An Echo in the Darkness (Mark of the Lion, #2)

by Francine Rivers

The mob cared nothing about what a senator stood for, as long as they were entertained and distracted from the real issues of life: an imbalance of trade, civil unrest, starvation, disease, slaves flooding in from the provinces and taking the jobs of freemen.

The appeal was so often the same: Make me comfortable so I can go on doing whatever I want to do. They wanted sin without consequences. How do you bear us, Lord, when we are so stubborn and foolish? How do you bear us at all?

And so Marcus did as he was asked. He gave in to his deep need to speak of Hadassah. And all the while he talked of her, he failed to see the irony in what he was doing. For as he told the story of a simple Judean slave girl, Marcus Lucianus Valerian, a Roman who didn’t believe in anything, proclaimed the gospel of Jesus Christ.

A part of her had wanted to think back on those things, to hold those memories like a shield against the softening of her heart. But she knew she mustn’t. To dwell on the sins of Julia’s life would not please God. Far worse, it would keep her from doing his will.

Each time a thought came knocking on the door of her mind, she viewed it cautiously. Was it true? Was it honorable? Was it pure or lovely? Was it of good repute? Too many were not, and she pressed them away.

John will love you as God loves you. Go to him, Prometheus. If you can’t yet fashion your life after Jesus, fashion it after a man who walked with the Lord while he was on this earth. Observe how he continues to do so.”

Taphatha didn’t seem to share her father’s conviction or zeal. “Jesus was said to promise that this generation would not pass away before he returned.” “Yes,” Ezra said, “but the Lord God gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. By that promise alone, Daughter, we know this generation of believers will never pass away.”