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HUMBLE YOURSELVES IN THE SIGHT OF THE LORD, AND HE WILL LIFT YOU UP

JAMES 4:10

TRICKY TRIANGLE

INTRODUCTION

SEVEN SALLIE

“Did you look everything over? Did you read it?” Destiny asked me, then glanced at Brock, who is her husband and my cousin.

Destiny was referring to some journals, pictures, and diaries we received from another cousin that Brock and I both shared. Hailey Storm is a successful doctor and the daughter of Hal Storm. Uncle Hal is the elder brother of my mother and Brock’s father.

“Yeah, it was pretty interesting,” I replied.

“Do you think you’d want to do it for your podcast?” she asked.

“It’s too long,” I declared. “Besides, it’s more of a tragedy than a story of redemption.”

“A tragedy?” Destiny responded. “Look how well Hailey turned out. Also how harmonious the three friends ended up getting along despite a complex love triangle.”

“I have to admit that part blew me away,” I replied. “Uncle Hal’s devout Christian character was one of the things that influenced me coming to Christ the first time, when I was eighteen. He was like one of those old fashioned T.V. dads. I had no idea he was embroiled in a strange love triangle for many years.

“Nobody did,” Brock said with a chuckle. “That’s why it was called a secret. Besides, aren’t all love triangles strange and complex? I’ll never forget the chaos in my mind as I was falling in love with Dee while I was still with Nora. And ours wasn’t actually a triangle since we did nothing untoward.”

“Untoward?” I repeated, Brock saying that word making me chuckle.

“We weren’t completely innocent,” Dee admitted. “Although it was extremely  complicated falling in love with another woman’s guy while at the same time coming to the Lord.”

“Right, that’s why I say we did nothing,” Brock paused, glanced at me with hooded eyes.  “Untoward.”

“What about the jumbotron kiss at the baseball game?” Destiny suggested.

“That couldn’t be helped,” Brock said. “We were put on the spot. Besides, it was just a quick, innocent peck.”

“Well, what about the tea incident? That was more than just an innocent peck,” Destiny insisted.

“Yeah, we did kiss passionately for a minute, but we stopped. We never became, um, intimate.”

“What tea incident?” I asked.

“I thought you read the e-book ‘Knight Storm,’” Destiny said with a frown.

“I did.”

“Bentley put Twisted Tea in a pitcher and we thought it was, you know, normal tea,” Destiny explained.

“Oh yeah, I remember now,” I replied and then chuckled. “That was also where Bentley jumped out at you guys wearing a hideous mask and you wet…”

“That’s right you remember then,” Destiny said, cutting me off and giving me a stern look. Then changing the subject, she said, “Can you imagine poor Hailey not finding out her true parentage until she just a month ago?”

“And the way she found out,” I added.

“Wait, I missed something,” Brock said. “How’d she find out?”

“You know, Sweetie. She found those pictures that were taken when she was a baby. She discovered them after her parents went into the nursing home last month,” Destiny said.

“That’s why she confronted Auntie,” I added.

“Then her mom unloaded the whole story as if being freed from a heavy weight,” Destiny said. “And your Uncle Hal even divulged his two cents worth during moments of clarity.”

Our Uncle was in the nursing home due to Alzheimer’s disease, and our Aunt had had a debilitating stroke. On the positive side, they were still together.

“So, how about you write it for the blog?” Destiny asked.

“Why not you?” I asked.

“It’s too long. There’s enough for a novella, if not more,” she replied.

“I know, that’s why I don’t want to write it,” I said. “I have enough irons in the fire.”

“How about we contact Johnathan Embers to write their story?” Destiny asked.

“That hack?” I blurted.

“Oh, you just don’t like the way you were portrayed early in this blog,” Brock said.

“But look how he depicted Sevenia,” Destiny said. “Who doesn’t love your daughter?”

“Yeah, I guess he’s okay,” I replied. “I’ll give him a call.”

So we passed the journals, pictures, and diaries over to Johnny. He also went to visit our Aunt and Uncle, as well as having conversations with Dr. Hailey Storm. He also talked to our other two cousins, Hailey’s much older brothers. As it turns out, they were her half-brothers.

Embers is going to post the first chapter next week. He was also adamant that Destiny keep posting her Bible study notes after each chapter, especially since this is a tale heavier on human struggle compared to spiritual inspiration.

(DESTINY’S BIBLE STUDY NOTES AND QUOTES)

(The LIFE and MINISTRY of JESUS Part 13)

On the way to Galilee Jesus passed through Samaria. At the opening of a valley, the Vale of Shechem, was Jacob’s well. Wearied with His journey, Jesus sat down here to rest while His disciples went to buy food.

A woman of Samaria approached and seemed unconscious of His presence. As she turned to leave, Jesus asked her for a drink. The hatred between the Jews and the Samaritans prevented the woman from offering a kindness to Jesus; but the Savior was seeking to find the key to this woman’s heart. With a tact born of divine love, He asked, not offered, a favor.

The woman saw that Jesus was a Jew. In her surprise she forgot to grant His request, but tried to learn the reason for it. “How is it,” she said, “that You, being a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan?”

Jesus answered, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that says, give Me a drink; you could have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”

HOW MANY THIRSTY SOULS ARE TODAY CLOSE BY THE LIVING FOUNTAIN, YET LOOKING FAR AWAY FOR THE WELLSPRING OF LIFE!

He who seeks to quench his thirst at the fountain of this world will drink only to thirst again. Everywhere people are unsatisfied. They long for something to supply the need of the soul. Only One can meet that want. The need of the world is Christ. The divine grace which He alone can impart, is as living water, purifying, refreshing, and invigorating the soul.

Our redeemer is an inexhaustible fountain. We may drink, and drink again, and ever find a fresh supply.

Jesus desired to lift the thoughts of the Samaritan woman above matters of form and ceremony, and questions of controversy. “The hour comes,” He said, “and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father seeks such to worship Him. God is a spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.”

Jesus read the secrets of her life; yet she felt that He was her friend, pitying and loving her. While the very purity of His presence condemned her sins, He had spoken no denunciation, but had told her of His grace that could renew the soul.

To minister to a hungering soul and thirsting for the truth was more grateful to Him than eating or drinking. It was a comfort, a refreshment to Him.

The Pharisees despised the simplicity of Jesus. They ignored His miracles, yet demanded a sign that He was the Son of God. But the Samaritans asked for no sign, and Jesus performed no miracles among them, save in revealing the secrets of her life to the woman at the well.

Jesus had begun to break down the partition wall between Jew and Gentile, and to preach salvation to the whole world. Though He was a Jew, He mingled freely with the Samaritans, which set at naught the Pharisaic customs of His nation.

Those who call themselves His followers may despise and shun the outcast ones; but no circumstance of birth or nationality, no condition of life, can turn away God’s love from the human race. To every soul, however sinful, Jesus says, “If you would have asked Me, I would have given you living water.”

Wherever hearts are open to receive the truth, Christ is ready to instruct them. He reveals to them the Father, and the worship acceptable to Him who reads the heart.

Jesus was faint and weary, yet He did not neglect the opportunity of speaking to one woman, though she was a stranger, an alien from Israel, and living in open sin.

He who drinks of the living water becomes a fountain of life. The receiver becomes a giver. The grace of Christ in the soul is like a spring in the desert.