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God chose men like these; Hadassah found hope in that. Jesus hadn’t chosen men the world would have chosen. He had picked ordinary men, with obvious faults, and made them into something extraordinary through the indwelling of his Holy Spirit.
“When a man and woman come together with the blessing of God, it is a holy covenant,” she said, looking out at the surrounding sea. “Such would not be the case with us, my lord.”
“God doesn’t bless fornication.”
“Does your god disapprove of love?” “God is love,” Hadassah said softly.
“Love is patient, Marcus,” she said softly. “Love is kind. Love doesn’t act unbecomingly or seek its own. It is not provoked, nor does it take into account a wrong suffered. Love doesn’t rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices in truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails . . .” Marcus gave her a mocking smile. “Love like that is impossible.” “Nothing is impossible for God,” she said with such certainty and gentle conviction that he frowned.
His mind kept going back over all the things she had said about her god. He couldn’t make sense of any of it. She said her god was a god of love, and yet he let his people be destroyed and watched his temple turned to rubble. She believed the Nazarene was the son of her god, a Messiah to her people, and yet this same god-man, or whatever he was, had died a felon’s death on a cross.
Her religion was full of paradoxes. Her faith defied all logic. Yet she clung to it with a quiet stubbornness that surpassed the devotion of any temple priestess. He had grown up on stories of gods and goddesses. His mother worshiped half a dozen. From the time he could remember, he’d watched her place wafer offerings beside her idols every morning and make her visits to the temple once a week.
him. Rather than remain a sealed jar, she sought only to pour herself out to others. Everything she did mirrored her faith. It was as though every waking hour of every day she was devoted to pleasing her god by serving others. This god that she worshiped consumed her. It didn’t ask for a brief visit to a temple, or a small votive offering of food or coin, or a few prayers every now and then. This god wanted all of her.
He remembered the peace on her face as she had stood with her face to the wind. Peace . . . and joy. She was a slave and yet she seemed to possess a sense of freedom he had never felt.
“God wounds that he might heal.”
There is no other God but the almighty God, and what he does, he does according to his good purpose.”
“My father said the Lord chose his children before the foundation of the world, according to his kind intention.”
“Kind intention? Is it kind to keep you from enjoying what’s natural? You love me, Hadassah. I saw it in your eyes when you looked at me. I felt it when I touched you.
“Do you remember the story I told once about Elijah and the Baal prophets?” He frowned slightly. “The man who called down fire from the heavens to burn his offering and then afterwards butchered two hundred priests?” He remembered. He had been amazed that Hadassah could tell such a bloody tale. He straightened and put distance between them. “What of it?” “After Elijah destroyed the priests, Queen Jezebel said she would do the same to him, and he ran away because he was afraid.” “Afraid of a woman?” “Not just any woman, Marcus. She was very evil and very powerful. Elijah ran away into the
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“I know fear, Hadassah. Fear is an old enemy.
“It was Mary of Magdala—not James, not me—whom Jesus chose to be the first to see the risen Christ.”
“You have whatever strength God has given you, and it will be enough to carry out his good purpose. Trust in him.”
“There’s always a choice.
Columbella, a spiritualist, convinced Phoebe that physicians shouldn’t be trusted; she claimed that they used patients they couldn’t cure to perfect new methods of treatment. Columbella said nonscientific methods would restore Decimus’ vitality and recommended her own potions and herbs, which had been passed down through the centuries. Health, Columbella insisted, was a matter of balance with nature.
“Nothing I can say will ever convince you, Marcus. Only the Holy Spirit can do that. But I know Jesus arose. I feel his presence now, here, with me. I see the evidence of his Word every day. From creation forth, the whole world is witness to God’s plan revealed through his Son. From the beginning, he prepared us. In the passing of the seasons; in the way flowers spring forth, die, and drop seeds for life to begin again; in the sunset and sunrise. Jesus’ sacrifice is reenacted every day of our lives if we but have the eyes to see.”
“My lord, to accept God’s grace is to live with hope. If you but confess your sins and believe, the Lord will forgive you. Ask and he will come to dwell in your heart, and you will have the peace you crave. You only have to believe.”
“When they came and took the Lord away from the Garden of Gethsemane, a Roman soldier grabbed for me, and I ran. He was left holding a linen sheet, which was the only thing covering my body, while I escaped, naked.” His kind eyes were shadowed with remembered shame. “But fear is not of the Lord, Hadassah.”
“Lay your burden before Jesus.”
“We sow in tears that we might harvest in joy. Be obedient to the Lord’s will. Love Julia despite what she does, that through you she might come to know Christ’s surpassing grace and mercy. Be faithful, that she and the others might be sanctified.”
Our struggle isn’t against flesh and blood, but against the powers of darkness.” “I can’t fight Satan, John. My faith isn’t strong enough.” “You don’t fight him. Resist evil and be strong in the Lord, Hadassah, and in the strength of God’s might. He’s given you armor for the battle. Truth, his righteousness, the gospel of peace. Faith is your shield, the Word your sword. Pray with perseverance in the Spirit of the Lord. Then stand firm, that the Lord might go out before you.”
“The heavens tell of the glory of God, and their expanse declares the work of his hands . . .”
“Life is a journey, Atretes, not our final destination. You are captive to your bitterness, but you can be set free.”
“Only a weak god would forgive those who nailed his son to a cross. A god with power would obliterate his enemies. He would wipe them all from the face of the earth.” He went to the mouth of the cave again. “It’s hatred that keeps you a slave, Atretes. Choose forgiveness and love.”
“Love,” he said contemptuously, his back to her. “As I loved Julia? No. Love doesn’t set you free. It takes hold of you and weakens you. And when you’re most vulnerable, when you feel hope, it betrays you.”
“Slaves, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in the sincerity of your heart, as to Christ; not by way of eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart . . .”
“When two oxen are yoked together, they must pull in the same direction, Marcus. If one pulls to the right, and the other to the left, what happens?” “The stronger wins,” he said simply. “And so it would be with us. You would win.”
“If I yoked myself to you in marriage, if I became flesh of your flesh, pleasing you would become the most important thing in my life.”
“Unless we have something worth dying for, Atretes, we’ve nothing worth living for.”
“I gave up what I can’t keep for something I can never lose.”
“May the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace,”
Never doubt in the darkness what God has given us in the light. The Lord is with us. He is here now. He will never leave us.”
“But the eyes of the Lord are watching over those who fear him, who rely upon his steady love. “He will keep them from death. . . .” Psalm 33:18-19
