University Church Park, Sunday Morning, March 12, 1989
“I called you first thing.”
“Sorry I couldn’t talk on the phone. I looked for you. Where you at church?”
“No.”
“Jerry, what’s wrong. You sounded panicked.”
“My life has been turned upside down.”
“I know.”
He looked at her, curiously peering into her kaleidoscope eyes. The eye within the triangle flashed in his mind.
“Christina, all that has happened this week . . . it’s confusing and overwhelming.”
“I know.”
His eyes sparked in question. How could she know?
“Christina . . . I have a confession—“
“Why didn’t you go to church?”
He rubbed his hands over his face, encircling his eyes several times, pressing into his temples, then exhaled through pursed lips . . . The image of the eye within the triangle, the bowl of luscious fruit, the red apple with two bites taken out of it. Finally, he said, “I felt ashamed.”
“I know.” She took his hand. “All the more reason to go to church. God wants us to come to him in the condition we are. He doesn’t turn anyone away.”
“Heh. How do you know so much?”
“I listen.”
“Listen to what?”
“You call Him the Voice. I call Him the Holy Spirit. I listen and then speak what I hear. God knows everything. Could He be saying to you, I know?”
The eye within the triangle popped in his mind again.
“Jerry, you don’t need to prepare yourself for God to receive you. He wants you just the way you are. When Jesus said his last words on the cross, “It is finished,” He meant that He did all that was required to open the door to heaven for all mankind. All you need to do is to receive Jesus in your heart. The Holy Spirit does the sanctifying.”
“Sanctifying? Not sure I’ve ever heard that word before. Martinizing comes to mind though. Isn’t that a special type of dry cleaning?”
Christina chuckled and Jerry turned a slight smile.
“Glad to see you’re loosening up a bit. You looked pretty intense.”
“I joke when I’m stressed. Calms my nerves. I’m all churned up inside.”
“Guilt?”
The eye within the triangle popped in his mind again. I’m not going there . . . at least not yet.
“Tell me about this martinize— I mean sanctifying Holy Spirit thing.”
She cleared her throat and shook her head with a look of I can't believe I’m hearing this.
“Uh, yeah, right, the Holy Spirit is not a thing, I know. The Holy Spirit is a person like God in three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. You know what I like about you?”
“You’re pretty good about changing the subject, but I can’t wait to hear this,” she said with the slightest bit of a flirt in her eyes.
“You’re not preachy. I mean, you know how to break down all this religion stuff into practical terms. The apple— ” He stopped short as guilt crawled like a spider up his back. “So about the Holy Spirit doing the sanctifying . . . ”
“I’ll keep it simple, but I thought you were going to say something else. But thanks anyway. I go to church to worship God, not for religion, but I do learn how to apply God’s Word to my life. Pastor David breaks it down into bite-size pieces. Morsels to chew on, so to speak, throughout the week. You ought to come. You can watch me dance Easter Sunday.”
Jerry’s mind zipped back to first seeing her. The guitar and drums, the singer so filled with . . . the Holy Spirit. That’s the difference. She and Christina brim with the Holy Spirit. Why not me?
“Okay. I’m all ears. I want to know. I want to know what you have.”
“Sanctification begins with spiritual rebirth. Ever hear someone say, born again?”
“I was baptized when I was a baby. Christening. Is that what you mean.”
“That was when your parents dedicated you to Christ and made a promise to bring you up in a godly life. When a person reaches maturity and is capable of making their own choices . . . remember our conversation about choices . . . God gives us a choice to love and obey Him.”
“Yeah, the apple. That apple keeps popping up in my mind. Christina, I’m just not good enough.” He closes his eyes and shook his head and sighed.
“I know. Jerry, you don’t do the work of sanctification, the Holy Spirit does. It is by grace that you are saved, not by your own works, otherwise, you could boast about your salvation. It is by divine grace as a result of committing your life to Christ that you are saved, and it is at that point that you are born again by the Spirit of God.” She took his hands in hers and with eyes filled with God’s love, she peered into his and said, “Take one step at a time and let God do the rest. “Jerry . . . ” She squeezed his hand. “You have a good heart. Would you like to ask Jesus to live in your heart right now?”
Without any reservation, he nodded and said, “Yes, I want what you have.”
Christina closed her eyes as she continued to hold his hands in her palms. “Father God, I hold the hands of Jerry Meier as I humbly pray to you and thank you for filling me with your Holy Spirit the day I danced with You. I let go of my past and turned to face You, to willingly receive Your will for my life, to love You above myself, and to obey Your Voice within me. My dear friend, Jerry, wants to do the same.” She opened her eyes to find Jerry’s closed, his face relaxed, his arms limp in her hands. “Jerry?”
“Hmm?”
“Stay where you are in this moment right now, and if you will, follow me in this prayer.”
Jerry waited, humbled and ready. He followed this prayer and repeated the words when she paused—
“Father God, I thank you for creating me. There is no one like me. You made me, on purpose. I want Your purpose for my life. I surrender my will, and with my heart’s desire, I choose Your will for my life. Forgive me of all my sins, all of my shortcomings, all of my faults for following the ways of this world. I turn my back to my old ways and face You to follow the new ways that You destined for my life. I open my heart to your Son, Jesus. Jesus, enter my heart and live within me as Lord of my life. Jesus, You are my Savior and by divine grace, I am saved from the eternal fire and live with You in eternal glory. I die in the flesh of my worldly ways, and I am born again of the Holy Spirit who will sanctify me, growing in divine grace one step at a time, one day at a time until I am complete in Christ when I see You face to face in heaven. Alive, I’m Christ’s messenger; dead, I’m his bounty. Life versus even more life! I can’t lose. The best is yet to come.”
Christina paused and appeared to wait to hear if there was more. Satisfied, she opened her eyes and said, “In Jesus Name, Amen.”
Jerry repeated, “In Jesus Name, Amen.”
She waited for his eyes to open.
What he saw when his eyes opened would be considered an aura of the Holy Spirit. White light surrounded Christina’s body; there was no other background; yet, for a moment he didn’t see Christina’s face, rather, within the pure light, he saw shades of white, an image he would always remember.
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“Alive, I’m Christ’s messenger; dead, I’m his bounty. Life versus even more life! I can’t lose.” ~Philippians 1:21 from The Message
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Copyright 2017 © Jeff Cambridge
Excerpt from PURSUIT, a novel by Jeff Cambridge, a writer of transformational fiction with characters that tell life-changing stories.
This is a pre-published scene.
To read the scenes sequentially, begin with
“PURSUIT: A Novel – Prologue”
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This novel is a work of fiction. Any references to real events, businesses, organizations, and locales are intended only to give the fiction a sense of reality and authenticity. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
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