XCII

INNUMERABLE EVILS HAVE SURROUNDED ME; MY INIQUITIES HAVE OVERTAKEN ME…THEREFORE MY HEART FAILS ME

PSALM 40:12

SEVEN SALLIE

“You gotta help me!” Devin Easton said with desperation. He ran a hand through his short sandy blonde hair. His hair waved and spiked in a way that reminded me of my daughter’s short auburn hair. Ironically, Sevenia was the next thing out of his mouth. “Your daughter freaks me out!”

“Okay,” I replied stupidly. “Do tell.”

“Can we talk out on your deck?”

“Sure,” I replied with a shrug.

Devin pulled out a pack of cigarettes and tore off the cellophane wrap. He pulled one out and put it between his lips. Once again, he reminded me of James Dean.

“I thought you quit?” I asked.

“I did,” he almost whimpered as he dug in his pockets. “But this is a special circumstance. Do you have a light?”

“I don’t smoke,” I told him.

He groaned loudly, and then squeaked. My pity for his anguish pushed down the impulse to laugh. He crushed the brand new pack of cigarettes in his hand and flung it into my yard. No big deal, he was suffering significant mental turmoil over something, I would pick it up later. Next he crushed the cigarette from his lips, flung it, and bits of tobacco floated downward like tiny brown snowflakes. Devin sat down hard on the wooden bench that lined the back of my deck. He groaned again, but didn’t squeak, as he put his face in his hands.

“Do you want to tell me what’s going on with you?” I asked soothingly.

“What a night,” he mumbled through the palms of his hands.

“You mentioned Sevenia?” I inquired, wanting to know what he meant by my daughter freaking him out.

He lifted his head and his bloodshot eyes gazed intently at me. They almost seemed to jiggle in their sockets. “I dreamt about her last night, three different times.”

I frowned, not liking a known womanizer to be dreaming of my daughter. Yet given Devin’s distraught condition, I highly doubted his night visions were of an erotic nature.

“I see,” was all I could think to say.

“Last night, I prayed to Dalial,” he told me. “Well, not necessarily to her, but for her to come. I wanted to ask her opinion about, you know, that whole interview situation. Dr. Doom storming off, your daughter’s position on what the Bible says about the Sabbath and so on.”

“Soooo,” I drawled. “Did she come?”

“No,” he said, shaking his head. “Not in person anyway. But she did make two appearances in my dreams.”

“Do tell,” I said, and then made a mental note to not say ‘do tell’ again during our conversation.

“Actually, Dalial’s first appearance was simultaneous with Sevenia’s first,” Devin explained.

“Do… You don’t say.”

“Yeah, it was like they were, sort of, David and Goliath?”

“You don’t say,” I said, and then made a mental not to not say ‘you don’t say’ again. “I hope Sevenia was in David’s role.”

“She was,” Devin nodded as he sighed.

“So what happened?”

“It was kind of weird. Dalial was just like she appeared to me, in all white, flowing robes. But Sevenia was wearing only a loin cloth.”

“Just a loin cloth?” I asked in a low tone, horrified that my daughter was topless in Devin’s dream. He seemed to perceive my concern and clarified.

“No, I mean like a cavewoman one piece,” he said waving his hands from his chest down to his knees. “You know, like a prehistoric dress, or something.”

“Oh, good, I guess.”

“So Sevenia is hurling Bible verse after Bible verse at Dalial,” Devin continued. “And Dalial is getting angrier and angrier. Her eyes became like lasers shooting at Sevenia. But Sevenia keeps dodging them. Then Sevenia picks up a stone, puts it in a sling, winds up, and hurls it at Dalial. It hits her in the forehead, and her eyes went wild and turned a glowing red. Then her face came right at me. Her tongue wagged like a flame of fire. I tried to cover my head, but I couldn’t move. Then right when I thought her face was going to consume me, it exploded, then just disappeared.”

Devin stared at me, his chest heaving, and beads of sweat bubbled on his forehead.

“Then what?” I asked.

“I started awake, never happier to realize something was a dream,” he told me. “Until later that night. Or I guess I should say morning at that point. I couldn’t get back to sleep for at least an hour, maybe two. When I did, I dreamt I was partying with some buddies. There were a lot of hot, scantily clad chicks. I’m not gonna lie, I was enjoying this dream.”

He gazed at me, and his face fell.

“Until Sevenia showed up in it,” I said.

He pointed at me, and then his nose.

“What was she wearing?” The concerned father in me couldn’t help asking.

“Oh, ya know,” he shrugged. “Her usual Amish punk get up.”

My daughter tended to wear long skirts, similar to Amish women, yes, but also ultra-conservative Christian women in general. And her auburn hair was often either short and spiked, or swept back in a 1950’s mannish style. She rarely wore any makeup, and her ears weren’t even pierced. She often wore converse sneakers, unless at church or an otherwise more formal setting. But her hair and shoes were far from outlandish, so I never understood her style being labeled punk.

“So what happened then?”

“The music stopped, and Sevenia started writing on a white board,” he explained. “Her letters sounded like a record scratching. The whole place went still. ‘You have been weighed in the balances and been found wanting,’ was what she wrote. Then she looked at me with a stern expression and pointed. Then her hand came flying off and at me. It had a screaming hand in the palm, and the fingers formed a shape as if to grab my neck and chock me.”

Devin’s hand trembled as he wiped sweat from his brow.

“Then what?”

“I jolted awake,” he said with a shrug. “Once again it took me an hour or two to get back

to sleep. I didn’t know if I even wanted to fall back asleep.”

“When you did, you had the third dream about Sevenia?” I asked.

He nodded. “And the second with Dalial.”

“You don… Go on,” I said.

“So I’m asking Dalial about, you know, the stuff I mentioned before. It was real like my actual encounters with her. When I got done telling her everything, you wouldn’t believe what she said about Sevenia.”

“What?”

“She said that Sevenia thinks she’s Jesus Christ.”

“What!” I repeated, but with a higher pitched, incredulous tone. “I hope you don’t believe she thinks that?”

Devin closed his eyes and shook his head. “Sevenia appeared then. She was wearing the loin cloth again.”

“You mean dress,” I interjected.

“Right,” he said waving a hand. “So, Sevenia boldly pointed at Dalial and called her a liar. Dalial then laughed and said, ‘Well, how about John the Baptist.’ Then Dalial suddenly whipped a sword around and sliced right through Sevenia’s neck. But Sevenia’s head didn’t move at first. She looked at me and said, ‘Repent and be baptized.’ Then her head fell from her neck and rolled onto the ground. I jolted awake, and for the third time in less than six hours, was thankful something was only a dream. Clarification. Nightmare!”

“Wow,” was all I could quietly say.

“I didn’t even try to go back to sleep at that point,” Devin said as he ran his hand aggressively through his hair a few times. “I downed energy drinks and paced for a couple hours, and then decided to come see you.”

“Wow,” I replied dumbly, not knowing what to think about Devin and his nightmares.

“So what do you think?” he asked.

Something to my left caught my eye. Sevenia, my wife, and baby son had entered the back yard and were coming toward the deck. I vaguely recalled turning the bolt lock on the front door after I let Devin in. I don’t know why.

My daughter’s eyebrows raised when she saw Devin, but a friendly smile appeared on her face as she climbed the five deck stairs.

“Hi, Devin,” she greeted pleasantly.

Poor Devin shrieked and reeled back several steps.

(DESTINY’S BIBLE STUDY NOTES AND QUOTES)

(THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT PART 12)

“Thy kingdom come.” Matthew 6:10

The kingdom of God’s grace is now being established, as day by day hearts that have been full of sin and rebellion yield to the sovereignty of His love.

“Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.” Matthew 6:10

In heaven, service is not rendered in the spirit of legality.

When Satan rebelled against the law of God, the thought that there was a law came to the angels almost as an awakening to something unthought of.

In their ministry the angels are not as servants, but as sons and daughters. There is perfect unity between them and their Creator. Obedience to them is no drudgery.

Love for God makes the angel’s service a joy. So in every soul wherein Christ, the hope of glory dwells, His words are re-echoed, “I delight to do Thy will, oh my God: yea, Thy law is within my heart.” Psalm 40:8

“Give us this day our daily bread.” Matthew 6:11

The prayer for daily bread includes not only food to sustain the body, but that spiritual bread which will nourish the soul unto life everlasting.

We receive Christ through His word, and the Holy Spirit is given to open the word of God to our understanding, and bring home its truths to our hearts.

God would have us realize our dependence upon His constant care, for He is seeking to draw us into communion with Himself.

“Forgive us our sins; for we also forgive everyone that is indebted to us.” Luke 11:4

He who is unforgiving cuts off the very channel through which he can receive mercy from God.

However sorely people may have wounded us, we are not to cherish our grievances and sympathize with ourselves over our injuries; but as we hope to be pardoned for our offences against God we are to pardon all who have done evil to us.

“My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:7-9.

God’s forgiveness is not merely a judicial act by which He sets us free from condemnation. It is not only forgiveness for sin, but reclaiming from sin.

It is the outflowing of redeeming love that transforms the heart. David had the true conception of forgiveness when he prayed, “Create in me a clean heart, oh God, and renew a right spirit within me.” Psalm 51:10

God in Christ gave Himself for our sins. He suffered the cruel death of the cross, bore for us the burden of guilt, “the just for the unjust,” that He might reveal to us His love and draw us to Himself.

And He says, “Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, even as God also in Christ forgave you.” Ephesians 4:32