiny turned and looked at me. Then back to her father. “Daddy, this is my husband, Brock.”

“Nice to meet you, son,” Mr. Knight said, barely audible.

Given what Destiny told me about him, I didn’t know if I liked him calling me son. I recalled what Jesus said about his murderers. ‘Father forgive them, for they no not what they do.’ “Nice to meet you too, sir.”

“My sister tells me you’re a good man,” he croaked. “A brave, man. You’re certainly a big man. She says you take really good care of my daughter.”

“I love her more than life itself, sir,” I said, and then winced at saying that to a dying man.

But he actually chuckled and then told me. “It seems you take better care of her than I ever did. Bellie said. Oops. Oh, hey, never call Annabelle, Bellie, she don’t like it.”

As if on cue, Destiny’s Aunt Belle came in. She had come up the night before, and was staying with Destiny’s father until he passed. Destiny hadn’t yet decided what her intentions were. “Hi kids, when did you get here?”

“About ten minutes ago,” I told her, and then put my mouth close to her ear. “Aunt Bellie.”

She narrowed her eyes at me. “I’m gonna owe you a punch to the gut for that.”

I refrained from laughing. Everyone we were close to knew about the little game I play with my spiritual daughter Amy. I like to tease her, and she likes to retaliate by punching me in the stomach. Hard too, but she does give me fair warning before she strikes, that way I can brace myself for her feisty little fist.

Mr. Knight went on a frightful coughing spree. Before Aunt Belle could push the button for a nurse, one came rushing in. So far the staff here really impressed me.

“We better let you rest, Dad,” Destiny said.

“No,” he groaned, and made a motion as if to grab her hand, but it was buried beneath the covers. “I need to talk to you, alone.”

Destiny looked at her aunt, then me, and nodded. Belle and I went to a private waiting room. I could tell she was agitated, which was a strange site concerning Belle. She and Destiny are so much alike. They have become so very close, it seemed more like they were mother and daughter.

“In all seriousness, can I punch you in the stomach?” Belle asked so politely that it was as if she asked me to carry something to the car for her.

I chuckled, and then said. “Have at it.”

Her tongue curled onto her upper lip, and she reared back and hit me.

“Ouch,” she said, frowning. She gazed at me as if I had struck her. “They’re not necessarily kidding when they say you have rock hard abs.”

I shrugged. Belle’s lip began to quiver, then she put her face in her hands and sobbed. I pulled her into an embrace. After a minute, she composed herself and said my name so quietly, I wasn’t completely sure I heard her.

“Yeah?”

“Can we pray?”

“Of course.”

When Belle finished praying for Destiny and her father, she said, “I told him.”

“Told him what?”

“That Destiny was well aware of what transpired between them when she was a little girl.”

I felt a chill go up my spine.

“Did I make a mistake?” she asked. “Will Destiny be mad at me?”

“First of all, I can’t imagine Dee ever being mad at you. Second, you’ve never been shy about speaking the truth, Biblical or otherwise. But truth can be hard. Ultimately, I think it is healthier for both of them for it to be out in the open. What do they call it? Closure, I guess.”

“It felt so cruel confronting a dying man with that ugly situation.”

“I doubt you went about it in a cruel fashion.”

“I hope not. But still.”

“Listen, I feel sorry for him and all. He looked pitiful lying there. But, on the other hand, you reap what you sew.”

Belle and I sat, and I quietly listened to her tell favorable stories about her brother. Then the door suddenly burst open, startling both of us. Destiny rushed to her aunt, and hugged her. “Thank you, Auntie, I love you. Thanks to you, I feel like I got my daddy back.”

The two women continued to embrace as they cried.

“What happened?” Aunt Belle finally asked.

“Daddy told me that you told him that I told you about what happened when I was little,” Destiny explained. “It was awkward and painful. He said he assumed I was unaware, yet he had carried the guilt and shame around for years. He tearfully asked for my forgiveness. I granted it. We prayed.”

Destiny choked on a sob and put her hands in her face. I put my hand on her back and gently rubbed. She took hold of my hand, kissed it, and held onto it, gripping it tight.

“When we finished praying, he was so happy,” Destiny said, smiling through tears. “I could tell a heavy burden was lifted. Then he said, now I can die in relative peace. But…”

Destiny cried some more. After a minute, she finished. “He said, ‘but now that my Chickadee has returned, I don’t want to go.’ He called me Chickadee!”

Destiny and her aunt cried, and hugged some more. Then Destiny spoke again. “One more thing. Before he fell asleep, he said something you’re gonna have to help me with Auntie.”

“Okay,” she replied hesitantly. “I’ll do what I can.”

“He said, ‘not that I’m making excuses for my behavior. But since you are exposing deep, dark secrets, has your Aunt told you about our stepfather?’ I told him no. Then he said, ‘ask your Aunt Belle about Jason Parnell.’”

A look of alarm entered Belle’s eyes, and she began to chew her lower lip.

DESTINY’S BIBLE STUDY NOTES

Subject: Written with the finger of God (part one)

Did God really write the Ten Commandments Himself? “He gave Moses two tablets of the Testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God…Now the tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God engraved on the tablets” (Exodus 31:18; 32:16).

Answer: Yes! The God of heaven wrote the Ten Commandments on tables of stone with His own finger.

What is God’s definition of sin? “Sin is the transgression of the law” (1 John 3:4).

Answer: Sin is the breaking of God’s Ten Commandment law. The law of God is perfect (Psalm 19:7), and its principles cover every possible sin. Keeping the commandments “is the whole duty of a person” (Ecclesiastes 12:13).

Why did God give the Ten Commandments? “Happy is he who keeps the law” (Proverbs 29:18). “Keep My commandments; for length of days and long life and peace they will add to you” (Proverbs 3:1, 2).

Answer A: As a guide for happy, abundant living. God created us to experience happiness, peace, long life, contentment, accomplishment, and all the other great blessings for which our hearts long. God’s law is a road map that points out the right paths to follow in order to find this true, supreme happiness. “By the law is a knowledge of sin” (Romans 3:20). “I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, you shall not covet” (Romans 7:7).

Answer B: To show us the difference between right and wrong. God’s law is like a mirror (James 1:23-25). It points out wrongdoing in our lives much like a mirror points out dirt on our faces. The only possible way for us to know we are sinning is to carefully check our lives by the mirror of God’s law. Peace for a mixed-up world can be found in God’s Ten Commandments. It tells us where to draw the line. “Hold me up, and I shall be safe, and I shall observe Your statutes continually. You reject all those who stray from your statutes” (Psalm 119:117, 118).

Answer C: To protect us from danger and tragedy. All good laws protect, and God’s law is no exception. “By this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments” (1 John 2:3).

Answer D: It helps us to know God. The eternal principles within God’s law are written deep in every in every person’s nature by the God who created us. The writing might be dim and smudged, but it is still there. We were created to live in harmony with them. When we ignore them, the result is tension, unrest, and tragedy—just as ignoring the rules for safe driving can lead to serious injury or death.

Why is God’s law exceptionally important to each of us personally? “Speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty” (James 2:12).

Answer: Because the Ten Commandment law is the standard by which God examines people in the heavenly judgement.

Can God’s law (The Ten Commandments) ever be abolished? “It is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle of the law to fail” (Luke 16:17). “All His precepts (Commandments) are sure. They stand fast forever and ever” (Psalm 111:7, 8).

Answer: No. The Bible is clear that the law of God cannot be changed. The commandments are revealed principles of God’s holy character and are the very foundation of His kingdom. They will be true as long as God exists. The Ten Commandment law is actually God’s character in written form—written so that we can better comprehend God. It is no more possible to change God’s law than to pull God out of heaven and change Him. Jesus showed us what the law—that is, the pattern for holy living—looks like when expressed in human form. God’s character cannot change; therefore, neither can His law.

                              GOD IS                                               THE LAW IS

Good                    Luke 18:19                                        1 Timothy 1:8

Holy                      Isaiah 5:16                                        Romans 7:12

Perfect                 Matthew 5:48                                  Psalm 19:7

Pure                      1 John 3:2, 3                                     Psalm 19:8

Just                       Deuteronomy                                   Romans 7:12

True                      John 3:33                                          Psalm 19:9

Spiritual               1 Corinthians 10:4                          Romans 7:14

Righteousness    Jerimiah 23:6                                   Psalm 119:172

Faithful                1 Corinthians 1:9                             Psalm 119:86

Love                     1 John 4:8                                         Romans 13:10

Unchangeable    James 1:17                                        Matthew 5:18

Everlasting          Genesis 21:33                                  Psalm 111:7, 8

When Jesus is in the heart, keeping the law becomes not only possible, but also pleasurable!

Did Jesus abolish God’s law while He was here on earth? “Do not think that I came to destroy the law… I did not come to destroy but to fulfill… Till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled” (Matthew 5:17, 18).

Answer: No, indeed! Jesus specifically asserted that He did not come to destroy the law, but to fulfill (or keep) it. Instead of doing away with the law, Jesus magnified it (Isaiah 42:21) as the perfect guide for holy living. For example, Jesus pointed out that ‘You shall not murder’ condemns anger ‘with out a cause’ (Matthew 5:21, 22) and hatred (1 John 3:15), and that lust is a form of adultery (Matthew 5:27, 28). He said, “If you love Me, keep My commandments (John 14:15).

The cross reveals just how much God cares about His law!

Will people who knowingly continue to break God’s commandments be saved? “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). “Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all” (James 2:10).

Answer: The Ten commandment law guides us into holy living. If we ignore even one of the commandments, we neglect an essential part of the divine blueprint.

Can anyone be saved just by keeping the law? “By the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight” (Romans 3:20). “By grace you have been saved by faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast” (Ephesians 2:8, 9).

Answer: No. Salvation comes only through grace, as a free gift of Jesus Christ, and we receive this gift through faith. The law serves as a mirror that points out sin in our lives. Just as a mirror can show you dirt on your face but cannot clean your face, so cleansing and forgiveness from that sin come only through Christ.

Why then, is the law essential for improving a Christian’s character? “Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man’s whole duty” (Ecclesiastes 12:13). “By the law is the knowledge of sin” (Romans 3:20).

Answer: Because the full pattern, or whole duty, for  Christian living is contained in God’s law. Like a child who made his own ruler and told his mother he’s ten feet tall, our own standard of measure is never safe. “By this we know Him if we keep His commandments. (1 John 2:3).

What enables a truly converted Christian to follow the pattern of God’s law? “I will put my laws in their mind and write them on their hearts” (Hebrews 8:10). “I can do all things through Christ” (Philippians 4:13). “God did by sending His own Son…that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us” (Romans 8:3, 4).

Answer: Christ not only pardons repentant sinners, but He also restores in them the image of God. He brings them into harmony with His law through the power of His indwelling presence. God will not, does not change His moral law, but He made a provision through Jesus to change the sinner so we can measure up to that law.