CII

YOU WHO SEEK GOD, YOUR HEARTS SHALL LIVE

PSALM 69:32

DESTINY KNIGHT-STORM

(INTERVIEW WITH CRYSTAL MOORE AND KIP MAXWELL FINAL PART)

“Music had always been my refuge, my escape,” Kip Maxwell had said as he and Crystal Moore sat across the table from me. Kip had been one of the biggest rock stars in the world. By that I meant very popular, and not that he was a large person. He was actually quite fit and rather handsome, on the order of Ashton Kutcher.

With her dark red hair and fox like features, Crystal reminded me of a thirtysomething Diane Lane. The two made a striking couple, but I still hadn’t gotten to the exact nature of their relationship. I had conversed with only Crystal the day before. She had been evasive and coy when I had asked, yet she wore a thin gold band on her left ring finger. Kip had no rings. Not on his fingers, nose, eyebrow, or ear, as he had in the video I had seen the previous day.

“But when my wife died,” Kip continued. “My music became both a curse and a blessing.”

“Because of your fame?” I asked.

“Well, that too,” he said and then sighed. “What I meant though, was my grief and heart break inspired some really good songs. They gave me comfort, while at the same time they gave me sorrow. At first it was cathartic, but then they started to wear on me. Then I became just plain sick of them. Yet I was paid a lot of money to perform them. Diabolical, don’t you think?”

“I’m in no place to judge,” I replied with a shrug.

“Yeah, well, I escaped the drudgery with booze,” he explained. “The same songs night in and night out. Another town, another hotel room, the constant psychic sucking. Kip, can I get a picture? Kip, can I get an autograph? Sometimes hundreds of times a day. I sound like a spoiled brat, don’t I?”

“No, I understand,” I said, and then I put my thumb and index finger an inch apart. “I had a small taste of fame myself. It was miniscule compared to you, but I didn’t like it. Of course my fans were devout porn viewers. I don’t mean that to sound judgmental. I was actually worse since I provided them something to lust over, and it is the most regretful thing of my life.”

“I read your story,” Kip said happily. “Crystal loaned it to me on her Kindle. Very interesting and inspiring.”

(Destiny’s story was told in the e-book Knight Storm, by Johnathan Embers)

“Thank you,” I said. “The thing that has always plagued my mind, though, is that I’ve led far more people into sin than I have led to Christ. I mean, I know I’m forgiven and was a different person back then. But I hate the fact that even as we speak, countless people all over  the world could be watching me, you know…”

“Don’t look at it that way,” Kip said, and then surprised me by reaching across the table and giving my hand a friendly squeeze. “There are also people reading your story, and praising God at your deliverance. Hundreds of radio stations still play the songs I wrote about sex and drugs, and there’s not a thing I can do about it either. But yet there is! And I mean you, too. I should say you also, so as not to confuse with the band U2.”

I laughed. He gave me a knowing smile, leaned back in his chair, and clasped his hands behind his head. I waited, but he just sat there and smiled.

“Aren’t you going to explain?” I asked.

“You already know?”

“I do?” I asked, raising my eyebrows. “Do tell.”

“It’s your testimony,” he said. “Sure, more people probably viewed your porn than read your book. Just as my new album of spiritual songs will probably never even sniff the amount of sales as my worst selling secular album. But that’s the difference between the broad road and the narrow road.

“Also, realize that every guy looking at the porn you did, is looking at other stuff too. Every guy viewing would be watching porn whether you ever got into it or not. However, I can tell by your book and your ministry that helps girls in adult entertainment, that there would be girls lost and still in adult entertainment if it hadn’t been for your testimony inspiring them to seek Christ and leave their sinful, destructive lifestyle.”

I felt like crying for joy. He was right, I already knew. My husband has told me similar things repeatedly. But coming from a guy that experienced comparable feelings, on a much larger level than I did, it seemed to finally sink in with me.

“Thank you,” I replied meekly. I paused a few seconds and then asked. “Tell me about your conversion.”

“My early story is pretty well documented,” Kip said with a sigh. “I actually grew up in a very religious home. But it was a legal religion, devoid of love. It seems like half my childhood, I was either beaten, grounded, or both. To be fair to my dad, I was an unruly child to say the least. However, that is no excuse for child abuse.

“Melanie and I had known each other throughout childhood. We went to the same church, as well as the same school. When we were sixteen, we started seeing each other as boyfriend-girlfriend. When I tried to initiate intimacy, she put up a wall. She broke down and confided in me about the sexual abuse she had endured for years.

“So, like every unreasonable nit wit, I blamed God, along with the religious hypocrites. This attitude reached its peak in the aftermath of Melanie’s death. Yet something in me kept reaching out for something spiritual. Some positivity. Some will to keep pressing on. I believe it was the Holy Spirit striving with me, even though I was ignorant of it.

“Then I met this angel,” Kip continued, as he gazed fondly at Crystal and took hold of her hand. Then he chuckled. “Only she was an angel of wrath before she was an angel of mercy.”

“Hey, that’s not nice,” she said as she yanked her hand free of his. Then she giggled. “True, but not nice.”

“From the moment we met, she captivated me,” Kip told me. “She was such a natural, rare beauty. No makeup, no jewelry, wearing a Milwaukee Brewers baseball cap with a ponytail hanging out the back. Flannel shirt, worn jeans with genuine holes in the knees, and dirty cowboy boots.”

“I had been horseback riding when my cousin called,” Crystal said with a smirk and a shrug. “I didn’t have time to change.”

“You wouldn’t have changed even if you did have time,” Kip laughed.

“Probably not,” Crystal replied with another shrug.

“It wasn’t just that. She acted like I disgusted her at first,” Kip said.

“Key word is acted,” Crystal interjected. “After all the research I had done on Kip, I was actually kind of in awe being, not only in his presence, but being alone with him in a car. I suppose I overcompensated in pretending I didn’t care.”

“I’ll say,” Kip chuckled. “I was thinking, ‘what did I do to tick her off, we just met?’ So I began asking her about herself. When I got her talking about her profession and her passions, the deep freeze thawed. Then we really began to click.

“We actually bypassed small talk. I was prepared to ask her if she was a baseball fan because of her hat, but I asked about her other attire first, and why she smelled like a barn yard.”

“He actually did,” Crystal laughed. “Albeit politely. I think he asked if I had been doing something outdoors. Then we went from veterinary and animal stuff, to life, liberty and the escape of sadness.”

“And that led to her Christian apologetics, and my agnosticism, bordering on atheism,” Kip added.

“It seems she won the debate though?” I inquired lightheartedly.

“In a manner of speaking,” Kip replied. “It was her witness, her life, the way she carried herself. That and her knowledge of the Holy Scriptures.”

“Was there anything in particular that caused you to change and to accept Christ?” I asked.

“No, I can’t really point to one thing,” He shrugged. “It was the entire thread of our conversations.”

“Did… does… how do I put this?” I stammered.

“You want to know if romance played a role?” Kip replied coyly. “Thankfully, no.”

“Why thankfully no?” I inquired as I thought of Sevenia and a boy named Branch. His interest in spiritual things was coupled with his romantic interest in Sevenia. His interest in both didn’t last. On the other side of the coin was my husband Brock. His romantic interest in me played a role in his conversion, and I believe his conversion to be genuine.

“Do you not think romantic feelings for another could or should not play a role?” I asked.

“No, but for me, I’m glad it didn’t,” he replied. “I had so much baggage. I needed to know that when I was being baptized, it was solely for the Lord.”

“Let me cut to the chase,” I began with a sly grin. “Are you two a romantic couple now or not?”

“We are,” Kip said at the same time Crystal said, “Yes.”

“So how did it come about?” I wanted to know.

“It was really gradual,” Crystal explained. “After the wedding, Kip stayed in the area. He rented a house outside of Madison. It was my first indication that he might have more than friendship in mind. But everything we did was strictly as friends, and he gave me no other indication that he was interested in being more than friends.”

“Were you interested in more?”

“Yes and no,” she said and winced. “I mean, honestly, I found him incredibly attractive, and sweet, and fun to be with. But on the other hand, I feared being yoked to someone so famous. I liked my quiet life. And, like Kip said, he had baggage also.”

“So how long did it take?” I asked. “Did you all of a sudden discover one day that you were holding hands?”

They both chuckled, then Kip said. “It was probably about two months into our friendship.”

“Seven weeks and two days,” Crystal said casually, but then winked.

“What made it turn?”

“We were on my back porch,” Crystal said. “He sang me a song he wrote about our horse rides, walks, and talks that led to his conversion.” (The song ‘So Far Away’ by the band Staind inspired this segment of the story.)

“I had a hard time letting myself be with someone after my wife’s death,” Kip explained. “I guess out of some type of loyalty, maybe even superstition. So I think I was denying the feelings I had developed for Crystal. So I didn’t think of the song as a love song, but a change of life song.”

“But I was beyond moved,” Crystal said. “I cherished all the time we had spent together at that point. The sunsets we watched as we gazed into the heavens. The song just put a huge exclamation point on the way I felt. So I kissed him. And do you know what he did?”

“What?”

“Nothing! He didn’t kiss me back. He just stared at me in disbelief. Then he cried. I was mortified.”

“But they were tears of joy and relief,” Kip interjected. “It just took me a minute to process. It took a bit for me to hear that still small voice say, ‘It’s okay. Go for it.’”

“He did kiss me back after I squirmed on the porch swing for what felt like an hour,” Crystal said and then giggled.

“I’m finally starting to believe in happily ever after,” Kip said with a smile. Then he kissed the back of Crystal’s hand.

(DESTINY’S BIBLE STUDY NOTES AND QUOTES)

HISTORY OF THE CHURCH: JOHN WYCLIFFE

In the fourteenth century arose in England the “morning star of the reformation.” John Wycliffe was the herald of reform, not for England alone, but for all Christendom.

He saw the plan of salvation revealed and Christ set forth as the only advocate for man. He gave himself to the service of Christ and determined to proclaim the truths he had discovered.

Wycliffe was a keen detector of error, and he struck fearlessly against many of the abuses sanctioned by the authority of Rome.

The greatest work of his life was to be the translation of the Scriptures into the English language.

He was able to place in the hands of his countrymen the most powerful of all weapons against Rome—to give them the Bible, the Heaven appointed agent to liberate, enlighten, and evangelize the people.

There was at this time no law in England prohibiting the Bible, for it had never before been published in the language of the people. Such laws were afterward enacted and rigorously enforced.

Wycliffe never retracted and fearlessly maintained his teachings and repelled the accusations of his persecutors. “With whom, think you,” he finally said, “are ye contending? With an old man on the brink of the grave? No! with Truth—Truth, which is stronger than you, and will overcome you.” (Wylie, b. 2 Ch. 13)

Wycliffe had never sought to shield himself, but the Lord had been his protector, and now when his enemies felt sure of their prey, God’s hand removed him beyond their reach.

Wycliffe came from the obscurity of the Dark Ages. There were none who went before him from whose work he could shape his system of reform. Raised up like John the Baptist to accomplish a special mission, he was the herald of a new era.

He taught not only that the Bible is a perfect revelation of God’s will, but that the Holy Spirit is its only interpreter, and that every person is, by the study of its teachings, to learn their duty for themselves.

Purity of life, unwearying diligence in study and labor, incorruptible integrity, and Christlike love and faithfulness in his ministry, characterized this first of the Reformers. And this notwithstanding the spiritual darkness and moral corruption of the age from which he emerged.

The papists had failed to work their will with Wycliffe during his life, and their hatred could not be satisfied while his body rested quietly in the grave. By the decree of the Council of Constance, more than forty years after his death, his bones were exhumed and publicly burned, and the ashes were thrown into a neighboring brook.

It was through the writings of Wycliffe that John Huss of Bohemia, was led to renounce many of the errors of Romanism and to enter upon the work of reform.

A divine hand was preparing the way for the Great Reformation.