CROWN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS
By Mr. Morgan P. McCarthy
“So can it come back unto me, O God,” he prayed, “like a phoenix arising out of ashes of death unto life anew and anon.” He was Flanders Nickels, a born-again believer in Christ, alone with his heavenly Father in prayer in his apartment. The cozy desk lamp cast a homey light down upon his table, and the beautiful fall air blew through the windows upon him. Yes, he thought, that was what he would call them now—the phoenix. In earlier days in his walk with Christ he had used to go to the high school games to see the cheerleaders. No, he neither thought unchristian thoughts nor strayed from Christian purity in his mind. He just delighted in admiration at the cheerleaders, and God let him. This phoenix was now his fondness for such. In days of ago, he had called such, “the heritage of his heart.” In all of his life even, cheerleaders were the most especial class of girls to him. But, however, over the years the styles of the uniforms changed, lessening their splendor continuously in his heart. The traditional cheerleader was now only a memory. And today he knew that cheerleaders had
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passed him by, and his life now was one without the games. Cheerleaders were no longer magic, and he gave them up. His thoughts in prayer next turned to a girl, a special girl. Her name was Heidi Personage. Heidi was the pretty girl who had wanted to be his girlfriend—the only pretty girl indeed who had ever wanted him to be her boyfriend. But those days for him had been dark and perilous days.
For back then he was still lost in his sins and not yet safe in Jesus’s arms. Then, at any moment, had he died, he would have gone to a Christless eternity in the flames of Hell, because he was not born again. Himself unsaved then, and Heidi saved and living for God then, she had told him, “It is a sin for a saved girl to date a lost boyfriend.” And Heidi said, “Good-bye,” to him with sorrow in her eyes. He had never understood why she thought that way until he himself got saved and got right with God later in life. Heidi was right. And Flanders knew, that for him, it would be just as sinful to now date a lost girlfriend now that he was saved himself. “It is written, O Lord,” he prayed, “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers.” Though he lived this commandment with allegiance and faithfulness, there still arose in him those times of lonesomeness and wistfulness. Even yet he had never known what it was like to have a girl at his side. Then his thoughts and his words to God turned to the most important thing missing in his life. It was something that his pastor called “the crown of righteousness.” Pastor said, “It is the crown for those who love the Lord’s appearing.” Pastor told Flanders that if he could learn to love the coming rapture of the saints while he was yet on the Earth, then he could get this crown of righteousness Up in Heaven. To Flanders this crown did symbolize a heart made whole toward Jesus Christ—that is, that he learned to love his personal Saviour with all of his heart. This was why he wanted to earn this most beautiful crown. Only then could he say down here in this world, “Jesus, more than anything else, I want to be with You.” But now his heart could only say, “I want to want to be with you.” Flanders wanted now to say to Him, “I wish to be with You, O Lord.” But even now in this prayer he could only say to God, “I wish to wish to be with You.” Flanders was not yet ready for the rapture; he was not yet ready for Heaven; he was not yet ready to
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meet the Lord Jesus Who loved him and Whom he did love. And in this blessed solitude, Flanders Nickels once again cried out to God for this crown of righteousness by which he could so glorify God
Up in Heaven.
Just then he heard the door to the apartment complex open down below and then shut. He listened and heard footsteps climbing up the wooden stairs. Then he heard a knock on his apartment door. Arising from his knees from his prayer, he came to his apartment door and opened it. Why, it was she! “Amen!” said his visitor. “Praise the Lord!”
“Heidi!” he said, and he paused in wonder.
“Heidi Personage,” she said, thinking to finish his utterance.
“I know!” he said in marvel. Why, “his” Heidi was dressed as a cheerleader—and as a traditional cheerleader at that! At the end of her cheerleader’s arm was the Holy Bible. As ever he had known her, Heidi’s hair was long and brown and straight and beyond her shoulders and pretty. She was tall for a girl. He had not forgotten that. And over her pretty eyes even now were pretty glasses. And she showed off her smile for him—this time with fetching and delightful braces covering her teeth. Covering her torso now was a long-sleeved cheerleader sweater of Orlon acrylic. The top half was white; the bottom half was maroon; and in between were gray stripes in diagonal and crisscrossing partitions. Her sleeves were also white on top and maroon at the ends, again with gray stripes dividing. Her cuffs were all of maroon. Across her sweater, in that field of white, was a maroon and gray chenille emblem that read, “HEIDI.” Covering her loins was a cheerleader skirt of polyester double knit. It was an eight-pleated skirt with double-pleats. The maroon pleats came alive with white inset pleats in-between. Covering her shins were maroon knee socks with three white stripes. And covering her feet were maroon sneakers with white shoelaces.
“Heidi, you’re a cheerleader now!” he said, finally finding his words again.
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“Uh huh!” she said in great pleasing confidence.
“You look great!” he exclaimed.
“Why, thank you,” she said. “I feel great.”
“And you are here,” he said.
“I heard that you went and got saved,” she said in great affection for him and Jesus.
“Yep!” he said. He looked upon Heidi’s Holy Bible in great admiration.
“It’s the King James, for sure, Flanders,” she said.
“The only true Good Book, Heidi,” he said.
“Would you like to hold my Bible, Flanders?” she asked.
“Would you like to share fellowship with an ‘old flame,’ Heidi?” he asked.
Both young man and young woman said, “Yes!” at the same time, and they laughed together.
Heidi Personage came into his home, and she and Flanders now had their first date together—both of them quite born again believers. Flanders delighted in the feel of Heidi’s own Bible now in his hands. Miss Personage said, “I was reading II Timothy the other day, and when I came to II Timothy 4:7-8, I had to stop and think. And when I did that, the Holy Spirit told me to go out with you and to show you those two verses for a reason I did not know why. So, here I am, sharing scripture with my cute guy who got saved.”
Not waiting any further, Flanders quickly looked up those two scripture verses in her Bible, and he did read them out loud for himself before her: “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.”
“So, Flanders, what do you think?” asked Heidi. “Is it something that God brought me here to show you, maybe?”
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“Indeed. Yes. Yes, Heidi,” he said in fervor. “It is the scripture of my life and of my afterlife.
It is the tale of what I do not have, but what I want the most to have. It is the gift that I want to give back to Jesus when I first kneel before Him Up There.”
“Maybe I can help, Flanders,” she said, “if God could use me.”
“I’d like that,” he said. “You’ve been saved for longer than you had been unsaved, Heidi.”
“I can see you gawking at my pleats, Flanders,” she said, and she shook her hips in tease.
He laughed with himself, and he said to her, “I never knew that you were a cheerleader, Heidi.
Your cheerleader uniform is just like they were in the good old days.”
“Back in high school I used to cheer on our varsity football team,” she said. “Today our God is using a former cheerleader to share His Word with a real cute guy.”
“Would you like to join me at my table, Heidi?” he asked.
“Is this a date?” she asked. He gave away a coy smile and said nothing. And the two eagerly sat at his table, her Bible on his table and his Bible on his table.
Just then a raucous screech pierced the air outside, and a creature swooped through the open window and manifested itself before them in this living room. Surely this was no earthly creature of God’s pan. Its form was that of a great lion; its head and wings were that of a great eagle. Why, this was a griffin—but a real griffin! It shrieked forth its wicked sounding again, its call reverberating in this room. Then it spoke coarse and grating words, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:” Then this griffin looked right at Heidi and mocked her, “Sift you as wheat! Sift you as wheat!”
Quickly Heidi grabbed Flanders’s hands at the table and bowed her head. “Dear Father,” she prayed, “it is written, ‘…O Lord God of Israel, which dwellest between the cherubims, thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; thou hast made heaven and earth.’ II Kings 19:15. In Jesus’s name. Amen.” She opened her eyes and looked up at Flanders. Flanders dared to turn back
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to the baneful creature.
With a scream, the griffin fled, swooping back out the window and back into the skies just as abruptly as it had come in from the skies.
“Heidi, what was that?” Flanders asked, frightened. “Was that griffin for real?”
“It was, Flanders. It is,” she said. “He is the Prideful Spirit. It was gone for a season, but has come back.”
“Is it a devil?” asked Flanders.
“A demon indeed,” she said. “Yes.” She pulled nervously on her brown bangs across her temple. Looking down, she confessed, “It had come out of myself the moment I got saved.” Flanders Nickels listened intently as Heidi Personage gave a testimony of her salvation: “When I was a little girl and did not yet know Christ, I wanted to become a witch when I grew up. I do not really know why. Maybe I thought that guys would find me attractive as a pretty, young witch. I was going to dress up in black tights and a black prom gown and a black witch hat. And young men would find me irresistible. Of course, with all of this in my heart, I went on to discover the great sin of the occult. I discovered an exciting supernatural relationship with an angel who said that he loved me. And I believed him. And I
loved him. He said that he was waiting to marry me in Heaven. I believed him there, also. Well, one day Mom and Dad got born again. And they at once told me about their new personal Saviour. Being their daughter, I believed them about what they told me about their Jesus. And I came to doubt my own angel for my first time. And not long later Mom and Dad convinced me of my own need for this Saviour of the world. And they led me through the sinners’ prayer unto my salvation. Yet, in my case, right after I got saved, my whole body began to shake in a great fit. I fell down in convulsions. I nearly died. Then a demonic beast came out of my body and flew away. It was my ‘angel’–that fallen angel whom you just saw right here, Flanders. When the Holy Spirit of God had come to indwell me that first moment I got saved, He kicked out that evil spirit the griffin. In His own wisdom, my God
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does allow even today my old griffin flame to torment me and to tempt me now and again. I do praise Jesus though, that now that old Prideful Spirit of Satan can only come against me from without now and can no longer possess me from within.”
“This is scary stuff, Heidi,” he said. “But it looks like Bible verses scare off griffins.”
“Yeah! Words of glory to God do burn fallen angels with fire,” said Miss Personage.
“Is it going to come back again sometime?” he asked.
“Yes, Flanders,” she said. “It is very proud, and it will come back.” She blew a sigh up upon her bangs.
“All you will need to do is shoot at it with another Bible verse, and it will go away again, Heidi,” he said in assurance.
“I do not know for sure what I will do the next time,” said Heidi.
“What are you saying?” he asked.
“What I am saying, Flanders, is that the next time it comes back, what will I do with it?” she asked. “Will I rebuke it, or will I hug it?”
“Hug that?” he asked, incredulous. “Heidi, that is the baleful Prideful Spirit.”
“Remember how I told you that we were going to get married,” she said of that griffin and herself. “I was once in love with that before I knew it was evil and before I became a Christian.”
“It lied to you, Heidi,” he said.
“I know, Flanders,” she said. “I know.”
“It’s going to Hell, and you are going to Heaven,” he said to her.
“Yes,” she said. “And even if it were going to Heaven, we could never marry Up There, you know, Flanders. The Bible says that there is no romance in Glory. For Up There, ‘there is neither marrying nor giving in marriage.’”
“And probably no dating in Heaven, either,” he said. “There are no husbands and wives
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living together in Heaven, according to that verse. And that means that there are no boyfriends and girlfriends getting together in Heaven, too, it seems.”
“Right after we get raptured, our hearts will become as unto the angels of God, and there shall never be magic of sweet innocent romance again,” uttered Heidi Personage.
Down here on Earth, Flanders looked wistfully upon this special girl’s pretty brown tresses. The day would come when he could never admire such brown hair again. And pretty brown eyes would just be brown eyes. And this Heidi would just be another resurrected saint. And cheerleaders would just be fellow citizens of Heaven. These bad things would happen to him when the very good thing called the rapture of the church would come to pass upon the world. Now more than ever he was averse to that elusive crown of righteousness. Wavering, he asked, “Heidi, do you think that there really is beauty in Heaven?”
Her many years as a born-again believer came pouring forth as she taught him of the good and great truths of God: “Flanders, Heaven is better than girls.” Opening the Scriptures, she read to him, “’Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.’ Matthew 6:19-21.”
“My treasure down here is Christ. Christ should be my treasure Up There as well,” said Flanders, somewhat enlightened. “I can kind of see now that Heaven is Heaven because of Jesus and not because of crushes on girls.”
Miss Personage got up from the table, went up to the window, and nervously looked out. Flanders could see a ray of white moonlight shining down upon one of her maroon pleat edges. Yes, the thing that Flanders would miss the most after the rapture were women in cheerleader uniforms like Heidi’s here. Traditional cheerleaders, more than any other types of women, were his greatest
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temptations against loving the Lord’s appearing. Up in Heaven there were no cheerleader uniforms. Truly, for Flanders, what Heidi had on for apparel was almost as alluring as she herself. Flanders wanted to ask her again, “Heidi, is there beauty in Heaven?” He did not ask her, but she smiled at him,
this time showing pretty braces and pretty teeth.
“Gawking at my cuffs now,” she said flirtatiously, and she playfully punched him in the arm. And she went on to answer his doubts, saying, “And yes, Flanders, Heaven is better than cheerleaders, also.” Standing beside him where he sat, she opened up the Scriptures to him again: “’If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.’ Colossians 3:1-2.”
Yes, thought Flanders, what word in the English language better described his crush on cheerleaders than the word “affection?” He confessed to Heidi, “My affection should be on Heaven and not on Earth.”
“Right,” she said. “Put another way in your case, it should be on the things made by God and not on the things made by man.
“What’s that?” he asked, quizzical.
And she explained, “Cheerleaders’ souls are made by God, and cheerleaders’ uniforms are made by man.”
In verbal thoughts, Flanders said, “The Lord made everything in Heaven, and He gave man the wisdom to make your cheerleader uniform in Earth. Yet your soul is wrought only by God.”
The cheerleader Heidi put her arms akimbo and said, “Very well said, O Flanders. You are not far from wearing that golden crown.” He put both hands to the top of his head and daydreamed. Then Heidi asked, “Is there anything else keeping you from desiring the rapture, Flanders? Is there anything else in the world’s pleasures that would have you to say to Jesus, ‘No, don’t take me yet?’”
“There is one thing more harmful to my learning to love the coming of Jesus even than old-time
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cheerleaders like yourself, Heidi,” he said.
Unsure now, Heidi asked, “Are you sure you want to tell me about this one, Flanders?”
And he told her, “It’s the King James Bible,” he said.
Upon hearing this of all things, Heidi Personage fell upon musings; she picked up her King James Bible from the table, held it against herself in one arm, went and sat down in the corner of the room on the floor, brought her knees up, then brought her knees down, and put her Bible upon her legs. “Do tell me what you mean, Flanders,” she said in great inquisitiveness.
He went on to explain, “In Heaven there shall be no Bible for me to read and to study. I learned that Up There the written Word of God will be supplanted by the living Word of God—that Christ will be There in Person instead of the Good Book in which I so love to underline every day.”
“Flanders, who told you that the Bible will not be There?” asked Heidi, overflowing with Bible verses to prove him wrong and to encourage him in his need to love Heaven.
Instead he went on to tell her all the things he did in his daily Bible readings that made life so good for him down here: “I’m going through my Bible with an underlining pencil for my first time. And it is all so brand new to me and fun, fun, fun. I have three types of underlines, three different levels which I call ‘underscores,’ and ‘double-bars,’ and ‘boxes.’ What I do is read each chapter in the Bible three times in a row, one chapter at a time. If I find a real neat passage in the scriptures, with my underlining pencil I draw a line underneath it the shade of a pencil not pushed down hard; that’s an ‘underscore.’ If the passage in the Bible is real great, then I draw a dark line underneath it the shade of a pencil pushed down hard; I call that a ‘double-bar.’ And if it be like unto a greatest verse of the scriptures of its time for me, I draw a dark box around that passage pushing down my pencil hard; of course I call that a ‘box.’ And I really want to finish reading my good King James Bible for my first time before I can never read it again. And when I think about a Heaven with no more Bible-reading sessions and no more Bible-reading site inside and no more Bible-reading site outside, I get tempted
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to think, ‘What will there be to do in Heaven? What if there is nothing to do in Paradise? How will I get my fun day by day Up There?’”
Her desire to share her scriptures she needed to tell him were held in no longer, and she challenged him, “Flanders, the Holy Bible never said that Itself would not be in Heaven for you to enjoy There. Who told you that Jesus would completely replace the Good Book in God’s Heaven?”
“I don’t know if it were anyone, Heidi,” he said. “I guess that it was something that I just assumed because the rapture and what comes after the rapture for the Christians is all about Jesus.”
“Just take a look at this,” said Heidi Personage, beckoning him to join her in her corner with her Bible. He ran up and sat down at her side. And she said to him, “Do take a look at this great verse and
read it out loud, if you would, boyfriend: Psalm 119:89.”
He leaned down and read out loud the verse on her lap: “For ever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven.”
“Really, Heidi?” he asked, delighted and edified.
“Really, Flanders,” she said. “And take a look at this verse, too. Isaiah 40:8.” She turned some pages.
And he read this greatly enlightening verse aloud as well: “The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.” He then said, “Are there any more verses like this, Heidi?”
“There might be,” she said. “I’ve still got lots to find out about Bible verses yet myself.”
“Well, I’m convinced. You’re right, and I was wrong. I now believe and know in faith that I can still get to read the Bible even after the rapture.” He put both hands to the top of his head again and said to his girlfriend about that elusive crown, “I will get to give it back to Jesus right after I get it.”
“Amen, Flanders,” said Heidi. “Amen. You’re getting closer.”
Just then a shadow cast itself upon them, and a song from Hell pierced through this fellowship
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with an evil. And in upon them swooped again the Prideful Spirit. The man trembled at its fearsome sight, and in it he saw no beauty. The woman, however, saw it very differently.
“Zack,” called out Heidi, trying to conceal her fondness.
“Heidi,” called out this griffin with a subtle deceit.
Flanders broke in and said, “Heidi, this does not love you.”
Confusion passed across Miss Personage’s features as if she were attempting to divide truth and lies. She sought to hold on to truth. And she began to rebuke it with another verse from the Word of God hidden in her heart, “Thus saith the Lord, O Prideful Spirit. It is written–”
At once the wily griffin interrupted her with the Devil’s words, “Yea, hath God said?” And in Heidi’s eyes was some doubt upon the Word of God.
Everything was falling apart suddenly here, and Flanders had to do something quickly. He turned from the beast to the girl, and he said, “Heidi, this griffin is a liar and a father of lies. It does not care for your good. Do not care for it back.”
The Prideful Spirit said now unto her in sweet words of sweet tone, “Heidi, am I not more comely to you than the crucified One?” It raised its wings in majesty. Woe! Miss Personage’s face shone in love at it. Her griffin continued its temptations: “Remember the good days, Heidi, our old days together? We were only each other’s. I’ve missed you these last ten years. Why did you leave me? Come back home. Let me speak those peaceful thoughts to you again into your listening ears through the air as you lie upon your bed. ‘Tell others’ of your love for me when you listen to those music videos once again and let your soul breathe life again. Let the magic of song spellbind you again with pop rock and country music all over again so that you and I can dream together about our Heaven to come. Say to me again, ‘I love you, Zack.’ Would you marry me? Marry me right now, O Heidi. It is written in Ecclesiastes 9:9: ‘Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest all the days of the life of thy vanity, which he hath given thee under the sun, all the days of thy vanity: for that is thy portion
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in this life, and in thy labour which thou takest under the sun.’ Run away with me now into Heaven. Renounce Jesus Christ, and all Heaven will be ours together.”
Flanders himself began to believe this creature’s love for Heidi. She asked it, “We really can spend eternity together in Heaven?”
That Prideful Spirit promised, “Heidi, all that shall I give you if you will fall down and worship me.”
All caught up in the moment for her old love, the Christian woman said, “I must pray about this, and then I will go away with you.”
“No, Heidi, do not pray about this,” exclaimed the griffin.
“Why not?” asked Flanders in challenge of the griffin.
“Why?” asked Heidi in great confusion.
“Heidi,” warned Flanders in dire utterance, “do not let yourself get deceived by its wiles, Pray to God right now! God will get you through this if you do.”
“Please do not pray,” said the griffin. “If you pray, you will be sending me away.”
“Flanders, I do not know what I should do right now,” cried out Heidi Personage.
“Let God decide for you, Heidi,” Flanders said.
“I’ll pray,” said the woman believer in decision. And Heidi got down upon her knees, turned her back to her demonic beloved, and prayed: “Dear Father, it is written, ‘…Blessed be thou, Lord God of Israel our father, for ever and ever. Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and thou art exalted as head above all.’ I Chronicles 29:10-11.”
With a screech, the griffin fled back out of the window and back up away up into the air, fire singeing the edges of its feathers from the two Bible verses. And the evil lying presence was gone away once again.
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Truth and light through Jesus Christ returned to Heidi Personage’s wise Christian eyes. “What happened?” she asked.
“I think that you almost backslided, Heidi,” he said in mortification.
In confession to him, Heidi said, “I wanted to make love to the Prideful Spirit.”
“Yeah,” said Flanders.
“That was the closest I had come to doing that since I first found Christ,” said Heidi. “What’s getting into me?”
“You and I are no match for the Devil in our own strength,” he said to her. “For now on we together must hold on to Jesus as our Strength.”
“I must keep my eyes on Jesus,” she said in self-rebuke.
With a heavy sigh, Flanders Nickels said, “I don’t know about how you feel, but as for myself, I’m ready for Heaven. There are no Prideful Spirits and other griffins with demon powers in Heaven. I long now to escape this Earth.”
“I feel the same way,” she said.
“I think that I just found my crown, Heidi!” he said. “I want to be in Heaven now instead of being on Earth!”
“Let’s go back to your table, and let’s chat about that crown,” she said. They came back to his table, each carrying his and her Bible.
“What is there to talk about?” he asked. “I want the rapture to happen now. And because of that I now have the crown of righteousness waiting for me in Heaven.” Then he asked, “Don’t I, Heidi?”
And she said in teaching, “Flanders, that crown is for those, as you know, who love Christ’s appearing in the clouds, and so ever shall be with Him. From what you just said, I can see that you are only at the point of loving your disappearing from this world. Loving your own disappearing is not the
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criterion for the crown of righteousness. Even loving your own appearing in Heaven, the next closest
criterion is no basis for the crown of righteousness. To earn that crown, you must love the Lord’s appearing—and to do so with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”
“Alas, I still have it all wrong,” he lamented. “I can see now that to get my heart right with my
Saviour and with ‘my’ crown, I must desire Heaven only for seeing Christ.”
“As it goes in the hymn ‘In the Garden,’ Flanders:” and she sang, “And He walks with me, and He talks with me, And He tells me I am His own, And the joy we share as we tarry there, None other has ever known.”
“Your heart is right with that crown, Heidi,” he said. “I can tell.”
“Uh huh,” she said with a nod.
“Do you have any idea what Jesus looks like?” he asked.
“Uh uh, Flanders,” she said with a shaking of her head.
“How can a believer want to meet a God if he or she does not know what this God even looks like, Heidi?” he asked, somewhat flustered with himself and maybe a little jealous of her.
“I don’t know, Flanders,” she said. “I just do.”
“That’s faith,” he said to her. “That’s great faith.”
“Do you think that maybe you don’t have that crown because you don’t know what the Good Lord looks like and you don’t know how good it will be because of that?” she asked.
“That does sound like just the way it is,” he said. “Maybe my faith is not so good as your faith about things like that, Heidi.”
“It’s all a big mystery, isn’t it, Flanders?” she asked in kindness. “’What does God look like up in Heaven?’–perhaps the greatest mystery of all believers everywhere who are not yet There with Him.”
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“And perhaps my own sin that so easily besets me, O Heidi,” he said in humbleness.
“I guess that that is supposed to be a mystery for us church age believers,” she said. “I kind of know a Bible verse that says something about that somewhere.”
“How I wish that I could see that Bible verse,” he said.
“I think that it might be in I Corinthians chapter thirteen,” she said. “Let me go and see if I can find it now for you.” Heidi searched the Scriptures and found it: “Right here, Flanders, just as I had guessed, verse twelve.” And she read it to him: “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.”
“You make me feel like a good Christian with that verse, even though I see myself as a bad Christian, Heidi,” said Flanders.
“You are not alone without the crown of righteousness, Flanders,” she did say in encouragement. “I know of another verse that talks about your great mystery. It is Deuteronomy 29:29, and it goes like this—I memorized it: ‘The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.’”
“The secret things belong unto the Lord our God,” he repeated.
“Yes, Flanders,” said Miss Personage.
“For some reason now I can say to you that I now know that Heaven is better than down here,” he said.
“I did not hear you say that before on this date we are on, Flanders,” she said.
“I never said it that way before,” he said.
“You’re getting nearer to the crown,” she said. In further edification Heidi explained, “Being in Heaven is better than being on Earth, because Christ rules and reigns in Heaven. Being There is better than being here, because God is Up There on His throne.”
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“You are a wise woman, Heidi,” he said.
“Sometimes,” she replied in self-effacement.
“Except when it comes to proud handsome griffins,” he said.
“Yeah. So true,” she confessed. Then she said, “I will not leave you today, Flanders, until I hear you tell me, ‘I love the rapture.’” She smiled at him like a girlfriend could.
“Thank you, Heidi. Praise the Lord for you,” he said. And he smiled back as a boyfriend.
“Is it not written about your crown and the four other crowns in the Bible, O Flanders,” began Heidi Personage, “’And when those beasts give glory and honour and thanks to him that sat on the throne, who liveth for ever and ever, The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.’ Revelation 4:9-11.”
“Amen, pretty Heidi!” said Flanders Nickels. “Amen, girl!” Inside his heart he daydreamed right now about kneeling before his Jesus on His Throne in Heaven, his most-highly treasured crown of righteousness surely on his head, and taking off this “dreamcrown” from his head with both hands, and then tossing it to his beloved Saviour’s feet where He did sit.
“What are you thinking about right now, Flanders?” asked Heidi.
“I was thinking about how a temporal little voice used to say to me about the rapture, ‘Tell Jesus not to come yet. Ask Him to give you one more day on Earth before the translation. Tell yourself that you will be in Heaven forever anyway, and that one more day on Earth won’t hurt,’” said Flanders.
“Do you still listen to that temporal little voice?” asked Heidi.
“Right now I hear the still small voice talking to me louder and clearer than ever before,” said Flanders.
“Ah, the Holy Spirit talking to you,” said Heidi Personage. “What’s He saying?”
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“He is saying to me, ‘Maranatha!’” said Flanders. “What’s that mean?”
“It means, ‘Even so, come, Lord Jesus,’’’ said Miss Personage.
“I like it,” he said.
“Do you love it?” she asked.
“I like the rapture now, Heidi,” he said.
“Do you love the rapture?” she asked. He gave no reply. But Heidi said, “Flanders, I am beginning to feel the crown on your head.”
“I think that I am, too,” he said. “Not much longer.”
“Just about any time, Flanders,” she said.
“I can’t wait,” he said. “My heart right with my Saviour.”
Suddenly the young woman cried out, “Pray for me, Flanders!” And suddenly a dark form swept into the room and swooped past him. It crashed into the standing Heidi and knocked her down hard upon her bottom in the far corner of the room. It was the Prideful Spirit come back. This griffin raised its eagle’s beak to strike down upon the girl that Flanders cared for. Heedless, Flanders jumped this mighty demon. Calling upon God, Flanders wrapped his arms around the demon’s powerful neck and sought to hold back its fell stroke from upon her.
This Prideful Spirit hurled curses and blasphemies and great swelling words at the man and the woman of God, saying Satan’s words, “I will ascend into Heaven! I will exalt my throne above the stars of God! I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north! I will ascend above the heights of the clouds! I will be like the most High!”
Flanders was being overpowered by this great and terrible hybrid, and he sought a Word of God that he had memorized in his life of worship. He quickly chose his very first memorized Scripture, and he shot it verbally at this griffin: “’For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual
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wickedness in high places.’ Ephesians 6:12, O Prideful Spirit.” The griffin quaked from this Word of
God, but it did not let go of Heidi Personage from its lion paws.
And this fearsome devil continued its utterances of great swelling boasting and cursing and vows: “I sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty! I am the anointed cherub that covereth, and He has set me so! I was upon the holy mountain of God! I have walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire! I have been in Eden the garden of God! Every precious stone was my covering! I am perfect in my ways from the day that I was created!”
Flanders cried out, “It’s too strong for me, Heidi!”
“Pray! Pray!” cried out Heidi.
“You may die!” he cried out.
“Pray! Pray!” she cried out to Flanders again.
Flanders quickly went to prayer, “Lord, I pray You, save Heidi Personage from this Prideful Spirit!” Then Flanders prayed, “I will even give up the crown of righteousness if you save her life, Lord!”
“No! No!” Heidi cried out to him. “Keep your eyes on Jesus. God brought me here to help you find that crown!” Then Heidi prayed her prayer of this dire moment: “Lord, I give my life for Flanders’s crown of righteousness!”
In answer to this, Flanders said, “No, Heidi. Not that!” And he prayed, “Lord, take my life and spare her life. Let it be me who dies from this griffin and not Heidi. Let me not taste the comforts of the rapture. I pray to You, ‘In death shall I love Your appearing!’”
Suddenly the beast shook from the power of Almighty God with a great fit. It stepped off of Heidi, staggered back, and nearly fell over where it stood. Even the Devil answered to the Lord.
Stunned, Heidi sat back up, rested her weary hands on her pleats in a daze and feebly prayed one of her memorized Bible passages in glory to Him before this griffin: “Dear Father, it is written,
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‘Praise ye the Lord. Praise ye the Lord from the heavens: praise him in the heights. Praise ye him, all his angels; praise ye him, all his hosts. Praise ye him, sun and moon: praise him, all ye stars of light. Praise him, ye heavens of heavens, and ye waters that be above the heavens.’ Psalm 148:1-4. In Jesus’s name I pray. Amen.”
Behold, the Prideful Spirit griffin fell down to the floor with a great thud. Before the eyes of the two born-again believers, smoke began to emanate from it. And hellfire consumed upon it where it lay. And after a while, the last wisps of smoke drifted away. And it was no longer there. It was never to come back again. Man and woman knew: The wicked griffin had just been banished to Hell for forever.
Heidi said, “Praise Jesus! I’m free!”
Flanders said, “Praise Jesus! I love the rapture!”
“Really?” asked Miss Personage ardently.
“Really!” said Flanders in great and abundant joy and rejoicing.
This moment too special for words, Heidi jumped up and threw her cheerleader arms around him where he stood. Overwhelmed himself, also, Flanders spoke not this moment, and he threw his arms around his cheerleader in hug as well. And they embraced long and amorously. Then they finally drew apart.
“Whoa, Flanders,” said Heidi, “what we just did just now.”
“Yes, Heidi,” said Flanders. “Did you like it?”
“I did, Flanders,” she said. “Did you, too?”
“Yes, I did, Heidi,” he said.
“Thank you for saving my life from that demon, Flanders,” she said.
“Thank you for teaching me what I needed to learn about that special crown I could not get on my own,” he said.
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It was almost midnight now, and a whole evening had passed by since the griffin perished and since Flanders found his crown for heaven. Heidi and he were still in the midst of their first date together. And so sweet fellowship with a pretty old flame of a cheerleader was a brand new thing to Flanders that neither he nor the girl wanted to quit right now. “It is written, Flanders,” read Heidi Personage from her Bible, “’For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better:’ Philippians 1:23.”
Flanders reiterated her verse in sum: “…, and to be with Christ; which is far better.”
“That’s the key. Isn’t it, Flanders?” asked the Christian girl.
“As long as I quote this verse, Heidi, I shall never have my crown to ‘fall off of my head,’” said Flanders Nickels.
“Is today a happy day for you, Flanders?” asked Heidi.
“Yes, Heidi, today is a happy day,” said Flanders. “Only the day I got saved from my sins was a happier day than this day that I got my extra special crown.”
“Being with Christ in Heaven is far better than being down here,” said Heidi the summary of that Philippians 1:23. “Flanders, take this promise of God. Believe this promise of God. Act on this promise of God. That is faith.”
“I surely do,” he proclaimed in Holy Ghost wisdom.
“Our Good Lord is coming very soon,” she said. “It could even be tonight.”
“My pastor always preaches that the rapture is an imminent event on God’s timetable,” said Flanders Nickels.
Heidi then said, “I do say unto you: ‘When you wake up for the day and when you live your life through the hours of the day and when you go to bed for the night, consider in your heart that even before you do your next thing to do, you could well suddenly be with your Saviour in Heaven forever and ever.’ And then in Heaven, you will have your crown to give back to Jesus, and that crown will
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be proof to you that your heart was all right with Christ down here on Earth in your Christian walk.”
“Amen! Even so, come, Lord Jesus!” he said. Turning pages in his Holy Bible, he read to the
girl, “’Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;’ Titus 2:13, O Heidi.”
“Alleluia!” said Miss Personage. “The blessed hope is the rapture; and the glorious appearing is the Second Coming.”
Flanders came to remember his prayers alone at his table earlier this very day—his pining for cheerleaders, his lonesomeness without Heidi, his longing for the crown. And this night, God had them all come true for him. “God is good,” he told Heidi.
Heidi Personage then asked him, “Flanders, would you like a cheerleader girlfriend who is in love with God?”
With a most eager nod he asked, “Heidi, would you like a dreamer boyfriend who seeks a cheerleader with which to fellowship in the Lord?”
“We may only have until the rapture, Flanders,” she teased, flashing her pretty braces.
“That’s okay, Heidi,” he said. “Then we can both of us together walk and talk with Jesus Up There.”
“Jesus, Who makes Heaven what it is,” she said.
“Jesus, without which Heaven would not be Heaven” he said.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. Revelation 22:21. Thus closes the Word of God.
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