LXXXIII

SATAN HIMSELF IS TRANSFORMED INTO AN ANGEL OF LIGHT

2 CORINTHIANS 11:14

SEVENIA SALLIE (GIRL PROPHETESS)

My father is the legendary broadcaster Seven Sallie. My dad’s cousin Brock once said while introducing him at an award ceremony, “Seven is a legend,” then paused for affect, “In his own mind.” Nobody laughed harder than my father.

My dad made a name for himself in broadcasting by an odd mixture of brash arrogance and self-deprecating humor. After his Christian conversion, he eliminated the brash and arrogant aspect of his on air personality. This in turn caused his nationally syndicated radio show that he hosted to be eliminated. He then was led him to develop his own podcast with a gentler, milder version of Seven Sallie. But as a result, he lost most of his former listener base.

So I second guessed myself big time when I not just asked, but told him, he shouldn’t air an interview with Devin Easton. However I trusted not in my own instincts, but in the Holy Spirit’s leading, and I was led to warn my dad. After a vigorously debating me, my father agreed to stay away from Devin Easton’s conversion testimony.

There’s a difference between judging and being judgmental. My judgement, led by the Spirit, helped me to see that Devin’s supernatural encounter was of a sensational nature. His whimsical conversion caused him to give up some bad habits and put away some sinful habits, but he wasn’t at a place of true heart repentance. His dismissal of the Holy Scriptures proved that his faith was superficial.

When Devin actually stopped by to see my dad, I dreaded the conversation that would ensue. But I prayed for wisdom and direction with my words and actions, and I needed divine guidance almost immediately. He showed me the same picture of a lady angel that my dad had, and then he proceeded to talk about her.

“Dalial has shown me a deep intimacy that I have never gotten from a, um, actual physical woman,” Devin explained.

I felt my eyes widen and my jaw intended to drop, but with effort I held it in place. I glanced at my dad, and he was studying Devin blankly. Did he already hear this in their former conversations?

“Are you saying you had, um, relations with this entity?” I asked.

“What do you mean?” Devin frowned.

“She means did you have sex?” my dad said matter of fact.

“It was deeper than sex,” Devin crooned. “Dalial has given me release of soul. She has shown me the way, the truth, and the life.”

“You mean Jesus?” I asked.

“Yes, that’s part of it, but it goes beyond.”

“Jesus is part of it?” I inquired.

“Absolutely. He was one of the greatest teachers and prophets ever.”

“Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life,” I declared. “No one comes to the Father but by Him. He’s the only begotten of the Father, the Son of God.”

“We are all sons and daughters of God.”

“We are by adoption, so to speak,” I said. “Jesus has made us so by redemption. By what He did for us dying for ours sins, he took our punishment upon Himself. But we need to be careful, He also warns that many shall prophecy and do many wonderful works in His name. But He will have to declare, depart from me you that does iniquity.” (See Matthew 7:21-23)

“What’s iniquity?” Devin frowned.

“Sin,” my dad replied.

Devin nodded, and I ever so briefly felt hopeful, but it was instantly dashed.

“Dalial has shown me how to tap into my inner god,” Devin said. “She has shown me that we are either our own god or our own devil. For years I was destroying myself with booze and cigarettes and loose women. But now I have been enlightened to the limitless heights of human potential.”

“There is a way that seems right to a man, but end thereof is the way of death,” I said. (Proverbs 14:12)

“Why are you trying to snuff out my joy?”

“Oh brother,” I mumbled and then asked a silent prayer of forgiveness. I didn’t want Devin to think I wasn’t taking him seriously. To the contrary, the direction he was going was very serious. However it was wonderful that he had given up booze, cigarettes, and womanizing.

“My brother is skeptical, just like you are,” Devin said.

He must have heard my mumbled words, and thought I was mentioning his brother Dirk.

“He refuses to see the light,” Devin continued. “Just like you all.”

“Jesus is the only true light,” a female voice said. The three of us turned to look toward the screen door. Lexi Gomez stood there with her and Devin’s toddler daughter perched on her hip. Right behind her was my dad’s beautiful and very pregnant wife, Zella LaStella-Sallie. Zella opened the door, and Lexi stepped inside as she thanked my stepmom.

“Daddy!” The little girl on Lexi’s hip squealed as she stretched her arms out to Devin.

“Hi, little Bunny,” Devin grinned as he took his daughter, then he frowned. “What are you doing here, Lex?”

“Nice to see you, too.”

“I didn’t mean it that way, especially when you have my little girl,” Devin responded and then kissed his daughter’s plump little cheek.

“Actually, I had a dream,” she replied mystically.

“Why is everyone having dreams and angel encounters but me?” my dad asked.

I frowned at my dad. Did he not get that Devin’s encounter was not from God?

“Actually I was kidding, Seven,” Lexi grinned as she pulled a strand of her long dark hair away from her face. “I went shopping with Zella, and she told me about Sevenia’s dream. By the way, I saw your brother Six the other day.”

“He was back for a couple days on business,” my dad said.

“Yeah, that’s what he said,” Lexi replied. “By the way, I never did know why they call you two Six and Seven.”

“Six and Seven are our actual middle names,” he told her. “We were the sixth and seventh kids in our family. Six is a few minutes older than me.”

“So are your other siblings named One, Two, Three, Four, and Five?”

“Nope, just Six and me,” my dad said. “Hey, do you know why Six is afraid of me?”

“He is?” Lexi frowned. Zella smirked, and I giggled.

“It’s because Seven eight nine,” I interjected.

“Hey, you stole my punch line,” my dad said as he put an arm around me and gave me a playful squeeze. “That’s breaking the eighth commandment you know.”

“I’m sorry,” I said giving him big eyes. “Forgive me?”

“Of course, Sweet Pea,” he grinned and then kissed my forehead.

“Did Devin tell you about his new friend?” Lexi asked the room and then eyed Devin skeptically.

“I came here to do just that,” Devin replied. “I thought he’d be a good guest on your podcast, Seven. To be honest, I’m here on his behalf. Repairer of a breach if you please.”

“Let me guess, James Tucker,” my dad said, and I felt my toes curl.

“Nope, Darius Doom,” Devin replied.

“They’re one and the same,” my dad said with a sigh. “Darius was born James Tucker.”

Darius Doom is a charismatic new age guru. His movement is a combination of Christianity and Zen Buddhism. His big thing is the environment and equality. Not that they are bad things to promote, like caring for our earth and love for all. It’s his approach that is suspect.

He preaches in the name of God, but subtly denies the scriptures which testifies of the Creator of the object of his concern. And it is a good concern, after all, God will destroy those that destroy the earth. (See Revelation 11:18).

Darius had been on my dad’s radio program a couple times when he was nationally syndicated. But after my dad’s conversion, he declined having Darius on his podcast, even though it would have likely helped his ratings. Darius currently has a large following.

Darius was incredulous that my dad wouldn’t have him as a guest on his podcast. He mocked and derided my dad since he was more popular at the time he was turned down. It was both surprising and disturbing that he still wanted to be on my dad’s podcast. When he was on the original Seven Sallie Showdown, Darius was a small fist in a big pond. If he were on my dad’s podcast now, he would be a big fish in a small pond. To give him the benefit of the doubt, maybe he thought he would be helping my dad, doing him a favor if you please.

“Darius heard the interview you did with me,” Devin explained. “He loved it.”

“You don’t say,” my dad said and gave me a sheepish look. I read in his eyes regret that he didn’t follow my petition to steer clear of Devin and his angel encounter.

“He’d like to give his two cents worth if you want to interview both of us,” Devin continued.

I looked at my dad. His mouth opened, but his wife’s voice seemed to come out instead.

“OOOOHHHH!” she bellowed. My dad ran to her side.

“Honey, are you all right?”

“It seems my water just broke!”

(DESTINY’S BIBLE STUDY NOTES AND QUOTES)

(THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT PART 8)

“Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” Matthew 5:48.

The word “therefore” implies conclusion. Jesus has been describing to His hearers the unfailing mercy and love of God, and He bids them therefore to be perfect. Because your heavenly Father “is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil” (Luke 6:35).

With untold love our God has loved us, and our love awakens toward Him as we comprehend something of the length and breadth and depth and height of this love that passes knowledge.

God does not employ compulsory measures, love is the agent which He uses to expel sin from the heart.

The life of Jesus is made manifest “in our mortal flesh” (2 Corinthians 4:11). That life in you will produce similar character and help you be in harmony with every precept of His law. “The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul.” Psalm 19:7.

Through love “the righteousness of the law” will be “fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” Romans 8:4.

“Take heed that ye do not your alms before men to be seen of them.” Matthew 6:1.

Real Godliness never prompts an effort at display.

It is through the Holy Spirit that every good work is accomplished, and the Spirit is given to glorify, not the receiver, but the Giver. When the light of Christ is shining in the soul, the lips will be filled with praise and thanksgiving to God.

Your prayers, your performance of duty, your benevolence, your self-denial, will not be the theme of your thought or conversation. Jesus will be magnified, self will be hidden, and Christ will appear all in all.

Sincerity of purpose, real kindness of heart, is the motive that heaven values.

We are not to think of reward, but of service.

While it is true that God Himself is the great Reward, that embraces every other, the soul receives and enjoys Him only as it becomes assimilated to Him in character.

The grace of Christ in the soul is developing traits of character that are the opposite of selfishness. Traits that will refine, ennoble, and enrich the life.

The denial of self for the good and happiness of others, however humble and uncommended, is recognized in heaven as the token of our union with Him, the King of glory, who was rich, yet for our sakes became poor.

The work begun upon earth will reach its consummation in that higher and holier life to endure throughout eternity.

LXXXII

EVIL MEN AND SEDUCERS SHALL WAX WORSE AND WORSE, DECEIVING AND BEING DECEIVED

2 TIMOTHY 3:13

SEVEN SALLIE

“You lied to me,” Sevenia said with an eerie calm as she placed her fists onto her hips. The gaze emanating from her green-grey eyes was intense.

“Actually, Sweet Pea, I did not,” I told my daughter.

“Well, let me see,” she said as she placed an index finger on her chin. “You told me you wouldn’t air the interview you did with Devin Easton, and today I heard the interview you weren’t going to broadcast when I tuned into ‘The Seven Sallie Showdown’.”

“Ah, but you didn’t,” I said as I pointed an index finger with an air of triumph that I didn’t actually feel. Did I lie to my daughter? Technically, no.

“Please enlighten me, Dearest of Fathers,” she said with a non-humor grin. Dearest of Fathers? She may be a young saint, but the nut doesn’t fall far from the tree. “Because I’m pretty sure I heard an interview with a fellow named Devin Easton.”

“Ah,” I said, trying to be lighthearted by pointing my finger in the air again. “You did and you didn’t.”

“What?” she chuckled, but with a frown.

“When I told you I wouldn’t play the interview, I did, in fact, scrap it. However, Devin returned and the former hooligan showed me something pretty amazing.”

“And what was that?”

“Have you seen my twitter page in the last couple of days?”

“I have not.”

I showed her the picture Devin shared with me of the angelic entity.

“Oh, Father,” Sevenia said as she bowed her head and covered her eyes with a hand.

I chuckled at first because she unintentionally reminded me of Sylvester the cat’s son when he was disappointed with his own father. Then I frowned when it dawned on me that that usually happened when Sylvester failed in humiliating fashion to catch a mouse.

“What’s wrong?” I inquired. “People in the Bible had angelic encounters. Our beloved Captain Kirk had an angelic encounter. So why not Devin Easton? Judge not lest the be judged, Sweet Pea.”

“Dad, I’m not judging Devin. What I’m saying is I do not believe a holy angel would subject themselves to being photographed.”

My phone binged. It was Devin Easton. He was a couple minutes away and wanted to know if he could stop. I told him to come on over.

“Well, it looks  like you’ll be able to tell Devin himself that his encounter was phony.”

“What do you mean?”

“He just texted me. He’ll be here in a couple of minutes.”

“Dad, I didn’t say it was phony. I believe he had a supernatural encounter. What I’m saying is what he had an encounter with is highly questionable.”

“You say po-tay-to, I say po-ta-to,” I said.

“You say to-may-to, I say to-ma-to,” Sevenia replied playing along, but then she sighed.

There was a knock and I let Devin in. He was wearing a bright green, long sleeve athletic shirt. When I saw him the other day, he was sporting about a three inch chin beard. Now he was clean shaven. With his clown and demon tattoos covered, it was like looking at his brother Dirk.

Both twentysomething men were good looking guys with fox like features and sandy blonde hair. However their personalities couldn’t be more different. Devin was charming, chatty, and known to be a wild womanizer. Dirk was a few years younger than Devin. He was quiet, reserved, and a deacon at Cotton Creek Cove fellowship. Unlike his philandering brother, Dirk was devoted to his young family, his wife Amy, a toddler daughter, and infant son.

“Devin, have you met my daughter Sevenia?” I asked.

“I think we’ve met,” Devin said with a wolfish grin as he offered his fist. Sevenia tapped her fist against his in greeting. “You’re the chick that the mother of my child calls the girl prophetess.”

“How is Lexi?” Sevenia asked.

“Feisty as ever,” he laughed. “I asked her to marry me and she said no.”

“Yes, I remember her telling me about your proposal when she was pregnant.”

“Some prophetess you are,” Devin smirked. “That’s ancient history. I proposed last night, and once again she gave me a flat out no. Didn’t even consider it. Not even a hmmm, let me think. Gee, you’ve financially supported our daughter, stopped chasing skirts, stopped drinking, stuck by me when I was a whacked out nut case. Oh well, can’t accuse me of not trying to do the right thing.”

“By whacked out nut case, are you referring to her demon possession ordeal?” my daughter asked.

“Ah, you are a prophetess after all,” Devin grinned.

“Look, for one thing I never claimed to be a prophetess,” Sevenia said calmly. “For another, you don’t seem to know the difference between clairvoyance and prophecy. One is of the devil, while one is from God.”

“Devil,” Devin snorted. “The biggest scapegoat in human history. The ultimate avoidance of human responsibility. Oh, the devil made me do it.”

“Devin,” Sevenia said cautiously. “One of Satan’s biggest tricks is to get people to believe he doesn’t exist.”

“How can there be a trick from something fictional? Mythology don’t you know.”

“So, what do you think was going on with Jesus in Matthew chapter four?” Sevenia asked.

“Enlighten me,” Devin replied as he spread his arms. “What was going on with Jesus in Matthew chapter four?”

“It’s where Jesus was in the wilderness forty days and forty night tempted by the devil,” Sevenia explained.

Devin cackled so strangely that I felt the hair on my neck prickle. “He was probably hallucinating.”

Sevenia had a baffled expression on her face when she asked, “You don’t believe what the Bible teaches is true?”

Devin winced and waved a dismissive hand. “I mean no disrespect to the Bible, but even the New Testament is two thousand years old. I mean come on. Truth is in experience.”

“Well,” Sevenia said gently. “I mean no disrespect to you, but the Bible being two thousand years old is what makes it so amazing. Not only that the truths it teaches are still relevant today, but the prophecies have almost all been fulfilled. We are now sitting on the cusp of the rest being fulfilled right before our eyes.”

“Whatever,” Devin responded. “All I know is my life the last few weeks has never been better. I’m so filled with spirit, I haven’t even desire drink or nicotine. Why I haven’t even… Well, never mind that. And it’s all thanks to Dalial.”

“Who’s Dalial?” my daughter asked.

I didn’t like the look that came into Devin’s eyes. I felt a chill go up my spine. I clearly understood my error in getting involved with him. I should have heeded my daughter’s warning. I should have never interviewed him for my podcast.

“Well, let me tell you, little lady,” Devin drawled, followed by that wolfish grin of his.

(DESTINY’S BIBLE STUDY NOTES AND QUOTES)

(THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT PART 7)

“Swear not at all.” Matthew 5:34

Even facts may be so stated as to convey a false impression.

Everything that Christians do should be as transparent as the sunlight. Truth is of God; deception, in every one of its myriad forms, is of Satan.

We cannot speak the truth unless our minds are continually guided by Him who is the truth.

“Resist not him that is evil: but whosoever smites you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.” Matthew 5:39

The whole earthly life of Jesus was a manifestation of this principle.

Through the prophet Isaiah He says, “I gave My back to the smiters, and My cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not My face from shame and spitting.” “He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth: He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth.” Isaiah 50:6 and 53:7.

From the cross of Calvary there comes down through the ages His prayer for His murderers and the message of hope for the dying thief.

The Father’s presence encircled Christ, and nothing befell Him but that which infinite love permitted for the blessing of the world. Here was Jesus’s source of comfort, and it is for us as well!

“Love your enemies.” Matthew 5:44

Jesus would have us understand how tenderly the heart of God yearns over them. He teaches that God cares for every lost soul; that “like as a father pities his children, so the Lord pities them that fear Him.” Psalm 103: 13

Every morsel of food, EVERY MOMENT OF LIFE, is a gift of love. A gift from God.

While we were yet unloving and lacking in character, “hateful and hating one another,” our heavenly Father had mercy on us. “After that the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us.” Titus 3:3-5

His love received, will make us, in like manner, kind and tender, not merely toward those who please us, but to the most faulty and erring and sinful.

The children of God are those who are partakers of His nature. It not earthly rank, nor birth, nor nationality, nor religious privilege, which proves that we are members of the family of God. It is LOVE, a LOVE that embraces all of humanity.

Even sinners whose hearts are not utterly closed to God’s Spirit, will respond to kindness. While they may give hate for hate, they will usually give love for love. But it is only the Spirit of God that gives love for hatred.

To be kind to the unthankful and to the evil, to do good hoping for nothing to gain, is the insignia of the royalty of heaven, the sure token by which the children of the Highest reveal their high estate.

“Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” Mathew 5:48

God does not employ compulsory measures; love is the agent which He uses to expel sin from the heart.

The life of Jesus is made manifest “in our mortal flesh” (2 Corinthians 4:11). Thus we will be in harmony with every precept of His law.

“The law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul.” Psalm 19:7

Through love “the righteousness of the law” will be “fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” Romans 8:4.

LXXXVI

BELOVED, BELIEVE NOT EVERY SPIRIT, BUT TRY THE SPIRTS WHETHER THEY ARE OF GOD

1 JOHN 4:1

SEVEN SALLIE

“Hey, Dad,” my daughter Sevenia’s voice greeted me through my phone. I immediately detected an urgency in her tone. I also felt myself stiffen. She knew better than to call me moments before I was to begin my live podcast. But she was a teenager so she probably lost track of the time.

“Hi, Sweet Pea,” I replied. “What’s up? I’m getting ready to start my live program. In about Seven minutes to be precise. No pun intended.”

“Yeah, I know. Sorry,” she replied. “But please tell me Devin Easton isn’t with you.”

“No,” I replied cautiously as I froze. I felt a chill go up my spine.

“Thank God!” she said with a relieved sigh.

“But he was here,” I told her, as my brain whirled. “Why do you ask?”

“I had a profound dream about him,” she told me as a bit of urgency returned to her voice.

“You don’t say,” I replied, dumbfounded. The last time she had a profound dream, Sevinia, Destiny, and my cousin Brock found two cold, homeless girls under a bridge. They had been on the run from human traffickers. “What kind of dream?”

“Why was he with you? Did he say anything about being converted?”

The chill in my spine caused the hair on my neck to prickle and I shivered. “Yes, the reason he contacted me was to tell me just that, that he did in fact experience a conversion a couple weeks ago.”

“How long did you talk to him?”

“I don’t know, a while.”

“But he left, right? I mean, you’re not going to interview him about it or anything?”

“Actually, I already recorded an interview with him, and I was planning on airing it on the next broadcast.”

“Daddy, no!” she pleaded. Sevenia rarely called me Daddy anymore. It reminded me of when she was a little girl and wanted something. And, well, it seemed she wanted something now. Something I didn’t understand. “Surely you have something else you can do for today.”

“Sweet Pea, you didn’t listen. I said the next broadcast, not this broadcast.”

“Oh good gravy,” she said and then chuckled happily. “We need to talk.”

“We are talking.”

“You know what I mean.”

“Sevenia,” I said patiently. “Devin experienced a pretty miraculous encounter. You should see him. His eyes are bright, he doesn’t smell like an ashtray, and his voice was crisp and articulate. He didn’t mumble, slur or sound like he was in a Pirates of the Caribbean movie.”

“What do you mean by encounter?” she asked as concern elevated in her voice.

“He had an encounter with what sounds like, I don’t know, an angel.”

“We need to talk.”

“We are talking.”

“Daddy!”

“Listen, Sweet Pea, I need to let you go. But we’ll talk later, okay?”

“Okay, can we get together after your podcast?”

“Sure thing, Peach Plum.”

“Peach Plum?” she replied. Instead of the giggle I expected, my mind’s eye  saw her frown. She must really be concerned about this Devin Easton situation.

Later I ended up in something like negotiations with my daughter over whether or not to air the interview I did with Devin Easton.

“Help me understand this,” I told Sevenia as I looked into her intense, emerald eyes. “Devin claims to have had an angelic encounter. His life is noticeably turned around. You encountered an angel in a dream, and it warned you that Devin’s conversion isn’t genuine?”

She winced, chewed her lip, and then ran a hand through her short auburn hair. “How do I put this? Obviously, it’s good that Devin has cleaned up his life and is seeking spirituality. What I’m warning you about is taking part in the sensationalism of this encounter. Didn’t Devin say that this supernatural being told him to tell you what happened.?”

“He did.”

“My point is holy angels do not seek the spotlight.”

“But he’s bringing glory to God. The angel encounter is just part of the story.”

My daughter sighed, crossed her arms, crossed one leg over the other and bobbed her foot. She was only days away from turning eighteen, but she had the maturity of a fifty year old. Yet when I watched her pick a scab on her knee, I was reminded she was still a kid in some ways.

“The way I see it, you’re putting your dream against Devin’s encounter,” I told her.

“No, Dad, I’m not,” she replied patiently. “I was simply given a warning that you should have nothing to do with his testimony at this point. I was shown that Devin’s conversion is more on the order of spiritualism, rather than Biblical doctrine.”

“What’s unbiblical about it?”

“Fear God, and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man,” Sevenia said, quoting Ecclesiastes 12:13. “It’s going to come down to that down the road. The law of God, written by His own finger, or the traditions of men. Biblical truth or spiritualism.”

“I don’t understand how that applies to Devin’s conversion, though?”

“His conversion is of a new age order, rather than primitive Godliness.”

“Honey, how can you judge him like that? You haven’t even talked to him yourself, have you?”

“No,” she replied meekly as she bit her lower lip and hung her head. There was a reason people in our fellowship began calling her the girl prophetess, she practiced what she preached.

This made her papa proud, until she told me she was giving up her childhood dream of becoming a doctor to be a minister. I tried to tell her that the medical profession was a form of ministry. But she told me she felt called to preach and teach the Word of God. As a man claiming to be Christian, how can I fault that?

“But do you really have to broadcast him now?” Sevenia asked. “Couldn’t you give Devin a little more time to absorb a, um, righteous life, so to speak?”

“But I’ve been lacking really interesting subjects lately, and Devin’s angelic encounter is interesting.”

“A lot of people won’t believe it. Your subjecting yourself to sensationalism.”

My daughter and I went back and forth for a while, and I ended up agreeing not to broadcast the interview I did with Devin. But a couple days later, he showed up at my place.

“I had another encounter,” Devin told me. “Check this out.”

I looked at his phone as he showed me a picture. My heart began to race as I gazed at an extraordinarily beautiful woman with long flowing black hair and a long white gown. What got my heart rate going was two elements with the photo. One was that she appeared to be floating. The other was that she didn’t appear to be fully physical.

Devin sent the picture to my phone, and I in turn, shared Devin’s story, along with the photo, on social media. I also promised Devin’s story would be a subject on an upcoming podcast. Not even a half our later, my phone jingled. It was my daughter!

(DESTINY’S BIBLE STUDY NOTES AND QUOTES)

(THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT PART 6)

“Whosoever… shall break one of the least of these commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:19

“Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.” James 2:10

There is not a commandment of the law that is not for the good and happiness of humanity, both in this life and the life to come.

By venturing to disregard the will of God upon one point, our first parents opened the floodgates of woe upon the world.

“Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:20

A legal religion is insufficient to bring the soul into harmony with God. The hard, rigid orthodoxy of the Pharisees, destitute of contrition, tenderness, or love, was only a stumbling block to sinners.

The only true faith is that which “Works by love” (Galatians 5:6) to purify the soul.

“Everyone who is angry with his brother shall be in danger of the judgement.” Matthew 5:22

In the revengeful thought the evil deed lies enfolded, as the plant in the seed. “Whosoever hates his brother is a murderer: and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.” 1 John 3:15

In the gift of His Son for our redemption, God has shown how high a value He places upon every human soul, and He gives to no man liberty to speak contemptuously of another.

We shall see faults and weaknesses in those about us, but God claims every soul as His property—His by creation, and doubly His as purchased by the precious blood of Christ.

“Be reconciled to thy brother.” Matthew 5:24

The love of God is something more than a mere negation, it is a positive and active principle, a living spring, ever flowing to bless others.

If the love of Christ dwells in us, we shall not only cherish no hatred toward others, but we shall seek in every way to manifest love toward them.

“Whosoever looks on a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart.” Matthew 5:28

When the thought of evil is loved and cherished, however secretly, it shows that sin still reigns in the heart.

“If thy right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off, and cast it from the.” Matthew 5:30

It is through the will that sin retains its hold upon us. The surrender of the will is represented as plucking out the eye or cutting off the hand.

Separated from God, existence may be ours for a little time, but we do not possess life.

It will require a sacrifice to give yourself to God; but it is a sacrifice of the lower for the higher, the earthly for the spiritual, the perishable for the eternal.

God does not design that our will should be destroyed, for it is only through its exercise that we can accomplish what God would have us do.

Our will is to be yielded to Him, that we may receive it again, purified, and refined. Then He can pour through us the tides of His love and power.

LXXXV

FOR NOW WE SEE THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY

1 CORINTHIANS 13:12

MELANCHTHON  (A RIGHTEOUS ANGEL)

I had a dilemma. A fallen angel I have been enemies with for thousands of years, now wants to be my ally. Before that, we had been friends for time immeasurable. Then there was a historic uprising. It was a once in an eternity rebellion, led by a angel of rank who was second only to The Son of God Himself.

A strange atmosphere pervaded heaven back then, and it still lingers on now. For the first time in eternity, there was strife and discord in paradise. To put it in terms you can understand, Lucifer was like a hot political candidate running for office. He was so influential that more than 30% of the heavenly realm “voted” for him. Keep in mind, he was running against God. Also keep in mind that the one thing God can’t do is lie.

My friend Scorcus was one of Lucifer’s followers. He tried to persuade me to join, telling me God’s ways were too restrictive and that there was a way to greater enlightenment. I listened and weighed the evidence. Then I explained why God’s law was just, and why He was worthy of our love and obedience. I said if this so called way of enlightenment was healthy, God would have already granted it to us. We agreed to disagree, and at the time, I thought we were still friends.

But the rebellion persisted. God and His Son were so incredibly patient. But repeated reasonings and calls to repentance were ignored. That’s when Revelation 12:9 took place. That’s also when my friendship with Scorcus officially ended.

“Why?” I simply asked, knowing that no matter how he answered I couldn’t trust him.

“I think you know why,” he replied. He looked tired, even scared. But was it just an act?

“Do I?”

“Look, I let you have Seven Sallie a year or two ago,” he said impatiently. “Now I’m letting his daughter organize a reunion between Captain Kirk and his brother. You know full  well the hold we had on Sonny Samson. You also know that Sonny was a slave to pride and bitterness. With me taking off the pressure, and you and yours applying the love, this reunion will be a success. You’ll see.”

I detected bitterness when he said love. How could I ever trust him, what was he up to?

“What’s your end game?”

“You just said part of it,” he replied with an undisguised sneer. “End.”

We both kept an eye on our two subjects, Sevenia Sallie, aka Girl Prophtess, and Pastor Kirk Samson, aka Captain Kirk. My ministrations to the humans I was assigned were love and protection. Scorcus’s role was to thwart, to tempt, and ultimately to destroy.

I have to admit, the conversion of Seven Sallie went considerably smoother than I had anticipated. And so far, Sonny Samson was being more cooperative than I would have expected. I also realized that if Scorcus was in fact trying to help me, it would have to be subtle. It is both harder, and sometimes easier, to hide in the spirit world.

I know that doesn’t make sense. But there is no way to adequately describe the spirit world to humans. It’s like what Jesus told Nicodemus. You can see the effects of the wind, but you can’t see the wind itself. Humanity sees through a glass darkly (1 Corinthians 13:12). In other words, your understanding is limited on earth. The good news is you have everything you need to know for now in the Holy Bible. That’s your owner’s manual for being human, yet experiencing the kingdom of God within you.

“Lets just cut to the chase,” I said. “Tell me what your plan is, and I’ll react.”

“I’ve documented a memoir,” he replied as handed it over to me.

Let me give you a brief explanation about what he handed me. If you look up the book of Daniel and read verse 12:4, you’ll notice the prophet says ‘many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall increase.’ More on that down the road, but my point is technology. You all live in an unprecedented time with the advancements in travel and computers. Yet it is still extremely primitive compared to the technology in heaven. So for now, let’s just say that Scorcus handed me something similar to a flash drive.

“Okay,” I said as I looked at it. “And what do you want to do with this?”

“You worked against Eusebio when Captain Kirk wrote his book speculating on the war in heaven.”

“And if you remember correctly, I didn’t necessarily approve of his book. So why would I approve of this?” I asked, waving the flash drive.

“Why would you not approve of what Kirk wrote? He wasn’t far off. Humans are, in fact, fallen after all. When they practice things like love and forgiveness, especially on a level of Christ Himself, they are rebelling against their natural inclination.”

“Yes, I’m aware of all that. But humans have enough to do to study out the plan of salvation and spread the gospel to lost souls.”

“Well, me playing traitor will only help with that, don’t ya think? Let sniveling, whiny, selfish little humans wake up to what they are up against.”

“What do you hope to gain from this? Your fate was sealed when you were cast out of heaven.”

“Plain and simple,” he shrugged. “A lesser sentence.”

I gazed at my one time friend. As far as I knew, he was never part of anything violent. His temptations were centered on entertainment, drunkenness, and frivolity.

“Fair enough, but what am I supposed to do with this?” I asked, waving the flash drive a second time.

“Well, my thought was Seven Sallie’s broadcast.”

“Seriously!” I replied. “You expect me to manifest in a human body, go to Seven Sallie, and tell him I have a memoir by a demon for you to share on your podcast?”

“Come on, give me more credit than that. I can’t blatantly be a turn coat. I’ve got to hide in a human.”

“Seriously!” I replied again. “You expect me to willingly let you possess a human? Just out of curiosity, who were you looking at?”

“Lexi Go…”

“You’re not getting back into Lexi! She has given her whole heart to the Lord and has been a true follower, not just an admirer of Jesus.”

“Will you let me finish? I was going to say her fickle on again, off again deadbeat of a boyfriend who is sperm donor for her child.”

“Devin Easton?” I asked incredulously. “Forgive me, Scorcus, but I don’t trust you.”

“Alright, I guess I can’t blame you. So why don’t you take a look at the flash drive and come up with a plan?”

I read Scorcus’s memoir, sought council, and vetoed any involvement with Scorcus and his plan. He wasn’t happy. As a matter of fact, he was livid. He went on an attack with demons under his command and is on the verge of taking full possession of Devin Easton. Not only that, but he also went after Seven Sallie. He wasn’t able to possess him, but he caused him to transgress, and through the subtlety  of sin, control events to a large degree.

(DESTINY’S BIBLE STUDY NOTES AND QUOTES)

(THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT PART 5)

“Ye are the light of the world.” Matthew 5:14

Jesus, the Savior, is the only light that can illuminate the darkness of a world lying in sin. Of Christ it is written, “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.” John 1:4. It was by receiving of His life that His disciples could become light bearers. His love revealed in the character, would make them the light of the world.

When we come in touch with Christ, the whole soul is aglow with the brightness of the divine presence.

Angels of glory wait to communicate through us heaven’s light and power to souls that are ready to perish.

If those who profess to be followers of Christ are not the light of the world, it is because the vital power has left them. If they have no light to give, it is because they have no connection with the Source of light.

Jesus teaches us to look upon every needy soul as our neighbor and the world as our field.

Christ gladly accepts every person that is surrendered to Him.

Trials patiently borne, blessings gratefully received, temptations resisted, meekness, kindness, mercy, and love habitually revealed, are the lights that shine forth in the character in contrast with the darkness of the selfish heart, into which the light of life has never shone.

“I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.” Matthew 5:17.

It is the Creator, the Giver of life and the law, who declares that it is not His purpose to set aside its precepts. Everything in nature, from the mote in the sunbeam to the worlds on high, is under law.

Before this earth was called into being, God’s law existed. Angels are governed by its principles, and in order for earth to be in harmony with heaven, man also must obey the divine statues.

Jesus’s mission was to “magnify the law, and make it honorable.” Isaiah 42:21. He was to show the spiritual nature of the law, to present its far reaching principles, and make plain its eternal obligation.

“The chiefest among ten thousand….yea, He is altogether lovely (Song of Solomon 5:10-16).

Jesus, the self-denying Redeemer, throughout His pilgrimage of love on earth, was a living representation of the character of the law of God. In His life it is made manifest that heaven born love, Christlike principles, underlie the laws of eternal rectitude.

Because the law of the Lord is perfect, and therefore changeless, it is impossible for sinful men, in themselves, to meet the standard of its requirement.

This was why Jesus came as our Redeemer. It was His mission, by making men partakers of the divine nature, to bring them into harmony with the principles of the law of heaven.

“Forever, oh Lord, Thy word is settled in heaven.”  Psalm 119:89

“All His commandment are sure. They stand fast for ever and ever, and are done in truth and uprightness.” Psalm 111:7, 8

“Concerning Thy testimonies, I have known of old that Thou hast founded them forever.” Psalm 119:152

LXXXIV

BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS: FOR THEY SHALL BE CALLED THE CHILDREN OF GOD

MATTHEW 5:9

CAPTAIN KIRK (AKA PASTOR SAMSON)

“Grandpa, how come you didn’t answer your phone?” Sevenia asked as she ran up to me panting. I wasn’t actually her grandfather, but I loved it when she recently had started referring to me with that title. To me, it was more of an honor than being called Pastor or Captain.

“As you can see, I’m working in the garden,” I replied with a chuckle. “Even if I was sixty years younger, that phone wouldn’t be glued to my hand.”

“I tried your house, you weren’t there. I tried Destiny and Brock’s, they said you were planning to work in your garden. I went back to your house, looked for you in the garden, and you weren’t there. Then I remembered the garden here behind the church. Come on, we don’t even have twenty minutes. Let’s go!”

“Where are we going?” I frowned, wondering what the emergency was. I scrambled from my knees to my feet so fast that I forgot to groan. “Where do we have to be in twenty minutes?”

She had taken me by the hand and was briskly walking me to her light blue Dodge Dart.

“What’s going on, is somebody hurt?”

“No, no, nothing like that. We’re going to your brother’s house.”

I stopped in my tracks, and Sevenia jerked to a stop, reminding of a dog coming to the end of its leash as it tried to chase a cat.

“I think not, Kiddo.”

“Come on, Pastor, there’s no time for tomfoolery.”

“Tomfoolery?”

“Come on, we don’t have time to dillydally.”

“Now hold your horses. I’m not going to my brother’s.”

“Come on, Grandpa, we need to go.”

“Wait a minute. Were you with Sonny?”

“Yes, I was.”

“And he wants to see me?”

“I think so.”

“You think so, you don’t know so?”

“He’s kind of a grumpy guy, and hard to read, but I do believe he would like to see you.”

“You actually had a conversation with him?”

“Yes, I did.”

“He didn’t tell you to git?”

“Actually he did.”

“Then how did you end up talking to him?”

“I persisted.”

“And he allowed it?”

“Yes, he invited me into his home. He even said he liked my spunk.”

“You don’t say,” I responded, completely dumbfounded.

“Yes, so let’s go, time is fleeting.”

“Now wait a minute. He put a time restraint on seeing me? Now that doesn’t sound like he really wants to see me at all.”

“No, he didn’t put any time restraint on you.”

“Then why are you harping that we need to get going and running out of time?”

“I told him I could have you to his place within the hour. Apparently he didn’t believe you would come. He said if I did have you there within the hour, he would eat his hat.”

I processed what she just said and laughed. “And you’re going to hold him to it?”

“You bet I am. I noticed a hat sitting on the back of a chair, and as soon as you two are done exchanging pleasantries, I’m going to hand it to him.”

I chuckled as I felt such deep affection for my granddaughter, but she needed to be warned. “I wouldn’t be too confident about the exchange of pleasantries.”

“Grandpa, please don’t tell me you’re holding some sort of grudge at being rejected in the past?”

“No, no, Dear One,” I replied. “I will come in all meekness, and lowliness of heart, hoping and praying for true reconciliation. But I don’t think you understand the depth of animosity my brother has held toward me.”

“He’s lonely and hurting, Sir,” Sevenia said somberly, her lower lip trembling slightly.

I have met many people over my years who have inspired me with their level of spirituality, but none like Sevenia. She was only seventeen years old, she’d say almost eighteen, and she was as bold as a lion, speaking and living truth. Yet she was as sensitive as a little bunny when it came to caring and compassion.

“His wife was admitted to a nursing home a few weeks ago,” she continued.

“Wilma? A nursing home?”

“Yes, it sounds like Alzheimer’s,” Sevenia explained. “He said more often than not she doesn’t recognize their niece or even him.”

“Must be Coleen. Clint and Wilma were exceptionally close to her sister’s daughter. Like Sammy and me, Clint and Wilma had no children.”

“So other than Coleen, does Clint have anyone he’s close to?”

“I have no idea. He shut me out of his life decades ago.”

“Well, let’s change that,” Sevenia said, taking my hand again and pulling me toward her car.

About five minutes later, we pulled in front of my brother’s house. I wasn’t nervous, I was excited. Maybe it was old age, hopefully it was spiritual maturity, but nothing really made me nervous anymore. Even with the demonic possession and deliverance of Lexi Gomez, I felt shielded by God and sensed the protection of holy angels.

(The case of Lexi Gomez was in the first couple entries posted September 2019)

As we made our way up the sidewalk to my brother’s house, he surprisingly stepped out onto the stoop and stared disbelieving at me. I smiled broadly and said, “Hello, Sonny.”

“Well, look what the cat dragged in,” he croaked, and then said with a chuckle. “Maybe I should say look at the big ugly oaf the pretty little kitten dragged up my walk.”

I chuckled. “It’s good to see you, Sonny.”

“Likewise Sa…Kirk,” he said, and then his face fell as he realized the reason I hadn’t been known as Sammy for more than sixty years. “I’m really sorry about Sammy.”

I nodded as he acknowledged the passing of my wife three years ago.

“I should have…” he said and then jammed his hands into his pockets and looked at the ground. “I don’t know…”

“Wilma sent a card,” I told him. “You signed it.”

“Is that right?”

“Yes. By the way, your penmanship has gotten quite feminine over the years.”

He chuckled, then sobered and said, “I figured you wouldn’t want to… You know, see me… I mean especially at a time like that… I…”

“Forget about it, Sonny. I understand,” I assured him.

“Do you want to come in?” my brother asked.

“I’d love to.”

The house smelled like canned air freshener with the unmistakable smell of cigar behind it. We had barely sat down when Sevenia presented Sonny with a Cardinals baseball cap that had been sitting on the back of a chair.

“What’s this?” Sonny growled mildly, as his fluffy white brows furrowed and he ran a hand over the white bristles on his head.

“It’s your hat, Sir,” Sevenia said with utter seriousness. “You said if I had your brother here within the hour, you’d eat your hat.”

He chuckled, and then acknowledged. “I guess I did.”

“Alright then, I want to see you keep to your word,” Sevenia demanded with an amazingly straight face.

Sonny looked confused, then annoyed before he said, “You ever hear of a figure of speech?”

“I heard you boldly declare hat consumption if I delivered, and I aim to see it.”

“What, are you some kind of nut?” Sonny barked, reminiscent of his days as a drill instructor in the Marine Corps.

To my astonishment, Sevenia placed a thumb and forefinger between his chin and ordered, “Open up!”

He gently slapped her hand away and laughed. “You little pistol! By golly, I am going to eat this thing.”

He grabbed the hat from Sevenia and began to gnaw on it. She laughed heartily, as did I. I admired her fearlessness with teasing an old curmudgeon like my brother. I also loved her wisdom and ability to break the ice between Sonny and myself with playfulness at our reunion.

As soon as the merriment subsided, Sevenia asked, “Do you gentlemen mind if I run an errand, and come back in twenty or thirty minutes?”

My brother and I both said that we didn’t mind. I noticed a bit of a twinkle in Sonny’s eye. After she left, he said, “That there is a little spitfire. She’d make a great Marine.”

“She’d make a great a lot of things,” I replied, and then frowned at the way it sounded.

“She was a God send, you know,” my brother said quietly.

I only had an idea of what he meant so I asked, “What do you mean?”

“Kirk, I played the fool all these years,” he said somberly. “I’m sorry.”

“I forgive you, Sonny,” I responded. “And I’m sorry if I didn’t handle things appropriately myself.”

“Nope,” he blurted, and then lit a cigar. He puffed on it a few times and then set it in ash tray. “It’s all my fault. I’m stubborn, prideful and, as Wilma would say, bullheaded.”

I nodded, bowed my head, and thought a little pray for him. I thought I heard him whimper, and I looked up. With trembling fingers, he picked up his cigar, took a couple puffs, and placed it in the ash tray again.

“I’ve been so lonely the last couple weeks,” he said. “What with Wilma going into a nursing home. Actually the last few months since she usually doesn’t know me anymore. She has Alzheimer’s, Kirk. It’s pretty bad now.”

“I gathered as much from what Sevenia told me,” I replied.

He snorted a laugh. “I thought she was a pesky kid selling something at first. Turns out, she was a little angel.”

I chuckled. “Funny you should say that. When she came into my life not long after Sammy died, I often thought she was a little angel, too. She quickly became one of the best friends I ever had, outside of Sammy.”

“Yes indeed,” Sonny said quietly. “That little angel brought me my big brother, right when I needed him the most.”

Sonny did something I hadn’t seen him do in almost eighty years. He cried. The last time I witnessed my younger brother sob, our Border Collie Mitsi had just died. He was five years old, and I was seven. I did what I did almost eight decades ago. I hugged my little brother.

WRITER’S NOTE

FAIR WARNING: Starting with the next post I will be going a different direction with the story line. It will be both a new beginning, and a bit of a return to the origin of the story with Seven Sallie, Sevenia’s father, and the battle for his soul. It will involve angels, in particular two, one fallen and one unfallen. I hope you join me, and thank you for reading thus far!

For those interested, I will still be adding ‘Destiny’s Notes’ at the end of each entry, even though they may have nothing to do with the story. If you choose not to read this portion, you won’t be missing anything from the story itself. It is just an avenue to share good spiritual food I have come across in my own research and reading.

(DESTINY’S BIBLE STUDY NOTES AND QUOTES)

(THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT PART 4)

“Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.” Matthew 5:9.

Christ is “the Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:6), and it is His mission to restore to the earth and heaven the peace that sin has broken.

Christ’s followers are sent to the world with the message of peace.

Whoever, by the quiet, unconscious influence of a holy life, shall reveal the love of Christ. Whoever by word or deed, shall lead another soul to renounce sin, and yield their heart to the Savior, is a peacemaker.

“Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:10.

Jesus does not present to His followers the hope of attaining earthly glory and riches, and of having a life free from trial. He presents to His followers the privilege of walking with their Master in the paths of  self-denial and reproach, because “the world” doesn’t want to know truth.

Though Jesus’s every word and act breathed of divine compassion, His unlikeness to the world provoked the bitterest hostility.

If you are called to go through “the fiery furnace” for His sake, Jesus will be by your side, just as he was with the faithful three in Babylon. (See Daniel chapter 3).

When it comes to God’s martyrs, Satan can kill the body, but he could not touch the life that was hid with Christ in God.

“Blessed are ye when men shall revile you. And persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for My names sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.” Matthew 5:11, 12

There was never one who walked among men more cruelly slandered than the Son of man. He was derided and mocked because of His unswerving obedience to God’s holy law. They hated Him without a cause. Yet He stood calmly before His enemies, declaring that reproach is a part of the Christian’s legacy, counseling His followers how to meet the arrows of malice, bidding them not to faint under persecution.

While slander may blacken the reputation, it cannot stain the character. That is in God’s keeping!

While the people are looking for earthly good, Jesus points them to a heavenly reward. But He does not place it all in the future, it begins here.

“Ye are the salt of the earth.” Matthew 5:13

Christians who are purified through the truth will possess saving qualities that preserve the world from utter moral corruption.

We are not saved in masses, but as individuals.

The savor of the salt represents the vital power of the Christian, the love of Jesus in the heart, the righteousness of Christ pervading the life.

Without a living faith in Christ as a personal Savior it is impossible to make our influence felt in a skeptical world. We cannot give to others that which we do not ourselves possess.

It is in proportion to our own devotion and consecration to Christ that we exert an influence for the blessing and uplifting of humankind.

LXXXIII

SERVE HIM WITH A PERFECT HEART AND WITH A WILLING MIND

1 CHRONICLES 28:9

SEVENIA SALLIE (GIRL PROPHETESS)

I was as nervous as I have ever been in my life as I stood on the front steps of a brick ranch house. Then I heard my knuckles rap on Clint “Sonny” Samson’s door. It had been three days since I went to Hannibal, Missouri with Sonny’s brother, and one of my best friends, pastor, mentor, and sort of grandpa. He’s affectionately known as Captain Kirk, due to his stint in the army as a chaplain.

He and I had been in Hannibal, visiting a woman who had been involved with one of the soldiers the Good Captain served with in Vietnam. (This story was in the previous two posts). On the way home from Hannibal, I had finally gotten the Good Pastor to talk about the brother from whom he was estranged.

The riff began slowly as a simple sibling rivalry. It began to intensify with his brother’s jealousy over Captain Kirk being an officer in the military, and he being a non-commissioned officer. Then, within a year of leaving the military, Captain Kirk left the family faith. Let me be clear, the Good Pastor left a denomination, not the Christian faith. But that’s a story for him to tell when I convince him to have Johnathan Embers help him write his story.

So when Captain Kirk left the family’s religion, his father was angry. Due to the informal fellowship he helped organize, his father even declared him to be a cult leader. He disinherited Pastor Samson and left the family farm solely to his brother. However, when the father died, Pastor’s mother changed the will back and left everything to him. Even though the Good Pastor split the inheritance with his brother, his brother held a grudge at not getting the whole thing as he previously believed he would.

I could feel my heart thump against my chest as I knocked a second time. For a second time, my eyes glanced at a bumper sticker sized sign that read, NO SOLICITING. Was I soliciting? I suppose I was, in a way. I was soliciting a reconciliation. My feelings of uneasiness were intensified by angry mumbling, accompanied with loud footsteps.

I closed my eyes and prayed. The Holy Spirit brought to my mind that perfect love casts out fear. (I John 4:18). I asked the Lord to make me perfect in His love. I thanked Him that His love toward me was already perfect. I felt the anxiety that had been quivering my limbs and clouding my mind, become replaced with Holy zeal. I was ready!

My intentions were pure. Blessed are the peace makers, (Matthew 5:9). What was the worst that could happen? I get yelled at? Even if he were crazy and shot me, he could only kill my body and not my soul. (Matthew 10:28). On the other side of the coin, what my little mission might bring is love. Love in the form of two estranged brothers being reunited.

My hopes were dinged, but not dashed when he opened the door. When he spoke, he reminded me of the angry badger from ‘The Fox and the Hound.’ “Can’t you read?” he barked, and then tapped the NO SOLICITING sticker next to his door. Sonny did not have a sunny disposition at all!

I felt my mouth gape open. Not because of his unwelcoming manner, but due to the resemblance to my beloved pastor, mentor, friend, and sort of grandpa. Only he was clean shaven, and his white hair was a bristly, slightly thin flattop.

It was the eyes. They were so similar to my beloved pastor, mentor, friend, and sort of grandpa. Only whereas the Good Pastor’s eyes were warm, friendly, clear, and often twinkled. Sonny’s eyes were cold, hard, red rimmed, and exuded animosity. What a contrast!

“Now git!” Sonny said, and then made a shooing gesture with his hands. Then he slammed the door in my face.

I knocked again, and then winced. The door flew back open and he looked furious. He even seemed to be panting with fury. With clenched teeth, he said, “You got some kind of nerve,” and then to my surprise, finished by calling me, “Kiddo. I said to git, and I mean now!”

His referring to me by the same term of endearment that Captain Kirk often used, surprised me. Yet he said it with such hostility that it was like a different reference entirely. When Captain Kirk said it, I felt his affection. When Sonny said it, I felt like a delinquent.

As he slammed the door again, I practically yelled, “Sonny, wait!”

The door closed with a crash, but immediately reopened, a look of surprise on the elderly man’s face as the large white caterpillars above his eyes arched. His eyebrows seemed even bigger than the Good Pastor’s eyebrows. But maybe it was Sonny’s short haircut and clean shaven face that made them seem larger. The look of astonishment softened his angry features. However, he still reminded me of the grumpy badger from ‘The Fox and the Hound.’

“What did you call me?” he asked, cautiously, curiously.

I cleared my throat. “Sonny… Sir.”

“Who are you?” he asked, as most of the meanness seemed to have drained away from his demeanor. Now he struck me as a lonely old man while he gazed pensively at me.

“Sevenia Sallie, Sir.”

“Do I know you? How do you know me? I haven’t been called Sonny in twenty years. Why, there’s only a few people still alive that know me by that name.”

“My pastor, friend, mentor, and sort of grandpa told me.”

“Kirk!” he barked, as he reverted back to grumpy badger. I braced myself for a ‘git’, but he crossed his arms and glared at me for a moment instead. “Calling him pastor gave it away. Only you forgot to qualify it with fake. I suppose you call him Captain Kirk like all the other morons that follow him.”

“I respectfully beg to differ, Sir,” I replied with a charming smile. “First of all, I follow Jesus, not the Good Pastor. Although I do consider him a mentor. Second, I usually call him Captain Crunch, sometimes Captain Crunchy Bunch.”

Although he stared at me sternly with his arms still crossed over a potbelly, I detected a slight twitch at the corner of his mouth, and his furry frown raised a little.

“Anyhow, the Good Pastor is the most Godly man I know,” I said.

He snorted and scowled some more. I figured he wouldn’t like my comment, but I felt I needed to defend my pastor, friend, mentor, and sort of grandpa.

“Oh, okay, I can tell by your age and experience that you’d know better than me,” he said sarcastically, then mumbled. “What a mindless twit.”

“Did you just call me a mindless twit?” I asked, placing my hands on my hips, and making myself look intently into his eyes.

He lifted his chin, and placed his hands on his hips. “What if I did?”

Being the daughter of Seven Sallie did have its advantages. I recalled my dad imitating an old time actor. I believe his name was something like James Cagney. I shook my fist and tried to imitate my dad imitating the old time actor. “Why I oughta sock you right in the nose, buster. Yeah, see, I oughta give you what for.”

He actually chuckled and shook his head. “I don’t know why, but I like you, Kiddo. You got spunk. Would you want to come in?”

Wow! Be grateful for small miracles. “Sure,” I replied with a small voice.

The house smelled of cigar smoke and toast. It was clean, but messy, if that makes any sense. I mean the carpet looked clean, and the furniture wasn’t grimy or dusty. But the living room was littered with beer cans, packs of Swisher Sweet cigars, newspapers, magazines, and laundry. Sonny scooted a calico cat out of a chair and waved a hand as an invitation for me to sit.

“So,” Sonny began with something like a look of triumph in his eyes. “Why did my brother send you here? Did he hear about Wilma?”

“No,” I said hesitantly. “Actually, he has no idea I’m here.”

“Oh,” he said blandly, and then looked puzzled. “Why did you come then? Is he dying?”

“Oh, no,” I replied shaking my head. “He’s in good health. I mean, for an 85 year old.”

“He’s 84,” Sonny replied mildly. “For another month anyway.”

“Right, my bad,” I simply replied. I didn’t want to tell him that the Good Captain recently started to factor in conception with his age. Sonny already considered him to be a ‘fake pastor’. Yet I took it as a good sign that Sonny was mindful of precisely how old his brother was. “Who is Wilma?”

“Never mind,” he said with a brisk wave of his hand.

“Is she your wife?” I asked gently, looking compassionately into his watery, red rimmed eyes.

He looked lost and puzzled. His eyes seemed to become even more watery. But he was of a mindset that viewed emotion as a sign of weakness. He picked up a pack of cigars, pulled one out, and lit it with a silver lighter. He gave it several  quick puffs as he got it burning, and it reminded me of playing an old video game with my dad when I was little called Rally X. As you drive the car around the TV screen, you puff out little clouds of smoke to spin out the cars that are chasing you. Now my eyes watered as a stray wisp of smoke came at my face like a crooked arrow.

“Yes,” he croaked, and then coughed. “Wilma’s my wife. We took her to a nursing home three weeks ago.”

“Who’s we?”

He squinted at me and frowned. I thought he was about to tell me something like ‘mind my own business.’ Instead he simply replied, “My niece.”

“Are you and your niece close?”

He shrugged. “She and my wife are… Or were.”

“Why aren’t they close anymore?”

“Because my wife usually doesn’t know who she is cuz she has Alzheimer’s,” he said quietly. Then he squinted at me again. His squint turned into a glare, and he barked, “You’re a nosy little thing, aren’t you?”

“No Sir,” I responded and shook my head. “I simply care.”

He snorted, began to speak, coughed, began to speak again, coughed, swore, and then said. “Why do you care?”

“Well, I care about human suffering in general, but more specifically, I care because your brother is a close friend of mine. And I know he cares.”

He puffed his cigar, coughed, snorted a non-humorous laugh, and said. “If you are a close friend of my brother’s, then you know we don’t like each other.”

“Not true,” I replied boldly. “You may not like him, but he loves you.”

He snorted again. “Is that why he hasn’t spoken to me in years?”

“The way I understand it, he has reached out to you several times and was rejected. He’s simply respecting your wishes that you want nothing to do with him.”

“A likely story,” he cackled sarcastically.

“It’s true. As a matter of fact, I bet I could have him here within the hour.”

“Oh, sure you could,” he responded with more sarcasm. “Why if my phony, greedy brother is standing in that doorway in the next sixty minutes, I’ll eat my hat.”

“Deal!” I said, standing abruptly, smiling confidently, and offering to shake on it.

He looked startled, but to my surprise slowly took my hand in his.

“It’s a deal, then! I’ll be back within the hour,” I challenged.

He wore a look of concern as he stood, too. “Kiddo, wait.”

“Yes?”

“Oh, never mind,” he growled.

Then he started to mumble curse words to himself as he complained about me and the situation I put him in. I think he even called me a whipper snapper.

(DESTINY’S BIBLE STUDY NOTES AND QUOTES)

(THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT PART 3)

“Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.” (Matthew 5:6)

Righteousness is holiness, likeness to God, and “God is love.” 1 John 4:16. It is conformity to the law of God, for “all thy commandments are righteousness” (Psalm 119:172), and “love is the fulfilling of the law” (Romans 13:10).

Righteousness is love, and love is the light and life of God. The righteousness of God is embodied in Christ. We receive righteousness by receiving Him.

Not by painful struggle or tiresome toil, not by gift or sacrifice, is righteousness obtained; but it is freely given to every soul who hungers and thirsts to obtain it.

No human can supply that which will satisfy the hunger and thirst of the soul.

 As we need food to sustain our physical strength, so do we need Christ, the Bread from heaven, to sustain spiritual life and strength.

As the body is continually receiving the nourishment that sustains life and vigor, so the soul must be constantly communing with Christ, submitting to Him, and depending wholly upon Him.

The word of God is a wellspring of life. As you seek those living springs, you will, through the Holy Spirit, be brought into communion with Christ.

Every revelation of God to the soul increases the capacity to know and to love.

“Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.” (Matthew 5:7)

God does not ask if we are worthy of His love, but He pours upon us the riches of His love, to make us worthy. He seeks not to punish, but to redeem!

There are many to whom life is a painful struggle. Kind words, sympathy, expressions of appreciation, would be to many a struggling and lonely one as a cup of cold water to a thirsty soul.

“They that water, shall be watered themselves.” (Proverbs 11:25)

“Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.” (Matthew 5:8)

When Christ abides in the heart, there will be purity of thought and action.

Even Jesus’s disciples were so blinded by the selfishness of their hearts that they were slow to understand Him who had come to manifest to them the Father’s love.

It is when our lives are hid in Christ that we behold the love of God.

The beauty and preciousness of truth, which are undiscerned by the worldly wise, are constantly unfolding to those who have a trusting, childlike desire to know and to do the will of God.

We discern the truth by becoming partakers of the divine nature ourselves, through Christ and the Holy Spirit.

The pure in heart live as in the visible presence of God during their allotted time in this world.

LXXXII

MAN’S GOINGS ARE OF THE LORD; HOW CAN A MAN THEN UNDERSTAND HIS OWN WAY?

PROVERBS 20:24

SEVENIA SALLIE (GIRL PROPHETESS)

Captain Kirk sighed heavily as we climbed into my car and prepared to make our way home from Hannibal, Missouri. After stopping for a quick bite to eat, we should still make it home just before sunset. I didn’t like driving after dark in my little Dodge Dart.

“Are you too old for this, Captain Crunchy?” I asked lightheartedly.

He glanced at me with hooded eyes and said softly, “Yes, I am.”

“After all, you are 85,” I said merrily. “I mean counting conception of course.”

“I feel like Methuselah,” he replied.

“Well, you’re just a kid then! You’ll still live another 884 years.”

“Lord have mercy,” he said, and then sighed again.

We had spent a couple hours longer than anticipated talking to Susan Nelson. She had had two discordant conversations with the good Pastor fifty years previous when he was an army chaplain. One of which she actually accused him of killing her sister.

Sherry, Susan’s sister, had ended her young life only hours after Captain Kirk, then a Captain and Chaplain in the U.S. Army, had spent the better part of an afternoon talking and counseling with Sherry. It also had been just three days since Sherry had found out her fiancée, Corporal Timothy Williams, had been killed in Vietnam.

During our recent visit with Susan, she had admitted regret over her accusation that the good Pastor contributed to her sister’s motives for her suicide. She acknowledged that they were said out of hurt and anger, rather than a belief that he was actually was responsible in some way.

Then she told us that after her mother passed away a few months previous, she was going through things in her mother’s house. She came across a group of letters that Corporal Timothy Williams had written to Sherry. In one that was dated not long before he died, Timothy had confessed to the brief fling he had had with Susan.

The realization that her sister likely knew of her betrayal when she killed herself, devastated Susan to the point that an unknown heart condition came to the forefront, giving her a brush with her own mortality. Her guilt also plagued her to the point that she felt a need to come clean to my dear friend, pastor, and sort of grandpa.

We drove in silence for quite a while with Captain Kirk staring blankly out the windshield. I knew he was tired, and he was, as he liked to say, a seasoned citizen. So as much as I wanted to talk about our afternoon with Susan, I kept a zipped lip. But then the spry old fella must have gotten a second wind. He said, “So what do you think, Kiddo?”

“Well, like my dad would have said, life is a strange trip.”

Pastor chuckled, “Tis indeed.”

“What do you think, Grandpa?”

“Normally I’m not in the habit of second guessing. Whether the person I’m counseling with needs encouragement or a swift kick in the hinny, I come with the attitude that I’m only human, too. I pray for guidance, and then walk in the Spirit, and let the chips fall where they may. Let go and let God if you please.”

“But?”

“But,” the Good Pastor said with a sigh. “Susan and I have a history. Not a very pleasant history at that. It was really odd counseling with someone, albeit informally, who had accused you of killing their sister. Then she finds out half a century later that she very likely could have contributed to her sister’s suicide. I can’t stop wondering if my analogy to her of David and Bathsheba was a mistake. Maybe too harsh of an example.”

“Why? How can you go wrong with that? David not only committed adultery with Uriah’s wife, but he also ended up getting Uriah killed so he could have her. Yet David was also known as a man after God’s own heart. When God, through Nathan the Prophet, made known to David his great sin; David humbled himself, repented, and God forgave his enormous sin.”

“Yes,” Pastor agreed. “But he also suffered terribly for the consequences of his sins. That’s the part I’m second guessing. Susan has already been extremely distraught over finding out that her sister likely knew of her tryst with Timmy.”

“Correct, Grandpa,” I said softly. “She has already suffered consequences with heavy remorse. So much so that it aggravated an unknown heart condition, which in turn led her to contact you to make amends.”

“Hmm, good point, Kiddo,” he replied with a little grin. “There’s a reason I make you hang out with me, you’re smart.”

I giggled. “There’s no make about it. I love to hang out with you, Grandpa.”

“Likewise, Dear Child,” he said with a smile and gave my knee a pat. Now he sighed contentedly. “I’m just gonna move on and be glad it’s over. What a shame though. Two sisters that were quite close growing up, ends with betrayal and a self-imposed death. What a shame!

A minute later, Pastor began to softly whistle a hymn and tap his foot. This told me he wasn’t tired. I decided to broach a subject with him about his own sibling. I knew there was some type of discord between them, and that they hadn’t spoken in years. The strange thing is, I know the Pastor is truly a Godly man, so I couldn’t imagine he would hold a grudge. Yet the couple times I tried to get him to talk about his brother, he immediately avoided it. I decided to give it a third try. It would either be three times a charm, so to speak, or three strikes and I was out.

“Sir, can I ask you a question?”

“Sir?” the Good Pastor inquired with an arched, furry white eyebrow. “Question?”

“Yes.”

“Maybe.”

“On the way down, you told me quite a bit about going to college, your time in the military, and your sixty year marriage. But you’ve never talked much about your childhood.”

“Not much to tell,” he said with a shrug. “Typical country boy upbringing.”

“What about siblings? I know you had a brother, any other siblings?”

“Nope, just Sonny and me.”

“Sonny Samson?” I giggled. My eyes also widened in surprise that he offered this tidbit so freely. The first time I had asked about siblings, he said something like I don’t want to go there. The second time he said not now. I felt hopeful this would go somewhere.

“His given name is Clint. I’m two years older, and I was known as Sammy. I guess since our peers made me a nickname out of the first part of my last name, they decided to give Clint a nickname on the second half of our last name.”

“How long were you called Sammy? The only nickname for you I’ve ever known was Captain Kirk.”

“Until I started going with the lovely gal who would become my wife. We were both called Sammy, but people seemed to think she had a more legitimate claim to Sammy, I guess.”

“That’s right, your wife was known as Sammy, wasn’t she?”

“She was. Her first name was Samantha. When we married, she became a double Sam.”

“Sammy Samson, I like that.”

“There was nothing not to like about my dear Sammy,” the Good Pastor said, then his voice cracked. “I miss her every day. God rest her precious soul.”

I swallowed down a lump in my throat and gently guided the Good Captain back to the subject of his brother. “So, Grandpa, how come you and your brother don’t get along?”

“The issue is with him,” he shrugged. “I’ve tried to make peace with him several times, but I was rejected every time.”

“So, what’s his beef with you?”

“It actually started when we were kids. I guess you could say it was sibling rivalry, only I like to think I didn’t participate, other than just going about my life. It was a gradual slide that I honestly believe was his fault. I’ve examined and reexamined our relationship hundreds of times. God forgive me, but I don’t see what I did that should have pulled us apart so severely. I think at the crux of the  problem, I was a mama’s boy, and he was a papa pleaser.”

“So, kind of like Jacob and Esau?” I giggled.

“You know, to be honest, I thought of that myself. Only we weren’t twins, and I was two years older. Plus, the last big riff did have to do with an inheritance.”

“So, did you pretend to be him, and give your father savory meat?” I teased.

“No, Kiddo,” the Good Pastor chuckled. “But it did have to do with food, in an indirect sort of way.”

“It did?” I replied with a puzzled frown.

“The family farm,” he said. “You know, the growing of food.”

“I see,” I chuckled. “So, you two were never close then.”

“Actually we were like best friends as children. Playing in the woods, hunting, fishing, doing chores, helping Dad with planting and harvest. Things didn’t really start to go awry until high school. By then, I became quite academic and turned into a bit of a book worm. Clint struggled to get C’s, but he excelled at sports. I had given up all sports in high school, except for baseball. I was really into church and church activities. Clint was popular, dated a lot, and liked to drink beer with the guys. We just slowly lost common interests.”

“I understand you two were quite different,” I said. “But it still doesn’t seem like stuff that should put you on nonspeaking terms.”

“He’s the one on nonspeaking terms, Kiddo. Like I said, I tried to make peace several times, but to no avail. Plus, this whole riff started slow and then snow balled when we were both in the military.”

“Was he a captain in the Army, too?” I inquired, and knew better to ask if he was a chaplain.

“He was a sergeant in the Marines, twenty-four years.”

“I see. Does he live in another state?”

“No, last I knew, he lives in the Amana Colonies.”

“Pastor! That’s only five miles away!”

“I know, Kiddo,” he chuckled without humor.

“You’re practically neighbors with your brother and you don’t speak.?”

“Like I said, it’s his decision, not mine.”

I made my own decision. I would speak with Captain Kirk’s brother!

(DESTINY”S BIBLE STUDY NOTES AND QUOTES)

(SERMON ON THE MOUNT PART 2)

“Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.” Matthew 5:4

The mourning  Jesus speaks of here is true heart sorrow for sin.

Jesus says, “I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.” John 12:32

As one is drawn to behold Jesus lifted up on the cross, they discern the sinfulness of humanity. They see that it is sin which scourged and crucified the Lord. They see that while they have been loved with unspeakable tenderness by Jesus, their life has been a continual scene of ingratitude and rebellion. They have forsaken their best friend and abused heaven’s most precious gift. They are separated from God by a gulf of sin that is broad and black and deep, and they mourn in brokenness of heart.

How many there are who would never have known Jesus had not sorrow led them to seek comfort in Him.

Our heavenly Father is never unmindful of those whom sorrow has touched.

Never was David dearer to the heart of Infinite Love than when, conscience smitten, he fled for his life from his enemies, who had been stirred to rebellion by his own son. “The Lord says, “As many as I love I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore and repent.” Revelation 3:19. Christ lifts up the contrite heart and refines the mourning soul until it becomes His abode.

When tribulation comes upon us, how many of us are like Jacob! We think it the hand of an enemy, and in the darkness we wrestle blindly until our strength is spent and we find no comfort or deliverance.

The blessed Savior stands by many whose eyes are so blinded by tears that they do not discern Him.

Keep the heart stayed upon Jesus and meditate upon His loving kindness all the day. He will lift the soul above the daily sorrow and perplexity into a realm of peace.

The Lord has special grace for the mourner, and its power is to melt hearts and win souls. His love opens a channel into the wounded and bruised soul, and becomes a healing balm to those who sorrow. (See 2 Corinthians 1:3,4)

“Blessed are the meek.” Matthew 5:5

Jesus places meekness among the first qualifications for His kingdom. In His own life and character the divine beauty of this precious grace is revealed.

Through all the lowly experiences of life Jesus consented to pass, walking among the children of men, not as a king to demand homage, but as one whose mission it was to serve others.

There was in His manner no taint of bigotry, no cold austerity. The world’s Redeemer had a greater than angelic nature, yet united with His divine majesty were meekness and humility that attracted many to Himself.

Human nature is ever struggling for expression, ready for contest; but he who learns of Christ is emptied of self, of pride, of love of supremacy, and there is silence in the soul. Self is yielded to the disposal of the Holy Spirit. Then we are not anxious to have the highest place. We have no ambition to crowd and elbow ourselves into notice; but we feel that our highest place is at the feet of the Savior. We look to Jesus, waiting for His hand to lead, listening for His voice to guide.

No storm of human or satanic wrath could disturb the calm of Jesus’s perfect communion with God.

Jesus says to us, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you.” (John 14:27) “Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest. (Matthew 11:29)

Happiness drawn from earthly sources is as changeable as varying circumstances can make it; but the peace of Christ is a constant and abiding peace.

The spirit of hatred and revenge originated with Satan, and can bring only evil to him who cherishes it.

Lowliness of heart, that meekness, which is the fruit of abiding in Christ, is the true secret of blessing.

“He will beautify the meek with salvation.” Psalm 149:4

The meek shall inherit the earth. It was through the desire for self-exaltation that sin entered into the world. It is through self-abnegation that Christ redeems what was lost. And He says we are to overcome as He did. (See Revelation 3:21)

LXXXI

EVERY WAY OF A PERSON IS RIGHT IN THEIR OWN EYES: BUT THE LORD PONDERS THE HEART.

PROVERBS 21:2

CAPTAIN KIRK (AKA PASTOR SAMSON)

Sevenia and I were in Susan Nelson’s home in Hannibal, Missouri. She told us that she had moved back into her family home from California about a year ago to take care of her sick mother. Her mother had just died two months previous.

Then Susan had her own health scare. As a result she felt led to contact me, through her son, to mend fences during our brief encounters fifty years ago. During the two conversations I had with Susan half a century ago, she was quite angry. In the last one, over the phone, she even accused me of killing her suicidal sister, apparently with my words. I was a chaplain for her sister’s fiancée during the Vietnam war.

The biggest surprise about Susan contacting me was the fact that Susan and her sister’s fiancée, Timothy Williams, had a child together. I never knew this. Susan was about to tell us how she ended up becoming pregnant by the man engaged to her sister, when the offspring of the affair walked into Susan’s house.

 “It’s an honor to meet you, Sir,” Roger Nelson, Susan’s son, said with a half grin, not unlike Elvis Presley, and very much like his biological father.

“Likewise,” I replied as I smiled and shook his hand. It was as if I was looking at an older version of Corporal Timothy Williams. Only Timmy never got to be old. He died early into his second tour of Vietnam, at the unripe young age of 21 years, 6 months, and 8 days.

“In a way I feel like I kind of know you,” Roger told me. This was an odd feeling since I hadn’t even known he existed until a week ago. He continued. “Mom recently shared with me about twenty letters my dad wrote to my Aunt Sherry. Did she tell you about that? She found them going through Grandma’s things.  It seemed like there were only a couple letters that you weren’t mentioned in.”

I was beginning to feel like I was in a soap opera, or maybe an episode of ‘The Twilight Zone.’ Corporal Williams cheated on his fiancée with her sister. The sister became pregnant. The fiancée committed suicide. The betraying sister shared her personal letters with the illegitimate son. A question that had been in the back of my mind came to the forefront. Did Sherry know? Was that one of the reasons she ended her life?

I was too old for this. I was 85. I looked at Sevenia. She studied me intently, her pretty emerald eyes wide and sympathetic. She gave me a reassuring smile and shook her head. I did a double take and she mouthed, “You’re 84.” How did she do that?

“A month or two after Sherry died, I moved to California with my boyfriend,” Susan said. “By then, I knew I was pregnant, but I was sure it was my boyfriend’s rather than Tim’s. My boyfriend and I were both straight haired blondes with blue eyes. As you know, Tim had black curly hair and eyes as dark as coal.”

She waved a hand at her son. Roger smiled sheepishly as Sevenia and I turned our gaze on him, even though we already knew he had brown eyes and wavy dark brown hair sprinkled with gray.

“Did the boyfriend know he wasn’t the father?” Sevenia asked.

“Oh, he figured out pretty quickly that he wasn’t,” Susan said. “When he did, he didn’t waste any time splitting the scene as we would have said back then. For the next three years, I shared an apartment with two other young mothers. We worked as waitresses, cashiers, hotel maids, and babysitters for each other’s kids.

“It was during this time that I met an Air Force pilot named Tony Nelson. We dated for a while, and I ended up pregnant. He did the honorable thing and married me, but it ended up making my life miserable. He clearly didn’t love me. His only love was flying, and his only interest in me was for hormonal release.”

I felt uncomfortable with her insinuation about physical intimacy right in front of her son. I glanced at him, but he simply gazed fondly at his mother. However, his jaw seemed to be tightly clenched.

“The marriage lasted over ten years,” she said with a sigh. “But he was gone more than he was home. At least he never abused the kids. Although I do believe neglect is a form of abuse.”

“How many kids did you have, Ms. Nelson?” Sevenia asked.

“Please, call me Susan,” she replied with a warm smile. “I had two children. Roger, here, and a daughter, Nicole. She just retired from the Army with the rank of Colonel. Roger was a pilot in the Air Force for eight years. Like you, Chaplain, Roger was a Captain.”

“Oh, very good,” I said, and extended my fist and grinned. “Put it there fellow, Captain.”

“Look at you, Grandpa,” Sevenia giggled. “Fist bumping.”

“I am only 84,” I replied, and winked.

“My ex-husband might not have given him the love of a father,” Susan said and then sighed. “But he gave Roger a love of flying. After the Air Force, he was an airline pilot for fifteen years. Now he owns his own charter service.”

Roger’s phone made a noise signaling a text. He looked at it and snorted a laugh. “It looks like your comment conjured up my business, Mom. A regular client of mine wants to know if I can fly him to Dallas as soon as possible.”

We exchanged departure pleasantries with Roger, he kissed his mother’s cheek and disappeared out the front door.

“He’s a nice boy, Susan. I’m sorry he had to go,” I told her.

I felt Sevenia turn her gaze on me. She wore a smirk and a raised eyebrow. I knew what she was thinking. A fifty year-old man is not a boy. I raised my own furry eyebrow as if to say, ‘he is to me, Kiddo.’ After all, I was 35 when he was born. Sevenia squinted at me. It’s interesting when you get to know somebody so well that you know what they’re thinking. I winked, conceding that I was 34 when he was born.

“Actually, I was glad he had to leave,” Susan said with an uneasy smile. “I mean, he knows the truth and all. But I wasn’t looking forward to explaining to you how I ended up pregnant by my sister’s fiancée in front of him.”

“You don’t have to explain, Susan,” I told her, even though I did want to know what happened. I understood the temptations young men are prone to since I was a young man myself long ago. Yet Timmy was the rare type of young man that made it hard to believe he would cheat on his lady, let alone with the woman’s own sister.

“Yes, I do need to explain,” she declared. “After all, my motive for getting together with you was to come clean. To confess. My only fear is that you will think less of Timothy.”

“I don’t mean this to sound crass, Susan,” I said. “But I’ve been around the block a few times so I have a pretty good understanding of human nature. So, unless you tell me something like Timmy raped you, my feelings about him won’t change.”

“Oh no!” She responded. “Nothing like that at all! If anything, it was my behavior that led us down the path to making a baby. Yet I didn’t put a gun to his head either.”

“I should clarify,” I interjected. “I’m not saying I wasn’t surprised when you told me you and he had a child together. What I am saying is I’m fully aware of what Job 14:1 says, ‘man’s days are short and full of trouble.’”

“Yes,” she agreed. “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23)

“Precisely,” I concurred.

“Okay, then, here’s what happened,” Susan said, and then sighed. “Sherry and Timmy started seeing each other when they were juniors in high school. Timmy looked like a young Burt Reynolds, and Sherry looked sort of like Barbara Eden. I was the nerdy younger sister that had a crush on her older sister’s boyfriend.

“After they graduated, Timmy was drafted and before he left for boot camp, he and my sister became engaged. With him gone, my sister’s subtle mental issues became, um, intensified. Her bouts of depression often left her bedridden, sometimes for days.

“When Timmy came home from his first tour, he was on leave for a couple weeks. Then he was stationed somewhere in Texas for a few months. Then he came home on another leave, but only for three days. It just so happened, Sherry was having one of her bouts. She managed to get out of bed to spend a little time with Tim, but then she had a breakdown and went to bed for the remainder of his stay… That’s when it happened.

“Timmy was disappointed about Sherry. He and Sherry were clean cut, church going, good kids. They didn’t drink or smoke, he had been a boy scout while she was a girl scout. On the other hand, I happened to know that they were not saving themselves for marriage. I also perceived he had been looking forward to a little intimacy on his leave, and Sherry’s condition left him rather disappointed.

“Even though I was fully aware of this, God as my witness, I had no intention of, um, seducing or being intimate with Timmy myself. I admit, I still found him incredibly attractive, and I still had sort of a crush on him. But he was my sister’s guy, and I had my own boyfriend at the time.

“Just for the record. I may have been a bit of a hippie, but I wasn’t a ‘free love’ floozy. I may have disagreed with the war, and even attended a few protests, but I wasn’t one of the creeps that spit on soldiers.

“Anyhow, so the last night before Timmy had to go back, Sherry was shut up in her room, locked away by the demons in her head. My own boyfriend had something going on with his friends. So Timmy and I hung out. To my surprise, he had started drinking in the army. So we split a six pack of beer. After we drained those, he asked me if I had any weed. By weed I mean marijuana.”

Sevenia and I both nodded.

“So, Timmy and I smoked a joint. We were both pretty new to marijuana, and we got the giggles in a major way. When they subsided, Timmy tells me I’ve grown to be a pretty young lady. By the way, I was eighteen when this happened.

“Anyway, I noticed his eyes go to my lips. He leaned toward me ever so slightly, but then he shook his head and looked away from me. I put a finger on his chin and turned his head toward me. I remember telling him that both our significant others abandoned us, and I think we deserve one kiss. I remembered the way he laughed. It was more like a release valve on tension rather than humor. He said we better not and looked away again. I put my whole hand on his cheek, turned his head, and gave him a quick peck on the lips.

“When I began to pull away, his hand caught me by the back of the head. He said, I told you we better not, and then he kissed me. I mean he really kissed me! And, well, it went on from there until, well, Roger was conceived.”

Susan pressed her hands together in between her knees and bowed her head. It became deathly still. Then Sevenia cleared her throat before she quietly asked. “So, did Timothy ever know? I mean, about you being pregnant.”

Susan looked up as if surprised to see us there, and then she shook her head vehemently. “Oh, no! I mean, when Timmy died, I suspected I was pregnant. But forgive me if this is too much information, but that month I had had relations with my boyfriend about a dozen times, compared to the one very buzzed time with Timmy.

“Maybe this makes me sound like a fool, but I never even considered the possibility until Roger was born, with his dark hair and eyes. I don’t know, maybe the guilt I felt over our tryst made me block out the possibility. But I truly believed it was my boyfriend’s child I carried.”

There was another silence that weighed heavy and ominous. It should have warned me to keep silent until Susan felt like speaking again. But the pastor in me groped for a word of encouragement. Instead I stuck my great big, gnarled foot in my mouth. “At least Sherry never found out about your indiscretion.”

“Not so,” Susan said as she shook her head. “In the last letter Timothy wrote to her, he confessed that he cheated on her and with whom. I didn’t share that one with my son.”

“Oh my,” Sevenia said quietly.

I was utterly silent. I suppose due to the foot crammed in my mouth.

“That’s what I get for accusing you of killing my sister,” Susan said with tears running down her face. “I blamed you for somehow pushing her over the edge. When in reality, the last thing she was thinking before she lost consciousness forever was that she was betrayed by two people she loved the most. How cruel. She was so fragile. How could I? How could Tim? Poor Sherry. My beautiful sister. Poor sweet Sherry. I’m so sorry, Sis!”

Susan slid off her chair onto her knees, put her hands over her face, and wept bitterly.

(DESTINY’S BIBLE STUDY NOTES)

(THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT PART 1)

The Beatitudes are Christ’s greeting, not only to those who believe, but to the whole human family.

Jesus seems to have forgotten for a moment that He is in the world, not in heaven. Blessings flow from His lips, gushing forth in a current of rich life.

To the poor in spirit, the meek, the lowly, the sorrowful, the despised, the persecuted, He opens His arms of refuge, saying “Come unto me, … and I will give you rest.”

He knows that, even though human beings have abused their mercies and destroyed their God given dignity, yet the Creator is to be glorified in their redemption.

Throughout all time the words that Christ spoke from the mount of Beatitudes will retain their power.

Living the life of the life giver, through faith in Him, everyone can reach the standard held up in His words.

More than fourteen centuries before Jesus was born in Bethlehem, the children of Israel gathered in the fair vale of Shechem, and from the mountains on either side the voices of the priests were heard proclaiming the blessings and curses—“A blessing if ye obey the commandments of the Lord your God… and a curse if ye will not obey.” Deuteronomy 11:27, 28. And thus the mountains from which the words of benediction were spoken came to be known as the mount of blessing.

The spirit of true devotion had been lost in tradition and ceremonialism, and the prophecies were interpreted at the dictate of proud, world loving hearts.

People had been mislead by the teachings of the rabbis. The popular expectation was of an earthly kingdom. They could not comprehend the movements of Jesus. Already they had been perplexed and troubled that He made no effort to strengthen His cause by securing the support of the priests and rabbis. That He did nothing to establish His authority as an earthly king.

“He opened His mouth, and taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:2, 3)

As something strange and new, these words fall upon the ears of the wondering multitude. Such teaching is contrary to all they have ever heard from priest or rabbi.

The sweetness of divine love flows from His very presence as the fragrance from flowers.

There were souls who, in the presence of His purity, felt that they were “wretched and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. (Revelation 3:17); and they longed for the “grace that brings salvation” (Titus 2:11). In these souls, Christ’s words of greeting awakened hope. They saw that their lives were under the benediction of God alone.

Those who know that they cannot possibly save themselves, or of themselves do any righteous action, are the ones who appreciate the help that Christ can bestow. They are the poor in spirit, who He declares to be blessed.

This kingdom is not, as Christ’s hearers had hoped, a temporal and earthly dominion. Christ was opening to people the spiritual kingdom of His love, His grace, His righteousness.

All who have a deep sense of their deep soul poverty, who feel that they have nothing good in themselves, may find righteousness and strength by looking unto Jesus.

Does Satan plead loudly against our souls, accusing of sin , and claiming us as his prey? The blood of Christ pleads with greater power!

LXXX

FOR ALL HAVE SINNED, AND COME SHORT OF THE GLORY OF GOD

ROMANS 3:23

SEVENIA SALLIE (GIRL PROPHETESS)

“I’m too old for this,” Captain Kirk mumbled as he sat at his kitchen table with a shoe box under his arm. He pointed at a chair, silently instructing me to join him. I was a little surprised. Knowing the beloved Pastor as I did, I thought he would be waiting for me on his front step. Instead, as soon as I pulled into his driveway, he waved me into his house.

I had offered to drive the good Captain to Hannibal, Missouri. A woman who lived there had a connection to a soldier, Corporal Timothy Williams, who the Pastor knew during the Vietnam war when he was an army chaplain. Said woman, Susan Nelson, was the younger sister of the soldier’s fiancée, Sherry Drummond.

Unfortunately, Corporal Williams lost his life in battle. Several days later, and only hours after Captain Kirk spent an afternoon talking with her, Sherry had ended her life with a combination of sleeping pills and carbon monoxide poisoning.

Susan, Sherry’s sister, had only one personal encounter with the good Captain. Susan was an adamant protestor of the war, and she was rather unfriendly to the Pastor when he first came to see her sister Sherry. After Sherry’s death, he spoke with Susan on the phone only once, in which she angrily blamed him for Sherry’s death. That was fifty years ago, a half century, and they hadn’t communicated since. Then a few days ago, Captain Kirk received a letter from Susan’s son, Roger Nelson.

The letter informed the good Pastor that Susan had a child fathered by Corporal Timothy Williams. This baffled Pastor at first, since Sherry was the Corporal’s fiancée, not Susan. The letter also said that Susan had some type of illness. She wished to speak with the former army chaplain as soon as possible, preferably in person. She offered to have her son drive her up to see him. Due to her undisclosed illness, the good Pastor called Roger and he offered to come to Susan instead. He accepted the offer gratefully.

Captain Kirk handed me an old photo of two soldiers. “Is one of these men Williams?”

“Yes, the other one is me,” he replied.

My jaw dropped and my eyes returned to the photo like a magnet. “Pastor, you had a full head of dark hair and are clean shaven!”

He chuckled. “Do you think I was born an old man?”

I laughed as my eyes aimed at his thin white hair and then lowered to his long white beard. “Actually, I think I did. I at least figured you were born with a beard.”

I was overjoyed as we spent the next twenty minutes looking at old photos. For him being such a loving, social person, he was actually a very private man when it came to talking about  himself. I felt privileged to have him share a bit of his history with me.

“Thanks, Grandpa!” I said when he put the lid back on the shoe box.

He gazed at me under his thick white brows. “How come you started calling me grandpa?”

“I’m sorry,” I said, suddenly feeling shy and embarrassed.

“No, no, kiddo,” he said with a warm smile, and giving my hand a squeeze. “I like it. Actually I love it. But why? Did it have anything to do with me telling Marcy she could call me grandpa if she wanted to?”

“I guess so,” I shrugged.

“Don’t tell me you were jealous,” the Good Captain said mildly.

“Not in a bad way,” I replied. “I mean, I was genuinely happy about your encounter with Marcy, and you inviting her to call you Grandpa. It’s just, well, it made me realize you’re sort of like a grandpa to me as well. It also sort of makes Marcy and me cousins.”

The Pastor smiled sentimentally, and his eyes appeared to well up. “I’m gonna tell you something I don’t tell special people in my life nearly enough. I say to my shame, I just tend to leave it for special people in my life to assume the sentiment is there.”

He paused, so I asked. “What is it, Sir?”

“I love you, Kiddo.”

“I love you too… Grandpa.”

In the couple hours it took to drive to Hannibal, Missouri, my new Grandpa told me more about his early life than he had in all of the two years I’ve known him combined.

“You should write an autobiography,” I told the Good Captain after GPS directed us to take a right onto the street Susan lived on.

“It’s not that interesting, Kiddo,” he replied with a sigh. “I’m just an ordinary man.”

“Who has live an extraordinary life,” I declared.

He shrugged, and then his face fell, yet looked surprised. “Susan must live in her childhood home.”

“Wow,” I said and pointed to a tandem seat tree swing. “Is that where you showed Sherry Corporal William’s letter?”

“Well, it’s the tree, and the limb the swing hung from. But it seems the swing itself has been updated.”

We sat for a minute as the Good Captain stared at the swing. “I’m to old for this,” he mumbled. “What am I doing here? I’m 85 years old. I should have been put out to pasture years ago.”

“Grandpa,” I giggled. “You’re 84. Quit aging yourself.”

“I’m much closer to my 85^th birthday than I am my 84^th,” he replied and then grinned. “Granddaughter.”

The door of the house opened, and a tall slender lady with shoulder length gray hair stepped onto the porch. She gazed at us warily, forced a smile, and waved.

“Well, at least it’s starting off better than it did fifty years ago,” Captain Kirk said.

“Is that Susan?” I inquired.

“I believe so.”

“I thought she was on her deathbed, or something,” I commented. “I wonder what her illness is? She looks pretty fit and healthy to me.”

“I don’t know, Kiddo,” Pastor replied, as he smiled and waved at her. “I guess we’ll find out soon enough.”

We climbed out of my car, and Susan came to us and greeted, “Thanks for coming, Chaplain.”

“Thanks for inviting me,” Captain Kirk replied.

“I wish my son wouldn’t have had you come all this way,” she told him. “I didn’t mean to inconvenience you.”

“It’s no inconvenience. I had a chauffeur,” he joked.

“Is this your granddaughter?” Susan asked, smiling at me.

“Biologically, no,” Pastor said as he gazed fondly at me. “But spiritually, yes, she is very much my granddaughter.”

Captain Kirk introduced me to Susan, we exchanged pleasantries, and then small talk between the three of us ensued. I suppose it was the breaking of some ice, given the only other two conversations between Susan and the Good Captain were of an unpleasant nature. Then Susan invited us inside.

“I understand you have a health problem?” Pastor probed as we took a seat in her living room and accepted cups of herbal tea.

“Well,” she smiled sheepishly. “It was more of a health scare. I have a bit of a heart condition. But Lord willing, it seems to have stabilized with the medication they put me on. However, it was enough of a wakeup call that I began to reevaluate my life. Something that had been in the back of my mind for years came to the forefront. I needed to apologize to you for my behavior fifty years ago. But forgive me, I wasn’t even sure you were still alive.”

“No forgiveness needed,” the Good Pastor replied with a chuckle. “I am 85 after all.”

“You’re 84, Grandpa,” I corrected with a giggle. “Stop aging yourself.”

“Yes, yes, Dear One,” Pastor replied. “My birth certificate indicates that I’m still 84. But I prefer to count conception, thereby making me roughly 85 years and 8 months.”

“Point taken,” I chuckled. “Susan, he’s 85.”

Susan laughed heartily, laugh lines crinkling next to her close set eyes. It was hard to believe this pleasant woman was the young lady that treated the Good Pastor so harshly fifty years ago.

There was a lull in conversation as the merriment faded, then Susan clapped her hands and spoke. “So, Chaplain Samson, I have a twofold apology.”

“There’s no need to apologize to me, Susan,” Pastor humbly interjected. “It was a turbulent time with a polarizing war. It was a time of personal, heavy grief with the weight of Timmy’s death hanging on everyone’s heart.”

“Yes, I know,” Susan said as she looked at her lap and twisted her fingers nervously. “But that was no excuse for making a horrible time even more difficult for those around me, especially you, Chaplain.”

“Well, I accept your apology, and offer one up of my own,” Captain Kirk said. “I shouldn’t have shown your sister that letter from Timmy when I did.”

“You were just honoring his request, Chaplain,” Susan said. “I realize that now. It was absolutely awful for me to accuse you of killing Sherry with it. You didn’t even need to share that with me. Nobody would have known about the letter accept you and Sherry. And she was de… Well, you know. Anyway the fact that you told me on the phone that day, shows me what an honorable, standup guy you are.”

Now the Good Pastor looked at his lap, only he interlaced his fingers so tight his knuckles turned white.

After a long, somber moment of silence, Susan spoke. “Well, now I suppose it’s confession time,” she said with a non-humorous laugh.

Pastor looked up and raised his eyebrows. “What do you mean?”

“Oh, come on, Chaplain,” Susan said with a non-humorous chuckle. “Surely you’re dying to know how Saint Timothy ended up getting his fiancée’s sister pregnant?”

Now this was more in line with the Susan I was expecting.

As if on cue, Susan’s son walked into the house. Pastor stood, his eyes wide and startled. Then he spoke so softly, I believe it was to himself. “It’s like looking at a fifty year-old Timmy.”

(DESTINY’S BIBLE STUDY NOTES and QUOTES)

As Jesus revealed to us the true character of the Father, so we are to reveal Christ to a world that does not know His tender, pitying love.

Satan is exultant when he can lead the children of God into unbelief and despondency. He delights to see us mistrusting God, doubting His willingness and power to save us. He loves to have us feel that the Lord will do us harm by His providences.

When we seem to doubt God’s love and distrust His promises, we dishonor Him and grieve His Holy Spirit.

Yet how many, by their actions, if not their word, are saying, “The Lord does not mean this for me. Perhaps He loves others, but He does not love me.” All this is harming your own soul.

How important that we speak only those things that will give spiritual strength and life.

There is many a brave soul sorely pressed by temptation, almost ready to give up in the conflict with self and sin. Do not discourage such a one in their hard struggle. Cheer them with brave, hopeful words that will urge them on their way. Thus the light of Christ may shine from you. “None lives unto themselves.” (Romans 14:7). By our unconscious influence others may be encouraged and strengthened, or they may be discouraged, and repelled from Christ and the truth.

Though Jesus’ life was self-denying and shadowed with pain and care, His spirit was not crushed. His countenance did not wear an expression of grief and repining, but ever one of peaceful serenity. His heart was a wellspring of life, and wherever He went Jesus carried rest and peace, joy, and gladness.

Christ came not to be ministered unto but to minister; and when His love reigns in the heart, we shall follow His example.

If we keep uppermost in our minds the unkind and unjust acts of others we will find it impossible to love them as Christ loved us. But if our thoughts dwell upon the wonderous love and pity of Christ for us, the same spirit will flow out to others.

Each day we have burdens, and perplexities. Often this causes us to complain and doubt. Do we well to be unbelieving? Why should we be ungrateful and distrustful? Jesus is our friend!

It is not the will of God that His people should be weighed down with care. But our Lord does not deceive us. He knows there are trials and dangers, and He deals with us plainly. He does not propose to take His people out of the world of sin and evil, but He points them to a never failing refuge. “In the world you shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. (John 16:33).

In His Sermon on the Mount, Christ taught His disciples precious lessons in regard to the necessity of trusting God.

The birds of the air are not beneath His notice. He does not drop the food into their bills, but He makes provision for their needs. Are you, as intelligent, spiritual worshipers of more value than the birds of the air?

The most gorgeous attire produced by the skill of art cannot bear comparison with the natural grace and radiant beauty of the flowers of God’s creation.

Happiness that is sought from selfish motives, outside of the path of duty, is ill-balanced, fitful, and transitory; it passes away, and the soul is filled with loneliness and sorrow; but there is joy and satisfaction in the service of God. The Christian is not left to walk in uncertain paths; they are not left to vain regrets and disappointments. If we do not have the pleasures of this life we may still be joyful in looking to the life beyond!

Every step in life may bring us closer to Jesus, may give us a deeper experience of His love, and may bring us one step nearer to the blessed home of peace.

“What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” Matthew 16:26

Though a person may be poor, yet they possesses in themselves a wealth and dignity that the world could never bestow. The soul redeemed and cleansed from sin, with all its noble powers dedicated to the service of God, is of infinite worth. There is joy in heaven in the presence of God and the holy angels over one soul redeemed! (Luke 15:10)

LXXIX

IN ALL THESE THINGS WE ARE MORE THAN CONQUERORS THROUGH HIM THAT LOVED US

ROMANS 8:37

PASTOR KIRK SAMSON (AKA CAPTAIN KIRK)

I hated to think about my Vietnam war experiences, let alone talk about them. Yet I had offered to do just that.  Now two teenage girls sat across from me, my desk separating us, as they looked hopefully at me. Why had I suggested this? Was it some subconscious need to unburden my soul? Was it wise to have invited Marcy? Would my story help or hinder her troubled soul? Yet I felt like I needed to tell both young ladies for some reason. As the apostle Paul might say, ‘God Knoweth.’

I looked back and forth between the two girls. Sevenia was known by many as the girl prophetess, and with good reason. Although only seventeen, she was like an assistant pastor at Cotton Creek Cove. For the last two years she had become my number one go to person to discuss both church and spiritual matters.

Sixteen year old Marcy had had a difficult life. She was raised by various foster parents and, until recently, had been a victim of human trafficking for the previous two years. Thank the Lord, Brock and Destiny Knight-Storm were now her foster parents and working toward adoption, along with a cute eight year old little pistol named Oralee.

“If you don’t feel comfortable,” Sevenia said. “You don’t have to talk about it, Grandpa.”

I felt my brows go up, and my eyes widen. Sevenia had never called me Grandpa before. Minutes ago, before we settled in my office, Marcy had shared a dream she had with us. In it she had called me Grandpa. In the exchange that followed, I encouraged Marcy to call me Grandpa if she felt so inclined. I told her I would be honored.

“No, I’d be glad…” I began, but stopped and began again. “No, glad’s not the right word. For some reason I felt a need to tell you about this situation, Sevenia. Now you as well, Marcy. So, even though I don’t understand why, let’s get this over with.”

“You’re making me feel like we’re eavesdropping,” Sevenia said with both a frown and a smile.

“No, no, I don’t mean to,” I said, waving my hands about. This gesture usually, and unintentionally, makes Sevenia giggle with her calling me a nutty professor. So be it. “Where do I begin?”

“How about the beginning?” Sevenia said lightheartedly.

“The question is, where is the beginning?”

“Only you know that, Captain Crunch,” Sevenia said.

Did Sevenia decide to stop calling me Grandpa already? Oh well, it is what it is, as they say nowadays. I glanced at Marcy. Although her eyes no longer looked as haunted, her earnest gaze still reminded me of Sherry Drummond. I filled her in on Corporal Timothy Williams and his fiancée Sherry Drummond. I showed her the letter Timmy sent me, where he feared he wouldn’t make it home alive and asked me to go see Sherry. I told her he didn’t and that I did.

Unlike Sevenia shedding a few tears, Marcy’s face looked hard and impassive as she handed me the letter back. Now I really questioned the wisdom of inviting her here for story time. I told her as much, and thankfully, she set my mind at ease.

“No, Grandpa,” she said, taking my hand, her lip trembling slightly. “I feel privileged that you are willing to, um, share something so painful with me. Maybe this is selfish, but it helps in a bizarre way to, you know… like… realize I’m not the only one that’s been through some really ugly stuff in life.”

“Alrighty then,” I said and then sighed. “The day I went to see Sherry was a beautiful spring day. It was picture perfect, sunny with a high of seventy-five. Big puffy white clouds floating slow and easy across a bright blue sky. I couldn’t tell if the nice weather mocked our pain, or whether the weather was a balm for our wounded emotions.

“Where did she live?” Marcy asked quietly.

“Sherry and Tim were from Hannibal, Missouri,” I replied. “I was temporarily stationed in Washington D.C.”

“Where are you from originally?” Marcy asked, and then gave a little smile. “I guess I should know stuff like that if you’re gonna be my Grandpa.”

I chuckled. “You’re sitting where I’m from.”

“Huh?” Marcy frowned.

Sevenia giggled, and then explained it to her. “This was part of the Pastor’s family farm. This church building used to be a barn. Pastor renovated it into a house of worship and fellowship.”

“Wow, I thought it looked kinda barnish,” Marcy replied happily.

The girl’s mood seemed so cheery of a sudden that I hated to darken it with my tale about Sherry Drummond. However, I opened my yap to get it over with, but Sevenia interrupted. “You know, Grandpa, you should right your bio before you… Um…”

“Kick the bucket,” I laughed. Her calling me Grandpa a second time helped ease the tension I was feeling.

“Well, I suppose that’s one way to put it,” Sevenia said with a shrug and a grin, then she took hold of my hand. “Sorry to interrupt, please continue.”

“Thank you, my dear,” I replied, giving her hand a squeeze. “Okay, so meeting Sherry and her family was the most awkward self-introduction I had ever made, especially when her sister answered the door and exhibited open hostility toward me. I didn’t take it personally, though. Judging by her hippie like appearance, I intuited that she was a protester of the war.

“I was thankful I didn’t wear my uniform, even though on this type of visit, it was expected by my superiors. It also would have been frowned on if I shared my own feelings that were somewhat in harmony with Sherry’s sister. That the war was a political catastrophe, which I completely agreed on with her.

“But the young noble men who died for it did not deserve to be mistreated, spit upon and such when those that survived returned home, after they had already been through hell. Like that band Me 2 sang in their song ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday.’ I believe they were singing about political or military leaders when they said, ‘We eat and drink while tomorrow they die.’ Regardless of what they were singing about, that song makes me think of Vietnam.”

“U2, Sir,” Sevenia said.

“Huh? Me too what?”

“The band I believe you were referring to is called U2, not Me 2,” Sevenia informed me as she giggled.

“Oh, well, okay, you get the point though?”

“Yes,” the two girls said in unison.

“Okay, where was I?”

“Sherry Drummond’s sister opened the door with a hostile attitude,” Sevenia said.

“Yes, right, so I thought, well this is going to be one ugly visit. But Sherry, just like Timmy had told me, was a sweet and sensitive soul. She was a lovely, modest young lady who looked like she could have been in the cast of ‘Little House On the Prairie.’ Do you know ‘Little House On the Prairie’?”

“Yes, the old TV show,” Sevenia replied, as Marcy shook her head. Sevenia gave her a quick synopsis of the program.

“Are you sure I got the name right?” I asked with a grin.

“Pretty sure,” Sevenia smiled teasingly. “Even though the show was before my time.”

“And Me 2 isn’t?”

“I never heard of Me 2,” Sevenia replied with a giggle.

 “Anyway, Sherry and I went for a walk to a nearby park and obviously discussed Timmy. She talked about what a wonderful boyfriend he was. Thoughtful, well liked, smart, good athlete. She recalled going to homecoming and prom. She told me of their plans to marry, and his intention to take over his father’s auto shop when he returned from the war.

“I told Sherry of Timmy’s bravery. I told her of the comradery he shared with his fellow soldiers. I told her he often mentioned her in our conversations. When we got back to her house, it was a big, old yellow Victorian, by the way. Very appropriate for the town that was home to the author of ‘Tom Sawyer.’

“We sat on a swing that hung from a big, wide tree with thick low branches. It was a rather quaint setting. She told me Timmy proposed to her in that very spot. During our conversation, although her eyes were incredibly sad and red rimmed, she smiled often and even lightly laughed a few times. It was sitting there on that swing, right after she told me Timmy proposed marriage to her, that I made a huge mistake. I gave her the letter Timmy wrote me. The one… The one…”

I pinched my nose and bowed my head, composing myself.

“The one where he said he didn’t think he would make it home. The one where he told Sherry to love again,” Sevenia said softly.

I nodded. “She lost it! She began sobbing loudly and uncontrollably for a long time. I’m ashamed to admit, I kept looking at the house, expecting her sister to come charging out. It seemed she cried for hours.”

“Wow, she cried for hours?” Sevenia said.

“No, no, I was exaggerating,” I clarified. “It was probably only five or ten minutes, it just seemed like hours. But the funny thing is, when she finished, she seemed so peaceful, even happy. However, her eyes were still haunted. I figured maybe she achieved a first step toward closure. In hindsight, I think it was acceptance of what she intended to do after I left. I think I killed her by giving her a letter.”

“No, Pastor!” Sevenia declared like an order. “You did not kill that young woman by giving her that letter. What else could you have done? You were honoring a soldier’s request. What else could you have done?”

“Waited,” I replied. “Hindsight is 20/20. I should have given her plenty of time to grieve. After all, Timmy’s letter didn’t have a timeline. But I guess in my own grief, I wanted to let her know as soon as possible.”

“Did you see any of Timothy’s family?” Sevenia asked.

“Yes, as a matter of fact, when I was done with Sherry, I paid his parents a visit.”

“How did that go?”

“It was awful,” I said, and sighed. “But they were polite, and glad to hear what an honorable soldier he was.”

We were silent for a moment, then Sevenia asked. “Did you go to their funerals? Sherry and Timothy’s?”

“I came back for Timmy’s,” I replied. “But I didn’t think it was a good idea to attend Sherry’s. I figured I would have just added to the pain. Especially her sister’s.”

I glanced at Marcy. Her gaze seemed sympathetic, God bless her, but she looked at her lap after we made eye contact. I was thankful her eyes didn’t look nearly as haunted anymore. I prayed she would continue to progress. That living with Destiny, Brock, and Oralee, her new family, her loving family, would prove to be a blessing.

I felt a lump in my throat when I remembered just recently when I met Marcy for the first time. That haunted look in her eyes, so eerily similar to Sherry’s. I believe it triggered the dream I had the other night. But that nightmare also had some help. I reached into my desk drawer, pulled out a letter and handed it to Sevenia.

“What’s this?” She asked as she began to read it. “Who’s Roger Nelson?”

“The son of Sherry’s hostile sister,” I replied. “Sherry’s sister’s name is Susan Nelson, by the way.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I’m trying to understand myself,” I replied and then sighed. “It seems Corporal Timothy Williams impregnated Susan when he was home on leave.”

“But… Sherry… I thought he and Sherry were the couple,” Sevenia said with a deep frown, as Marcy gazed at me with her mouth hanging open.

“Susan, aka Sherry’s hostile sister, wants to explain,” I explained. “I understand she has a pretty serious illness and wants to talk with me. She wants to set some record straight. A record I never even knew existed.”

“Like, a, ah, death bed confession or something?” Sevenia asked.

“Or something,” I said, sighed and bowed my head.

(DESTINY’S BIBLE STUDY NOTES AND QUOTES)

Many, especially those who are young in the Christian life, are at times troubled with the suggestions of skepticism. There are in the Bible many things which they cannot explain, or even understand, and Satan employs these to shake their faith in the Scriptures as a revelation from God.

Yet God has never removed the possibility of doubt. Our faith must rest upon evidence, not demonstration.

It is impossible for finite minds to fully comprehend the character or the works of the Infinite One.

The word of God, like the character of its Divine Author, presents mysteries that can never fully be comprehended by finite beings. The entrance of sin into the world, the incarnation of Christ, regeneration, the resurrection, and many other subjects presented in the Bible, are mysteries too deep for the human mind to explain, or even fully comprehend.

The very humblest forms of life present a problem that the smartest of people are powerless to explain, the wisest of philosophers to decipher. Everywhere are wonders beyond our ken. Should we then be surprised that in the spiritual world also there are mysteries that we cannot fathom?

The difficulties of Scripture have been urged by skeptics as an argument against the Bible. But the very grandeur and mystery of themes presented should inspire faith in it as the word of God.

In the Bible, the plan of redemption is laid open to us, so that every soul may see the steps they are to take in repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.

The more we research the Bible, the deeper will be our conviction that it is the word of the living God, and human reason bows before the majesty of divine revelation.

Because they cannot fathom all its mysteries, the skeptic and the infidel reject God’s word, and not all who profess to believe the Bible are free from danger on this point.

The apostle says, “Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.” Hebrews 3:12

A sense of the power and wisdom of God, and our inability to comprehend His greatness, should inspire us with humility, and we should open His word, as we would enter His presence, with holy awe.

People may disguise it, but in most cases, the real cause of doubt and skepticism is simply a love of sin.

Give heed to the light that already shines upon you, and you will receive greater light.

“Taste and see that the Lord is good.” Psalm 34:8. Instead of depending on the word of another, we are to taste for ourselves. He declares “Ask and you shall receive.” John 16:24. His promises will be fulfilled. They have never failed, they never can fail. And as we draw near to Jesus, and rejoice in the fulness of His love, our doubt and darkness will disappear in the light of His presence.

By faith we may look to the hereafter and grasp the pledge of God for growth and intellect, the human faculties uniting with the divine, and every power of the soul being brought into direct contact with the Source of light. We may rejoice that all which has perplexed us in the providences of God will then be made plain, things hard to be understood will then find an explanation; and where our finite minds discovered only confusion and broken purposes, we shall see the most perfect and beautiful harmony.

“Now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know; but then shall I know even as also I am known.” 1 Corinthians 13:12

Do you ask me why I believe in Jesus? Because He is to me a divine Savior. Why do I believe the Bible? Because I have found it to be the voice of God to my soul.