Tag: jesus

ANGELS AT WAR – PART 2 – CHAPTER 7

Posted on by Johnathan Embers

ANGELS AT WAR

CHAPTER 7

SULLY SAGE

WHILE WE DO NOT LOOK AT THE THINGS WHICH ARE SEEN, BUT AT THE THINGS WHICH ARE NOT SEEN. FOR THE THINGS WHICH ARE SEEN ARE TEMPORARY, BUT THE THINGS WHICH ARE NOT SEEN ARE ETERNAL. (2 Corinthians 4:18)

  The gun slammed into the back of my head, and I understood why cartoons showed stars circling a noggin after a blow. The gun was my own and the hand that whacked me was also mine. But I did have a little help.

  Right when I was rearing back to throw the unregistered gun I had been considering ending my life with into the river, Cricket hollered, “Sully, don’t!”

  When I raised the weapon to throw, Cricket assumed I had lifted it to cause self-inflicted harm. A couple nights previous that would have been the case. Then, I had pointed the barrel both under my chin and at my temple. But I was having a hard time squeezing the trigger. I just about had myself talked into it when my cousin called.

  Would I have gone through with it? I shudder to think I would have. But once my cousin reminded me of his impending wedding, I could not put a blight on it by ending my own life. I figured I would now have to wait at least a couple months before putting an end to what I considered a miserable existence. How bizarre. I was living what was supposed to be a dream existence, yet I hated it! Financially I was set for life, but I dreaded the future.

  Even though it was my intention to die in the near future, I didn’t want to hang on to an illegal pistol for several weeks or months. Besides, why die in such a violent fashion? Was I intrigued by drama I claimed to hate? Was I infected by rock star disease, wanting to go out with a bang, like Kurt Cobain? Subconsciously, did I actually want to go down in rock history by joining the notorious twenty-seven club?

  Yes, I did want to die. But no, I didn’t want to join the twenty-seven club. I would endure this world and tolerate my tormented mind for five and a half more months until I turned twenty-eight. Then Jeremey and Callie’s wedding would be sufficiently past as well. I also would die by an overdose rather than the violence of a hollow point bullet ripping through my squirming brain.

  As I winced and grabbed my head, the gun dropped into a clump of weeds. Cricket came rushing up. “Sully, shame on you! What a dark blight you would put on Callie and Jeremey’s wedding by what you were about to do!”

  “I wasn’t,” I began, but moaned at a throb of pain.

  “Oh, I’m sorry, Sully,” Cricket said sympathetically. “I shouldn’t scold you when you feel so poorly that you want to kill yourself.”

  “Cricket, I wasn’t going to kill myself,” I told her, refraining from saying, ‘right now anyway.’ “I was about to throw that pistol into the river.”

  “Really? Why?”

  “To get rid of it,” I shrugged.

  “Why did you have a gun in the first place?”

  Another throb made me groan.

  “Sully, you’re bleeding,” Cricket declared. “Let’s get you back to the house. Grandma is a retired nurse.”  

  As we approached the house, Callie exited the front door carrying a travel mug. She stopped in her tracks, frowned and said, “Wow, and I thought Vi got rough with Sully.”

  “He was getting mouthy,” Cricket said with a shrug, making Callie laugh.

  I guess it should have comforted me that they weren’t all that concerned about my injury. But Callie’s face did turn serious as she asked, “What happened?”

  “He was throwing something into the river, but threw it into his head instead.”

“Is he alright?”

  “I think so,” Cricket replied. “But I want Grandma to see if he needs stitches.”

  “She’s not here,” Callie said. “Grandpa took Grandma out to breakfast for their lunarversary.”

  “What’s a lunarversary?” I asked.

  “Grandma and Grandpa were married on May fourth,” Cricket explained. “So Grandpa does something special like taking Grandma out to eat on the fourth of every month.”

  “Oh, nice,” I replied. “So how many?”

  “Grandma said this was their seven hundred and seventeenth,” Callie replied.

  “Wow!” I exclaimed.

  “It’s months, not years,” Violetta said as she walked up behind us.

  “Come on, Vi,” Callie said. “They are only three months away from sixty years of marriage. That’s something you’ll never experience.”

  “How do you know?” Violetta snapped.

  “You have to like guys first for one thing,” Callie shrugged.

  “What are you nodding about?” Violetta barked at me.

  Although the pain of my initial injury subsided, I winced to avoid the wrath of the redhead.

  “Violetta, take a look at Sully’s wound. Would you please?” Cricket asked.

  “What did you do?” Violetta sneered as if my injury was a result of idiocy. How did she know?

  Turns out Violetta was an EMT on the volunteer fire department. We moved into the house, and Violetta retrieved bandages and a plastic bottle of some type of antiseptic. She looked at my wound and then declared, “It’s not that bad. Sully’s just being a baby.”

  “Hey! What did I do to merit being called a baby? Do you see all this blood?”

  “The scalp has an extremely dense network of superficial blood vessels,” Violetta explained as if she were a professor. “They are anchored in tough connective tissue, preventing them from closing naturally when injured. That’s why a little cut on the head can bleed profusely.”

  “Regardless, I am not a wimp,” I said stoically.

  A malicious grin developed on Violetta’s face. “Good, then this shouldn’t bother you.”

  She dowsed my cut with rubbing alcohol and I bellowed. I’m sure my scream echoed through the valley. When the pain subsided, I admitted, “Okay, I’m a wimp.”

  The three ladies laughed, but it was Violetta I did a double take at. For the first time I thought her face looked pleasant, rather than hostile and bitter. I thanked Violetta, and she brushed it off as no big deal. Cricket pulled me aside and said, “Can I talk to you in private?”

  I felt a sense of apprehension. Now that my wound was doctored, it was full frontal on my mind that she wanted a broader explanation about my gun. I would simply tell her the truth. We went to the horse barn. The equine were happily munching their breakfast. I explained to Cricket what I was doing when she discovered me. “I promise you, I was not going to shoot myself.”

  Cricket studied me carefully. As she looked into my eyes, it was as if her gaze was siphoning  thoughts from my brain. It gave me an uneasy feeling. With a frown, I asked, “You don’t believe me?”

  Her demeanor became perky. “Oh I believe you, Sully. Sort of. It’s just, well, I had a dream about you. That’s actually why I came out here so early today. You may not have been intending to use that pistol against yourself when I saw you. But you have recently intended to use a pistol against yourself, haven’t you?”

  “I don’t know what you are getting at,” I replied, feeling extremely vulnerable.

  “An angel of the Lord came to me in my dream. He said go to him who stands in front of a pale horse. Death and hades are following him. I’m ninety nine percent sure his message suggested that you have suicidal tendencies.”

  My mind reeled and spun. Was I in the Twilight Zone? “You were visited by an actual angel?”

  “Whether he was real or a figment of my mind, I don’t know. What I do believe is that the message of my dream was real, and that it was inspired by God. After all, I did find you in front of a pale horse.”

  I looked at Violetta’s light colored Palamino, contentedly munching on hay. I was agnostic at best, atheist at worst. But I had to admit, something supernatural was going on here. With a baffled expression, I looked back at Cricket. She said, “I believe God has a purpose and a plan for you. I was instructed to bring you the words of life.”

  “I see. And what are these words of life?”

  “Christ and Him crucified,” she declared, quoting 1 Corinthians 2:2.

  “What does that mean for me?”

  “Salvation.”

  “Cricket, I’m somewhere between atheist and agnostic. So how can God have a plan for me?”

  “I’m an atheist, too,” she replied happily.

  I folded my arms. “Up until now, you have struck me as one of the most honest people I have ever met. But you just spoke the biggest contradiction ever. You tell me about dreaming of angels, words of life, and Christ. Then in the next breath you say you’re an atheist. Explain that!”

  “Why don’t you tell me about the God you don’t believe in?” she said.

  So I did, with my main point being how did she justify a God of love burning people in hell for eternity for just not believing in him?

  “I don’t so that’s why I said I’m an atheist. I don’t believe in the God you just described either. I believe in the God of the Bible. And a thorough examination of the scriptures prove eternal torment is a false doctrine.”

(For a free, well done Bible study guide on this subject, you can go to Amazing Facts online and click on study guides and find the one entitled ‘Is the Devil In Charge of Hell?’)

  “Well, there arises another problem. I don’t believe the Bible. How can you trust a book two thousand years old?”

  “Because of the sure word of prophecy,” she said. “The prophecies about Jesus. The prophecies of a persecuting power that would be fulfilled during the dark ages, to name a couple. Look, I don’t have much time. I need to get to work. How about you and me have a Bible study?”

  “You want me to study something I just said I don’t believe in?”

  “That’s where we will begin. We will discuss why you can trust and rely on the Holy Bible.”

  I have to admit that I was intrigued by everything she said. From her dream to suggesting I could count on the Bible. I had met thousands and thousands of people in my line of work. But I had never met anyone quite like Cricket Karr before.

  She wasn’t exceptionally pretty. Not like her volatile sister anyway. But she had this brightness in her personality, a light that shone from her character. So I said, “Alright, when?”

  She said her mother was scheduled to run their flower shop the next day, so we agreed on tomorrow afternoon.

  I got something to eat and took a long nap. Later that afternoon, I went after the gun I had tossed into the weeds before somebody else found it. I found it and dug it out of the clump of weeds. I don’t know why, but before tossing it into the river, I sat on a bank and looked the gun over as I contemplated the conversation I had with Cricket.

  After several minutes, I stood and began to raise the gun to throw it into the water. Recalling my bonked head, I began to lower it into position to toss it like a frisbee. Suddenly two hands were on my lower arm that held the gun. My limb twisted in a painful position that had me both frozen in place and groaning in pain.             Then Violetta’s pretty face with an ugly expression was inches from mine. Her large blue-green eyes looked fierce. Her red-gold hair was pulled back tight and into a braid that fell over her left shoulder. She looked every bit the part of a female warrior. With clenched teeth, she said, “What do you think you’re doing?”

ANGELS AT WAR – PART 2 – CHAPTER 6

Posted on by Johnathan Embers

ANGELS AT WAR

CHAPTER 6

CRICKET KARR AND THE ROCK STAR

CRICKET

EVEN IN LAUGHTER THE HEART MAY SORROW, AND THE END OF MIRTH MAY BE GRIEF (Proverbs 14:13)

  “Oh, it’s you,” Violetta said to Sully as a less than friendly greeting.

  “Nice to see you, too,” Sully replied as he sat on an upside down bucket.

  “Is it?”

  “Not really.”

  “Get off that bucket. I need to feed the horses,” Violetta ordered.

  “Get a different one.”

  “I want that one.”

  “Too bad.”

  Well this wasn’t starting off too well. They began to have a standoff as they both gave each other stink eye. Correction, half of it was a sit off.  “You pompous jerk,” Violetta finally barked. “Why don’t you go back across the road? You’re Jeremey’s guest, not ours.”

  Sully had told me he wanted to get along with Violetta, since they were going to be paired up as bridesmaid and groomsman at our cousin’s wedding. But it sure didn’t seem like he was helping himself. I curled and uncurled my toes in my New Balance sneakers. I silently prayed, ‘Lord what do I do?’

  “I’m going fishing,” I said, thinking of the Apostle Peter’s words in John 21:3.

  “What?” Violetta and Sully said at the same time. Then Violetta added, “Don’t be ridiculous.”

  “You’re supposed to say I’m going with you.”

  “When’s the last time you went fishing?” Violetta asked.

  I looked up at the rafters as I tried to recall. “Last summer with Grandpa.”

  “Is Mom running the flower shop today?”

  “No, but I got a few hours before we open.”

  “I need to feed the horses,” Violetta said as if it were an all-day endeavor rather than the approximately thirty minutes it actually took. “Now get off that bucket. It’s the one I like to use.”

  “I’m quite comfy,” Sully said with a little smirk. He seemed to be enjoying getting Violetta riled up, but I was cringing inwardly. He didn’t know one of Violetta’s biggest weaknesses was a quick temper, ESPECIALLY when in conflict with a macho man prone to cockiness.

  “I said get off!” My sister demanded and shoved his shoulder.

  “Make me,” Sully said, folding his arms.

  “Make you? What are we ten?” she replied fairly calm. This remark gave me momentary false hope.

  Sully stuck his tongue out at her, and she shoved him with two hands this time. “Get off!”

  “Children, it’s only a bucket,” I playfully scolded. “Violetta, I’m going to the tack room to get you another one.”

  “I want the one he’s sitting on. It has a mark, so I know how much grain to put in.”

  Sully laughed mockingly, causing her to really get her ire up. My mouth dropped in surprise when she tackled him. They rolled a couple times on the dirt floor. Now Violetta is a martial artist, specializing in Brazilian Jujitsu. In seconds she had him pinned. His eyes were wide as he said, “Wow, you’re strong.”

  “Yeah, well I wouldn’t test me any further.”

  Violetta’s eyes were like lazers boring into his as she sat on top of his belly. He held her gaze, but his eyebrows raised comically meek. He said, “This is weird, people typically adore me.”

  This was where I saw the icy hostility in Violetta begin to break just a little. I could see a smile try to curl upward from her pursed lips. I could also see by her clenched jaw and narrowed eyes that another part of her was resisting the merriment she was beginning to feel. She didn’t want to give him the satisfaction.

  The barn door opened and Cousin Callie came in. Her eyes widened and her jaw dropped when she saw a fierce-looking Violetta sitting atop Sully with his hands and arms pinned behind his head. Callie attempted to come to Sully’s rescue. “Vi, what are you doing?”

  She hooked Violetta under the arm pits and pulled her off of Sully. Violetta demanded through clenched teeth, “Let me go!”

  The two best of friends, who were also cousins, now began to grapple. Callie too had been a martial arts student. I tried to stop them. “Children, children!”

  The door opened and Callie’s older sister Cecielia entered. When she saw her sister and cousin rolling on the dirt floor and me looking like I was doing a funky dance around them, she became my tag team partner. C. C. was a year older than me and five years older than Violetta and Callie. Although a laid back hippie-like art teacher, she was also the oldest of the Karr cousins and grew up being our boss at family gatherings.

  C. C. clapped her hands a couple times, and horse bodies came to attention along with my sister and her sister. When she ordered the two women to stop, they obeyed immediately. After sorting out the situation, she gave another order. “Vi, tell Sully you’re sorry.”

  Like a five year-old being scolded for taking a toy from someone, Violetta looked at her feet and said, “Sorry.”

  “Sorry for what and to who, Vi?” C. C. said, not satisfied with Violetta’s apology.

  “Sorry for tackling you,” she said, then looked at him and said his name rather snarky, “Sully.”

  “You should be,” Sully replied with mock indignation. “But I’ll take the high road and forgive you.”

  “Mr. Sage,” Cecelia now addressed Sully. A smile played at her lips. Although she had a bossy side, and I’m sure she kept her high school students in line, she was also fun loving and detected that the skirmish just broken up was likely not all that serious.

  “Ma’am?” Sully responded.

  “You should apologize to Violetta as well,” Cecelia suggested. “It sounds like you were provoking her.”

  “Sorry.”

  Cecelia sighed and said, “For what and to who?”

  “Sorry for provoking you, Violetta.”

  “Now you two shake,” Cecelia ordered.

  Violetta actually offered her hand first. But Sully smiled warmly and opened his arms. “We can even do better than that. How about a hug?”

  Violetta’s eyes narrowed and she took a step back. Cecelia suggested, “That’s a nice gesture, Vi. Now give the fella a hug.”

  My lips parted in surprise as I watched Violetta step into Sully’s embrace. Although Violetta had a general dislike, bordering on hatred for a certain type of male, she had in fact dated a few guys. However, just to be clear, they were guys that were not her type. But I had never seen her participate in something resembling physical affection, as in a hug with a man she was not related to.

  I felt a twinge of something as I watched their arms go around each other. I don’t think it was jealousy. But Sully was a great looking guy. He reminded me of a feral version of Ashton Kutcher. He also had a charm and cool about him that had probably developed over countless performances as a musician.

  When I observed the two step toward each other, I thought it would be a two second pat-pat on the back. But again to my surprise, Violetta’s arms looped around his neck. Sully’s hands clasped around the small of her back. They did make a gorgeous couple.

  Believe it or not, I was never jealous that Violetta was prettier than me. I was actually pleased that I had the same parents as someone so lovely. Besides, it’s hard to resent a person who you know would not only give you the shirt off her back, but lay down her life for yours.

  The harmonious feelings between the previously bickering pair wouldn’t last. An eruption was on the horizon of peacefulness. Sully, a few inches taller than Violetta, bent his head and kissed her cheek. She pushed away from him. “What’d ya think you’re doing?”

  “Making peace,” he said with a smirk.

  I think it was the smirk that motivated Violetta with her next spontaneous move. Behind the grin was, dare I say it, a demeanor of cockiness. With both hands she shove him hard in the chest as she bellowed, “Creep!”

  Sully stumbled backwards and tripped over the bucket he had been sitting on. He fell hard on his rearend. I don’t know if it was my imagination, but I think I felt the reverberation. Even Violetta’s lovely large blue green eyes widened, and a hand went to her mouth.

  “Violetta!” Cecelia scolded. “Help him up.”

  Violetta offered her hand and Sully took it. But instead of allowing her to assist him, he yanked her down and she landed on top of him. Laughing gleefully, and beginning to roll her backside to the floor, he declared, “Who pins who now?”

  Sully was over six feet tall and probably approaching two hundred pounds. He appeared surprisingly fit for someone who seemed to be a self-indulgent rock star. Violetta was five foot nine and maybe one forty soaking wet. But she was strong and knew self-defense. She rolled along with Sully rather than resist him, then rolled halfway around again and she pinned him again. But this time she began to twist one of his wrists in an unnatural position. His vocal emission went something like this, “Ow, ow, ow!”

  I squinted my eyes to make sure I was seeing correctly. Violetta was smiling, then giggling. But Callie grabbed her left arm, Cecelia grabbed her right arm and hoisted her off poor Sully. When the dust settled and was brushed off as well as possible, Cecelia tried making peace once again. This time she held a fly swatter and waved it back and forth. “You two shake hands and only shake hands. Any deviation will garner a slap with this bug terminator. Understood?”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Sully said. Violetta nodded.

  As they shook, Sully said in a very debonair manner, “I do apologize for provoking you, Miss Karr.”

  “And I apologize for getting a little violent.”

  Sully chuckled. “If that was a little, I better not ever provoke you to a lot. Cricket called you a pistol, but I’d say you’re more like an assault rifle.”

  Violetta frowned so I piped up. “I believe that was a compliment, Vi.”

  “It was,” Sully confirmed. But then sort of disqualified his statement saying, “For the most part.”

  The four of us Karr women all pitched in and had the half dozen horses fed and watered in under ten minutes or so. When we finished, I didn’t see Sully in the barn. He wasn’t outside either.

  Querida, via visiting me in my dream, had instructed me to share God’s love with Sully. But I had barely got started when Violetta, and then the other two Karr sisters, interrupted us. I was about to begin a search for Sully when my sister grabbed my arm. In a low, secretive tone she said, “Cricket, come here.”

  “What for? I need to find Sully.”

  She frowned. “What for?”

  I shrugged. “I want to talk to him about God.”

  “Him? God?”

  “Yes, so please be quick. What do you want?”

  “Come over here,” she instructed, leading me over by the corner of the horse barn. “Come close. Now sniff.”

  She began to flap her arms like she was doing the chicken dance. “Vi, what are you doing?”

  “Sniff,” she ordered. “Do I stink?”

  Reluctantly I did as requested. “Not really.”

  “Not really? That’s not a NO.”

  “Well, you don’t smell good. You went for a run, and then tried to beat up Sully in a horse barn. You’re all sweaty. Do you expect to smell like you just stepped out of the shower?”

  “I didn’t try to beat him up. We just had a playful skirmish. Now how bad do I stink?”

  My brain momentarily got stuck on the word playful before the word skirmish. Why playful skirmish instead of just stand alone skirmish? Why was she concerned with body odor?

  “Cricket, how bad?” She inquired impatiently.

  “You smell… Earthy.”

  “Earthy? What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “It means you went for a horse ride, then a run, and then rolled around on a dirt floor. Trust me, he was probably preoccupied with your skirmish. I don’t think he noticed any possible B.O.”

  She put her hands on her hips. “PROBABLY, you don’t THINK, any POSSIBLE. You’re not giving me a definitive answer.”

  “Vi, what’s the big deal? You don’t like him anyway.”

  She bit her lip, nodded, then said, “Alright, thanks, I’ll talk to you later.”

  I grabbed her hand. “Vi, I was just inches from your fanning armpits, and I didn’t think, ewe gross, that reeks… It was just earthy.”

  She smiled and gave my hand an affectionate squeeze. “Thanks.”

  She turned to catch up to the other Karr sisters. They were working on another barn, preparing it to host Callie and Jeremey’s wedding. I looked around for Sully, and noticed Grandma was still on the porch. “Grandma, did you see where Sully went?”

  She frowned. “Who?”

  “The strange young man.”

  “Oh him. First he went over to Jeremey’s for a couple of minutes, then he went that way, toward the river.”

  The family farm was bordered on the east side by a river. There was a low maintenance road between a corn field and some woods that led to the water. It was about a half a mile or so mile from the house. I pursued.

  I saw Sully standing on a bank of the river with his back to me. I stopped and gave pause with what I noticed in his hand. It was a gun! I began to step toward him again and prepared to call out. Then he began to lift the gun up toward his head!

  “Sully, NO!” I bellowed as adrenaline surged through me.

ANGELS AT WAR – PART 2 – CHAPTER 5

Posted on by Johnathan Embers

ANGELS AT WAR

CRICKET KARR AND THE ROCK STAR

CHAPTER 5

CRICKET

AND IT SHALL COME TO PAST IN THE LAST DAYS, SAYS GOD. THAT I WILL POUR OUT MY SPIRIT ON ALL FLESH; YOUR SONS AND DAUGHTERS SHALL PROPHESY, YOUR YOUNG MEN SHALL SEE VISIONS, AND YOUR OLD MEN SHALL DREAM DREAMS (Acts 2:17)

            Querida came to me in dreams. When he did such, it was in an angelic form, albeit mostly veiled, and he called himself only Querida. It was his voice that was distinctive. Clear and melodious, comforting, strong, and soothing, like a rippling brook.

            The couple times I think I met him in person, it was the voice that made me wonder, is this Querida? When I encountered him in my dreams, he always announced himself. Every time I was instructed to minister to someone in need. Every time the situation turned out to be real. Every time he gave me scripture to look up. The day after Sully Sage arrived in a Lear jet was no exception.

            That night Querida came to me in a dream. It was as if he were standing in front of my open bedroom window. A breeze was blowing the curtains and obscuring the white glow of his form. He said, “Behold, he stands with a pale horse and death and hades follow him. Go, give him the words of life.”

            “Who stands with a pale horse?” I asked. “Do you mean Ivory Bell?”

            Ivory Bell was Violetta’s beloved light colored Palomino mare.

            “He who metaphorically used to ride a white horse wearing a crown, conquering and to conquer, now stands with a pale horse, contemplating death.”

            “Don’t you mean sits on a pale horse?”

            “Like I said, I’m metaphorically speaking, just borrowing from Revelation chapter six,” he replied, specifically using parts of verses two and eight.

            “What does this mean?”

            “Go to Sully Sage.”

            “Where?”

            “Your aunt and uncle’s farm.”

            “When?”

            “Now.”

            His word NOW was like a snap of the finger. I sat bolt upright in my bed; my nightgown slightly damp with sweat. My window appeared the opposite of my dream. Whereas my dream had it open and the curtains blowing, reality had it closed and the curtains drawn. Dawn’s sunlight streamed between the sides of the curtains.

            I looked at my clock, and it read five minutes before six. I dressed, ate a quick breakfast and headed to my cousin Callie’s family farm. Jeremey, Callie’s fiancée, lived on an acreage right across the road. That’s how the two met. Friendly neighborly banter quickly turned into a special chemistry leading to romance.

            My Auntie Emma and Uncle Walt’s farm had been my grandparent’s homestead at one time. As a matter of fact, Grandma still lived with them. So I was very familiar and welcome there. Grandma was sitting on a bench swing on the front porch reading her Bible. Her eyes rose in surprise as I climbed the five steps in front of the renovated farmhouse. “What are you doing here so early, Dear?”

            I bent down and kissed her check. I refrained from saying that I was on a mission from God. Instead I told her, “I woke up early and felt compelled to see the horses.”

            “Oh dear,” Grandma frowned. Then with a conspiratorially low voice, she said, “That strange young man staying with Jeremey just asked if he could go into the horse barn. He told me he used to have horses. Why don’t you sit and, how do you youngsters put it? Hang out until he leaves.”

            I marveled that Sully was in the horse barn, even though I never doubted Querida’s messages in my night visions.

            “It’ll be okay, Grandma. I’ve met him, and I’ve already talked to him a little bit about God. I’m hoping to share some more.”

            Grandma was all about sharing her faith. “Well then by all means go. I’ll be praying for you, Dear.”

            “Thank you Grandma.”

            I don’t know why I behaved sneakily. But I slowly opened the horse barn’s door and winced when it squeaked a little. But in the early quiet morning, a little was a lot. Just as Querida had said, Sully stood in front of a pale horse, Violetta’s beautiful light colored palomino Ivory Bell.

            With the noise of the door, Sully turned to look at me. I was surprised to see tears running down his cheeks. The thing that took me off guard was his being alone, gently stroking the nose the horse in front of him, and weeping.

            Violetta had shown me a video of Sully singing one of his songs live. It was a heart wrenching rendition of dark and depressed lyrics with loss, but ending with a tiny glimmer of hope. His voice was deep, powerful, but anguished. Yet his face was stone cold, his eyes were dry.

            I had a lump in my throat as I listened and watched the video. My eyes were welling. When I glanced at my sister, her eyes glistened. But she chewed her lip, fighting back any more moisture coming to her windows to the soul. So I was amazed that Sully could sing so emotionally, yet appear emotionless.

            I opened my mouth to speak. What words were to come out I don’t know because Sully spoke first as the sleeve of his t-shirt assisted with eliminating the fluid from his cheeks. “Man, my allergies! Lots of hay and dust in here.”

            “Yes, high pollen count right now, too,” I added, feeling compelled to help him save face with his embarrassment. My own allergies were in fact affected by the pollen.

            “Yeah, boy,” he said, stuffing his hands into the back pockets of his jeans.

            “Yes indeed,” I said, and feeling awkward, I mimicked his gesture of hands in back pockets by jamming my hands into mine as well.

            “Beautiful sunrise,” I said after several seconds of uncomfortable silence.

            “I suppose so.”

            “Out for a morning stroll?”

            “Something like that,” he said. Then he looked at Ivory Bell, then back at me, and then back at the palomino. “I saw a woman riding her this morning out of my bedroom window. The sight of it reminded me of… something.”

            “What kind of something?”

            He looked at me with a concerned expression, as if he was wondering if he could trust me with a secret. He attempted to change the subject. “So, Callie lives here with her parents?”

            “For the time being. Jeremey proposed not long after she graduated from college. So she figured she might as well keep living here until they tie the knot and move in together.”

            “That nice old lady on the porch, surely that’s not her mother?”

            I found it interesting he called her a nice old lady, and Grandma referred to him as a strange young man. Although she did so not mean spiritedly. “Her grandmother. Mine too. She lives with my Aunt and Uncle as well, which would obviously be Callie’s parents.”

            “I see. Do you know who was riding this horse?”

            “It had to be Violetta,” I told him. “That’s her side by side parked outside the barn since she only lives about two miles from here. And Ivory Bell is her horse.”

            “Oh,” he replied, pulling his hand off her horse’s nose as if it were hot.

            I giggled. “She’s not gonna care if you pet her horse.”

            He shrugged nonchalantly. “She clearly doesn’t like me, so I don’t want to take my chances.”

            “Trust me, she doesn’t dislike you.”

            “Could have fooled me.”

            “You just have to understand her.”

            “Okay, so help me understand her. Jeremey tells me she and I are gonna be paired up.”

            “Paired up?” I frowned. “Paired up how?”

            “You know, in Jeremey and Callie’s wedding the week after this. I’m a groomsman and she’s a bridesmaid. We’ve been paired with each other to walk her down the aisle together. You know, her hand on my arm and what not. So it would be kind of nice if she didn’t look at me like she wanted to vomit.”

            I didn’t really know what to make of all that. Was it significant? Anyway, Querida came to me in a dream instructing me to give him words of life. But I felt the need to understand his tears. I didn’t buy allergies. I also wanted to know what was behind SOMETHING. Sometimes to get people to open up, you need to share something of yourself.

            “Violetta and I lost our brother a few years ago,” I told him. “She’s been pretty bitter ever since.”

            “Jeremey mentioned something about Callie having a cousin who died,” Sully acknowledged. “I’m sorry. How did he pass away?”

            “It’s complicated, but it was ruled a suicide. Personally, I suspect an accident, but Violetta believes it was murder.”

            “Who does she think murdered him?”

            “I’m not gonna say who she suspects, because that’s all it is, her suspicion.”

            “Could she be correct?”

            “Yes, it is possible, but not likely. Like I said, I believe it was an accident. Or maybe negligence would be a better description. He was quite intoxicated.”

            “Can I ask how he died?”

            “A running car in a closed garage.”

            “I see.”

            “Our brother was bullied because some people, mostly popular jocks, thought he was gay.”

            “Was he?”

            “I don’t know, he never talked to me about it. But there was an incident that got him labeled as such. But when he talked to me about that, he said it was something that never happened, It only looked like something happened.”

            He opened his mouth to ask me about the something with my brother. But I asked him about his something with Ivory Bell first. I was quicker at the verbal exchange. “Can you tell me about the SOMETHING when you saw a woman on Ivory Bell?”

            He shrugged, yet eyed me a little cautiously. “My wife… I mean my former wife… Actually, you see, I was married; but Poppy, my wife was killed in a car wreck a couple years ago.”

            “Yes, I was aware of that. I’m so sorry.”

            He nodded. “She always wanted a pony or a horse as a girl. When I, ya know, made the big time so to speak, I bought her a couple. They both looked similar to Ivory Bell here. When I saw the woman wearing a running outfit riding out there, it felt strange.”

            “I’m sure it was Violetta,” I said.

            He nodded, but his expression showed distaste. I perceived it had to do with Violetta reminding him of his wife. It seemed the resentment, animosity, or whatever it was between them, was mutual.

            “For some reason Poppy liked to wear running attire when she rode, even though I bought her actual horse riding outfits. Then when I saw, you know… Violetta…”

            “Violetta frequently likes to go for a run right after a horseback ride.”

            “I see.”

            “Can I ask you something about a song of yours?”

            He arched an eyebrow. “You listen to my music?”

            “No, not usually,” I said. But before I could continue, he started laughing. “What?”

            “You are so genuine, Cricket. Have you ever told a lie?”

            I bit my lip and looked at the rafters. “I don’t recall a lie I’ve told off hand. But I don’t want to tell you I haven’t, only to have the Lord bring one to mind I need to confess.”

            “You fascinate me,” he said, then picked up a nearby bucket, turned it upside down and sat. “I figured you were a Christian right off the bat. Not just in name only either. My Poppy became a Christian a couple months before your Lord let her be violently killed. She supposedly gave her life to Him… So let me ask you something. Where was God when a drunk driver plowed into her car?”

            I felt his pain. So I didn’t try to hide a tear that leaked from my eye. “The same place He was when His Son sweat great drops of blood, was violently beaten, whipped, spit on, and nailed to a cross.”

            I could tell he was affected by my response. Which way or how much I didn’t know. But I would have to wait to find out as a familiar voice interrupted our dialogue.

            “Cricket, are you in there?” Violetta said as the walk in barn door opened. Violetta entered, wearing dark blue stretch pants with matching sports bra. A baseball cap was backwards on her head while her face and arms were slick with sweat as she returned from a run.

            “Good morning, Sister,” I greeted cheerily.

            “Morning,” she said with a little smile. “What are you doing out here so early?”

            No sooner had she said that when she spotted Sully sitting on the bucket. She stopped in her tracks, her smile evaporated and her eyes narrowed when she looked at his hand scratching Ivory Bell’s chest.

ANGELS AT WAR – PART 2 – CHAPTER 4

Posted on by Johnathan Embers

ANGELS AT WAR

CRICKET KARR AND THE ROCK STAR

CHAPTER 4

ARCHANGEL QUERIDA

RECKLESS WORDS PIERCE LIKE A SWORD, BUT THE TONGUE OF THE WISE BRINGS HEALING (Proverbs 12:18)

            “Tricky triangles sure are helpful,” Vermillion told me with glee as he and I, along with Cricket and Violetta, watched Sully Sage exit a Lear jet. With his Prada Cashmere polo shirt and Brunello Cucinelli shoes, he could have passed for a successful businessman.

            But with his shaggy dark hair, faded ripped jeans, along with tattoos and sunglasses, not to mention a half smoked cancer stick hanging from his lips, he looked like the vain rock star that he tended to be.

            “They can be,” I replied and my former friend’s mirth diminished a little bit.

            “You know as well as I do that the odds are on my team’s side,” Vermillion added.

            I tried to have as little dialogue with my opponents as possible. Yet sometimes it was helpful to find out what they were thinking. Just as with fallen humanity, the tempters of souls, AKA demons, had the same self-centered tendencies. like being unable to withhold anger and vengeance, as well as bragging and gloating.

            “Percentages have been on your side,” I admitted. “But typically your tricky triangles, as you called them, don’t have somebody like Cricket as one of the three.”

            “Have you considered my servant, Job?” Vermillion mocked, quoting part of Job 1:8. Then he chuckled maliciously. “She doesn’t have to actively participate to cause ole Sully to be torn between the two sisters.”

            “Judging by Violetta’s facial expression, getting her to be drawn to Sully will be a tall order.”

            Vermillion laughed diabolically. “And you know as well as I do the contradictions within human nature. The very guys Violetta despises, she finds physically desirable. Sex is such a powerful, powerful weapon for my team!”

            “You are aware she’s never given in to those desires.”

            “Yet, my former friend,” Vermillion said and laughed sadistically. “Violetta has never been more enthralled with a guy than she is with Sully, yet they have never actually met. But she has become addicted to looking at the countless things about him on YouTube. Like many addicts, she hates herself for it. So I’m really, really anxious to see how she reacts meeting him in person. Will she be enthralled and unable to hide her adoration? Or will she be hostile toward  a guy she has never met stirring her emotions so intensely?”

            My adversary declared this just seconds before they did meet. Sully took a last drag on his cigarette and flicked it away. He hooked his Louis Vuitton sunglasses in the V of his polo shirt. As he strode toward his two hosts, he gave them both a quick study.

            One looked like she stepped out of an Amish country store in her long denim skirt and light brown hair in a bun. All that was missing was a bonnet. The other looked like a cowgirl. She was exquisitely beautiful, even in the plain attire of a baseball hat with a strawberry blonde ponytail threaded through the back. She wore a flannel shirt and jeans tucked into cowboy boots.

            He noticed a resemblance in the sisters, despite one being prettier than the other. He had seen thousands and thousands, maybe even a million pretty females, but there was something extra special about Violetta. Maybe it was the way she looked at him with contempt rather than adoration. That rarely happened. Yet he could tell his presence also unsettled her for some reason.

            He had noticed the cowgirl get out of the driver’s side of a huge pickup truck.  As he approached the duo he asked, “Is this your truck?”

            “No, I stole it,” Violetta replied.

            Sully eyed her calmly, but was a little taken aback by the snide comment. Violetta cooly held his gaze. Cricket quickly alleviated the tension. “I told you she was a pistol.”

            Sully looked at Cricket and a corner of his mouth curled into a grin. “You must be the sling shot.”

            “I suppose I am,” she replied as she extended a hand in greeting.

            Sully was pretty good at reading people. He marveled at what he detected was an extreme contradiction with Cricket. She seemed gentle but strong, meek yet confident. Even her handshake was firm, but not overbearing. Her hand itself was dainty, yet mildly calloused from labor. “I’m Sully Sage.”

            “Cricket Karr.”

            “That’s right,” he said and put his hands on his hips. “Please tell me how you got named after an insect.”

            “My legal name is Jimena, and…”

            “I get it,” he interrupted with delight. “Jimena Cricket, like the cartoon Jiminy Cricket.”

            “Very perceptive. My grandmother started calling me Cricket before I can even remember. I have frequently forgotten my real name myself.”

            “Interesting,” Sully responded, continuing to stare into Cricket’s eyes.

            His gaze began to make Cricket feel uncomfortable, so she turned his attention to the woman he seemed to be ignoring after her snotty comment. “As you’ve probably guessed, this is my sister, Violleta.”

            Sully offered his hand, and due to her western attire, he spoke like an old TV cowboy. “How do, Ma’am?”

            Sully was surprised at the limp handshake of this fiery woman, especially compared to her meek, not quite as pretty sister. “Very well.”

            “I bet you do.”

            “What’s that supposed to mean?” Violetta said testily as she jerked her hand out of Sully’s gentle grip.

            Sully’s brow furrowed and he showed her an open palm. “Nothing, I’m reaffirming what you said. You know, agreeing with you.”

            “Sounded to me like you were getting fresh,” Violetta said.

            “My, aren’t we full of ourselves?”

            “You ought to know full of yourself. Come strutting off a private jet like a…”

            “People, people,” Cricket interrupted, attempting to diffuse a possibly hostile situation. “Why are we making a simple task complicated? Violetta, I have to admit, you’re being rude. What did you want Mr. Sage to do, crawl off the airplane?”

            “Was I strutting?” Sully asked Cricket with a frown.

            “A little bit,” Cricket winced as she pinched her thumb and index finger together indicating a small amount. “But let’s not make too much of it. I would venture to guess the vast majority of people with the means to fly on a private jet tend to swagger or feel proud.”

            “So I was swaggering with pride?” Sully asked.

            “Ya think,” Violetta piped.

            “Hold it,” Cricket demanded, putting a hand up like a traffic cop. “Now we just got off on the wrong foot. I want you two to shake hands again.”

            “Gimme a break,” Violetta said and sighed.

            “Violetta, play nice,” Cricket scolded, then attempted a little humor to create a little levity. “Or I’ll tell Mom.”

            Violetta snorted. “What, are we ten?”

            Cricket aimed a sweet smile at her sister. “Well, the behavior is seeming to fit. Why are you acting so immature?”

            “I do apologize if I’ve somehow offended you,” Sully told Violetta with surprising meekness as he offered his hand again. “Sincerely.”

            “I’m the one who should apologize,” Violetta admitted as she took his hand, shook it quicky and pulled hers away. “Cricket is right, I was being rude.”

            “There, don’t we all feel better,” Cricket said happily. “Now let’s get our human cargo delivered.”

            “Human cargo?” Sully smirked with an arched eyebrow.

            “No offense,” Cricket said sweetly.

            “None taken,” Sully chuckled. “I suppose that’s just what I am.”

            One of the personnel from the airplane brought a couple suitcases. Violetta directed him to put them in the bed of her pickup. As they began the twenty minute drive to Jeremey’s place, Sully asked, “I’m starved; I haven’t eaten today. Can I buy you two ladies dinner?”

            “Smells like you’ve had plenty to drink though,” Violetta said.

            Cricket’s toes curled. She thought she had smelled alcohol, but had been around people drinking adult beverages so infrequently she wasn’t sure. Violetta’s comment confirmed her suspicion. She wasn’t sure how to diffuse her sister’s snide comment this time, especially since he offered a kindness by inviting them to dine. So she merely accepted. “I’m kind of hungry. How about it, Vi?”

            “No thanks,” she replied cooly. “I’ve got things to do.”

            “That’s fine,” Sully said. “I’ll wait and have dinner with my cousin.”

            “But you said you were starved,” Cricket commented with concern.

            “No problem, I have something to help tide me over,” he declared and a tiny bottle of whiskey manifested in his hand. He screwed off the top and downed the brown liquid.

            “How dare you open a container of booze in my vehicle,” Violetta barked. “That’s illegal!”

            “No worries, ma’am, it’s empty.”

            Cricket’s toes uncurled and curled again. They rode in awkward silence all the way to Sully’s cousin’s home. When they arrived, Sully thanked the ladies. Cricket said, “You’re welcome.” But Violetta just snorted.

            Sully flashed three crisp one hundred dollar bills in front of Violetta. “For your trouble, ma’am.”

            “You know what? Since you opened booze in my truck without even asking, I’m gonna take them,” she told him and then snatched them out of his fingers.

            Sully chuckled. “You are a pistol.”

            “And you’re arrogant,” Violetta barked.

            Sully shrugged and Cricket noticed how sad and lonely his eyes looked, despite his bravado. She said, “It was nice to meet you, Mr. Sage.”

            “Please, call me Sully. It was nice to meet you too, Cricket,” he replied, then addressed Violetta. “Thanks for the lift, Miss Karr.”

            She didn’t reply. After he retrieved his luggage from the back, Violetta drove off. Despite her stern expression, and knuckles white from gripping the steering wheel so tight, Cricket couldn’t help scolding. “Violetta, you were very rude to Sully right from the start. And for no good reason.”

            “Oh, I had good reason,” she said with surprising meekness, especially given her angry expression.

            “Would you care to enlighten me?”

            “No.”

            “Pretty please, little sister,” Cricket said with a sing song voice. “I sure would like to know why you put me in such an awkward position.”

            Violetta glanced at her with an exasperated expression. Then she looked at the road and chewed her lower lip for a couple seconds. “I’ve never been so drawn to a man in my life.”

            Cricket looked at her siter like she had two heads, maybe three. “You could have fooled me by your behavior toward him. He seems the epitome of the type of guy you don’t like.”

            “I know… And that scares me.”

ANGELS AT WAR – CHAPTER 23

Posted on by Johnathan Embers

ANGELS AT WAR

CHAPTER 23

ARCHANGEL QUERIDA

BE KIND TO ONE ANOTHER, TENDERHEARTED, FORGIVING ONE ANOTHER, EVEN AS GOD IN CHRIST FORGAVE YOU. (Ephesians 4:32)

            Vermillion approached me as I watched Jenny and Jimmy exchange a brief hug. “What are you up to?”

            “What do you mean?” I asked as I refrained from giggling. The merriment I felt wasn’t in any way trying to gloat over my adversary. I was pleased because the arrangement I assisted on  worked out better than I hoped.

            “I know you impressed Jimmy to go to that night club. Isn’t that against your principles?”

            “It wasn’t for the sake of self-indulgence. Jimmy hasn’t had an adult beverage in more than a quarter century. He simply went with some business associates to support their friend in his new band. He stayed for the first set and now he’s leaving.”

            “I don’t get it. You knew Jenny was going to be there with her latest fling.”

            “Jimmy wasn’t all that jealous. It’s been four years since Jenny moved out.”

            “I notice you qualified it with ‘all that.’

            “I know you had the green eyed monster give him a slap. But I followed up with feelings of fondness for her.”

            “Why?” Vermillion snorted sarcastically. “She’s become nothing but a whore, only she doesn’t get paid. Why she’s gotten down to her birthday suit with as many partners as Jimmy did as a swinging single playboy. Only she’s done it while legally married.”

            “That’s why I had her cross paths with Jimmy. Deep inside she wants the stability and peace she once had with him.”

            My opponent looked surprised, then irritated. “Do you really think this encounter is gonna initiate a reunion? You gotta be kidding. They only spoke for a couple minutes.”

            “It wasn’t the duration of the brief conversation, but the spirit.”

            “Bah,” Vermillion replied and then laughed spitefully. “Her date had his hand on the small of her back the entire time. Other than when the man she’s gonna go to bed with tonight shook her HUSBAND’s hand.”

            “She initiated the hug.”

            “Only because Jimmy brokered peace between Jenny and their son the other week. But you noticed that didn’t stop her from meeting a guy online.”

            “We’ll see,” I replied as we both watched Jimmy leave. Jenny watched the familiar gait of her husband until he disappeared through the door. She bit her lip as she noticed he had lost weight and was looking rather fit. She had a surge of remorse over ruining things between her and Jimmy.

            Jenny had been surprised when a familiar voice said, “Hey there, Grandma.”

            She looked to her right and into the beaming face of her husband. The twinkle in his eyes she remembered even from their high school days caused a grin to grow onto her own face. “Hey yourself, Grandpa.”

            Two weeks earlier their son Jason had called her to tell her that he and his wife were expecting their first child. It was the first time they had spoken since her infidelity had come to light. The birth of two children by their daughter had somewhat repaired the breach between them. However, Kelsey not once had asked her to babysit.

            “Thank you for Jason,” she said sweetly, and that’s when they shared a brief hug. “He told me you put him up to calling me.”

            “It’s nothing,” Jimmy shrugged.

            “No, it’s something, something pretty special,” she  replied. Then she glanced at her date. “Oh, Jim, this is Tim. Tim, this is my ex-husband, Jim.”

            “Nice to meet you, Jim,” Tim lied.

            Jimmy, not wanting to lie, repeated his wife’s paramour’s name as pleasantly as he could muster. “Tim.”

            The next day Jenny picked up her phone a half a dozen times as she thought of Jimmy. Then it came to her mind that Jimmy approached her last night, so she should make the first move now. She texted. ‘It was nice to see you last night. It’s been a while.’

            ‘Good to see you, too!’

            His exclamation point inspired her to shoot another text. ‘You look well.’

            ‘So do you.’

            She waited a few minutes, not wanting their dialogue to end. ‘Thanks for not refuting me calling you my ex-husband.’

            After she hit send, she scolded herself. What a stupid thing to say!

            ‘What’s to refute you are my ex?’ he replied.

            ‘Technically we’re still married.’

            ‘I haven’t shared a bed with you in almost a half-decade. I think that constitutes us as ex’s.’

            She typed, ‘Would you like to change that?’

            Her thumb hovered over send. Then she shook her head, deleted it and typed instead, ‘How come you never filed for divorce?’

            Instead of answering her question, he posed his own. ‘Jenny do you want to go have lunch? Call me old fashioned but I prefer a face to face conversation.’

            ‘Sure I’d like that!’

            After they agreed on a time and place, Jenny hurriedly shoved her sexy skirts and dresses aside in her closet, digging out an old denim skirt that fell just below her knees. She put on a conservative long sleeve black blouse with lace trim, black tights with black boots that reminisced the 1800’s. She applied subtle makeup and secured her shoulder length hair with blonde highlights with a hair clip.

            A half hour later Jimmy’s breath caught when he saw Jenny get out of her car in the Olive Garden parking lot. She looked like the woman who accompanied him to church hundreds of times during the first two decades of their marriage. It was a far cry from the hot to trot attire she wore on her date the previous night of leggings that were painted on and enough make up to decorate a clown.

            Rather than going in right away, they stood by Jenny’s car and talked. Jimmy asked with a sly smile. “I hope your boyfriend doesn’t mind you having dinner with your ex.”

            She snorted. “He’s hardly my boyfriend.”

            “How long have you been seeing each other?”

            “Just since last night, but never again.”

            Jimmy couldn’t help feeling pleased that her date didn’t go well. “Where did you meet?”

            Jenny felt her face flush. “On a dating sight.”

            “So what went wrong?”

            “Let’s just say we had a chemistry problem,” she replied quickly and then sought to change the subject. “So Jimmy, you didn’t answer my text when I asked why you haven’t divorced me.”

            He shrugged. “Why haven’t you filed for divorce?”

            She shrugged. “To be honest, I figured the longer we stayed married, the more money I’d get when you did file. You’re rather astute at business… Now your turn. Why haven’t you divorced me?”

            “I always hoped you would repent and return to me.”

            Jenny was stunned as she stared wide eyed at him “You would have taken me back after all I have done?”

            “Yes.”

            “Why?”

            “I love you.”

            “You love the woman that betrayed you and made a spectacle of herself on the internet?”

            “I love the woman, not the behavior.”

            “But how?”

            “You’re the mother of my children, the grandmother of my grandchildren. We had a good life, a happy marriage before you went astray.”

            “I don’t even know how it happened,” she said and then laughed without humor. “I asked myself a hundred times, how did I get in this cycle? Now I’m, I don’t know, stuck. I’ve tried reading my Bible, but I only end up feeling lost and ashamed and end up putting it back on the shelf.”

            “He that began a good work will in you will complete it until that day of Jesus Christ,” Jimmy told her, quoting Philippians 1:6.

            “Then why do I feel so empty?”

            “I suppose you haven’t fully repented and surrendered yourself to Christ.”

            “I’ve tried,” she said and then frowned. “Well, sort of.”

            Jimmy smiled kindly and gently said, “Sort of isn’t a full commitment. Jesus said take up your cross and follow Me.”

            “Yeah,” she said with a sad smile and looked at her husband with longing. “I wish I could go back and stop myself before I got started down this road of rebellion.”

            Jimmy took hold of his wife’s hand. “You might not be able to go back and change the beginning. But you can start where you are and change the ending.”

            Jenny put her hands in her face and wept. Jimmy began to do circles on her back. As the tears began to subside, she went into his arms and quietly asked, “Can I change the ending with you?”

            “Absolutely.”

            “So you forgive me?”

            “One hundred percent.”

            “So if you forgive me, does God?”

            “One hundred percent. God tells you so in 1 John 2:1. If anyone sins we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”

            By the grace of God, Jenny indeed changed her ending. She repented, was rebaptized, and she and Jimmy renewed their wedding vows. She also retained the good graces of her children. Thus making for one of her and Jimmy’s favorite activities going forward as grandparenting together.

(Writer’s note: Dear Reader, I am posting early because I will be unable to write this weekend as well as the following week. The Lord willing, my next post will be Sunday evening August 22 with something fresh. I’m still deciding on three different stories, most likely with Querida once again. Thank you for your interest! May God Bless!)

ANGELS AT WAR – CHAPTER 18

Posted on by Johnathan Embers

ANGELS AT WAR

CHAPTER 18

ARCHANGEL QUERIDA

HE WHO BELIEVES AND IS BAPTIZED WILL BE SAVED (Mark 16:16)

            “All things work together for good to those who love God,” I said, not as a taunt, but as a praise to God.

            “Oh, shut up,” Vermillion responded. “At least Ginger’s actions tainted their so called conversions.”

            “But all four got baptized.”

            “You know as well as I do that it’s the long game, not the short game,” he replied.

            He spoke the truth. The demonic realm often espouses truth. Poison is more likely to be taken if it is diluted with something else. That’s why false religion has done so much damage. That’s how all the world marveled and followed the beast. (Revelation 13:3)

            (Just a reminder, to learn WHO the beast is and WHAT the mark of the beast is, AmazingFacts.Org. has excellent free Bible study guides you can do online.)

            It also helps the demonic realm that human nature is more prone to follow them than God. Living in a fallen world actually means one needs to rebel, albeit in a positive way. Everyone on earth constructed of flesh, bone and blood is in danger of the following Bible text. ‘The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, who cane know it?’ (Jeremiah 17:9)

            Although Lucy was not desperately wicked, she was desperately wounded after being raped by four men. In the scaring process of this wound, her mind was in denial about a frightening fact. She hadn’t experienced her menstrual cycle since she was violated. Even as she noticed her mid-section begin to gradually expand, her prevalent thought was that she had been eating a lot of ice cream lately. She needed to cut out comfort food since it wasn’t healthy and the brief consolation it afforded wasn’t sustainable.

            As she and Jimmy began to seek truth together, another truth was beginning to nag at her mind. She began to entertain the thought that her lack of having a period could mean she was pregnant. She began to concoct a scheme, for she and Jimmy hadn’t made a decision for Christ yet. They were still smoking funny things and flirting with the chemistry that crackled between them.

            She began to manipulate Jimmy’s oversexed instinct. It worked. She made sure that when they gave into passion, that the lighting was minimal. She didn’t want Jimmy to question why her stomach was slightly out of proportion with the rest of her body.  

            In a subconscious attempt to block her pain, Lucy even convinced herself that the baby was Jimmy’s. The adage of ‘tell a lie long enough or convincingly enough and you believe it yourself’ happened to her. It also happened to my adversaries, like Vermillion and his supreme leader, on a supernatural level.

            When Jimmy literally got caught with his pants down with Ginger, it jarred something with Lucy’s psyche. When it was proven that Ginger set him up, for they discovered the cut phone line and the carelessly discarded spare key, Lucy confessed. “Just so you know, this baby isn’t yours! I’m sorry.”

            “I forgive you,” he said, feeling relieved. He wasn’t sure if that feeling was right or wrong. He was just glad he wasn’t gonna be the parent of two children, by two women, one month apart in age.

            Jimmy knew Lucy meant that one of her sex offenders was in fact the biological father. As painful as it was to admit, the truth was coaxed out of her by the Spirit of God. She stared at him with mouth agape, her eyes wide and filling with tears. Jimmy hugged her and at first she clung to him. He gently said, “It isn’t the child’s fault who the father is.”

            “I know,” she replied before going to her knees sobbing. It was then that the pair decided to postpone their baptism. Between Lucy’s admission, and Jimmy’s ordeal with Ginger, they wanted a little more time to adjust. Jenny and Jake also postponed their intended baptism in solidarity.

            As the next Sabbath approached, Lucy decided that she wanted to get baptized. Between the council of Pastor and Mrs. Samson, and the support of her friends and family, she didn’t want to wait any longer. Vermillion and his host had hoped to discourage or at least taint the baptisms, but they were only delayed one week, and the participants were all the more zealous about their commitment to Christ.

            The plan to destroy only brought beauty from ashes. Lucy gave a testimony to the church on the morning of their baptisms. She felt led to make public her ordeal, even if it only helped one young woman.

            While she made clear that the men who violated were in no way, at all, even slightly justified with their crime against her, she acknowledged her own culpability. The first mistake was indulging in several adult beverages. With lowered inhibitions, she then engaged in exhibitionism by flashing the four college guys. Her third and final mistake was she carelessly found herself alone with them.

            She admitted difficulty getting her mind around her child being a blood relative of one of her rapists. But thanks to Jimmy, she embraced the concept that it wasn’t child’s fault. It occurred to her that the biological father and her child were two separate people.

            Lucy and Jimmy shook hands before they were baptized in Cotton Creek. Then they hugged after they emerged from the watery grave where they honored Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection, thereby committing themselves to Him.

            Afterward, Jake wowed the congregation with his acoustic guitar rendition of shall ‘Shall We Gather at the River.’ Then he himself was astounded when Lucy joined him to sing ‘Amazing Grace.’ His astonishment wasn’t that she spontaneously joined him, but at the loveliness of her voice. The two began a collaboration with a song ministry.

            With music being a great joy in both of their lives, they began to spend a lot of time together. They even began writing songs together. It was during one of these collaborations on a song that Lucy began to experience severe cramping. The pain became so intense she fainted. Jake rushed her to the emergency room where she miscarried her baby.

            Jake had been a big source of comfort in the aftermath of her loss. This comfort eventually led to their first kiss. This first kiss led to a conversation with Jimmy. He gave his brother his blessing. He admitted that with Jenny expecting his child, Larry out of the picture, and their faith in God in common, romance between them was beginning to simmer once again.

            September 1, 1991. It was a year to the day the four were baptized. Lucy and Jake, along with Jenny and Jimmy, were married in a double wedding. Pastor Samson, AKA Captain Kirk, officiated.

            Jake became an evangelist, and he and Lucy travelled the world with a song ministry. They figured they would do that until they found themselves with child. Then they would settle down to a pastorship wherever the Lord called. But children were not forthcoming, so they continued bringing hundreds, ultimately thousands, to Lord over the years.

            Jenny and Jimmy welcomed a daughter in April, 1991. They welcomed a son two years later. Jenny was a stay at home mom with their kids until they were school age. Jimmy was blessed by employment with a plumbing distribution company that was employee owned. He came in at just the right window and retired before he was sixty, cashing in on substantial shares of stock.

            For more than two decades, the faithful foursome lived fairly steady lives of loyalty and devotion. However, one of them wandered away from the fold in a disappointing manner. C.S. Lewis once posed the question. ‘If you examined one hundred people who lost their faith, I wonder how many of them had been reasoned out of it by honest argument? Do not most people simply drift away?’

            After the four baptisms, I moved on to another assignment, leaving reliable colleagues in charge of guardianship. A quarter of a century later, one of them sought me out and informed me that Vermillion and his minions had successfully lured one of the faithful four into deep sin.

            Before I move on to a new tale involving different people and circumstances, I will wrap up the story of Lucy, Jenny, Jimmy, and Jake in the next couple of chapters. I will try to explain how one fell so far from grace after years of devotion.

            But even we angels do not understand the mystery of iniquity. But, like believing humans, we are strengthened by the unfathomable grace and love of God!

ANGELS AT WAR – CHAPTER 16

Posted on by Johnathan Embers

ANGELS AT WAR

CHAPTER 16

ARCHANGEL QUERIDA

AWAKE, YOU WHO SLEEP, ARISE FROM THE DEAD, AND CHRIST WILL GIVE YOU LIGHT (Ephesians 5:14)

            “Whoa, Nelly!” Vermillion bellowed. “Did you see Larry’s face when his hand got caught in the proverbial cookie jar? At least he was able to take a bite before it got slapped. Only too bad the cookie was sweet little Jenny. Too bad she didn’t find out about his deception before she decided to share a bed with him.

            “And what do we have over here, Querida? Your two young Bible students seem to have fornicated. Look at LucyFr cling to Jimmy as they say goodnight for the evening. How sweet of him to stroke her hair and wipe her tears. Tell me, are those tears of joy, regret or bad memories?

            “How ironic, Querida. Ole Jimmy feels the need for something more in life, and he was seeming to find it. But he just can’t seem to keep those pants buttoned up when a lovely young lady bats her eyes at him. It’s looking like it’s over for Mr. Stetson. He’s in more girl trouble now than when he was a playboy! I guess a leopard can’t change its spots.”

            “It ain’t over till it’s over,” I replied mildly, then paraphrased Philippians 1:6. “He that began a good work will complete it.”

            “We’ll see about that,” Vermillion cackled. “Jenny finding out that Jimmy is for sure the father of her child, coupled with LucyFr and Jimmy’s romantic consummation, has solidified a very juicy triangle indeed. Just in time to distract from the last night of the seminar.”

            I felt the desire to tell him to stop calling Lucy ‘LucyFr.’ But if I did, he would only do it all the more. Twenty hours later Vermillion and his minions were busy at the seminar. But my colleagues and myself were there as well, ready to assist the Holy Spirit in a battle for souls.

            Jenny was distraught, discouraged and confused after receiving the news that Jimmy was the father of the child in her womb. She was also angry at Larry’s deception by omission. Especially since the hidden truth had led to his bed.

            In her anger she had handed Larry the keys to his gifted automobile. Technically it was still his as he had not yet signed the title over to her. She then used his phone to call a taxi cab. Uber didn’t exist in 1990.

            Her mind swirled and whirled as she walked to the last night of the Bible prophecy seminar. After paying five dollars for the taxi ride home, she decided to hoof it to the meeting. Although it was more than a couple miles away, she had hoped to get there early enough to enlighten Jimmy about his impending fatherhood. Much to Vermillion’s dismay, she was a bit late.

            This was good. Our side needed the little group of Jimmy, Lucy, Jimmy’s brother Jake, his girlfriend Ginger, as well as Jenny herself, to not be distracted by the baby drama before the meeting started. Pastor Samson, affectionately known as Captain Kirk by his friends and church family, had a powerful message about God’s immense love for humanity.

            He concluded the message with the sacrifice of Jesus for the sins of the world. He declared that God becoming a human being to save fallen humanity was not only the greatest story ever told; it is the greatest story that ever could be told. He then drove home the point of Jesus’s sacrifice.

            Christ had prophesied that he would rise on the third day. But in the midst of the ordeal, as the weight of dying for the sins of the world seemed about to crush him, His human side of His nature overwhelmed Him. For a period of time, He couldn’t see through the portals of the tomb. When He cried, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?” He thought His separation from God the Father was going to be eternal.

            Yet the Son of God went through with His mission anyway! Jesus Christ intended to forfeit His own eternal life so that those who accepted His sacrifice and believed in Him would be able to enjoy eternal life in heaven! There is no better example of selflessness! No greater exhibition of love!

            Pastor Samson concluded with a well-known essay by James Allan Francis. (1864-1928)

            ‘He was born in an obscure village. The child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another obscure village where He worked in a carpenter shop until He was thirty. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never went to college. He never visited a big city. He never travelled more than two hundred miles from where He was born. He did none of the things normally associated with greatness. He had no credentials but Himself. He was only thirty three (when He was murdered). His friends ran away. One of them denied Him. One betrayed Him. He was turned over to His enemies and went through a mockery of a trial. He was nailed to a cross between two thieves. While dying, His executioners gambled for His clothing, the only property He had on earth. When He was dead He was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend. Nineteen (twenty) centuries have come and gone and today Jesus is the central figure of the human race and the leader of mankind’s progress. All the armies that have ever marched. All the navies that have ever sailed. All the parliaments that have ever sat. All the kings that have ever reigned put together. Have not affected the life of mankind on earth as powerfully as that one solitary life.’

            Pastor Samson made an alter call to close out the two weeks of Bible teachings. Jimmy, Lucy, Jake, and even Jenny joined the two dozen attendees as they made their way down to the front of the high school auditorium’s stage. Unfortunately, more than double that number made their way to the exit or remained seated. Ginger was one of those exiting.

            Although part of her was moved by Captain Kirk’s description of Jesus’s suffering and courage, her evil heart of unbelief had held sway. Like Vermillion, she didn’t like the direction Jake was going. In her mind, Jake was becoming a religious fanatic.

            Why just last night she tried to initiate a little hanky panky. Jake always eagerly went along with her seductions. But last night he baulked. Then he suggested marriage! He said something about even most non-Christians recognized living together as ‘living in sin.’

            But marriage? They had only been together six months. It had only been three weeks since she moved in with him. She was still adjusting to cohabitation with him. Now he getting religious on top of being a neat freak. Should she break up with him? They already had squabbles about dirty dishes and her undergarments hanging in the bathroom.

            The pastor prayed for those accepting Christ or rededicating themselves to the Savior. Then he suggested that those wishing to be baptized talk to him afterward. Jenny watched as approximately half of the altar call attendees raised their hands when he wanted to see a show of those desiring a full commitment. She chewed her lip as she noticed Jimmy raise his hand along with his two companions. Everything was happening so fast!

            Vermillion sidled up to me as I watched Jenny quickly leave the auditorium and sit on a bench outside to await Jimmy. “Chaos and confusion is working as well on Jenny as lust and desire with Jimmy. Still believe in He who began a good work?”

            “As long as there’s breath there’s hope,” I replied.

            “Show me someone with hope and I in turn will show them to be a naïve fool.”

            “Not if they turn to God’s love. Then they can conquer all.”

            “Oh no, are you gonna start quoting the love chapter now?” He replied with a derogatory tone as he referred to 1 Corinthians chapter 13. “Too bad humans turn to lies over love, huh?”

            “That’s why love for God’s law is perfect converting the soul.” (Psalm 19:7)

            He cackled. “Let’s see how many of these four that went down yonder for the altar call stick with that concept or whether they go the way of lovely Ginger. Jenny even seems to be taking the first step away only minutes after being moved to partake in the altar call.”

            “Like you said, seems to be,” I said, causing him to make a dismissive gesture.

            “You hope in vain,” he said and then grinned maliciously. “Thanks to last night’s indiscretion between Jimmy and LucyFr, more chaos and confusion is going to come out of Jenny’s baby revelation than warmth and bonding.”

            “For now.”

            “You need to be more pessimistic,” Vermillion said bitterly. “You and your righteous army are doing battle in a lost cause.”

            “I beg to differ. Jesus won the decisive battle at Calvary. Instead of humanity being lost, all can find salvation in Christ.”

            “All,” Vermillion snorted. “Then why are many called but only few chosen? (Matthew 22:14) Why the broad gate verses the narrow gate? (Matthew 7:13, 14) The broad leading to destruction, where many enter. The narrow being difficult, where few find it?”

            Once again, the demonic realm knows scripture better than the most devout Christian. I countered. “With God all things are possible. (Matthew 19:26) All who call of the name of Jesus will be saved.” (Romans 10:13)

            Vermillion always wanted the last word. Making a reference from the book of Revelation and something it mentions numerous times, he said, “Looking over the world I’m not seeing many spiritual overcomers.”

            As Jimmy exited the auditorium, Jenny arose quickly from the bench and in a rush said, “Jimmy, I need to talk to you.”

            He was a little taken by surprise. Just as Vermillion had hoped. He was tempting Jimmy’s spiritual bliss to begin to evaporate. “About?”

            “It’s rather personal,” she replied. “Can we speak in private?”

            “I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” he said, glancing uneasily at Lucy. Lucy looked at her shoes.

            Jenny’s stress morphed into irritation. “Fine. Well, just so you know, I’m now one hundred percent sure that you’re the father of my baby. Have a good night.”

            With that Jenny turned on her heels and briskly walked away, leaving Jimmy and Lucy with jaws hanging open. Jimmy’s brother Jake had missed the news. He had noticed Ginger wasn’t at his car, so he kept walking. He found a note declaring that she didn’t want to wait and had called a friend to pick her up.

            “Jenny, wait,” Jimmy called after her. But she kept going. When he noticed a few people turn and look, he didn’t petition her any further.

            Jimmy and Lucy had driven his pickup because rain was in the forecast. As they walked to his truck, a light drizzle began to fall. They both noticed Jenny walk through the parking lot without getting into a vehicle. As she began to walk down a long sidewalk in the direction of her apartment, Jimmy’s thought became audible. “Where’s the car Larry gave her? She’s more than two miles from her apartment.”

            “Do you suppose it has something to do with what she just told you?” Lucy asked.

            Jimmy looked at her with a bewildered expression. Despite feeling jealous of Jenny, Lucy’s recent spiritual growth gave her empathy. As the drizzle quickly became rain, she said, “You need to offer her a ride.”

            They exited the parking lot and slowed when they got to Jenny. He ordered, “Hey Jenny, get in, I’ll give you a ride home.”

            “No thanks,” Jenny replied without looking at him.

            “Come on, it’s raining.”

            “Despite what you think, I’m not gonna melt like a wicked witch.”

            “Would you just get in?”

            “Just go.”

            He could tell she was gonna be stubborn and someone was coming up behind him. What happened to the sweet, mousy girl from high school? He took Lucy home, only about five minutes away. “You need to go after her,” Lucy suggested.

            “What about us?” Jimmy asked.

            “What about us? Do you mean there’s danger of you and her getting back together if you give her a ride and discuss the baby?”

            “No, I mean, well, it is complicated.”

            “Well, something for you to consider. Despite what we did last night, after what happened tonight, with accepting Jesus at that altar call. Then discussing baptism and more in depth Bible study with the pastor. I’m not gonna fornicate anymore.”

            Jimmy nodded but cringed. He knew that abstinence until marriage was necessary if he wanted to be right with God. But he was also self-aware enough to know that sex was an idol of his. Despite this, he asked, “I don’t want to either. Well, maybe I should put it as I’m not going to.”

            “Good. Now go get her and offer her a ride. I’m sure she’ll accept with me not there. Then you can make peace.”

            Jimmy was relieved when she kissed him back after he leaned in to kiss her goodnight. He hurried back to the roads to Jenny’s apartment. He was dismayed that he made it all the way to her building without seeing her. Then he was bewildered when he recognized his brother’s 68’ Mustang Fastback parked in a stall at Jenny’s building.

            He didn’t know Ginger too well. Did she live in Jenny’s complex too? No, that couldn’t be. She moved in with Jake a couple weeks ago. He knocked on Jenny’s door. He froze in surprise when Jake opened Jenny’s door grinning at him. “Hey, Bro.”

            “What are you doing here?” Jimmy asked.

            “I gave Jenny a ride home, she was walking in the rain.”

(Writers note: I recently saw a three part series on grace by Pastor Ty Gibson on YouTube. The last sermon in particular is what I envisioned my fictional preacher preaching on the last night of the Prophecy seminar. If you are interested, it was entitled ‘Amazing Grace.’ If you choose to watch, please don’t be concerned about the length of time shown. Although the preliminaries are quite lengthy, by fast forwarding Ty begins speaking at the 1 hour and 7 minute mark. If you are interested in the first two as well, the first is called ‘Theater of Grace,’ and he starts speaking at the 59 minute mark. The second is called ‘Saved by Grace.’ It starts a little before the 42 minute mark. I was very blessed by these talks! I hope you are as well if you decide to check it out! P.S. It is not necessary to watch the first two to grasp the message in the third.)

ANGELS AT WAR – CHAPTER 2

Posted on by Johnathan Embers

ANGELS AT WAR

CHAPTER 2

ARCHANGEL QUERIDA

THE ANGEL SAID TO THE WOMEN, “DO NOT BE AFRAID, FOR I KNOW THAT YOU SEEK JESUS WHO WAS CRUCIFIED. HE IS NOT HERE, FOR HE IS RISEN…” (Matthew 28:5, 6)

            I had never known such despair as Vida and I watched the Son of God cry out as he hung upon the cross. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

            We wanted more than anything to take Him down from the cross and minister to Him. Just like we did after His forty days and nights in the wilderness. After this extreme trial, the devil fled and we strengthened and encouraged Him. (Matthew 4:11)

            “Querida, we have to do something!” my companion said as we watched the Savior on the cross.

            I understood his desperation, but there was a clear message from on High. “I know how you feel, Vida, but we must let Him be.”

            “I can’t stand this, Querida!”

            I turned to speak to my dear friend, but a demonic roar interrupted me. I saw Vermillion and his companion, Adbeel with a company of about two dozen demons celebrating. The gaze between my one time close friend and I connected. The ugliness in his vindictive grin made witnessing the scenes of Calvary all the worse. It was hard to believe he and I had been so tight before the cosmic conflict had begun. Now he was a major nemesis.

            Ironically, Vida and Adbeel were once as tight as Vermillion and I had been. After the fallen angels were cast out of heaven, Vida and I had discussed our similar situations with our former friends. He, like me with Vermillion, had tried to council Adbeel against siding with the Luciferians. However, Vermillion had a more persuasive effect in Adbeel’s ear than Vida. So the four of us had inadvertently switched roles as best of friends.

            Have you ever thought certain sporting participants looked crazed and even evil as they lorded over their opponents? The shouting, flexing, and pounding of chest. Well, that had nothing on the fallen angels as they celebrated the violent, cruel death of the Son of God.

            There’s no point in me trying to describe the demonic seen. Both good and evil angels are invisible to humans unless we purposely manifest to the physical. The best I can suggest is to imagine what I said about poor sportsmen and multiply it tenfold.

            I really loathed the phrase ‘lesser of two evils.’ But that was exactly the position Vida and I were in. Either witness the bloody, beaten form of the Son of Man dying on the cross, or watch a demonic host gloat over it. Something occurred to me as I painfully watched the Prince of Peace in torture. “Jesus can’t see through the portals of the tomb, Vida.”

            “What do you mean?” Vida asked.

            “He’s tasting, not just physical death, but eternal death for humankind. He’s thinking His separation from God the Father will be permanent. Yet He’s submitting to it anyway. What wondrous love!”

            “We must have misunderstood Jesus when He said the third day He will rise again,” Vida replied.

            “It’s not the third day,” I told my companion as I also felt the first glimmer of hope. “He just can’t see it right now. What amazing love!”

            “Absolutely amazing!” Vida agreed.

            The diabolical roar intensified and Vermillion, Adbeel and their fiendish host charged Vida and me. Like the rush of a powerful storm, they came at us. Had things changed with the death of the Son of God? So far we had been untouchable to the fallen angels. Our warfare had been spiritual. We fought over the souls of human beings.

            Vida and I held our position, trusting in God’s protection. It wasn’t in vain. Several of our angelic colleagues rushed up to us like a mighty wall, and the evil forces reeled back. They retreated as if a great tsunami were about to crash down upon them.

            Gabriel, a superior of ours, approached Vida and me with a greeting humans would consider a hug. Then he said, “Vida, Querida, come with me.”

            In a flash we were at the temple, a dozen of us in total. Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up His spirit. Then Gabriel gave the command, “Tear the curtain in two, from the top to the bottom!” (See Matthew 27:50 and 51)

            One of us could have completed this task, despite the veil of the temple being about five inches thick. But it was assigned to several of us so the great honor could be felt by more than one. For the gesture signified an end to sacrifices. For Jesus Christ, the perfect sacrifice, accomplished an end of the old covenant and the beginning of the new covenant. The beginning of righteousness by faith.

            The earth quaked and a centurion that had been guarding Jesus declared, “Truly, this was the Son of God!” (Matthew 27:54)

            “Vida,” Gabriel petitioned. “Go to the Roman guard that just acknowledged Jesus as Messiah. His heart has opened to truth. Do what you can, Adbeel is trying to close in on him.”

            “Aye, aye,” Vida replied enthusiastically, and my partner in righteousness was off.

            Gabriel then assigned some more angels to the women who had been ministering to Jesus. (Matthew 27:55, 56)

            Then he sent another to Joseph of Arimathea to inspire him to ask for the Savior’s body. I was starting to feel left out, yet I knew I wasn’t. I was simply anxious to serve the Son of God however was seen fit. Gabriel’s gaze turned to me. “Querida, I need you to return to heaven briefly.”

            I would have been disappointed if it hadn’t been for the word briefly. This told me I was to be assigned an important task and was going there for a special blessing. When I came back to earth, I did it with such gusto that the earth quaked. I rolled away the large stone that blocked the entrance to Jesus’s tomb. He had risen from the dead!

            I caught a glimpse of Vermillion, Adbeel, and a few of their cohorts. They were singing a different tune now. It was a song of silence, confusion, even despair. I didn’t gloat as they had done. But my heart, if you please, rejoiced over the Son of God’s victory over death! Imagine that, the only human being in history that raised Himself from the dead!

            I was sitting on the large stone when two women close to the Savior’s heart arrived. They looked beyond stunned to see me. I couldn’t help grinning as I reassured them. “Don’t be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for He is risen as He said He would. Come see the place where the Lord lay. Then go quickly and tell His disciples that He is risen from the dead, and indeed He is going before you into Galilee. There you will see Him. Behold I have told you.”

            Trembling with excitement, they ran from the tomb to tell the disciples.

            (Matthew 28:2-8)

            Different perspectives on the resurrection are given at the end of all four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. At the end of Matthew, Jesus gives The Great Commission, to take the Good News into all the world.

            John sums up his Gospel by expressing a thought about the amazing existence of Jesus.  ‘There are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. Amen.’ (John 21:25)

            Forty days after Jesus’s resurrection, He ascended up to heaven in a cloud. (Acts 1:9) Just before He parted ways with His disciples, He gave them some words of encouragement. Mainly He promised them the gift of the Holy Spirit with power.

            As Jesus arose from the earth, Vida and I stood by not far away and watched a couple of our colleagues. They assured these followers of Jesus of His eventual return, which was to be recorded for posterity in the Word of God.

            “Men of Galilee,” the two men in white apparel said. “Why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.” (Acts 1:11)

            It’s been more than two thousand years since God became a man. As a ministering spirit (Hebrew 1:14), I have experienced many victories. Unfortunately, working in a fallen world, with sinful humans, thereby competing with demons, I have also experienced numerous defeats.

            One of earth’s gifted writers said this quote. Actually he wrote a lot of brilliant things under the inspiration of God. But this particular quotation pertains to the battle human beings faced with sin. His name is C. S. Lewis, and I quote, ‘There is no neutral ground in the universe. Every square inch, every split second, is claimed by God, and counter claimed by Satan.’

            I could use up your whole lifetime telling stories spanning several thousand years. So where do I begin? I’ll start off with a young woman close to the present time who gave in to a few too many of Satan’s counter claims.

            Using the hope of love, Vermillion led her to a state of despair. I in turn led her to something that ultimately gave her hope in Christ. You could say we angels lead a person to the water, while the Holy Spirit motivates them to drink. But it is up to the person to say yes. For God is a gentleman. He doesn’t barge in unwanted; He stands at the door and knocks (Revelation 3:20).

            Words are powerful. That’s one reason why Jesus is called the Word (John 1:1). What I put in front of the young woman’s eyeballs was another quote from C.S Lewis. It came at a time when I knew she was despairing of crossing some spiritual line into eternal ruin. She felt her sins were too grievous to go on. She thought to solve her problems by breaking the sixth commandment. (Exodus 20:13)

            The quotation I put in front of her was just the spark needed to light a fire in her soul. The quote said, ‘You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.’

ANGELS AT WAR – CHAPTER 1

Posted on by Johnathan Embers

ANGELS AT WAR

CHAPTER 1

ARCHANGEL QUERIDA (Pronounced Kay-Reeda)

JESUS SAID TO THEM, “I SAW SATAN FALL LIKE LIGTHENING FROM HEAVEN.” (Luke 10:18)

            “Yes, my Lord,” I said as I bowed before the Son of God. “You wish to speak with me?”

            With a gentle touch, He bid me to arise and look at Him. His countenance was pure peace, pure love. “I give you the name Querida, which means beloved,” He told me.

            My eyes turned downcast from His gaze as I replied. “Dear Lord, I don’t deserve that title.”

            “Yes, you do,” He corrected. “You did everything you could to convince the rebels of the heavenly throne of their error.”

            This encounter I had with the Son of God came on the heels of Lucifer becoming Satan. It happened right after he was cast out of heaven with one third of the angels who sided with his position. His view, simply put, being that God was unjust. That God’s law was too restrictive and prohibited liberty.

            But that was a turning point for me. God unjust? No way! And what law? Before Lucifer’s campaign to overthrow the government of God, we were so in harmony with our Maker that I didn’t even realize there was a moral law. This law I speak of would basically become known as the Ten Commandments on earth.

            “But Lord, I was one of the first to petition my fellow angels that they ought to give Lucifer a chance to explain his position,” I admitted.

            “But then you saw the light and walked in the light,” He countered. “You then influenced ten times that number to remain loyal to the Godhead after you discovered the nature behind his agenda.”

            Like most I was dazzled by Lucifer’s majesty and his rank. He was second only to the Son of God. He was charming and very persuasive. One in particular that I had persuaded to listen to Lucifer was my closest friend, Vermillion. And listen we did. But with opposing results.

            Vermillion’s first time listening to Lucifer was my second. Before speaking, the anointed cherub dazzled us with incredible music. But something was different with this second speech I heard.

            The first time around he spoke of a recent meeting the Creator had had with the heavenly host. During this meeting God the Father established something that we had already known. That being, His Son was equal with Him and would be prominent in carrying out God’s purposes. Lucifer’s critique of the declaration regarding the Son of God seemed to be favorable. And I do say ‘seemed.’ With this next go around, there was an air of slyness in his banter. Later, watching him with Eve in the Garden of Eden, reminded me of his early campaign in heaven.

            Not long after Creation came the temptation and fall of man. Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field (Genesis 3:1). And that is what I’m talking about. Even as Lucifer, he was more cunning than any angel in the heavenly host. But that was after iniquity was found in him (Ezekiel 28:15). That is what took me off guard. Not only had there been perfect harmony in heaven, there had been no deceit.

            Lucifer was the first to bring about iniquity. This transgression was all foreign to us. We didn’t know what sin was, let alone all of the different aspects of sin. We didn’t know what deception was. We didn’t know what vanity was. We didn’t know what envy was. We didn’t know what greed was. We didn’t know what violence was. I could go on, but this should get the point across.

            My first clue came when he insinuated that he would have been better at the position than God’s Son. He implied that the working out of God’s purposes was assigned to the Son of God  only because He was, well, God’s Son. He then suggested that God’s government denied us liberty and freedom. He indicated that God’s low key, benevolent Son would only make things worse. He couldn’t have been further from the truth!

            As we parted from what would have been a spectacular political campaign speech on earth, I apologized to Vermillion. “I’m sorry.”

            “For what?” he asked with surprise.

            I returned with my own surprised expression. “For what! He openly defied the Son!”

            “Not really.”

            “How can you say that? That last thing he said. That if he can get at least half the angels to side with him, God will have to let him prove his ways are better.”

            “What’s wrong with that?”

            “What’s wrong with that! It’s disrespectful! Lucifer is a created being like us…”

            “But much more exalted, much more intelligent.”

            “I’ll give you that,” I acknowledged. “But not more than God or His Son!”

            “Look, all he’s asking for is to be given a chance. If God’s fair, he will allow it.”

            And God was fair. He allowed the debate to continue. At one point Lucifer almost did have half of the angels on his side. But as the war of words continued, the Son of God, who would astound all of the holy angels in the future by becoming the Savior of fallen mankind, never lost his cool. Lucifer on the other hand became increasingly testy, and then violent.

            Early on in the scriptures, readers are told of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:17). This forbidden knowledge would be the plague of humanity. During this war in heaven (Revelation 12:7), the angelic host also learned of good and evil as well. The fallen angels firsthand, and the unfallen by observation.

            God bore long with the rebellious. But being God, He knew what was best. He declared deviation from his government would ultimately bring about degradation, strife and discord. He pointed out that we could already see this with the attitude of Lucifer and his sympathizers. And could we ever!

            I made one last plea with my dear friend Vermillion when I could tell God’s forbearance with the rebellion had culminated. “God’s right, you can see already the unrest that Lucifer’s agenda is bringing, and it hasn’t even been implemented.”

            “There’s unrest because the master hasn’t been given a chance.”

            “Did you just call Lucifer the master?”

            “That’s right,” he said defiantly, wearing an angry countenance I had never seen on him before. We were all becoming aware of so many new concepts and characteristics, and none of them were good.

            “You know you’re gonna be cast out,” I warned.

            He snorted. “So much for freewill.”

            Freewill. Although this was a concept we had been vaguely aware of, it was now foremost in everyone’s mind. We had always had the God given right to choose. But living in harmony with God’s government had been so natural, we never gave freewill a second thought.

            Oh how I wish this discord had never come about! What a sad moment when Lucifer, who had been the ‘morning star’ the ‘light bearer,’ but now brought darkness, was cast out as Satan (Revelation 12:9). And a third (verse 4) of the angels were cast out with him.

            God could have destroyed them with a word. But wouldn’t that have proven Lucifer’s argument correct? After all, he said God was a tyrant that restricted liberty. No, Satan and his evil host would have their chance. Unfortunately, the inhabitants of earth would have to live under his rule after their first parents failed the test of obedience described in Genesis chapter three.

            The result of sin soon showed its colors when one of Adam and Eve’s sons killed another in Genesis chapter four. The ripple effects of sinful natures passed on since the first parents down through the ages has been catastrophic.

            But after the rebellion in heaven, we soon found out that God and His Son had a plan. The Son Himself would become a human being! A baby no less! And this four thousand years after sin had entered the planet. The Gospels not only tell the most remarkable story ever told, God becoming a man to redeem a fallen race, it is the greatest story that ever COULD be told!

            It has been an honor and a privilege to serve The King of Kings for more than six millennium, going to and fro from the earth as a ministering spirit (Hebrews 1:14). But that’s according to your time. For with God a thousand years is like one day (2Peter 3:8 and Psalm 90:4).

            We of heaven truly do rejoice over one sinner who repents (Luke 15:7). We long for this nightmare of a sin experiment to over with like you do. But I have to admit that there’s been an adventurous side, and I’ll tell you what I can.

            Like most soldiers on earth, we ministering spirits will be glad when the war is over. This ‘battle against the rulers of the darkness of this age’ (Ephesians 6:12). With our earthly family that serve God, we agree, come Lord Jesus, come!

BLACK SABBATH – CHAPTER 30

Posted on by Johnathan Embers

BLACK SABBATH

CHAPTER 30

SEVEN SALLIE

FOR THE LORD HIMSELF WILL DESEND FROM HEAVEN WITH A SHOUT, WITH THE VOICE OF AN ARCHANGEL, AND WITH THE TRUMPET OF GOD. AND THE DEAD IN CHRIST WILL RISE FIRST. THEN THOSE WHO ARE ALIVE AND REMAIN SHALL BE CAUGHT UP TOGETHER WITH THEM IN THE CLOUDS TO MEET THE LORD IN THE AIR. AND THUS WE SHALL ALWAYS BE WITH THE LORD. (1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17)

            “Hey everyone, I’d like you to meet Querida,” I said as I attempted to introduce the angel that caused the angry mob to flee.

            “Where’s your friend?” my wife asked.

            I had just stepped onto C. S. Lewis’s deck after negotiating about twenty steps. I had assumed that Querida was behind me. I turned to my right and kept turning until I did a three sixty. “Where’d he go?”

            “Who was that old guy with you?” Inga asked.

            “It was angel who went by the name Querida,” I replied, as I still looked all around.

            Everyone looked at me like I had two heads. “I’m not crazy, that truly was an angel with me.”

            “Now Seven, don’t bear false witness,” Inga said sternly.

            “I’m not, that truly was an angel!”

            “I’m referring to the part about not being crazy,” Inga said sympathetically as she placed a gentle hand on my forearm. To my chagrin, my wife placed a hand over her mouth to hide amusement.

            Inga continued, “Clearly there was angelic intervention. There’s no way you and an old man would cause two dozen angry guys to fall all over themselves fleeing from you. How did he do it?”

            It didn’t go beyond my notice that she credited Querida and not the two of us. Which was fine, since it was he that caused them to flee. “I don’t know how he did it. He just raised his hand, and they couldn’t get away fast enough.”

            “It looked like he was just giving them a friendly wave from back here,” C. S. Lewis  interjected.

            “What did you see?” Inga asked. “Was there like a laser coming off his hand or something like webbing, like Spiderman?”

            “No, I didn’t see anything like that. He just lifted his hand, like C. S. said, and poof, the mob fell over themselves trying to get away.”

            “Speaking of poof, where did he go?” Zella asked. “He was right behind you.”

            I opened my mouth to say what amounted to nothing, for I did not know. But before I could say anything, there was a noise like a trumpet. I noticed my wife and Inga looking at me with wide eyes and open mouths as if the sound of the supernatural horn was coming from me.

            For God’s people the majestic sound was beautiful. We had all been homesick for heaven for quite some time, and the noise was like pulling into your driveway after a long trip. For we all instinctively knew that it was I Thessalonians 4:16 beginning to be fulfilled.

            For those that rejected God, the sound was ominous. For them it was multiple times more eerie than an air raid siren. So much so it was a fulfilment of Revelation 6:15, 16 and they tried hiding from the noise and the atmosphere. Even to the point of wanting mountains and rocks to fall on them to hide them from the approaching wrath.

            “Look!” Inga declared, pointing to the east. “That small black cloud!”

            With one accord, we all gazed at the eastern sky. We all saw what Inga noticed first. It was indeed an unusual cloud like shape. It seemed to sparkle and twinkle, but not like an aircraft. Our eyes stayed glued to the heavenly vision. As students of the Bible we knew what it was, the long awaited second coming of Christ!

            In solemn silence we gazed upon it as it drew closer to the earth. As it did so it became lighter and more glorious until it was a bright white cloud. Its base was like a consuming fire, and above it was the rainbow of the covenant. And there was Jesus, riding like a mighty conqueror!

            No longer was He a ‘Man of Sorrows,’ to drink the cup of bitter shame and woe. He was coming, victor of heaven and earth to judge the living and the dead. Revelation chapter nineteen was happening right before our eyes!

            Heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True (Revelation 19:11).

            His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns (Revelation 19:12).

            He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God (Revelation 19:13).

            In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it (John 1:1-5).

            And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses (Revelation 19:14)

            And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS (Revelation 19:16).

            The sky seemed filled with radiant forms. They were countless angels! No human pen could describe this scene. No mortal mind is adequate to conceive its splendor. As the living cloud came still nearer, every eye beheld the Prince of life. No crown of thorns now marred that sacred head. A diadem of glory rested on His holy brow. His countenance outshone the brightness of the noonday sun!

            Before we knew it, we were rising in the air to meet The Lord! My wife and I were hand in hand as we arose higher and still higher. Zella and I both didn’t like heights. But we had no fear whatsoever! No, we were filled with joy and excitement like we had never experienced before!

            Just as Querida reassured me, I would see my kids again soon. My daughter Sevenia held hands with her husband as they floated toward us. Somehow we instinctively knew how to make our way to each other. Her other hand was clasped with her half-brother, Zella’s and my son.

            Several of our church family joined us as well. Family and friends who had passed away too! Right there on our journey in the sky we were able to reunite and exchange hugs. We continued on our voyage with our Savior as we did so. True to His word in the first few verses of John chapter fourteen, Jesus led us to our heavenly homes!

 THE END.

ACTUALLY MORE LIKE THE BEGINNING!