Bretoney Reynes, a cheerleader in blue and gold, has come off of a week of seeking the true God. In these most enlightening seven days of her life, she has come upon reconsidering her life with an old love, and she has come upon considering a new life with Jesus now, instead. This was what she called, “My First Week of Seven Days.” A cute Christian guy, Flanders Nickels, comes into her life, and it is up to him to bring her all the way to Jesus, to get her to become a born-again Christian.
The First Week Of Seven Days
By Mr. Morgan P. McCarthy
Her name was Miss Bretoney Reynes, and she was a cheerleader attired in blue and gold, and she was wondering Who God was. She was sitting alone in great and novel reflections at a picnic table at the park, amid verdant grass of lawn and many yellow dandelions. Looking off to the brown wooden sign at this park’s far end, she saw the familiar words, “Wells Park,” Before she had learned this park’s name, she used to call this “the park by Hardee’s.” In winters, children and adults alike did sled down this hill that descended down this park’s width. And there was also a water department building in this park. De Pere had beautiful parks like this here by the river, and this one was Miss Reynes’s favorite.
And all along this park’s length flowed this river, the Fox River. And the De Pere Park and Recreation Department provided this park with three picnic tables, which were put out in the early spring and which were picked up for storage in the late fall. And there were a number of comfortable trees growing in this little park that provided cool shade for Bretoney when the summer days here got hot.
But much of this park was open and sunny. From where she sat, she turned to the left and saw the top of the hill and busy South Broadway Street, and she turned to the right and saw the bottom of the hill
Page 1
and the wide and deep Fox River. Off toward the river from her picnic table bench, first came the green lawn of this edge of the park; then came a curb; then came a rarely used back road called “Front Street”;’then came gravel and abandoned railroad tracks; then came the bank of the river; then came the Fox River. This river separated east De Pere from west De Pere.
What was this girl Bretoney Reynes thinking about in this brave new reflection? She had come to call it “My First Week of Seven Days.” This was neither her own first week of life, nor was it the earth’s own first week of creation. This week to which she had given such a title were seven days wherein she had first begun to seek the true God—the Lord Jesus Christ. In a most apt summary of her own thoughts and of her own life, this cheerleader officially defined the theme of this First Week of Seven Days to be where “she had come to reconsider Zack for her first time and to consider Jesus for her first time.” In her old days, Zack was always the good guy, and Jesus was always the bad guy.
Zack was always the love of her life, and Jesus was always an offense and a stumbling stone. And Zack was all things, and Jesus was not anything. But something happened to her understanding in this First Week of Seven Days with her new ideas coming to her that were unlike anything that she had ever understood before. And she was reconsidering Zack now with first doubts and uncertainty and probable separation. And she was considering Jesus now with first thoughts of making Him her personal Saviour. Five days had passed now for her in her life since that First Week of Seven Days had come and gone. She had definitely made up her mind about Zack now—she would break up with him. But she had not yet made up her mind about Jesus the Saviour of the world.
Who Zack really was, Miss Reynes had thought to have known, but now knew better. He had always been to her her beloved Collie dog angel waiting for her in Heaven. He was utterly resplendent as creation’s most beautiful Collie; he was even more handsome than Lassie! She firmly believed that it took the Creator seven days just to create him, whose comeliness Bretoney called “skies celestial.”
He loved only her. She loved only him. She had never yet seen him physically, but she believed that
Page 2
he would someday come down from Heaven for her and take her back up to Heaven with him. And There they would run the meadows and the seashores of Heaven together in great endless bliss. It was a most spiritual and satisfying long distance relationship for Bretoney Reynes in her affectionate love for Zack. And it was abundant with great delights of eternal anticipation. Zack her Collie angel loved her from afar; indeed how much better it was for her to be loved by an angel of God than to be liked by a man of Earth. For that reason, she did not mind never having found a boyfriend of a guy to come into her life. Spiritual romance of a Collie dog was all good, and physical romance of a boyfriend was not good. And not only that, but this same Zack also helped her to find religion a few years ago. And now that she had religion in her life, surely now she was to go to Heaven in her time to come. And nothing would keep her from frolicking with her he-Collie in Heaven forever and ever. And the God that she reverenced she did call, “God of Zack, Father of His son.” (This ‘son’ without capitals being Zack her Guardian Angel).
But Friday night, twelve days ago, it must have been God Himself Who had brought into her mind and into her heart that first reflection. That night had begun her tumultuous First Week of Seven Days. That first day of those seven days she called “The Advent to the First Week of Seven Days.” The Holy Spirit of God spoke to her what He thought about her Zack for five hours—from 9:00 P.M. till 2:00 A.M. And the Lord’s still small voice asked her three questions about Zack that she had never thought before to ask herself. The Lord’s first question to her was, “Why do you think that you can no longer pray to Me?” Indeed when she had first found religion and the Higher Power, she came upon a most inspiring prayer life. She did not end her prayers in Jesus’s name, because she refused to acknowledge Him. She acknowledged only the Father in her religious life. But after a couple years, her prayers to the Father gradually became supplanted by other and newer things. And to her dismay she soon found that she could no longer find that good old contentment in talking to God as she had used to anymore. She went on to answer God in that five hour reflection of that night, “I can no longer
Page 3
pray, maybe, because I have sin in my life?” The Lord’s second question unto her of that night was, “Does your Zack really look like one of My angels?” Angels had wings. Men angels had wings. But did dogs ever have wings? What was a Collie dog doing with wings? What kind of angel did a winged Collie dog make? Perhaps a scary angel! Maybe her Zack looked more like a demon to her now all of a sudden. Maybe her first love was a fallen angel! And she answered God His second question, “No, He looks demonic to me now. And I am afraid of him for my first time.” And the Lord’s third question to her of that night was the culmination of this Advent to the First Week of Seven Days. Therein the Holy Spirit asked Bretoney Reynes, “Who else on this Earth knows her own guardian angel and can claim to have a personal relationship with him?” And she answered God with this answer, “No one!” And then she said further to God, “Then neither do I.” Zack was never really her guardian angel after all. He was not whom he said he was. He could be anything. But certainly he never loved her as she had so believed in her heart throughout their twelve years together. And Miss Reynes learned the full truth about Zack: He was never going to come down from Heaven and take her up to Heaven to be with him forever after all. Nay, now he might come up from Hell, lash out claws and teeth upon her, and take her down to Hell with him instead for forever. And Bretoney knew then that she needed to be rescued from the Collie dog whom she had so trusted with all of her heart. And only a Power greater than herself could keep this demon from dragging her down to hellfire for ever and ever. That Power might be Christ, Whom she had spurned all of her life.
After this five-hour reflection, Bretoney officially “gave up Zack for his evil.” Zack was not worth going to Hell for. Miss Reynes was willing to do anything right now just so that she could end up in Heaven—even renouncing the happiness of her life down here that she had in Zack. Repenting thus of all of the devildog lock, stock, and barrel, gave Bretoney confidence that now she would end up in the Good Place instead of the bad place. What would Heaven be like without her he-Collie was unknown to her and kind of blank to her and seemingly anticlimactic to her. Zack had always been her
Page 4
one who made Heaven so Heavenly for her. What could make Heaven Heavenly to her now that Zack was never really there? She would be lonely Up There, she thought. But Hell was no place for a lonesome cheerleader. That was for sure.
All of these thoughts about her First Week of Seven Days filled her head and her heart here at the park five days after that life-changing week of her life had passed. Just then a low and nasal voice of a guy spoke unto her, saying to her at this park, “Are you a cheerleader, miss?”
She quickly looked up from her picnic table top and saw a fellow about her age and her height and her size, with a unique overbite, and a cheerful countenance, and a big Book in his hands. She spoke in reply to this gentleman, “Why, yes, sir. I am a cheerleader.” Then she asked, “Is that a Bible you have in your hands, good sir?”
“Yes. It is,” he said, “The King James Bible.”
“It looks very heavy,” she said. “Would you wish to set it down upon my picnic table?”
“Would that be okay?” he asked.
“Yes. It would be okay,” she said.
“Thank you, good miss,” he said. And he set it down upon her picnic table.
“Would you like to join me at my picnic table, sir?” she asked.
“I would be glad to sit with you, miss,” he said. “Are you a real cheerleader?”
“Uh huh,” she said with a favorable nod. And he sat down across from her.
Looking upon her chenille emblem across her cheerleader sweater, he asked her, “Is that your name?”
“Bretoney,” she said. “Yes. My name is Bretoney Reynes.”
“I am Flanders,” he said. “Flanders Nickels.”
“Do you know God, Flanders?” she asked.
“I surely do,” he said. “I’m a born-again Christian.”
Page 5
“I know God, too, but I am not a born-again Christian like you are,” said the cheerleader in blue and gold.
“A girl cannot know God unless she is a born-again Christian,” he said right to her in some gentle rebuke. “Only born-again believers can know the true God.”
“I have been thinking a lot about Jesus lately, Flanders,” she said.
“That’s good, girl,” he said. “That’s a start.”
“Is there more to it?” she asked.
“Every lost person needs to get saved,” he said. “My pastor always says to me, ‘You can’t get a person saved until you get him to know that he is lost.’”
“I think that I may be lost right now with the way my life suddenly is,” said Bretoney.
“Maybe I can help, Bretoney,” he said.
“I’d like that, Flanders,” she said.
“God is doing great things for me right now, Bretoney. I am so excited. And I think that you might be the one that God has sent my way to God’s glory for this day,” confided this strange and good new man.
“How come, Flanders?” she asked. “Ooo, do tell me!”
“I never got to talk to a real cheerleader before. And I never got to tell a real cheerleader before about God like this. And you are so pretty, Miss Reynes, even for a cheerleader!” he said so much to her so concisely. “I think that this will be the very day of your very salvation, girl!”
“That sounds like good news for me, Flanders,” she said. “Why do you think that all this might happen for me?”
“I know a Bible passage in Luke 21:29-31 that was like a dream in my heart as a lonely Christian soul-winner and as a believer who wants the Lord to come,” he said to her. He opened up his tome of a Holy Bible upon this picnic table, searched this Scripture, and read it out loud to her: “And
Page 6
he spake unto them a parable; Behold the fig tree, and all the trees; When they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand. So likewise ye, when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand.” Then he looked up at her and said, “So, what do you think, Bretoney?”
“What’s it say, Flanders?” she asked,
“In its context, it says that when certain signs come to pass on this Earth, that Jesus is coming soon,” he said. “Like when a fig tree blossoms, one knows that summer is near.”
“I can see that these verses mean something for you personally, Flanders,” she said.
“I like to believe that. And now I know for sure,” he said.
“Tell a cheerleader your dream,” she said of the desires of his heart all about these Bible verses.
“To me these three verses had always told me that the day that the Good Lord brings a cheerleader my way to witness to, that that day is not far from the rapture,” he explained his zeal to her and for her.
“So your coming to me like this is like a sign from God for you that He is coming soon,” asked Miss Reynes, intrigued and fascinated by this devout man of God.
“This rapture is the only thing more exciting to me than cheerleaders, Bretoney Reynes,” he confided to her.
“I am afraid of the Lord’s coming,” she said. “And I do not think about the rapture any.”
“If you get saved, you will look forward to the Lord’s coming, Bretoney,” he said. “And after you get saved, you will always be thinking about the rapture.”
“It must be a good thing to get saved,” she said.
“It is the greatest decision that you need to make in your life,” he said.
“I must say, Flanders, I am beginning to see that maybe God did bring you here for me this day,” said Miss Reynes.
Page 7
“The rapture of the believers happens first; then the Second Coming of Jesus happens seven years later,” Flanders preached to her in love for the Word of God.
“Then what happens in between the two?” she asked.
“The tribulation—this Earth’s darkest days,” he said.
“I hope not to be stuck down here then, Flanders,” she said.
“If you become born-again, you will be in Heaven during that time, as I will be,” he told her.
“That’s good, real good,” she said.
“Only born-again men and women and children get to go to Heaven,” Flanders said to her.
“I have not come to this park now for a long time now,” she said. “But now that I am here again, and hearing you say the things you say, I can see that this park looks like a good park for a born again person to read his Holy Bible and pray his prayers outside.”
“I come to this park all of the time, Bretoney,” he said. “And, yes, I read my Bible and I pray my prayers at this park here outside in God’s weather.”
“I can see your Bible,” she said. “Your arms must get tired bringing this big Book here all of the time in the summers out here.”
“It’s worth it,” he said.
“Do you worship your Jesus at these picnic tables or in the grass?” she asked.
“Most of the time my worship here at Wells Park takes place in my favorite two big rocks out there, O Bretoney,” he said, and he pointed out toward the river with his hand.
“You mean in the Fox River?” she asked.
“The one rock out in the river; and the other rock right at the edge of the river,” he said,
“Novel indeed!” said the cheerleader in blue and gold. “Could I see these two rocks, Flanders?”
“What a way to start out my dream first date with a cheerleader!” he said. “I’d like that more than anything else right now!”
Page 8
“I’ll follow,” she said.
“Follow me,” he said. And he led her to the first rock. And she saw a flat-topped pair of rocks out into the river a few feet and above the river’s surface as it flowed past. The way these two rocks were resting there was perfect for a man to sit down upon and have his bottom dry and comfortable and his feet wet and comfortable. And these rocks were out in the open under the warm sun of Wisconsin.
Bretoney Reynes asked, “Do you have great times out here on that set of rocks with God?”
“I remember how I finished up reading my Bible cover-to-cover out there for my very first time,” he said in reminiscence. “For one-and-one-quarter years I was reading my Holy Bible, hopping around from book-to-book randomly, and I came to the book of Amos. After I was to finish reading the book of Amos, then I had finished reading the whole King James Version Bible completely. I took my Bible out onto that rock underneath the sun, and I read the first eight chapters of the nine chapters of Amos. Then I got up, and walked over to my other rock to read chapter nine. And as I walked, I sang the great hymn “Holy! Holy! Holy!” to myself. And then I sat down on the other rock, and I consummated reading God’s Good Book for my first time.”
“Did you celebrate, Flanders?” asked Bretoney.
“The next day I started reading my King James Bible for my second time, Bretoney,” Flanders told her.
“What a Christian,” she said in compliment. “I love this rock. Could I see your second rock?”
“Follow me, O Bretoney,” he said.
“I’ll follow, Flanders,” she said.
And he led her to that second rock. And she saw what really was a large flat-topped piece of concrete upon the land of shore right up against the river. This rock was shrouded with shade amid little branches and many leaves. And it sloped downward with the sloping shore. Were the summer day too hot for the first rock, it would not be too hot for this second rock with its cool comfortable
Page 9
shade.
“Do you remember many good things about this rock, Flanders?” she asked.
“Oh yes, Bretoney,” he said. “I remember all of those days where I have my index card notebook of Bible verses with me here, and I memorize Scripture in this shade, and I stretch out my legs and have my feet in the river as I do memorize.”
“You make memorizing sound fun, Flanders,” said Miss Reynes.
“It is if it is the Word of God,” he said. “’Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.’ Psalm 119:11.”
“Do you have a favorite rock between these two?” she asked.
“This one,” he said. “I want to be praying right here one summer night for two hours, and I want to be on this rock in the dark when the rapture happens and I leave this Earth and come to Heaven.”
“This is where you want your last place on Earth to be,” said the cheerleader in blue and gold.
“Yes! Yes!” he said.
“It is a beautiful rock. And the other rock is a beautiful rock,” said Miss Reynes.
“Thank you, Bretoney,” he said.
“I now know some about your life as a Christian, Flanders,” said the cheerleader.
“Could I hear some about your life as a cheerleader, Bretoney?” he asked.
“Oh, I will most gladly tell you all about my life as a cheerleader,” said Miss Reynes.
He and she walked back to the picnic table and sat down, and Bretoney said, “Where should I begin?”
“Begin at the beginning,” he recommended.
“As good as the beginning is, it is just as good ever since,” said the cheerleader. “I remember my first day as a cheerleader. I remember the first time that I had put on my cheerleader uniform. I
Page 10
remember what everybody said and thought when they saw me in this for their first time. Mom took one look at me, and she said four wonderful words: ‘My daughter the cheerleader.’ Dad saw me for my first time in this, and he said to me, ‘My daughter is growing up fast.’ Big Brother was at a loss for words, but ended up saying, ‘Little Sister, looking good.’ Big Sister said to me, ‘I used to be a cheerleader, Little Sister. I know how it feels.’ Little Brother wondered upon the new me for a moment, then said, ‘Big Sister, you’re going to have lots of boyfriends dressed in that.’ And Little Sister said, ‘When I get to high school, I will be a cheerleader, too. Big Sister.’ All of my family loved me and approved of me being a cheerleader right from the start, and they were with me all the way ever since. Indeed not a day goes by where I do not have this on from the time I get up to the time I go to bed.”
“It must be comfortable, Bretoney,” said Flanders Nickels.
“Oh, it is,” said Bretoney.
“It looks comfortable,” he said.
“Oh, it is,” said the cheerleader.
“What is a cheerleader uniform made of, Bretoney?” he asked.
Putting her hand to a main blue pleat and raising its edge before him, she said, “This cheerleader skirt is made of polyester double knit.” Then putting her hand to her right blue cuff and wrapping her fingers around it, she said, “And this cheerleader sweater is made of Orlon Acrylic.”
“It shines in blue, and it shines in gold,” he said.
“These kinds of fabric do that,” she said.
“Then what did you do after you presented yourself to your family that first day?” asked Flanders.
“Then I went to the football game and cheered for my first time in my cheerleader’s outfit,” she said.
Page 11
“I bet that you really had fun doing that, Bretoney,” he said.
“I had the best time of my life,” she said. “There I was, standing with my fellow cheerleaders on the track and field lanes that went around the football field, and everybody could see me there as I was. All of the football players behind me could see me. All of the fans in the bleachers before me could see me. My fellow cheerleaders could see me. What an exciting night that was for me in my first time. I cheered. I chanted. I sang out cheer leading songs. I shouted out for our team. I hopped about. I skipped about. I spun about in place. I kicked up my legs. I got lifted up by a strong boy cheerleader. I got caught by a strong boy cheerleader. I threw little footballs into the bleachers. I caught little footballs thrown back from the bleachers. I held up cheer signs before the fans. I had the fans cheer back to me for our team. I hollered through a megaphone. And this was Homecoming for our high school. And when it was all done, our team had won the big game. And the hunk of a boy cheerleader who threw me and who caught me asked me out for homecoming, and I said, ‘Yes.’ His name was Proffery, and he was a real gentleman with me, and he treated me very kindly. And after the Homecoming dance, he took me to Dairy Queen, and we each had a large chocolate ice cream cone—my favorite restaurant food of any restaurant food.”
“What a first day and what a first night for a brand new cheerleader like yourself, Bretoney,” said Flanders.
Just then a seagull flew down from above and lighted upon the short green grass of this park off to the side of this picnic table. It stood there, looked upon man and woman, and gave forth a melodic little seagull call.
Flanders spoke and said, “A seagull, a beautiful creation of the Creator,”
And Bretoney spoke and said, “A seagull, the very symbol of how Zack makes me feel.”
“Zack,” said Flanders.
“Zack,” said the cheerleader, uncertain now suddenly with this good man of God.
Page 12
“Is he a boyfriend?” asked Flanders.
“Kind of like a husband waiting for me in Heaven,” she dared to say to this devout Christian with her here at this picnic table.
“Are you a widow already?” asked Flanders in compassion, but definitely in misunderstanding.
“I have never married,” said Bretoney. “But I thought to marry Zack when I get to Heaven.”
“This man must have stolen your heart,” said Flanders.
“He is not a man,” said Miss Reynes.
“He is not?” asked Flanders, patiently finding out all about her past that she had not yet told him.
“He is a Collie dog,” she said.
“Oh, like Lassie,” he said.
“But more than Lassie,” said Bretoney Reynes. “He is my angel.”
“You know your angel?” he asked, definitely intrigued and very curious now.
“I thought I did, Flanders,” she said. “But now I am not so sure about him.”
“Seagulls make you think about him,” said Flanders.
“Beautiful seagulls sing and fly about in the air and live in the freeness of the skies,” she said. “Zack always made me feel the same way. In my old love for Zack, my heart was free and in the skies and happy.”
“I sit here in doubt about the goodness of this Zack,” said Flanders.
“He and I were going to run the Elysian Fields and the Elysian Shores of Heaven for ever together,” said this cheerleader about this Collie dog angel.
“This sounds not at all to me like a match made in Heaven,” warned Bible-learned Flanders.
She sighed and said, “It is hard to break up after twelve happy years for me like that.”
“If a girl breaks up with an angel like this, as you say, first she must have been with him
Page 13
in a real relationship with him,” said Flanders, thinking out loud.
“It was definitely a real relationship,” said Bretoney. “And it was definitely the most long distance romance possible. He loved me from Heaven. I loved him from Earth.”
She looked out upon the beautiful seagull, and it flew up into the air, and it lighted upon the top of the streetlight post, and it looked down upon them.
Then she said, “Funny how that real seagull knows nothing about my Zack.”
“It sounds like you were head-over-heels in love with this Collie angel,” said Flanders.
“Indeed. Were I to have to choose between Zack and cheer leading, I would definitely choose Zack,” confessed Bretoney.
“Literary people call that kind of love, ‘star-crossed love,’” said Flanders.
“What do you call such a love that a cheerleader had for a devildog, before she found out the truth about him?” asked Miss Reynes.
“People with hindsight say, ‘Love is blind,’” said Flanders.
“I call it now ‘blind love,’” said the cheerleader.
“Did this Zack tell you things?” asked Flanders.
“He always kept saying to me, ‘Do not worship Jesus the Son of God.’” confessed Bretoney.
“Did you believe him when he said that to you?” asked Flanders.
“I did,” she said.
“Do you believe him now?” asked the born-again believer.
“I doubt him now,” she said.
“Would you like to worship Jesus the Son of God, Bretoney?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” she said. “I don’t know if I need to. I got rid of all of my feelings for Zack.
I no longer love him. I repented of the sin that would have sent me to Hell. I am even reconciled now to a Heaven without my Collie. A lot has happened to me in my First Week of Seven Days. Five days
Page 14
have passed for me since then. And I do not miss him yet. I can say that I am all over with Zack.”
“Bretoney, do hear me and take most urgent heed to what I have to say to you now,” he said to her with the voice of the authority of a child of God. “Do not take assurance in any salvation where Christ is not your Saviour, even if you believe to have repented fully of your sin.”
“There is more to getting saved than giving up Zack for his evil?” asked the cheerleader.
“It is written, ‘When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he saith, I will return unto my house whence I came out. And when he cometh, he findeth it swept and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh to him seven other spirits more wicked than himself; and they enter in, and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first.’ Luke 11:24-26,” quoted Flanders most convicting Scripture.
“So, if I lose my one demon, that same demon comes back and brings seven other demons back with him,” said Miss Reynes, unsure of her spiritual state now quite justifiably.
“And your last state for yourself will be far worse than was your first state,” he said.
“Who then can save me from him?” she asked, rediscovering her fear of Zack coming back for her to drag her down to Hell.
“Jesus saves,” said Flanders a most true and encouraging saying of Christians everywhere.
“Jesus must be stronger than Zack,” said Bretoney, clinging to this hope of Christ Whom she did not yet know.
“He is God,” said Flanders.
“God is stronger than Zack,” she said in confession.
Young man and young woman then saw the seagull that was upon the lamppost now fly away back toward the other side of the wide river. And the cheerleader said, “I’m glad he flew away. Wily Zack was tempting me with that seagull to fall back in love with him.”
And the born-again Christian now began to preach the Saviour of the world unto a cheerleader
Page 15
who was his captive audience at a picnic table here at Wells Park:
“Jesus Christ is both the Son of God and also God the Son. He is the Second Person of the trinity of God. And He has always been. There was never a time when this Jesus did not exist. He has lived in eternity past in the glories of Heaven, ever at the right hand side of God the Father. And His time came for him to leave the comforts of Heaven and to walk this Earth among men. He was to redeem fallen mankind. That was why He had come. Begotten by the Holy Spirit and conceived in the womb of the virgin Mary, baby Jesus was born into this world in a stable in Bethlehem. This was called ‘Christ’s First Coming,’ or ‘Christ’s First Advent.‘ All of the people of the Earth know this as Christmas. God had become a Man. And as a Man, He was fully God and fully human at the same time. And, being God, He was the Man Who never sinned. He was perfect. When Jesus turned thirty years of age, He began His three-year ministry to the world as He walked about the holy land two thousand years ago. In those three years, He continually proved His deity by way of performing miracles and healings, and He steadfastly preached salvation to all who did want to hear and to all who did not want to hear, and He took upon Him twelve Apostles to serve Him. Then, at thirty-three years of age, His time to die had come. Jesus always knew that He had come to Earth in order to die for every human being of all this world, past and present and future. This sinless Messiah was to die for all of my sins and for all of your sins and for all of everybody’s else sins. And His death was to be by crucifixion.” Flanders then paused and opened his big Bible upon the picnic table to Isaiah chapter 53, and he read it to her as she listened most humbly: “Who hath believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But
Page 16
he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? For he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.
Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.”
Bretoney took in this Word of God in its twelve verses, and she said, “Christ died a painful death for all of us. Didn’t He?”
“His perfect, sinless, pure blood He did shed for you and for me. Bretoney,” said Flanders Nickels about the cross of Calvary.
“I heard about how they drove big spikes through His hands and through His feet upon this cross,” said Bretoney. “That really happened. Didn’t it?”
“It surely did,” said Flanders. “He willingly submitted His body to the cross.”
“Jesus did that just for me,” said Miss Reynes.
“God’s love for us is perfect love,” said Flanders.
Page 17
“Zack never did anything like that for me,” said Miss Reynes.
“Zack never loved you like Jesus loves you, Bretoney,” said Flanders.
“I can see now that Zack, being a demon, was interested in me only as long as he could make sure that I end up down in Hell with him someday.” said the cheerleader.
“It looks to me that he has been busy playing with your woman’s emotions these last twelve years just to keep you from seeking Jesus all this time,” said Flanders.
“I was so busy loving Zack, that I never went to find something better,” said Bretoney. “This Jesus is that something better that I now want for myself, Flanders.”
“Zack kept you from the Gospel,” said Flanders.
“What exactly is this mysterious Gospel that Christians go around door to door and tell people about?” asked the cheerleader.
“It is the truth that Jesus died for our sins and rose again the third day,” defined Flanders the Gospel.
“So there. It did not end with Jesus’s death on the cross,” said Miss Reynes.
“It only started with Jesus’s death on the cross. It ended with His resurrection from the dead on the third day,” said Flanders.
“The God Who died long ago is the God Who lives right now,” said Bretoney Reynes.
“We call it today ‘Easter,’” said Flanders, “the holiday honoring Christ’s resurrection.”
“Christ arose,” she said for her first time.
“And on the fortieth day, this same Jesus ascended back up to Heaven to again be at His Father’s right hand side.” said Flanders.
“He came back Home after His work on Earth was done,” said Miss Reynes with spiritual insight.
“His work in Heaven for us—you and me—continues still, O Bretoney,” said Flanders.
Page 18
“You have a cheerleader to win to Christ,” said Bretoney.
“There is room in Heaven for a cheerleader,” said Flanders.
How did Bretoney make spiritual love with a devildog Collie all these twelve years past? This romance was four main things that she called “branches.” And Zack gave her the names of these branches: “Wizardry,” “Magic,” “Sorcery,” “Necromancy.” These words were defined differently by Zack and Bretoney than they were in the dictionary for their own purposes, but they were still, nonetheless, most occult and chief of sins.
What was this Wizardry? This was her writing hobby with and for and about Zack. Bretoney Reynes had written many short stories about herself and Zack interacting with each other in fantasy lands. What she wrote was fiction, but with Zack it felt delightfully non-fiction. When her pencil moved across the paper, she was virtually “with Zack.” And when she pushed down the keys to her electronic typewriter, Zack was “with her.” Indeed this Wizardry was half of what she had written in her filing cabinet. Indeed half of all that Zack was to her was this Wizardry. She had hoped to get published someday so that others could read her dog stories. In one of her hallmark Wizardry stories, Zack was even called “the Wizard of the Heavens.” And she had four branches within this branch of writings, which she called, “first drafts, typings, rewrites, and editions.” The first three were self-explanatory. But editions were her work of editing her best stories meticulously, originally seeking to turn four words of story into three words of story or three words of story to two words of story. This editing was for the cause of conciseness, which she had heard was good for stories. She had once considered her first editions to be professional; her second editions to be publishable; her third editions to be published. They were none of them published yet. She could see now that that was all right.
What was this Magic? This was all of the dog songs out there that she loved to listen to. She had previously called this, “Magic of song.” The genres of music that was Magic for Bretoney was pop rock and country. It was the popular music throughout the 1970’s and the 1980’s. In her life of Magic
Page 19
she listened to the radio, surfing the radio dial in search of a good song to think about Zack with. She also played records on her record player—both singles and albums—daydreaming about Zack with the music. She also played cassette tapes on her little boombox to feel her love for Zack. She also sang in her heart all the time sweet romantic ballads of these times, expressing her love for Zack her beloved.
Her favorite of favorites among Magic she did call “Heralds.”
What was this Sorcery? This was watching on TV music videos and making believe to tell others all about her special Collie dog angel. MTV and VH-1 abounded with such videos for her.
And Friday nights on the TV show Friday Night Videos was a most delightful way for her to start out her weekends off from work. It was a most idyllic fantasy to pretend to tell someone about her true Collie dog love as the music played on these videos. One of these videos so filled her up with unbridled passion that she called that certain video, “my Coveted.” Indeed a great part of Sorcery was her blank VCR tapes upon which she had recorded many videos off from the TV to watch and hear over again.
What was this Necromancy? It was listening to Zack tell her things in silent thoughts into her heart. She would lie down upon the top of her bed in the dark, wait for Zack to start communicating to her, and then take in the divine peace of these thought-words into her spirit. It was also sitting by her bedroom window in the front in the day time or sitting by her kitchen window in the back in the day time, and “hearing” what Zack had to say to her soul. Nothing else in her life had given her such peace as this Necromancy. This branch was even more peaceful than were her talks with God in her religion life. Indeed Necromancy went on to supplant her prayers in her life recently. She now knew that this was a false peace.
Bretoney, alone with Flanders at this picnic table, began to see these branches of Zack now in a more thorough way. She began to realize that her Wizardry stories were not so great and glorious as she had thought. None were accepted by any publisher. Some had ten drafts, but they never got any
Page 20
better than the first draft; they had started out short and inadequate and poor, and they ended up long and complicated and confusing. And her Magic all got old to her. After having heard her many songs over and over, they all lost their charm on her, and they “died” on her. As for Sorcery, these days were days of waning for music videos. Friday Night Videos were televising less and less music videos and more and more things that were not music videos. Soon videos would be all gone, and Sorcery would be no more for her. And so vaunted Necromancy: It had taken out prayer in her life of religion, but now it was taking itself out from her. So deep was her disappointment when she could no longer feel Necromancy on the bus ride home anymore; for some reason it just left her. And now her Necromancy was just a sweet memory; and Necromancy was no longer anything that she could do in her apartment, though she tried real hard to get it back.
Here with Flanders at the park, Bretoney Reynes went on to say, “Flanders, save me from Zack.”
And he began to lead her through the popular Romans’ Road of salvation verses with his great big King James Version Bible:
He showed her Romans 3:23, and she read it out loud, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;”
He preached to the cheerleader this verse, “This means that every last man, woman, boy, girl have a sin nature within them. We are all filled with sin. And you and I do sin. Even the great men and women in the Bible all sinned badly. The only Man Who never sinned was Jesus Christ Himself.”
“My sins are the worst,” said Bretoney. “I fell in love with a demon.”
Then Flanders showed her Romans 5:8, and she read it out loud, “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
Flanders preached a message on this verse, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. This man is Jesus. The Lord did not die for good people, Bretoney. There
Page 21
are no good people outside of Christ. Nor did Christ wait for us to go and clean up our acts first. Nay, instead Jesus died for no-good, dirty, rotten sinners, who can do nothing of their own to please the holy and righteous God above. This is agape love, the love so great that only the Lord possesses it. And such love from God is manifested in the sacrifice on the cross of His only begotten Son Jesus Christ.”
Bretoney said to this, “He loved me even when I was making love to a devildog. He died for me because of Zack. Jesus loves me. This I know now.”
Flanders then showed her Romans 5:9, and she read this verse out loud, too: “Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.”
Flanders preached this verse to her hearing ears, “My Baptist church down the road sings all the good old songs of the faith. Four such hymns are called, ‘Nothing but the Blood,’ ‘Are You Washed in the Blood?’ ‘Saved by the Blood,’ and ‘There is Power in the Blood.’ It is the shed blood of Jesus at Calvary that saves all who believe. Being a Christian, all of my sins are covered by the blood of the Lamb. This doctrine we Christians call ‘the blood atonement.’ And this wrath that I am saved from is truly the fires of Hell. And we Baptists define ‘being justified,’ as ‘just as if we have never sinned.’”
“I heard about the big nails through His hands and through His feet when they nailed Him to the cross. I heard about a scourging that they gave Him with a cat-o-nine-tails. I heard about a crown of thorns pressed down into His head. I heard about a spear thrust into his side,” said Miss Reynes in recollections.
Flanders then went on to show the cheerleader Romans 5:12, and she read this out loud: “Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.”
Flanders preached this verse to her at this picnic table, “You know about the Garden of Eden, Bretoney. It was a sinless paradise of the beginning of the world. But Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s commandment to not eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Eve sinned first; then
Page 22
Adam sinned second. Mankind now brought sin into creation. And this sin brought its curse upon the garden, upon mankind, upon all of nature, and upon all the world. Adam and Eve were exiled from the Garden of Eden. But their sin nature has since passed down from generation to generation throughout all the races of this world. And now this Earth is full of people lost and going to Hell.”
The cheerleader said, “I understand this verse now. Because we all sin, that is why we all have sicknesses and injuries and growing old and passing away.”
Flanders then showed her Romans 6:23, and she read it out loud, “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Flanders gave a little sermon on this salvation verse, “The wages of even one sin is death. This death is not only the ‘first death,’ which is the death of the physical body, but it is also the ‘second death,’ which is the casting of the soul into the lake of fire. When a person sins, he reaps a harvest, and this harvest is death and Hell, Bretoney. But there is hope. This is Christ, Who is the hope of glory. This Jesus offers all of us a most precious present—a free gift—and this is everlasting life with Him up
in the glories of Heaven. This gift of God is salvation. And salvation is by grace through faith. It cannot be earned or bought or worked for. Salvation is free.”
“I like that a lot, Flanders,” said the searching cheerleader. “All that I need to do to accept this gift is to reach out for it and take it and say, ‘Thank You, Jesus.’”
Flanders Nickels then went on to show Miss Reynes Romans 10:9-10, and she read these two verses out loud, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” Then the cheerleader said, “Preach it to me, Flanders.”
He said to her, “You know how the Gospel of salvation goes now.”
“Uh huh,” she said, “Christ died for my sins, and then Christ rose again on the third day.”
Page 23
Flanders went and preached these pair of verses to her as she requested, “If you were the only person of all the Earth, Christ would still have gone to the cross only for you, Bretoney. Do you believe this in your heart?” She nodded most sincerely. “If you were the only sinner in a world of sinless people, Christ would still have gone to the cross just for you. Do you believe this unto righteousness, Bretoney?” he asked. She nodded, this time more surely. “Do you believe in the resurrection, the more important part of the bipartite Gospel, O Bretoney?” he asked. “Are you ready now to confess this Gospel in a prayer unto your own salvation?” She gave two nods with her head in most sincere profession of Christ.
And the cheerleader in blue and gold confessed, “I believe, Flanders. I believe.”
He then turned to the last verse of this Romans’ Road and showed it to her. It was Romans 10:13, and she read this great promise from the Bible out loud: “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
“Are you ready for so great salvation?” asked Flanders, the soul of this special so-pretty cheerleader now fully ready to receive the Saviour of the world.
“I believe,” she said again in all truth. “I believe.”
She was ready. “Let us pray and get you saved now, girl.” he said in good hearty cheer and confidence.
Just then a contented groaning came in upon them off to the side of the picnic table not far away off in the direction of the river. Bretoney looked first, and wonder shone upon her countenance. Then Flanders looked and he felt his countenance fall upon fear. Before man and woman here at the park stood a terrifying Collie dog with wings. Never before had Flanders ever seen such a creature as this. But he knew who it must be. “Zack!” he called forth in a bold challenge in the Lord.
“Zack,” called forth the cheerleader in a most inexplicable tone of affection.
“My love Bretoney,” sang forth this scary devildog.
Page 24
“Brown eyes the light of God,” said Bretoney about this supernatural Collie.
His eyes were really red like a demon’s.
“Large white wings like those of Gabriel,” said Miss Reynes.
His wings were really brown like a dragon’s.
“A true tri-color of a Collie,” said the cheerleader.
He was really a Blue Merle Collie.
“Facial markings of perfect symmetry,” said the lost girl.
His facial markings were most asymmetrical.
“Beautiful white fore paw meant for my hand to hold forever,” said the deceived young woman.
His fore paw had toenails long and sharp and like a tiger’s claws.
“A tail full of tan and white,” said the woman still in love.
His tail was all jet black.
“You’ve come to take me Up,” said Bretoney Reynes most terrible untruth in her affections.
He had come to take her down.
“Bretoney! Bretoney!” exhorted Flanders Nickels. “He is not whom he seems to be!”
“Isn’t he resplendent, Flanders?” asked the former lover of the Collie.
“He is an angel of light, O Bretoney Reynes,” warned Flanders in desperate fear of losing this cheerleader to the Devil when she had been so close to being won for God. “He is not truly beautiful.
He is making himself look beautiful to you with his tricks as a demon.”
“Flanders, you’re crazy!” snapped the woman. “Just look at him. No man ever looked as handsome as my Zack, finally come to show himself to me for our first time.”
“It is written,” began Flanders in desperate searching to show this comely cheerleader the truth of Zack standing before them now, “’And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.’ II Corinthians 11:14.”
Page 25
Suddenly Bretoney’s expression of affection for this Zack turned into an expression of fear. And she stammered in fright, “Zack, now you look like Satan.”
As is the Devil, so, too, are his demons.
Now the devildog Zack gave forth most discontent growling.
“You lied to me, Zack!” cried out the cheerleader in dismay.
“Bretoney,” said Flanders, seeking to edify her in her time of her soul’s greatest danger, “it is written, ‘…, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat:’ Luke 22:31.”
Zack spoke now in a most discordant and guttural screech, saying, “O man of God, O woman of mine, O Jesus my Enemy, ‘What have I to do with Thee, Jesus, Thou Son of the most high God? I adjure Thee by God, that Thou torment me not!’”
With the power of the Holy Spirit, Flanders Nickels said to this devildog, “I rebuke you, demon dog, in the name of Jesus!”
Mighty Zack trembled now before the two in all four of his limbs.
This demon feared Jesus and His name.
In further encouragement of the girl, Flanders said, “It is also written, Bretoney, ‘Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.’ James 4:7.”
Fighting back against the man of God just as Satan fights God, Zack spoke another curse at Jesus, this time in a rasping voice of a group of demons, saying, “O man of Christ, O woman of mine, O dread God, ‘What have we to do with Thee, Jesus, Thou Son of God? Art Thou come hither to torment us before the time?’”
With the force of the Holy Spirit, Flanders further assaulted this demon Collie, saying now to him, “O Zack of Hell, get thee hence in the name of Jesus!”
Succumbing to the Word of God, Zack began to back away on his four paws most uncertainly and in some confusion.
Page 26
The name of Jesus was stronger than the devildog of Zack’s name.
In conclusive exhortation to this cheerleader, Flanders told her, “It is also written, Bretoney, ‘Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:’ I Peter 5:8.”
In one last effort, Zack spoke in a hoarse voice of eight demons, “O Christian soldier, O daughter of mine, O Almighty God Above, ‘Let us alone; what have we to do with Thee, Thou Jesus of Nazareth: art Thou come to destroy us? I know Thee Who Thou art, the Holy One of God.’”
In seeking to finish off Zack, Flanders said to him with the might of the Holy Spirit of God, “Zack, Zack, get thee behind me in the name of Jesus!”
“Flanders, he’s running away!” said Miss Bretoney Reynes in awe and rejoicing.
Behold, Zack was fleeing! And he quickly lifted up into the sky to get away from not only Flanders, but also from Bretoney herself, too. The devildog in his hasty flight quickly began to fly across the Fox River.
“I hope he falls and drowns,” said the cheerleader.
Flanders picked up on this with experienced faith in God, and he quickly prayed and asked, “God, could you make Zack fall and drown right now?”
Looking up, Bretoney Reynes said, “He is so high so fast that I can hardly see him now.”
Lo, the thunderous voice of God the Father spoke down from Heaven unto the Earth, saying the words of Luke 10:18, “I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven!”
Bretoney heard these eight words. Flanders heard these eight words. Zack heard these eight words.
Lo, suddenly Zack came crashing down from the heavens, fell down right into the Fox River, and sank to the bottom of the big wide river, and did not come up to the surface. Flanders and Bretoney stared at the place where he had crashed, waited a long moment, and Miss Reynes said,
Page 27
“Zack is drowned,” and Flanders said, “Zack is dead.”
God had smitten dead the devildog.
After a long while of thoughts and pondering, the cheerleader said. “Is Zack in Hell now and never coming back to tempt me again, Flanders?”
“Zack is in Hell now and never coming back to tempt you again, Bretoney,” assured Flanders.
“Will I never have to worry about him coming back within me like he had all those years, Flanders?” asked the cheerleader girl.
“Once we get you born again, Bretoney, the Holy Spirit of God will come to indwell you instead. And once you get the Holy Spirit indwelling you, He will keep any evil spirits from coming within you ever again for ever and ever,” said Flanders Nickels.
“Flanders, I think that it is time for you to get your cheerleader good and saved right now,” said Bretoney Reynes.
“There is always room for a cheerleader Up in God’s Good Heaven, girl,” said Flanders Nickels.
And there at a picnic table with a cute man at Wells Park, the cheerleader Bretoney went on to pray the sinners’ prayer with her own words of her own heart unto true salvation: “Dear God in Heaven: I am a sinner. I have sinned in experimenting with Satanic occult. That makes me the chief of sinners. I am sorry, Lord. Please forgive me for all of my sins. Please make me clean now. I know that two thousand years ago, Your Son Jesus Christ the Lord died on the cross and shed His blood for my sins two thousand years later. I know that Jesus lives today and is a living God that still saves souls. I ask You now, God, to please become my personal Saviour, rescue my soul from Hell and keep my soul for Heaven. For forever. Thank You, Jesus, for saving my soul. In Jesus’s name I pray. Amen.”
“Amen! Amen! Amen!” said Flanders in exultation of this cheerleader’s so great conversion.
Page 28
“I did it. Didn’t I?” asked Bretoney. “I got saved just now just like that!”
“The saints in Heaven and your admirer in this park are rejoicing now with you, girl,” said Flanders.
“I most of all, O Flanders,” said the cheerleader. “I’m a Christian now.”
And in gratitude for what he had just done for her and in the romance of the moment for this handsome guy Bretoney gave Flanders a good long hug.
He did not yet hug her back as he was in her embrace. “Whoa! I’ve never been hugged by a cheerleader before, woman,” he said, shy about romance matters.
“I’m really really sorry,” said the cheerleader.
“I like it, woman,” he said now, and he let himself hug this cheerleader right back.
“I like it, too, Flanders,” she said.
And they embraced each other for a very long while. And at last they drew apart.
“That was almost as exciting as seeing you get saved, Bretoney,” he said.
“That was better than anything that I had done with the dog,” she said about Zack.
“We’ve got to do that again some time,” he said.
“Many more times, boyfriend,” she said.
“What do you think about doing the other thing?” he asked.
“The other thing?” she asked. “Oh, the other thing.”
“You know what I mean, Bretoney,” he said.
“A kiss?” she dared ask.
“A kiss on the lips if we both dare,” he said.
“Did you ever kiss another cheerleader, Flanders?” she asked.
“I have never even kissed a real girl before, Bretoney,” he confessed.
And suddenly the cheerleader Bretoney Reynes gave this shy guy a quick kiss on the lips.
Page 29
“Wooo, girlfriend!” he said.
“I know, boyfriend,” she said. “You’ve never been kissed by a cheerleader girl before.”
“Your kiss is sweeter than wine,” he said.
“Did you ever drink wine?” she asked in flirt.
“Lambrusco,” he said, “back in my unsaved days.”
“I used to drink wine coolers,” she said.
Then he said, “Your kiss is sweeter than wine coolers.”
Then she said, “I just got done kissing you, Flanders, and I did not say that I was really, really sorry this time.”
“It sure beat kissing a Collie dog. I’d bet, Bretoney,” he said in coquetry.
“Zack can’t kiss back,” she said in fun and games.
“We’ve got to do that again for now on,” he said.
“We will all the time,” she said.
“And to think that Heaven is even better than it is right now for the both of us here at this park,” he said.
“I heard about the rapture, Flanders,” she said. “Do you think that it might take place for us someday soon?”
“After that last soul gets saved, then we saints will get raptured, Bretoney,” he said, “that is, the last soul of this church age.”
“Do you think that I might have been that last soul to have gotten saved, Flanders?” she asked.
“If you were, that would be so good for the both of us,” he said.
“We would not have to wait to get to Heaven then,” she said.
“Heaven, girlfriend: you and I and Jesus forever together,” he said.
“Do you think that Jesus will let me continue being a cheerleader when I get There?” she asked.
Page 30
“I don’t know,” he said. “The Bible does not say anything about cheerleaders.”
“I will just have to wait till I get There and find out,” said the cheerleader in blue and gold.
He then proffered his hand and said, “Shall we walk about our park on a first date, Bretoney?”
She took his hand in her hand and said, “This cheerleader would be very happy to walk with her new boyfriend-in-the-Lord.”
Hand-in-hand they took their first step of this walk. Suddenly an archangel spoke from above with a summons. A trumpet was blown by an Almighty. And their personal Saviour spoke three words of proclamation: “Come up hither!” And this Jesus appeared in the clouds. The dead in Christ rose up to the skies to join Him. Then the living in Christ—Flanders and Bretoney included—also left this world to meet their Good Lord in the air. And so shall all Christians ever be with the Lord. Lo, the rapture of the church had just now taken place.
As it is written about Elijah the Old Testament prophet who was raptured alone long ago in an Old Testament miracle: “As it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. And Elisha saw it, and he cried, My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof. And he saw him no more. And he took hold of his own clothes, and rent them in two pieces.” II Kings 2:11-12.
“Maranatha, my Bretoney,” said Flanders on his way Up with her.
“Even so, come, Lord Jesus, my Flanders,” said Bretoney on her way Up with him.
Lo, the cheerleader and her boyfriend were thus snatched up to Heaven without first having to die. Great is the Jesus Christ of the translation of the believers. O blessed hope! O blissful promise!
Page 31
