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OUT OF THE ABUNDANCE OF THE HEART THE MOUTH SPEAKS

MATTHEW 12:34

SEVEN SALLIE

Eventually, FBI Agent Nora Medora let me up from painfully contorting my arm. Actually, it was not even ten seconds that she held me hostage on my knees. She apologized when she released me, and with a sheepish smile, insisted that it was a joke. Once I stopped laughing, I forgave her.

Then we chatted for a couple minutes about the weather and such before she left. As soon as we completed our goodbyes, I bolted for Brock and Destiny’s place, determined to get the down low from Oscar himself about his secret relationship with Felix.

It wasn’t that I was judging them in any way shape or form. Judge not lest ye be judged (Matthew 7:1), and let everyone be persuaded in his own mind. (Romans 14:5) It’s simply that they were two close friends of mine, and I had no clue that they had ever been intimate.

Oscar, because he was a big, loud, macho guy that had the silhouette of a stripper on his pickup truck. Felix, because he was quite religious, was outspoken against gay marriage and had the silhouette of a fish on his Volkswagen Jetta.

Brock and Destiny both greeted me after I knocked on their door. Destiny wore a sympathetic expression, and Brock looked amused as he said. “Oscar saw you coming up the driveway, and bolted for his room.”

“So you guys know?” I asked.

“Yeah,” Brock said. “Oscar insisted I be with him when Nora questioned him. I guess he thinks I’m a lawyer as well as his protector”

“I’ll go up and talk to him,” I said.

“Seven,” Destiny said with a look of pity in her eyes. “Try to be, um, understanding.”

“What else would I be?”

“Well, that guy you became on the Seven Sallie Showdown.”

“Dee, I’m hurt. You’ve heard my new show.”

“I have, and every now and then I catch a glimpse of the old show.”

“Thanks for your honesty,” I replied sincerely. Then I couldn’t help myself. “So I shouldn’t walk in there singing, Oscar and Felix sitting in a tree…”

“No, you shouldn’t,” she interrupted as she laughed.

I knocked on Oscar’s door, and he told me to come in. He was sitting on the bed, his back against the headboard, his legs outstretched, and his ankles crossed. He was looking at a Playboy magazine, and I got the feeling he was making sure I saw the cover of what he was perusing. I then sinned with my tongue. Awkward situations tend to make me joke or be flippant. “Put down your mask and let’s talk.”

“My mask?” Oscar replied. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You know, covering up your true desires by pretending you like looking at women.”

“I do love women!” Oscar barked as he shook the girly rag emphatically  “My father left me his entire collection of these dating back to the first one in the mid-fifties. I’ve looked at every page of every Playboy ever published.”

“Is that right?” I replied, then I teased. “Okay, who was, um, Miss May 1963?”

“I don’t know,” he whined.

“I thought you looked at every page of every magazine?”

“Are you crazy? There’s been hundreds of Playboy’s published. What, do you think I’ve got a photographic memory or something?”

“Just saying. I figured somebody that’s supposed to be that passionate about it would at least memorize the playmates. By the way, where did you get that? I heard Playboy doesn’t have physical magazines anymore.”

“I brought some of my favorites with me, they’re like my Bible,” he replied happily. Then I saw a lightbulb turn on above his head. “Say, you’ve read every page of the Bible, haven’t you?”

“I have.”

“Okay, wise guy. Tell me what, um, let’s see. Proverbs 4:23 says.”

“How did you come up with that?”

“Well, Proverbs was just a chapter that came to mind.”

“Proverbs is a book.”

“Huh?”

“Proverbs is considered a book of the Bible. The Bible is made up of sixty six books, Proverbs being one of them.”

“Whatever. Anyway, Proverbs was one that came to mind, and April 23 is Destiny’s birthday.”

Now I said “Huh?”

“That’s right. I’ve become quite smitten with her, even though she’s married to Brock. I can’t help it, she’s a beautiful woman, and I love beautiful women. Just this morning I was reading her bio, and her birthday is April 23, 1988. She’s thirty three years old.”

Ironically, I looked out the window and noticed Destiny walking in the backyard with Nora Medora. When did the fierce, but attractive, FBI agent arrive? The two women appeared in deep conversation as they both took seats on a swing set Brock had made for Oralee and the Easton’s two little children. I smiled at the thought of my own son soaring happily to and fro in the not too distant future.”

“See, it’s not so easy recalling a needle in a haystack, is it?” Oscar said smugly.

I winked at him. I had put to memory many Proverbs, and 4:23 just happened to be one of them. With a Shakespearean air, I put a foot up on a chair and quoted. “Keep the heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.”

Oscar gazed at me with a stunned expression, but then grinned and uttered an accusation. “You lie.”

Destiny has a Bible in every one of their rooms, even the lavatory. I picked one up from the nightstand, found Proverbs, located the verse, and showed Oscar. He muttered a couple profanities, and it looked odd come from a man whose eyes were on the Bible.

With deep hurt on my countenance, I said. “I can’t believe you thought I would bear false witness to you.”

I shoved my hands in my pockets, sighed heavily, and gazed out the window. Nora had a hand on her forehead, and I could see her mouth moving as she gently shook her head. Then Destiny said something and put a hand on Nora’s knee. Nora nodded, but her expression was sad, maybe even distraught. What were they talking about?

“Hey, I’m sorry man,” Oscar said as he stepped next to me and lightly punched my shoulder. “I know you’re a righteous dude now, or something. I didn’t really mean it when I said you lie. I just couldn’t believe that you actually quoted that. Out of thousands and thousands of passages, you knew it! I guess that’s why our old broadcast was called ‘The Seven Sallie Showdown,’ and not ‘The Oscar Olney Showdown.”

I put my arm around his waist and laid my head on his beefy shoulder. He called me an unflattering body part and shoved me away from himself, as both of us laughed.

 “I love you, man,” I told him.

“I’d say it back, but everybody seems to get the wrong idea.”

“What’s the right idea?”

“I don’t know. What did agent blabber mouth tell you?”

“Just, you know, that you and Felix at one time were, um, more than friends.”

“A long time ago,” he barked. “And it was one sided.”

“So you were interested in Felix, but he didn’t reciprocate?” I asked, managing to keep a straight face.

“No, you idiot,” Oscar replied as he glared at me. “You do know Felix and Stacey’s husband were the ones fooling around, right?”

I started laughing, and Oscar sat down hard on the end of the bed and buried his face in his hands. My mirth disappeared like a rug yanked from under my feet.

“Look, Oscar, nobody really cares that much,” I reassured him. “I don’t think any less of you. Shoot, besides Felix was a good looking guy.”

“Yeah, well, until I got some fame and money, I couldn’t get a hot chick to look at me. One night over beers, back when we were in college, Felix tells me he thought that he might be gay. Says he had a thing for me, so I thought, why not. I actually had a good time. There was something about the forbidden aspect that turned me on.”

“You not being religious, what was forbidden about it?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. Same sex relationships have never been more accepted than they are now, but I never wanted this secret to get out. Felix apparently didn’t either. Just so you know, I thought his gay days were solely with me.”

“Why’s that?”

“We fooled around for a year, maybe two. Right about the time I got a hot girlfriend and ended our fling, Felix told me he wasn’t comfortable being gay due to religious reasons. As you know, he got married and started a family. I didn’t think he’d cheat on his wife with a guy or gal.”

“Did it make you jealous?”

“I’m not gonna lie, it did a little bit. Ya know, when you have sex with someone multiple times, how do you not develop feelings? That’s why I don’t get you religious types hating on gay love?”

“I don’t hate on gay love!”

“Do you or do you not view it as sin?”

“A lot of things are sin. For me it would be, but I’m not tempted that way. I’m not gonna judge a man or woman in love with the same sex though. That’s between them and God. We obey God out of love for Him. There’s no way I can know where somebody else is in their spiritual walk. I can only know where I’m at, and sometimes I even have a hard time figuring that one out. You start pointing your finger at someone else, and you have three of your own pointing right back at ya.”

“Ya know, I gotta hand it to ya, Sallie. I’m more comfortable talking to you about this than I thought I would be.”

He stood and offered me his hand. I grinned and opened my arms for a hug. We embraced, slapping each other on the back. Then I felt the bristles of whiskers on my cheek, quickly followed by the moistness of his thick lips. I quickly shoved away from him as I wiped frantically at my face. Oscar went to one knee, he was laughing so hard.

I was chuckling and shaking my head when I glimpsed Destiny and Nora again. Nora’s face was in her hands, and Destiny was rubbing circles on her back. Then to my surprise, Nora looked at Dee and hugged her. What was going on with the toughest woman I had ever met? And why was she taking comfort from a woman I thought she despised?

(DESTINY’S BIBLE STUDY NOTES AND QUOTES)

The LIFE and MINISTRY of JESUS Part III

THE DEDICATION

About forty days after the birth of Christ, Joseph and Mary took Him to Jerusalem, to present Him to the Lord, and to offer sacrifice. This was according to the Jewish law, and as humanity’s substitute, Christ must conform to the law in every particular.

Joseph and Mary were poor, and when they came with their child, the priests saw only a man and a woman dressed as Galileans in the humblest garments. There was nothing in their appearance to attract attention, and they presented only the offering made by the poorer classes.

The priest went through the ceremony of his official work. Little did he think, as the babe lay in his arms, that it was the Majesty of heaven, the King of glory.

He was the Desire of all nations, the Root, and the Offspring of David, and the Bright and Morning Star. The name of that helpless little babe, inscribed in the roll of Israel, declaring Him our brother, was the hope of fallen humanity. The child for whom the redemption money had been paid was He who was to pay the ransom for the sins of the world.

“There was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon. The same man was just and devout, waiting for the Consolation of Israel, and the Holy Ghost was upon him. And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.” (Luke 2:25, 26)

As Simeon enters the temple, he sees a family presenting their firstborn son before the priest. Their appearance bespeaks poverty. But Simeon understands the warnings of the Spirit, and he is deeply impressed that the infant being presented to the Lord is the Consolation of Israel, the One he longed to see.

To the astonished priest, Simeon appears like a man enraptured. The child has been returned to Mary. He takes him in his arms and presents him to God, while a joy that he has never before felt enters his soul.

As he lifts the infant Savior toward heaven, he says, “Lord, now You are letting Your servant depart in peace, according to Your word. For my eyes have seen Your Salvation which You have prepared before the face of all peoples, a light to bring revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of Your people Israel.” (Luke 2: 29-32)

Anna also, a prophetess, came in and confirmed Simeon’s testimony concerning Christ. As Simeon spoke, her face lighted up with the glory of God, and she poured out her heartfelt thanks that she had been permitted to behold Christ the Lord. (Luke 2:36-38)

These humble worshippers had not studied the prophesies in vain. But those who held positions as rulers and priests in Israel, though they too had before them the precious truths of prophecy, were not walking in the way of the Lord and their eyes were not open to behold the Light of Life.

So it is still! People acknowledge Christ in history, while they turn away from the living Christ.

The angels had announced the Savior’s birth as tidings of joy to all peoples. God was seeking to correct the narrow, Jewish conception of the Messiah’s work. He desired people to behold Him, not merely as the deliverer of Israel, but the Redeemer of the world.

We must fall upon the Rock and be broken before we can be uplifted in Christ. Self must be dethroned; pride must be humbled if we would know the glory of the spiritual kingdom.

Satan has represented God as selfish and oppressive, as claiming all and giving nothing, as requiring the service of His creatures for His own glory, and making no sacrifice for their good. But the gift of Christ reveals the Father’s heart. It testifies that the thoughts of God toward us are “thoughts of peace, and not of evil.” (Jeremiah 29:11) It declares that while God’s hatred of sin is as strong as death, His love for the sinner is stronger than death.

At the cross of Calvary, love and selfishness stood face to face. Here was their crowning manifestation. Christ had lived only to comfort and bless, and in putting Him to death, Satan manifested the malignity of his hatred against God.

The worshipers of self-belong to Satan’s kingdom. In their attitude toward Christ, all would show on which side they stand. And thus, everyone passes judgment on themselves.