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Four born-again believers—Gretchen and her boyfriend Flanders and Destiny and her boyfriend Proffery—fellowship together in an idyllic sand dunes in northern Wisconsin called ‘The Fabled Lands.’  Behold, two demons come into their lives to tempt them with visions.  One demon is a griffin called ‘Slayer.’  The other demon is the bogeyman.  Through demonically conjured dreams these demons seek to cause these believers to fall into sin and to backslide on God.  The Christians must call upon God and quote Scripture in their tests of temptation to persevere and to prevail in Christ.

THE FABLED LANDS

Mr. Morgan P. McCarthy

The Table of Contents

 

Chapter I…………………………………………………………………………………Page 1

Chapter II………………………………………………………………………………..Page 11

Chapter III……………………………………………………………………………….Page 21

Chapter IV……………………………………………………………………………….Page 31

Chapter V…………………………………………………………………………………Page 41

Chapter VI………………………………………………………………………………..Page 52

Chapter VII……………………………………………………………………………….Page 63

Chapter VIII………………………………………………………………………………Page 73

Chapter IX…………………………………………………………………………………Page 83

Chapter X………………………………………………………………………………….Page 93

Chapter XI………………………………………………………………………………..Page 103

Chapter XII……………………………………………………………………………….Page 113

Chapter XIII………………………………………………………………………………Page 123

Chapter XIV………………………………………………………………………………Page 133

Chapter XV……………………………………………………………………………….Page 143

Chapter XVI………………………………………………………………………………Page 154

Chapter XVII………………………………………………………………………………Page 164

Chapter XVIII…………………………………………………………………………….Page 174

Chapter XIX……………………………………………………………………………….Page 185

Chapter XX………………………………………………………………………………..Page 195

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER I

She was Miss Gretchen Shetlanders, a prom gown girl of twenty-four years of age.  Her prom dress was all deep red of acetate and lace.  A prom dress jacket with padded shoulders and long sleeves reached down her torso to nearly her belly in sleek of acetate.  Her bodice with thick strings over her shoulders and plastic liners within the material ended at her waist in a Basque waistline, also in shine of acetate covering her torso.  Her skirt portion reached to halfway down her shins, in luster of acetate and finery of lace covering her lower half.  And in the back of her red prom gown was a long zipper and also an ornate big red bow tie just above the rump.  And covering all of her legs and her feet within were fishnet stockings, also of deep red.  And over her feet she had on a pair of women’s red pumps with high heels.  Yet, as much as Gretchen considered herself a prom dress woman, she was truly all the more so a born-again believer in Jesus Christ her Saviour.  Miss Shetlanders was settled in life as a single woman living alone in a cabin near the Fabled Lands in a northern Wisconsin town in the countryside called “Beaver.”  And the Fabled Lands was a haven not too far down these gravel roads from her cabin.  This woman Gretchen was born on October 9, 1961.  And she had a twin sister to which Gretchen was the big sister by three and one-half minutes.  This Miss Shetlanders the elder was

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a pretty brunette with bangs and shoulder-length straight hair.  She stood five feet two-and-one-half inches tall.  And she was slender of physique.  And with Gretchen Shetlanders now in her cabin was her beloved pet Shetland Sheepdog with a most human uncanny understanding.

“Granger,” called forth Miss Shetlanders the elder, “play for me!”

And the ever-delightful Shetland Sheepdog went ahead to play for his mistress, this time with a new trick that he thought up just now for her.  And Granger leaped up upon Gretchen’s bed, and with his four canine legs he began to jump up and down upon the mattress as a little boy would do with two legs.  Up and down the Sheltie bounced on Gretchen’s bed like unto a trampoline with the game-some

fun of a child.   Gretchen giggled in joy at this most novel trick her pet had conjured to show off for her.  This was good happy fun once again between Shetland Sheepdog and mistress.

And Granger spoke his canine talk to Gretchen, saying, “Whoof!  Whoof!”

“Whoof!  Whoof!” Miss Shetlanders called back to her Shetland Sheepdog in glee.

“Woof!  Woof!” called forth Granger.

“Woof!  Woof!  Boy!” sang back his mistress.  Then this red prom gown girl threw her arms around him and hugged him adoringly, and she kissed him endearingly upon his tri-color head.

Then the young Christian woman prayed and said, “Thank You, God, for having given me my best friend in life.”  And God heard her prayer, and He was pleased.

Then Miss Shetlanders pulled off the pillow of her bed, sat down on this head of the bed, and tossed the pillow to the foot of her bed beyond her feet.  And the lithe young woman, manipulating her sitting position, brought her knees down and her legs down and bent toward herself, and she sat there, waiting for beloved Granger to jump up on her lap and to sit with her.

“Oof!  Oof!” called out the Sheltie.

“I know, Granger,” said Gretchen,  “most of my kind cannot sit like I can sit.  When people see me sit like this outside in my yard, they say that if they tried to do that that they would not be able to

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stand back up.  Some say that I am double-jointed in my knees.  Come up now on my lap and join me and listen to me talk about Lassie, boy.”

In ready obedience and sure comprehension of his mistress’s words, Granger sat down on her lap on the bed.  His medium-sized canine form was spread across the prom dress girl’s lap, and his side of his canine form was nestled against the prom dress girl’s belly, and his tri-color miniature Collie head was just above the bottom of the prom gown jacket, leaning against her breasts.  And Gretchen Shetlanders began to talk about the famous Collie named Lassie:  “Her trainer was a man named Rudd

Weatherwax.  I think a man named Jack Wrather helped Lassie to become famous on all those TV shows.  There was more than one Lassie.  Some Lassies were he-Collies at that, Granger.  You are a he-miniature Collie.  When I was a very little girl, my favorite TV show was ‘Timmy and Lassie.’  When I was a little older, my favorite show was ‘Jeff’s Collie,’ also a Lassie TV show.  I heard the song ‘Greensleeves’ in the opening credits to Lassie shows.  And I fell in love with Lassie in the opening credits when he raised his all-white front leg where he sat.  I even saw a most wonderful book I checked out all the time from the library, called ‘The Story of Lassie,’ full of black and white pictures of Lassie as she learned from Rudd Weatherwax all of her acting tricks.  Yet, when I discovered you, Granger, I forgot all about Lassie.  I fell in love with you, and you fell in love with me.  You are tri-color.  Your markings are symmetrical.  And I love your bark.  In understanding, Granger cocked his head to the side at his mistress and gave her his brown-eyed look.  And Gretchen Shetlanders said, “I said, ‘And I love your bark, Granger.’”  In most mischievous tease, the Shetland Sheepdog opened his mouth to only pretend to bark and did not utter a sound at all.  And he grinned at his mistress in sport.

Gretchen said, “Then I will have to do it for you.”  And Miss Shetlanders said, “Hoof!  Hoof!”

Then the dog said, “Hoof!  Hoof!”

“Oh, Granger.  You’re too much,” said Miss Shetlanders with a happy laugh.

Upon hearing and understanding this praise, Granger groaned and purred in contentment.

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“Would you like to keep playing with your mistress inside the cabin?” asked Gretchen.  Granger shook his head, “No,” and did look out the window.  “Would you like to play with your mistress outside now, boy?” she asked.  And Granger nodded his head, “Yes.”  “Then outside we go,” sang forth the happy young woman.  “Let us go and play fetch.  Let us go to your fetch bin.”  And Gretchen and Granger went outside to this bin of fetch toys.

“Now remember the rules,” began Miss Shetlanders.  “Rule one, no grabbing it out of my hand or hands before it gets thrown.  Rule two, no running after it before it leaves my hand or hands.  Rule three, the one you pick is the one I throw.  Rule four, do not destroy it.  We will need it again for fetch another time sometime.  And rule five, you have to bring it back and drop it before my feet where I stand.  Are you going to play fair?”

In an “aye,” the Shetland Sheepdog barked back, “Thoof!  Thoof!”

“Okay, then, boy.  Let’s play fetch,” said the red prom dress girl.  “Go ahead and pick out a toy from the fetch bin.”  Granger looked into this big bin of toys.  It was a wooden box whose sides reached to just a few inches lower than his muzzle where he was standing and whose sides were as long as he was.  In his customary way of showing his mistress the toy he did pick, he set his forelegs upon the top edge of the box, and he set his right paw upon the toy he did choose.  And this he did for this first round of fetch with his mistress.  “Oh, the rolled-up Thanksgiving newspaper,” said Gretchen Shetlanders.  “The heavy one.”  This most voluminous newspaper of the year was rolled up tight with five big strong rubber bands.  “Your mistress will have to use both hands to throw this one, Granger,” said Miss Shetlanders the elder.  “And a medium dog like yourself practically will need two mouths to grab it up and bring it back. I say that you would do better with this one if you were a Newfoundland dog instead.”  The Shetland Sheepdog cocked his head to the side at her.  “I know,” said Gretchen.  “A little less talk, and a little more action.”  And the young lady threw this Thanksgiving newspaper as far as she could with both arms.  Instantaneously the Sheltie was upon it, pouncing upon it where it lay in a

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canine victory dance.  An average dog would have tried to grab it in its middle only to find that it could not stretch out its jaw widely enough to grab it up in his teeth.  But the most unaverage Granger thought for a moment first, then grabbed it in his teeth at its end, lifted it up off the ground, and pranced

back to his mistress, and did drop it at her feet.  “Bravo!  Bravo!” cheered the girl, clapping in great praise.  And her dog beamed in great gladness.

“Now pick out another toy,” said the young woman.  And the very clever Sheltie, with his right paw, picked out a toy for round two of today’s fetch.  “Oh, the big red ball.” said Gretchen.  This was a rubber playground ball popular with schoolchildren.  And this big red ball was bigger than Granger’s

own head.  “I know that you can’t pick this one up in your mouth,” said Gretchen. “But I do know how you will go about to fetch it and bring it back.  We’ve played this game with this one before, we both know, Granger.  At least this toy your mistress can throw in one hand.”  And Gretchen hurled the big red ball off way down off toward the next field, and it bounced and advanced indeed farther on down.

Yet even before it stopped rolling, the Sheltie was there upon it way off beyond.  Granger, familiar with the big red ball, needed not to ponder as he looked down upon it.  Instead, he proceeded to mimic a soccer player, first his right foreleg knocking it ahead, then his left foreleg knocking it ahead, and so on ingeniously all the many yards back toward where his mistress stood and waited and watched in great admiration.  And when the big red ball was back before the young lady’s feet where she stood, the lady said, “Granger, you’re smarter than most schoolkids, I tell you.”  And the Shetland Sheepdog reveled in

his mistress’s words of praise once again.

“Now pick out another toy for round three,” said Gretchen.  “There are more fetch toys in there than any mistress and her dog can play in a whole day.”   Then she said, “As if you didn’t know.”  And Granger put his right paw upon today’s third toy.  “Oh boy,” said the girl, “that which I call for you, ‘powder.’”  This was a plastic Coffeemate bottle of powder coffee creamer with a plastic cover and quite empty.  In the cabin, when the prom dress gal had her cup of coffee, she loved to sprinkle this

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“powder” on the palm of her hand and let her dog lick it off of her hand.  Her dog was happy; she was happy; and her palm got all sticky.  And then she would do it again.  And a third time.  The mistress liked the taste of Coffeemate by itself as well. And it made her coffee taste better than it would have with liquid coffee creamer.  And the mistress went ahead and said, “You know that this toy does not really have any powder it it anymore.  And when I throw this, even though it is real light, it will not go real far.  So don’t go and run too far and too fast.  And remember, do not damage the toy.  Your teeth are liable to bite holes in it all over if you are not careful with it.  To make sure, pretend that it is still full of powder.”  Again the Shetland Sheepdog tilted his head to the side.  In acquiescence, Gretchen said, “I better throw this now.”  And she threw it.  It hit a tree, bounced back, and hit Granger on the back of his rump, and fell to the ground to his side.  Gretchen Shetlanders laughed right out loud.  The Sheltie gave forth a surprised “Awf!  Awf!”  And the mistress covered her laugh and her smile with her right hand.  And, enjoying his mistress’s merriment, Granger, playing the ever-dignified dog, picked up the plastic bottle in his teeth, marched back to his mistress, and dropped this toy at her feet.  How Granger loved to act for his mistress, even when she laughed at him for undignified mishaps.  Though the Shetland Sheepdog was proud, he was never pompous.  And he laughed with himself now as his mistress laughed with him.  Everything she did pleased him.  And everything he did pleased her.  And their love for each other was almost surrealistic.

And in this most especial bond between young woman and young dog, the two continued to play fetch out here for almost another hour.  And when they were done, both were utterly satisfied with their diversion thus.

Then Gretchen Shetlanders said, “I think that I will go now and play a game of Yahtzee.  And then after that I think that I will go and play a game of Kismet.”

For this young woman, as fun as fetch was between herself and Granger, the fun of Yahtzee and Kismet by herself was even more fun for her.  But for this Christian lady, though Christ was happy for

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her when she played fetch, Christ was unhappy for her when she played Yahtzee and Kismet.  Why?

Because instead of going to church on Sundays, Gretchen Shetlanders would stay home from church just to play Yahtzee and Kismet.  These two dice-shaking games in themselves were not sin, but this born-again gal made them sin as an excuse not to go to church when its doors were open for services.

Though Gretchen Shetlanders considered herself most of all a born-again believer, she deliberately stayed away from good Translation Baptist Church just down the road.  She, as a Christian, enjoyed dice games more than she enjoyed hearing a good sermon.  And for that she did tempt the Lord over and over again.  And God was not to be tempted.  And she continued heedlessly in danger of the Lord’s chastening hand.  And once again now she could hear the church bells ringing, and yet once again she went into her cabin to play her dice games instead.

Take note, however, this wayward child of God never felt the same way about other means of worship as she did about church.  To tell the truth, she never skipped out on her prayers.  Nor did Gretchen ever fail to read her King James Bible every day.  It was quite much prayer and quite much Bible-reading that did make her the somewhat complete Christian that Christ wanted her to be.  And it was this precious quiet time of Bible and prayer every day and all the time that made her happy, more so than dice games and more so than coy Granger and more so than her red prom dress.  Except for her

sin of omission in neglecting her church attendance, Miss Shetlanders the elder indeed made Christ the Lord of her life.  And she even faithfully gave tithes to this church she never went to.  And she even knew that the word “translation” in the name “Translation Baptist Church” was the Bible word for the

rapture, which she did heartily and truthfully look forward to in wondrous anticipation.  And Sunday School was about to start now at Translation Baptist Church.

And Gretchen got out the yellow box of Yahtzee there at the table in her cabin.  And Granger was alone outside.  And the girl began to shake dice.  “Come on.  Let’s get a Yahtzee!” she said to herself.  A yahtzee with this game’s five dice was a five of a kind.  That was worth fifty points, indeed

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the most of any dice arrangement of this game.  Instead she shook a straight from one to five.  “Oh, a large straight instead,” she said.  That was worth forty points, the second highest score of this game’s dice arrangement.  She could go ahead and shake two more times in this turn to try to get something better, but she knew this was just about the best thing she could get.  So she wrote “40” in the large straight square on the score sheet, and she scooped up the five dice for her next turn of shakes.  She shook out a one and a two and a three and a five and a six.  Nothing doing.  She put the dice back in the cup and she shook again, this time a one and a two and a four and a five and a six.  Again nothing doing!  She then put the dice back in the cup and shook her third shake of this turn.  Behold, five ones!

“Yahtzee!” she cried out.  “It’s a miracle!”  And in joy of fun for the sake of fun, Gretchen wrote “50”

in the Yahtzee square on the score sheet.  And she put the dice back in the cup and shook for her third turn of shakes.  What a way to start out this game this day.  It never got this good before.  Miss Shetlanders the elder paused now to gaze upon this most attractive Yahtzee scorecard.  In the upper section were squares for each of the six numbers of a die.  To fill out one of these six squares, one counted and added only those of each of these numbers.  That is, for the ones, one had to count and add only ones on his final shake of his turn; and for the twos, one had to count and add only the twos that he rolled on the dice; and again, for the threes, one could only count and add up the threes on the five rolled dice; and so on for the fours and for the fives and for the sixes.  And this he did not in any order throughout the game in making hopefully the best decisions at that point in the game.  And in summing up the Yahtzee scorecard at the end of the game, if this upper section’s total were 63 or higher, the player scored a 35 point bonus to add to this upper section’s total.  And oddly enough, Yahtzee called

“ones” instead “aces.”  As for the lower section of the Yahtzee scorecard, there was a diversity.  Down here there was a square for “three of a kind,” and a square for “four of a kind.” Each of these scores were the total of all five dice.  And below that was a square for a full house, for a score of 25.  Below that was a square for a small straight, a sequence of four, for a score of 30.  Below that was that

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aforementioned 40-point large straight, the sequence of five.  And below that was the famous Yahtzee of fifty points, any five of a kind.  And finally, below that, at the bottom, was “Chance.”  Chance was an opportunity to score points if nothing satisfactory or worthwhile came up on the dice after three shakes.  The score to put into this chance box was the total of the five dice.  Below this was the box for the total of this bottom section.  Then, below that, came the total of the upper section.  And at the very bottom was the grand total. Ever-delighted with dice, the red prom gown girl proceeded to continue and to finish this game of Yahtzee.

Then she heard the church bells ringing for the end of Sunday School.  She went ahead and put away the Yahtzee game, and she took out the Kismet game.  And she looked upon the very familiar green box.  The box read, “It is fate,” underneath the name “Kismet.”  And the box read “The Modern Game of Yacht” above the name “Kismet.”  And it showed the five colored dice.  She then opened this game and took out the dice and the dice cup.  And indeed these dice were colored:  the ones and the sixes were black; the twos and the fives were red; the threes and the fours were green.

Then the Translation Baptist Church bells rang for Sunday Morning Worship.  And at home, Miss Shetlanders began to fall upon studying Kismet’s score sheet that she well knew all about.  The top section, called the ‘basic section,’ was much like that of Yahtzee’s top section with regard to ones and twos and threes and fours and fives and sixes—just total up the dice with those numbers on them.

And Kismet called “ones” “aces”; “twos” “deuces”; and “threes” “treys.” Then came the fours and the fives and the sixes.  Then came the total square.  Then came the bonus square. Yet, as for the bonus in this basic section, in this game there were three possible bonuses—35 bonus points if the total were 63 to 70; 55 bonus points if the total were 71 to 77; and 75 bonus points if the total were 78 and over.  And the square below that was the basic section total.

Then came the lower section of the score sheet—called “the Kismet section.”  First came  “two pair the same color,” whose total was that of all five dice.   Then came “three of a kind,” whose total

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was that of all five dice.  Then came the “straight,” a straight of five, whose total was 30 points.  Then came the “flush,” wherein all the dice were the same color, whose score was 35 points.  Then came the

“full house,” whose total was the sum of all the dice plus 15 points.  Then came the “full house, same color,” whose total was the sum of all the dice plus 20 points.  Then came “four of a kind,” whose score was total of all the dice plus 25 points.  Then came “Yarborough,” Kismet’s word for Yahtzee’s “chance.”  This Yarborough, as it was called, was scored in like with the total of all five dice.  And at the bottom came “Kismet,” the big one, any five of a kind.  To score Kismet on this score sheet, the player totaled all five dice and added 50 points to it.  Below this Kismet square was the Kismet section total square.  And below that was the basic section total square.  And below that, at the very bottom, was the game total square.  She fell into a mesmerism as she gazed upon this score sheet.

Then the church bells rang for the end of Sunday Morning Worship.  And she said to herself, “Gretchen, you’ve got a game to play.  Time gets away from you with all these dice and their dice cups and these score sheets.”  And Miss Shetlanders the elder went ahead and started and played and finished today’s game of Kismet here in her cabin.

And yet she thanked God that she did not have to go to church.  And God was there at that church.  And God missed her at church.

This was September 1986.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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CHAPTER II

It was the Lord’s day, and Destiny Shetlanders was riding her pet Shetland Pony home from Translation Baptist Church.  Destiny, the identical twin, was Miss Shetlanders the younger.  She was the little sister by three and one-half minutes.  She also came home to her own little cabin, also, indeed not far from the cabin of her big sister.  And, just like her sister, Destiny also had pretty hair of brown, straight, shoulder-length, and with bangs across her forehead.  Destiny Shetlanders, born also on October 9, 1961 was twenty-four years old.  And Miss Shetlanders the younger stood five feet three inches tall.  And she was a born-again Christian faithful to her personal Saviour.  And Destiny was a blue prom gown girl.  Her blue prom gown abounded in shiny blue acetate and rich blue lace and much blue accouterments.  Her prom dress jacket was long-sleeved, had padded shoulders, and reached down her torso to her midriff.  Her bodice was sleek, with thick comfortable strings running over and down her shoulders, had hidden liners within the fabric here in the front, and ended at her waist in a Basque waistline.  Her skirt portion reached almost to her ankles abounding in acetate within and lace outside, and it swished as she walked.  She had on a pair of blue fishnet stockings over all of her legs and both of her feet.  And blue pumps with thick high heels adorned her woman’s feet.  And in back, her blue

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prom dress had a long zipper and a big ornate blue bow tie down there where the zipper ended.  And though this prom dress was most definitely considered “formal wear,” it still felt wondrously comfortable to Destiny to wear all the time to and from all places every day.  It was what made her as a female in her eyes.

As her Shetland Pony galloped across the fields and forests on their way back home, Destiny said, “Oh, Shires, you run like a Kentucky Derby stallion!”  Such praise given to a small horse.  And Shires could tell that his mistress was speaking yet another compliment to him.  And he knew what she said.  And he began to run all the faster to please her.  And his mistress wrapped both of her arms around his little pony neck and did hold on tight for safety.  “Weeee!”  said Destiny in great joy of speed.  She and Gretchen used to say that when Dad would drive the family station wagon down northeastern Wisconsin gravel roads.  The big old car would go up and down the hills of these dusty and gravelly roads up here, and a cloud of dust always came up behind the old vehicle, and Mom and Gretchen and Destiny would say as they traveled down a little hill of road this same kind of “Weeeee!”

Thinking upon a cloud of dust arising behind a vehicle, Destiny at once thought upon another of those clouds of dust that Shires could kick up for her again were he to gallop across the Heavenly sand dunes.  And Destiny wanted this to happen today for her.  “Shires,” she said, “Run off now to the Fabled Lands, and run across God’s own sand dunes for me, and kick up another of those clouds of dust that you do so well with your hooves.  Like her Translation Baptist Church, these Fabled Lands

were a short trip from her cabin for her Shetland Pony.  And, knowing this place well, Shires turned off from the way home to go to the way to the sand dunes.  This church, her cabin, and these Fabled Lands

and all of this countryside out here was part of the country town of Beaver.  The town of Crivitz was just north of Beaver; and the towns of Pound and Coleman were just south of Beaver.  And these ethereal sand dunes were out there in the middle of nowhere off to the side of an isolated gravel road right in Beaver or the outskirts thereof.  Whom this property belonged to, neither Gretchen nor Destiny

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knew.  It might not have belonged to a human owner.  All that the twin women knew was that God was

in these Fabled Lands in a way more divinely that He was in the rest of the Earth.  Peace and joy and love and sublime northern Wisconsin beauty of countryside filled the air and the ground of these rolling

dunes of sand.  It was as if it were a refuge from sin.  And no bad things could happen to a child of God as long as he or she were within the boundaries of these Fabled Lands.  And now Shetland Pony and born-again mistress were quickly coming to the border of this paradise, the pony running like lightning toward it.  “Run across the sand, good pony!” called forth Destiny Shetlanders in rejoicing.  “Run across the sand!”  And the Shetland Pony ran across the sand.  A great cloud of dust and whirling sand

arose from the ground from his four thundering hooves.  And the mistress turned her head back to look.

And she got sand in her face. She closed her eyes tight, shut up her mouth and made sure her lips covered her teeth, and covered up her nostrils with her left hand, her right hand holding on tightly to Shires’s full mane. She then turned her face back to look on up ahead again, opened her eyes, opened her mouth to breathe, and took away her hand from her nose.  And no more sand got in her face.  But now she felt the swirling sand stinging her on the back of her head and neck.  It was all about which way she was turned every time her Shires raced through these Fabled Lands.  And it was giddy fun for mistress and for pet pony alike.  And almost at once Shires had traversed this haven of sand, and he came back out onto the natural countryside over on this other side.  “Whoa, good pony,” said Destiny.

“I have to stop and get off again.  I have to get comfortable again.”  And Shires stopped for his mistress.  The Shetland Pony knew what she was talking about.  It happened every time he carried his mistress across the domain of sand quickly as he did for her.  Women were not like horses.  Foolishly thinking to have to explain herself to her friend who already knew, Miss Shetlanders the younger said,

“You got sand in my prom dress, Shires.  A woman is not comfortable full of sand within like this.  You even got it in my…underwear.”  But she was smiling in mirth at Shires as she spoke these truths.  And the Shetland Pony drew back his equine lips to show off his big horse teeth in a wide grin at his

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silly mistress.  And Destiny found herself saying, “Oh yeah.  You already know.  Goofy girl I am.”

And Destiny, alone here with her pet pony, undressed, brushed all the sand off of herself, and quickly got all dressed up again.  Then she said.  “Now I am ready for the rest of our ride.  I have seen the Fabled Lands again.  And we shall see them again real soon.  Take me home now, good pony.”

And the blue prom dress girl, decent and modest once again, mounted the Shetland Pony, and her Shetland Pony galloped the rest of the way back home to her little cabin.

Once back home, Destiny dismounted, opened up the saddlebag along the right hip of Shires, and took out her Bible that she had used for the church service this morning and a copy of the church hymnbook that Pastor lent to her for as long as she wanted.  “I’ll be right back, Shires,” said Destiny.

And she raced into her cabin to put the Good Book and the songbook safely away inside.  And she came right back and opened the saddlebag along the left hip of Shires, and she pulled out a horse comb and a horse brush and a box of sugar cubes.  “I’ve got three of your favorite things here, good pony.” said Destiny Shetlanders, “but I know which one you want first.”  And the Shetland Pony mistress took out a sugar cube from the box and proffered it to him in her open palm.  And the adoring pet pony gently picked it out of her hand with his tongue, and he quickly ate it up in great excitement.  “Would you like another?” asked Destiny, and Shires nodded his head.  And she gave him another sugar cube.

“Are you full now of sugar cubes?” asked his mistress, and he shook his head.  And she gave him a third sugar cube. Then the young woman took the comb to his mane and his tail, and as she combed him, his eyes grew narrow in sleepiness.  After a while, the combing was done.  Then the mistress took the brush to his equine hide and brushed his fine pony’s coat.  And as he stood there, being brushed to great animal comfort, Shire’s eyes fell asleep.  And then the brushing was done, too.  Much running to his delights had made him sleepy today.

Later on that day, Shires awake and fresh now from his nap, mistress and pet went on to play their math games together that the Shetland Pony so excelled at with all the right answers.  In their

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math games, the woman asked a math question, and the animal answered the math question with a writing in the dirt with his hoof.  Shires had an intellect to add to his instinct that showed him to be a most extraordinary and sagacious horse unlike any other Shetland Pony anywhere.  And he loved to show off to his cherished mistress.  And he loved to hear her coo over him every time he wrote down the right math answers for her.  And this time her first math test was this question, “Shires, how do you write the number ‘three’ in Roman numerals?”

His pony’s eyes pondered this math question for a moment, then he set his right hoof down upon the plot of fresh dug up dirt, and he made three straight vertical lines next to each other and side-by-side.

“III,” read Miss Shetlanders the younger.  “That’s right.  Good Shires, there are some people my age who do not know that.  You are smarter than some people I know.”  And the Shetland Pony neighed upon hearing such flattery.  “My second question,” said Destiny.  “Shires, tell me the value of ‘Pi’ figured out to the last decimal.”  This was a trick question.  No math savant could figure that out.  It could not be calculated except by God Himself.  And the pony seemed to understand this in his sage-like countenance.  Then he drew an answer in the fresh brown dirt with his hoof:  It was the punctuation mark “?.”  Shires was giving the answer, “No man knows.”  And the Shetland Pony came through again with the right answer to his mistress.  “Right again, Shires!  God Himself only knows!

You got me there again, good pony.  I thought that I could fool you with a question that had no answer.

And you still gave the right answer to that question.”  Again the little horse neighed upon hearing such grand flattery from his mistress.  “Third question now, O wise Shires,” she said.  “If two plus two equals four, what does two times two equal?”  She knew that clever Shires was not so good at multiplication as he was at addition.  And she thought that this easy question might not be so easy for him because of the way she put forth this math question.  At first a confusion exuded from his expression; then his eyes narrowed in calculations; then his writing hoof went to work in the fresh dug

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up earth.  He drew in the number “2”; he then drew in the symbols “X2 underneath that; he then drew a little horizontal line under that in turn.  The pony thus performed long multiplication in its traditional

vertical format as pupils do in school.  Then, after much thought, the he-pony drew in the number “4”

underneath that horizontal bar.  And he looked up from his arithmetic work at his mistress.  “Right again, O Shires,” she sang out.  “They don’t teach that until third grade for people!”  Then Shires went a step further and wrote in horizontal equation “2 X 2 = 4.”  And his mistress said, “Why, that is algebra!”  And he reveled at more sweet words from his mistress.  “You’re smart,” she said.  And he bowed his pony head in self-effacement.

The third math problem finished, their daily arithmetic games were done for the day.  And Destiny Shetlanders said, “Time for me to count my money.  It’s that time for me, you know.  It is my favorite fun thing to do just for fun.”  And she ran into her cabin, alone, and she stood before her desk in the corner, and she pulled open her top middle desk drawer.  And there it was—her little bag, her cloth bag of many precious coins, her treasure of gold and silver coins amassed, collected, and invested in over her years as an older girl and as a younger woman these past years of her life.  She held this bag of gold and silver against her breasts and said. “My precious!  My precious!”  And she kissed this bag.

Destiny studied all about silver and gold in Chemistry class.  She knew that the symbol for silver on the  Periodic Table of Elements was “Ag”; that the atomic number for silver was 47; that the atomic weight of silver was 107.8682.  And she knew that the symbol for gold on the Periodic Table of Elements was “Au”; that the atomic number for gold was 79; that the atomic weight of gold was 196.96657.  She then sat down on her desk chair and shook her little bag of pure silver and pure gold coins.  The sound was

prettier even than the swishing of her prom gown as she walked.  The sound was prettier than a whinny from good Shires.  The sound was prettier than the singing of God’s songbirds here in the northern Wisconsin countrysides.  The sound was prettier than the flowing of the waters of Left Foot Creek.  Indeed it was melodic like a hymn sung by the flock of Translation Baptist Church.  Jingle!  Jingle!

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Jingle!  Clink!  Clink!  Clink!  It was the melody nearest and dearest to Destiny Shetlanders’s heart.

But the sight of the eyes was better than the hearing in the ears for Destiny when it came to her precious treasures in the bag.  And she at once dumped the bag of silver and gold coins onto her desktop, and she arranged them in an organization upon her desk where she sat.  On the left were her silver coins; on the right were her gold coins.  Among her silver coins were Silver American Eagles and

Silver Canadian Maple Leafs and Apmex One-Ounce Silver Rounds and Morgan Silver Dollars and Austrian Silver Philharmonics and Apmex 1/2-Ounce Fine Silver Rounds and “Junk” silver dimes and “Junk” silver quarters and “Mexican Silver Libertads” and “Monarch Precious Metals 1/10-Ounce Silver Rounds.  And among her gold coins were “American Eagle One-Ounce Gold Coins” and “American Buffalo One-Ounce Gold Coins” and “Canadian Maple Leaf One-Ounce Gold Coins” and “British Britannia One-Ounce Gold Coins” and “South African Krugerrand One-Ounce Gold Coins,” and “Austrian Philharmonic One-Ounce Gold Coins” and “Canadian Maple Leaf 1/2-Ounce Gold Coins” and “American Eagle 1/2-Ounce Gold Coins” and “Canadian Maple Leaf 1/4-Ounce Gold Coins” and “American Eagle 1/4-Ounce Gold Coins.”  Now that she saw this silver and gold with her eyes, this rich young woman wanted to feel this silver and gold in her hands.  And Miss Shetlanders the younger picked up each coin individually and felt it in her ten fingers in adoration one at a time.  And this feeling the precious coins took an hour.  After having listened to, and gazed upon, and touched her coveted silver and gold, there was nothing left for Destiny to do with this treasure of the little cloth bag.

And her spirits felt a letdown now.  And she was a little down now in her emotions.  Done with her fun, she then gathered up her precious coins and put them back in their little cloth bag, and put the bag back in her top middle desk drawer, and shut the drawer, and sat there, depressed.

How did this blue prom gown young woman pay for all of these silver and gold coins?  She did so by holding back completely on her giving to God.  She never put even one penny into the collection plate when it went by in any service of her Translation Baptist Church.  Even though she was a faithful

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member of this good Baptist church, never having missed a service since she made that promise to God

to be there every time the doors were opened, she stubbornly refused to give of her tithes to God as was commanded of Christians by God Himself throughout the Scriptures.  Destiny wanted to save her money to ever buy more silver and gold coins.  Indeed, were this believer to have given her tithes to this good Baptist church these years she had been attending it so steadfastly, she would never have been able to afford her bag of silver and gold.  In his concern for her spiritual state, Pastor confronted her about this issue.  He wanted God to bless her for tithing and not curse her for not tithing.  But stubborn Destiny Shetlanders dared say, “No,” to Pastor in order to say, “Yes,” to augmenting her collection of precious coins.  The good deacon warned her, and she said, “No, sir,” to him, also.  Big Sister Gretchen, who did tithe, but never went to Destiny’s church, told her that she should give one-tenth of her money to the work of the good little church, too, but Destiny said, “Never mind, Big Sister.”  The Bible told her over and over again in both the Old Testament and the New Testament that she should give one-tenth to God, but she disobeyed the Word of God.  And the Holy Spirit spoke to her about this sin from time-to-time, but Destiny rebelliously quenched the Spirit.  And this carnal born-again believer was asking for a spanking from God Almighty.

Yet, other than in the area of not tithing to Translation Baptist Church, Destiny Shetlanders was most faithful and obedient in regard to everything else that made the Christian’s life a victory in Jesus.  Like the Berean Christians in Acts 17:11, Destiny without fail truly searched the Scriptures daily, herself sincerely enjoying every minute of her Bible-reading every day with a passion that exceeded her passion for her silver and her gold.  And she loved to pray every night for over an hour, maybe two.  She poured out her heart to her Heavenly Father in all due fervent and effectual prayer with the sincere and humble heart of a born-again believer who can truly say, “Abba, Father.”  And her love for church was the direct result of all the things that she loved that made church what it was —the good preaching and the good fellowship and the good hymns and the good deeds and the Lord’s table and the baptisms

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and the announcements and the quiz verse recitations and the prayer requests and the prayer meetings

and the responsive readings and “pass the praise.”

But the blue prom gown girl refused to give back to God ten percent.  Instead she now walked around her cabin singing a song of the cartoon “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”:

“Silver and gold, silver and gold,

Everyone wishes for silver and gold.

How do you measure its worth?

Just by the pleasure it gives here on Earth.”

 

Later that night Destiny went to church again.  And Pastor preached upon tithing right at her

as God willed.  (He was not singling her out; rather, he prayed beforehand what God wanted him to preach, and he went ahead and wrote down tonight’s sermon notes for the message that God wanted his flock to hear. To a wayward child of God such a sermon indeed seems right at her.  God’s Word convicts the sinner.)  And Pastor had his flock read along with him Malachi 3:8-10:  “Will a man rob God?  Yet ye have robbed me.  But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee?  In tithes and offerings.  Ye are cursed with a curse:  for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation.  Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.”  Pastor went on to preach, “If a child of God sins and does not give at least ten percent back to God, that man or woman is actually stealing from God.  If he steals from God, he can steal from you.  And God will put a curse on him.  You might ask, ‘What will this curse be?’  And I answer, ‘You do not want to find out.’  No born-again believer lives on more than ninety percent of his income.  If you do not give tithes and offerings, God will take away that money from you for something else. It could be medical bills.  It could be a rent increase.  It could be a car repair.  It could be a health insurance hike.  But God will see to it that you do not keep that ten percent for yourself.

But if a child of God does faithfully give of his tithes and offerings, God promises to bless that man or

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woman.  ‘What might this blessing be?’ you might ask.  And I answer, ‘Just wait and see.  It will be good.’  Where Malachi speaks of the storehouse to which we must bring our tithes, today this means our local church.  And where he speaks of there being ‘meat in mine house.’ today this means that the financial needs are met for my ministry as Pastor and for our work for God in this mission field here in Wisconsin.”

After Pastor dismissed his flock from Sunday Evening Worship later on this evening, Destiny rushed back home to her cabin to play with her gold and silver again.  She thought upon the preaching of this night.  She thought upon maybe buying a Spanish Doubloon sometime soon.  And she again grieved the Holy Spirit, saying, “No,” to God once again.

This was September 1986.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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CHAPTER III

His name was Flanders Nickels, and he was playing a game of what he called, “Polygons” with his beloved she-seagull pet.  Her name was “Skies,” and in Polygons, he held up a hollow cardboard cut-out of a geometric shape, and she flew right through it where he held it up.  Seagull and master played this game lots, and both loved this most unique bird game.  A chimney swift might have been faster than this seagull, and a hummingbird might have been more agile than this seagull, but his Skies was his favorite of birds.  He loved all seagulls, and the song of the seagulls was nature’s music to his ears.  And Skies was his very own seagull, whom he loved more than any other seagull out there here near the Fabled Lands.  “Sing for me, Skies,” he beckoned her, and she called forth her native gull call, and he said, “Skies, your song is like a Christmas carol in the hymnbook at Christmas time.”

Flanders then picked up a cardboard cut-out shape from his pile of geometric shapes upon the ground.  This one was an octagon three feet across and hollow.  He held it vertically above his head in both hands, declared, “Octagon, girl,” and awaited her to perform her trick.  From a hundred feet away, the she-seagull began her charge in the air.  And at once she was there.  And she deftly flew through this big octagon, her wings spread out, but not touching the perimeters in another win for her.  “Bravo,

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girl!  Bravo!” her master said, putting down the octagon and clapping.  He then picked up the next geometric shape from the pile.  He declared, “A heptagon, girl.” to his Skies, and he held it out to his left side vertically in both hands.  This heptagon was a little smaller than the previous shape and a little more challenging for the agile young seagull.  “Only two-and-one-half feet across—this one,” he did tell Skies.  And from a hundred feet away, the she-seagull dove in toward this hollow heptagon shape.

And she passed right through it, furling the edges of her outstretched wings as she went through so as to not touch the perimeters and lose.  “You won again!” said her master.  And he put this shape also upon the ground off to the side.  Then he picked up a hexagon, and he announced it to his seagull, “A hexagon this time, Skies, and only two feet wide.”  And the master held it out vertically to his right side in both hands.  Again from a hundred feet away, Skies began her advance in the air.  And she passed through it cleanly, furling her wings one-quarter inward, and she did not bump the hexagon.  “Encore!”

cheered Flanders.  “Encore!”   And she prepared herself for her next trick as the encore, as Flanders set down this third shape.  Then he picked up the fourth shape for her fourth trick, and he held it off by his knees to his right in both hands.  “A pentagon, O Skies,” he declared.  “But this pentagon is only one-and-one-half feet across.  Can you do it, girl?”  In answer Skies gave forth a succinct single seagull call note, and from one hundred feet away she did begin her sprint in flight.  And the she-seagull passed through this pentagon, furling one-half of each wing inward as she passed through.  Again she neither knocked the geometric shape out of her master’s hands, nor did she bump this geometric shape as her master held it.  And Flanders said in French, “Tres bien fait!”  Flanders knew this to mean in English, “Very well done.”  Maybe Skies knew, also.  Flanders Nickels then put down this shape, and he picked up an even smaller shape, “A little square, Skies.  A little square only one foot by one foot.  Get this one done right, and you will get delicious suet for dinner tonight.”  And her master held this one low, too, this time by his knees to his left in both hands.  And from a hundred feet away, the she-seagull began her charge in the air.  She got there, furled three-quarters of her gull wings inward when she reached

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the little square, and passed through without err.  “You’re good, Skies.  Very good.  You will get good suet tonight for dinner.  Very good suet.”  And Flanders Nickels set down this trick’s shape, and he picked up the last shape of these six tricks of Polygons.  “This one, Skies,” he began.  “This one is the triangle.  It is both equilateral and equiangular.  Even at its widest it is scarcely six inches across.  One of your wings alone is twelve inches across, and you have two wings.  This is the trick you always lose.  You have never won in this trick.  But if you do it right this time for the first time, we will go to Hardee’s down in De Pere and eat French Fries together on one of their outdoor tables by the river.  Would you like that, girl?”  She gave forth a trio of quick seagull calls in affirmation.  “Okay, then, girl.  Let’s see you do it.  Pull off your greatest of tricks in our Polygons game.”  And Flanders Nickels held up this little bitty triangle in both hands just on top of his head, and he waited.  Again, from a hundred feet away, pretty Skies began her “assault.”  And she approached this triangle, and she furled all of her wings all the way in, and she made herself as small as she could, and she passed through the little triangle.  In curiosity, she turned back to look if she had really done it this time.  Yes, the triangle was still surely in her master’s hands.  Her master said, “No, you did not bump it, Skies.”  And she looked to both of her own sides to make sure her wings were still there, and they were.   She did it!  “Yes, girl,” he cheered for her, “your trick of tricks.  My wonderful seagull has just done a trick of tricks!

Tomorrow we go to Hardee’s for lots and lots of French Fries.  And we will see other seagulls there, too.  Seagulls and pelicans love the Fox River.  Amen, girl!  God is good!”  Flanders then set down upon the ground this most challenging little triangle, and he raised his right hand, extending his index finger, and Skies dutifully lighted upon it and perched there on her master’s hand in gladness.

Mr. Flanders Nickels was a born-again Christian living for the Lord.  He was the boyfriend to

Gretchen.  And he was born on October 22, 1961; that made him now twenty-four years old, like both Gretchen and Destiny.  The seagull on his raised right hand, Flanders asked, “Are you thirsty?  I am thirsty.  Let us go to Left Foot Creek and take a drink.”  The she-seagull gave forth a single note of

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assent.   And he trekked to the pure northern creek not far from here.  Flanders jumped right into the creek in all of his clothes without hesitation or ambivalence.  “It’s hot outside, girl,” he explained to her.  But she knew her master; he did things like this she had seen him do before.  And he leaned down and drank fresh cool flowing waters of creek, and his thirst was quenched.  Thinking upon his seagull, he took off his Jiffy hat, put it into the creek, and pulled it out for her.  “Water for your thirst, Skies,” he said.  And she drank from his proffered hat of water.  Then he sat down in the sandy bottom of the creek, took pleasure in the flowing waters up to his shoulders, put his soaked hat back upon his head, and had his seagull perch herself now upon his head.

And he said once again, “Skies, girl, before you and I had found each other, I had originally thought that a pet bald eagle as a pet would make me happy.  But Mom told me that it is illegal for a master to have a bald eagle for a pet.  So I didn’t go and do that.  Then I thought that maybe a hawk would be a good pet for me.  Hawks are almost as big as eagles.  But hawks never meant a lot to me.

So then I thought about maybe thinking about another type of bird to have as a pet.  Then I remembered an elderly lady in town who fed the ducks all year round.  At the parks by the river she would have a big flock of pretty and handsome ducks around her as she fed them with much duck food.

She loved the ducks sacrificially, herself providing for them spring and summer and fall and winter.

These ducks were wonderful creations of the Maker.  Yet even more than she loved all of these ducks, she loved this one lone goose all the more so.  She called him, “Goosy.” This goose was truly her most beloved.  And when he tragically got a fishhook in his mouth, this elderly lady rescued him, got him some help, and saved his life.  As with the ducks, she came to the goose to find him where he was each day just to feed him.  And this sole goose was also a wonder of the creation of God.  I thought about maybe myself feeding a big flock of ducks.  But then I thought that they already belonged to the elderly woman.  I thought about feeding the pelicans, instead.  What did pelicans eat?  I did not know.  So I bought a whole loaf of white bread and went to Wells Park in town, the park that I liked that was next

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to the river, and looked for pelicans, but I did not see any.  Hoping to bring them here, I tossed out a couple pieces of bread onto the green grass and waited.  Behold, seagulls, instead!  And they were coming from across the Fox River.  My park was on the eastern shore, and these seagulls were from the western shore.  They were prettier than pelicans.  And I liked them better than I liked ducks.  And they loved my plain white bread.  I tossed out more pieces of bread from the bread bag.  And more seagulls came.  And they began to call forth their most ingratiating song.  I tossed out all the rest of my pieces of bread.  And a whole flock of beautiful white and gray seagulls were all about as my bread was all about throughout this green grass of this section of park.  How delighted I was as I beheld such gulls picking their beaks into the bread, raising their heads, and consuming this delicious treat just for them.  And I fell in love with all seagulls that day at the park.  I had come to call this park ‘the park by Hardee’s.’

After a while, all the bread pieces were eaten up; the seagulls could find no more; and they all began to leave, all going back across the river to the other side again.  But even when the last seagull left, I was still happy for having had this most novel experience.

And I would do it again.   And I did so at this same park.  And I did it with wheat bread this time.  I did not know if seagulls cared for wheat bread as they had so cared for white bread.  I tossed out some wheat bread pieces from the bread bag, and they all came again one-at-a-time, and again I had a park full of eating seagulls.  And when the last piece of wheat bread was eaten, the seagulls left me again.  And I reveled in marvel at what I had just seen.

And I went and did so for my third time.  Again at this same park as the previous two times I fed the seagulls.  But this time I fed them rye bread.  And, yes, seagulls also love to eat rye bread.  And when the rye bread was all eaten up, all the seagulls left me.  And I was happy.

And I began to pray that God give me a seagull of my own.  I wanted to be a master now of a pet seagull.  Remembering how all of the other seagulls had left me when the loaves of bread ran out, I prayed that God give me a sign of the seagull He wanted for me to be a seagull that would not leave me

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when the food ran out.  That is, if a seagull that I was feeding stayed with me even when I had no more

food for him, then that would be God’s choice for a seagull for me.  Well, as you know, it all started to happen when I did not expect it.  I thought that God would have me to go back to the park for my fourth time, maybe with pumpernickel bread this time, and that maybe one seagull would not fly away from me with all the others when the bread was all gone.  But God acts in mysterious ways that work out His will just right.  I bought the loaf of pumpernickel bread for my next time with the seagulls.  But first I went to Hardee’s to have a mushroom and Swiss burger and French fries and an iced tea.  That Hardee’s had outdoor seating.  And it was on a high platform with level ground on the street side and with a steep drop-off and a railing on the river side.  And one could see a good view of the very-near Fox River from here on the outdoor tables.  And I took my nice meal outside in the nice summer weather.  Of course, the seagulls came.  I had not thought of that, even though that special park was right next to Hardee’s and due south.  And I and my flock of seagulls shared my burger and my fries and my drink. And my meal was all eaten up and gone.  And one-by-one the seagulls flew away back from where they had come.  But one seagull did not fly away back from where he had come.  There was one seagull who was still here.  I called out to him, ‘Why are you still here?’  And he began to call forth in beatific seagull greeting. And suddenly I knew.  God had worked.  God had answered my prayer.  God had given me my precious seagull pet.  And she and I became best friends right off.  I gave her a name.  It was ‘Skies.’  And I became her master.  And that was you, girl.”

This same seagull, now years later at home with her master now at his little creek by his cabin, sang forth another seagull song of salutation to please Flanders.  And Flanders sweetly said to her, “And here we are, still together, a part of a lifetime later.  I love you, Skies.”   And she told him that she loved him, too, in her seagull calls.

Later, that day, the she-seagull out flying around outside somewhere, Flanders Nickels sat down at his desk in the cabin to again memorize from his vocabulary flash cards.  He loved Skies.  He loved

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learning big new words more so.   And he began his fun study here in the cabin alone again:  “Restive” and “restful” were the first two words to memorize for him today with his vocabulary cards.  Both sounded like they meant “relaxing” or “full of rest.”  But both did not mean this same thing.  In fact these two words were exact opposites.  “Restive” meant “restless in nervousness, fitful.”  He already knew what “restful” meant.  So “restive” was like “unrestful.” instead of like “restful.”  Next came two hard vocabulary words—the big words “perspicacious” and “perspicuous.”  “Perspicacious,” meant “of acute mental vision or discernment; keen.  Synonym:  shrewd.”   Its adverb was “perspicaciously,” and its nouns were “perspicaciousness” and “perspicacity.”  Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s master detective Sherlock Holmes was a most perspicacious crime solver.  Sherlock Holmes’s brother Mycroft was a most perspicacious secret service man for the British government.  And Sherlock Holmes’ greatest foe—Professor Moriarty—was a perspicacious criminal without equal.  And as for the other word–”perspicuous”–that meant “plain to the understanding, especially because of clarity and precision of presentation.  Synonym: clear.”  Its adverb was “perspicuously,” and its nouns were “perspicuousness” and “perspicuity.”  Good Pastor of Translation Baptist Church preached such Biblical doctrines as justification and sanctification and propitiation and remission and imputation so well and so often that he made such big words perspicuous to all his flock, young and old.  A good college math professor could make the basic elements of abstract algebra—homomorphisms and isomorphisms and kernels—perspicuous to his college students.  Next in this vocabulary study for Flanders were the two vocabulary card that read “discriminatory” and “discriminating.”  Again, these were not synonyms.  But neither were they antonyms.  “Discriminatory” meant such faults as racism, white supremacy, sexism, or other unjustified favoritism or prejudice.  And “discriminating” meant such things as “prudent” and “judicious.”  “All in the Family’s Archie Bunker, though right about some

issues, was wrong in his discriminatory views of African Americans.  And Perry Mason, the famous

defense attorney, in his solving of crimes in the courtroom, displayed a most discriminating search for

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truth for his innocent client.  Next, Flanders studied the words “inflammable”  and “non-flammable.”

He already knew the word “flammable” to mean “able to catch on fire.”  So, with the prefix “in” and the prefix “non” in front of the word “flammable,” these two words should both mean “not able to catch on fire.”  Yet, to his surprise, the vocabulary card with the word “inflammable” gave its definition to be “flammable”; and the vocabulary card with the word “non-flammable” gave its definition to be “not flammable.”  Though they appeared to be synonyms, instead both words were antonyms.  “Crazy thing…this English language,” he prayed in delights spontaneously.  He then went to the next two flash cards, and he learned the difference between the word “pertinent” and the word “impertinent.”  Here again, a prefix that normally meant a direct “not” to the base, in this case the prefix “im,”… well the English language is a complicated language.  Where “pertinent” meant  “relevant; pertaining to,” “impertinent” actually meant, “rude, disrespectful, sassy.”  And, last for this day’s vocabulary study, came the word “risible.”  The definition was all about laughing.  “Father,” prayed Flanders in an impromptu skit with God, “Myself, quote, ‘Is it proper for a grieving widow to be risible at her husband’s funeral?’  Unquote.  Yourself, quote, ‘Only if she did not love him.’  Unquote.”  Instantly did  Flanders understand the word “risible.”  And it was good for a born-again believer to be risible with his God in good fun on a lark.  God laughs when His children laugh.  The Lord can be risible.

There was one thing in Flanders’s worship life that did not make God laugh with him.  And that was Flanders’s lack of a Bible-reading life.  He loved to pray, and he did so nightly for two hours at a time sometimes, and never less than an hour-and-a-quarter.  He was a most fierce prayer-warrior, and he prayed with passion and with ardor and with importunity.  Prayer was his favorite thing to do in life.

Not only did he officially kneel down to pray a planned prayer, but he also fell upon spontaneous unplanned prayers, as well—like the one he just fell into with the word “risible” in the middle of his vocabulary memorizing.  And he was also on fire for church.  His attendance for the services at Translation Baptist Church was more faithful even than that of the deacon, who himself was a most

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worthy and faithful deacon without reproach.  And Flanders loved Wednesday Night Bible Study and Prayer Meeting the best of this good Baptist church’s four weekly services.  And he was happiest at

his church in the middle of the prayer meetings of these Wednesday evenings, where groups of men and groups of women gathered in prayer circles and each took his or her turn to pray out loud among his or her little group.  Also in his sincere love for worship did Flanders Nickels give much tithes and offerings to the work of Translation Baptist Church.  The collection plate never passed Flanders without Flanders putting in a check in any of the services on Sundays and Wednesdays.   And he also gave special gifts of money to other missionaries out there who had visited his church and to whom his church gave monthly support.  Yes, Flanders was a mighty prayer person and a mighty pillar in the church and a mighty giver of money.  But he was a feeble—if not impotent—student of the Bible.  In a more accurate indictment of him, he never went and opened his Holy Bible.  His King James Version Bible, to his egregious shame, was literally, “getting dusty on the coffee table underneath newspapers and magazines.”

His vocabulary cards now done for the day, Flanders felt the Holy Spirit tell him, “Open up your Bible now to just past its middle.  There you will find Psalm 119.  This chapter tells all about My Good Book in its every 176 verses.  It tells of my ‘law’ and of my ‘testimonies’ and of my ‘precepts’ and of my ‘statutes’ and of my ‘commandments’ and of my ‘judgments’ and of my ‘word.’  These seven words of which Psalm 119 tells all mean ‘the Word of God.’  Read now, My son My Words of Psalm 119.  Start reading this chapter, continue reading this chapter, and finish reading this chapter.  And I will bless you.”

With a fear of God driving him upon this still small voice’s directive, Flanders went to his coffee table with trembling hands, exhumed his King James Bible, and began to do what God had told him to do.  He opened the Holy Bible to just past its middle.  He saw the designated chapter title “Psalm 119.”  He thought to read God’s Word now for his first time.

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But then he took notice of a shaded gray box at the bottom of this open page.  This was a study help, and this was a study Bible.  And in this shaded gray box were man’s words.  And these words of man distracted Flanders from the Words of God.  Here in this little commentary box were certain words and their definitions according to the Bible scholar who wrote in this study Bible many explanatory notes from cover to cover.  These words and their definitions were all about this Psalm 119.  There was the word “law,” and its definition, and the word “testimony” and its definition, and the word “precept” and its definition, and the word “statute” and its definition, and the word “commandment” and its definition, and the word “judgment” and its definition, and the word “word” and its definition.  Lo, for Flanders, seven new vocabulary words to memorize and to learn!  And he hesitated not to deter from God’s commandment and to memorize seven new definitions.  He did not read God’s Word as God had told him to do.  And when at last he had successfully mastered man’s definitions of God’s seven words thus, he then shut up his Bible.  Then he put it back on the coffee table, carelessly atop the pile of stuff already there.  And he felt guilt.  But he did not think to have fun reading the Bible.  His fun was vocabulary.

And today was September 1986.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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CHAPTER IV

 

“Ready for the obstacle course, Gray girl?” called forth Proffery Coins, the fourth and last member of the group of the four born-again believers of the Fabled Lands.  In response Gray sat down upon her haunches before her admiring master, and she lifted up her wolf nose and began to bay forth an affirmation.  “She-wolf,” said Proffery, “I thought that timber wolves only bay at night, and here it is in the day.”  In jest Gray went ahead to curl up her lips from all her teeth of her large jaw to make a goofy smile at her master.  “Toothy, O Gray.  Most toothy,” said Proffery.  “Do not think that I cannot make a big smile back at you, also, O wolf girl.”  And Proffery stretched back his lips to make most conspicuous his human teeth right back at her.  Still on her haunches, Gray got sassy with her master by howling again at him, this time in mock-rebuke at him.  Smart himself with his own clever retort, he said, “Wolves howl under full moons—not under bright suns, Gray.”  And the timber wolf ceased her lupine song.  “But now it is time for you to get down to business.  You’ve got an obstacle course to run.”  The she-timber wolf prepared herself for this.  She loved doing these obstacle courses.  He loved watching her do these obstacle courses.  And she loved to show off for her good master by doing her best with these obstacle courses.  It was their game together as pet and master that most bonded them

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to each other of all things they did between each other.

And the timber wolf suddenly saw that her paw had inadvertently stepped over the starting line before the judge had said for her to go.  This was offside.  That was a penalty.  That would by the rules add five seconds to her time on this obstacle course.  And sure enough, this accident did not fail to catch Proffery’s keen eye.  “Encroachment!” he eagerly called out.  “Five second penalty.  It will be hard to break your record that way.  Do not expect even to tie it, girl, now.  You have no chance.”  Though the words themselves sounded rough and tough, keen Gray knew that all of this was just big talk of her master so much a part of their games together; these words were filled with love and admiration from her master’s heart so heaped upon her listening ears.  Never a cheater at these obstacle courses, the timber wolf stepped back her paw to her side of the starting line, and she awaited her master’s countdown.  And Proffery Coins began the countdown:  “On your mark.  Get ready.  Get set.  Go!”  And Gray did go.  And her master did follow with a stopwatch and an eye for any accidental penalties that she might incur in this obstacle course.  First came the teeter-totter.  In front it was up above her head; in back it was down on the ground.  With a great leap, she landed upon the raised edge, bringing it down hard upon the ground from where she was standing.  Then she ran upward on this teeter-totter to its center and beyond.  Once beyond the center, she brought this teeter-totter back down on this other side.  And she ran downward on this teeter-totter unto its end and off of it completely.  Already she was making up on some of those five seconds she had lost before she had even started this obstacle course today.  Next came the culvert.  In countrysides and never in the cities, large galvanized tubes ran underneath driveways for drainage purposes.  They were like tunnels that children could crawl through when they were at play.  But they were kind of small for full-grown wolves to run through at play.  Such was the culvert.  But this obstacle course’s culvert was resting upon the ground in the open air.  And without hesitation the big she-wolf at once raced into this culvert challenge, going right into it, and running through it, and going out of it in fleet agility of a quadruped.   And already,

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the she-wolf had compensated for much of the five-second penalty she had incurred upon herself—after just the first two obstacles.  Next came the red brick wall.  This red brick wall was four feet high and ten feet wide and one foot deep.  This required a great springing of leap.  And the she-wolf at once sprinted with abandon toward it to get a running start.  And when she got to the wall, she did leap high and well.  And she succeeded in landing atop this wall as she had to.  And from there, she leaped back to the ground below on the other side with facility.   And now after just the first three obstacles, she was ahead of her record time sans penalty by five seconds.  “Your penalty has been compensated for, girl!”

cheered her master.  The time she had lost was now taken away by the time she had gained.  And she continued this obstacle course game with great zeal and competition.  Next came the big pool.  It was not a pool to leap over, but rather a pool to swim through.  It measured twenty-five feet long by three feet wide by five feet deep.  And it was a below-ground pool. She ran right up to it, and she dove right into the cold water, and she began to dog-paddle as the canid she was.  Strong in limb and large of lung, she quickly swam out to the other side.  And when she climbed back out upon the ground, dripping down all sides of herself, she had saved another couple of seconds on her time.  And she was closing in on a most well-executed obstacle course’s time that truly amazed even her own master who knew her best of all.  Next came the heavy cart.  Here was a wooden cart with wheels and a hemp rope and a pile of cement blocks upon the cart.  This tested her strength most physically.  Knowing what to do with this cart, Gray got to the other side at the front of the cart, and she grabbed the hemp rope in her wolf jaws, and she pulled mightily, bending her four legs back in strain.  And the wheels began to turn.  And the heavy cart began to move with her as she pulled.  And she thus dragged this cart full of cement blocks a good twenty feet.  And when she did this, she let go of this rope and quickly went on toward the next obstacle, weary now from this obstacle, but still excited to go and do more obstacles.  She had saved another few seconds in that dragging test.  And now Proffery said, “Gray girl, you are now closing in toward your record time.  Keep this up, and you will have scored your second best score of them all.

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Ooo!  Go for it, O she-wolf!”  Such praise in her master’s tone, she did go for it with gusto and animation.  The next obstacle was a race track of a quarter of a mile.  It was made of blacktop with a white line along the right and a white line along the left; and it made one big round ellipse.  And the timber wolf began this run like she was the wind.  She neither stepped onto or beyond the two white lines to her sides.  The judge, not a sprinter himself, watched her at the starting line that was also the finish line.  And she did not incur any penalty with those white side lines.  And in time like unto that of a race horse, the timber wolf very quickly crossed the finish line.  “Whoa! Secretariat!” Proffery bragged on her for her.  She had saved even more seconds with this obstacle once again.  And her master said, “Gray, you are on your way to tying your record time with this obstacle course.”  And she quickly ran up to the last obstacle, and it was the most challenging maze.  It was not a maze with walls higher than one’s head—like unto that of a maze through hedges.  This maze was a maze with walls way below her head—these walls being two-by-fours built upon the ground and structured thus upon the earth on their long sides and being two inches wide and four inches high.  She at once entered this maze, and she began to work and wind her way through this maze better than any mouse could in its maze.  The wise timber wolf looked on up ahead as she made her way to determine the right turns to make and the wrong turns not to make.  As she did so, her master said, “Gray girl, if you tie your record time, I will give you a dinner of delicious pork steak—as many as you can eat in one meal.”  This promise added spice to her incentive, and she ran through this wooden board maze all the faster.  And she got all the way through this most difficult obstacle cleanly and most speedily.  And she came out the exit to this maze, and there stood Proffery Coins, waiting for her with good news on his face and his thumb pushing down on the button of his stop watch.  “Yes!  Yes!  Yes!” he said.  She knew her master.

She had broken her record time with the obstacle course.  And he would reward her with something even better to wolves than nice tasty pork steaks.  And he said, “Yes, girl, you broke your record.

Would you care for lots and lots of steaks instead?  Do you like T-bones?  Do you like Porterhouses?

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Do you like tenderloins?”  She gave forth a most avid baying of her own utterance of “Yes!  Yes!  Yes!”

And her master promised her a whole week of lots and lots of steaks.  And her mouth salivated like Pavlov’s dogs.  And in great affection and adoration, Proffery Coins threw his arms around Gray’s thick furry neck, and he hugged and kissed her over and over again.  He did this with her even in her not-so-good obstacle courses.  And he did this for her lots and lots of other times in their other times together that were not obstacle courses.  He loved his pet, and she loved her master.

Proffery Coins was a spiritual born-again Christian, and he was one of the four devout believers

of the Fabled Lands.  He also lived alone in a cabin with his beloved pet here in the outskirts of Beaver.  He was the boyfriend to Destiny Shetlanders.  And he was the best friend to Flanders.  And he was the friend of Gretchen.  The youngest of the group of four, Proffery was born on August 26, 1964.  He was twenty-two years old.  And he loved to read his King James Bible, having already read through it a few dozen times cover-to-cover.  And he loved to memorize much scripture, handwritten in numerous index card notebooks, always re-memorizing and re-memorizing again unto complete retention over the course of several years.  And he loved to read and study the commentary book “Feature” devotional in its good fundamental King James only doctrine.  And Proffery Coins also loved to always attend the services of Translation Baptist Church.  He loved the fellowship at church that he had with Pastor and with Deacon and with Flanders and with Destiny and with the rest of this precious little flock of brothers-and-sisters-in-the-Lord.  Being a Baptist, Proffery loved fellowship dinners at his church.

And being Baptist, Proffery also loved to joke around with other members of his church family with fun and merry teasing.  And Proffery Coins also gave far more than ten percent of his income to the work of good Translation Baptist Church.  He considered it an honor to give to the church and help pay for Pastor’s temporal needs as Pastor tended to the spiritual needs of Proffery and the rest of the flock.

However, Proffery had nothing to do with prayer.  He was never a prayer-warrior as he should have been.  Proffery Coins sinned in avoiding praying to his Heavenly Father.  And because of this,

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Proffery, of the four believers of these Fabled Lands, was the least qualified to say to God in prayer, “Abba, Father.”

Then he said to Gray, “It’s time for me to write today’s letter to God, wolf girl.  I’ve got to go

now back into my cabin and write to Him.”

Proffery Coins lived to write letters to God.  Of course, he did not mail such letters.  He just wrote them in a strange fellowship with his Father.  It was like praying to Him as he wrote to Him.

And this inspired Proffery to do such every day without fail.  In short, this was his prayer life on paper and pencil.  And this was his fun of worship like unto Bible-reading and going to church.  And he listened to no man or woman were they to tell him to stop writing his letters to God.  God the Holy Spirit told him, though, but he listened not to the Holy Spirit, either.  God does hear the prayers of his saints; but he does not read the letters from his saints.  That is, Proffery was supposed to speak his prayers to God—not to write them—and he was sinning against God as he continued in his way that seemed right in his own eyes.

The fun of Gray’s obstacle course done, Proffery Coins ran back to his cabin and got out his yellow paper and his writing pencil, and he once again began his funner fun.  This is what he wrote in today’s letter to God:

“Dear God my Heavenly Father:  It is written in Psalm 18:49, ‘Therefore will I give thanks unto thee, O Lord, among the heathen, and sing praises unto thy name.’  And it is written again in II Samuel 22:50, ‘Therefore I will give thanks unto thee, O Lord, among the heathen, and I will sing praises unto thy name.”  So I thought that I would go and thank You and praise You lots in today’s letter.  First I think that I will fill some lines with good old-fashioned thanksgiving.  Thank You for my girlfriend Destiny.  I like her prom dress.  And she has just the right kind of hair style that I most like in women—none of those nasty tight little curls.  And we fellowship together in wily flirts as only boyfriends-and-girlfriends-in-Christ can do best.  I get to sit next to her at church all the time.  She sometimes distracts

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me from what Pastor is preaching just by being there with me—she is just too pretty, Father.  And I like that.  To me she is prettier than her twin sister.  Thank You also for my best friend Flanders.  We men play rough and tough guy games when we get together just the two of us.  Sometimes we play football.

Sometimes we play full-contact basketball.  Sometimes we play full-contact soccer.  Sometimes we play full-contact baseball.  We even try out hockey and volleyball and badminton one on one.  Most of the time, though, we just happen to begin roughhousing against each other.  Either he starts it, or I start it, Father.  It is great to be young and healthy.  I thank You that you made me a man.  Thank You, also,

for my good friend and sister-in-Christ Gretchen.  She’s pretty, too.  But she belongs to Flanders.  He always tells me that his girlfriend is prettier than my girlfriend.  That is when I start the roughhousing—when he starts talking like that.  Gretchen and Destiny like it when we men fight over them.  Her prom gown is pretty, too.  I told Flanders that my woman’s prom dress was prettier than his woman’s prom dress, and that time he started our roughhousing.  Thank you for Gretchen’s sense of humor, too.  It is almost as good as Destiny’s sense of humor.  Uh oh, I better not tell that to Flanders.  Thank You, also for comely Gray.  I never know for sure whether I want to spell her name ‘G-r-a-y’ or ‘G-r-e-y.’

I think that most of the time I decide it the former, with the ‘a.’  As you can tell and already know, having created her, she is a gray wolf.  And she is a female wolf.  Maybe if it were a he-wolf, he might bite me.  Maybe female wolves don’t bite people.  Mine never bit me.  But then again, I never bit her either.  Ha ha ha!  Thank You also for my other three animal friends with which all of us eight romp in the Fabled Lands and all the land around the Fabled Lands:  for Granger, for Shires, and for Skies.  Thank You for my cozy little cabin, warm in the winter and hot in the summer.  Thank You for my big countryside yard that stretches outward north and east and south and west from my cabin.  Thank You for my very own King James Version Bible.  It is said that the Bible is ‘Your love letter to mankind.’

And you give me much time every day where I get to read it and fill up on it all the time.  It is written about reading the Bible, ‘Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness:  for they

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shall be filled.’  Matthew 5:6.  That is one of the beatitudes that Jesus spoke to His disciples at the beginning of the sermon on the mount.  And the sermon on the mount covers Matthew chapters five and six and seven.  Thank You also that You did put in the heart of Pastor a burden for the people of Marinette County.  He sang one day, ‘I’ll go where You want me to go.  I’ll do what You want me to do.’  And You told him to plant a church here in Beaver.  And He followed your missionary call to him, and now we all get to go to Translation Baptist Church just a short way down the gravel roads from all four of our cabins.  I am glad to be a Baptist.  I am most glad to be a Christian.  I am glad to be Pastor’s friend.  And I am glad to be Deacon’s friend.  Thank You for Pastor and for Deacon.  Thank You that I get to give to the work of the church.  My tithes help pay for the hundreds of salvation tracts that we all give out from church.  My tithes help pay for the paycheck for Pastor and his wife Emmy.  My tithes also help the church itself give of its own tithes to other missionaries doing your work as we all support those ministers and their own ministries in their fields.  My tithes help the church to be warm in winter and to be cool in the summer.  And my tithes help pay the bills that come with owning a church building—lights and water and gas and monthly mortgage payments.  Thank You for the church’s general fund and for the church’s building fund and for the church’s benevolent fund.

Well, Good Lord, that’s lot of thanksgiving—not nearly as much as You deserve.  But now I must move on to giving of praise.  And in this letter’s second half, I seek to honor you with acknowledgment of some of Your attributes as God the Most High.  I wish to extol You for what You are.  And I think first of all of those two great words in the Bible ‘grace’ and ‘mercy.’  In the beginning of the epistles the author bids Your grace upon the reader, and in the ending of the epistles, likewise, words like unto, ‘God’s grace be unto you.’  Some wise Christians define ‘grace’–g-r-a-c-e–as ‘God’s riches at Christ’s expense.’  It is often taught at Sunday School as ‘unmerited favor.’  To me, O Lord, grace is ‘You giving me good things that I do not deserve to get.’  And most of all, that is eternal life in Heaven to come with You.  I do not deserve everlasting life Up There, but Your Son bought it for me

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by shedding His perfect much blood for me.  Just look at the great hymn ‘Amazing Grace.’  What a hymn writer that John Newton was who wrote that hymn.  I thank You for Your amazing grace that did go and save a wretch like myself.  And I think also of mercy, Father.  In Psalm136 in all 26 of its verses is the phrase, ‘for his mercy endureth forever.’  ‘Mercy’ to me is “You not giving me bad things that I deserve to get.’  What more do I deserve to get as a sinner than eternity in Hell?  But You in Your mercy looked down from Heaven and saw mankind helpless and reprobate and going to Hell in the life to come, and You had compassion upon us.  And You gave Your only begotten Son to die on the cross in our place for the good of our eternal souls.  In Your mercy You offered me and all mankind the only way to stay out of Hell, and that way is Jesus the Saviour of the world.  It is Your mercy that keeps people from going to Hell—if they do call upon You for salvation.  Through Jesus mankind has hope.

Then there are also those three absolutes that make You a deity, Lord—omnipotence and omniscience and omnipresence.  As you know, that means ‘all-power,’ ‘all-wisdom’ and ‘all-presence.’  You are all-powerful, and there is nothing that You cannot do.  You are all-wise, and there is nothing that You do not know.  You are all-present, and there is no place where You are not.  The Devil, Your wisest and strongest and most beautiful angel Lucifer, cannot take You on in a fight, nor can he outsmart You with a trick, nor can He be everywhere all at once as You are.  You even have this Satan on a leash, either to let him loose a little or to hold him back as You will.  Then there is Your immutability.  In Hebrews 13:8 it is written, ‘Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and for ever.’  And in Malachi 3:6 it is written, ‘For I am the Lord, I change not;…’  As the God that has saved souls in the Bible times, You are the same God Who saves souls here in modern times.  And then there is the attribute that most believers see You as, and that attribute is ‘love.’  Foremost in their eyes You are a God of love, O Good Lord.  In John 15:13, it says this about Your Son Jesus the Lord, ‘Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.’  Everybody saved and lost all know how the most famous Bible verse begins:  ‘For God so loved the world,….’  John 3:16.  And this perfect love that only God

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has is called by Bible scholars ‘agape love.’  And finally there is that attribute that not the majority of Christianity thinks upon.  And that is Your attribute of holiness.  As for me in my learning of doctrine,

of all things that make You the Lord God Almighty, I was taught that holiness is indeed Your most foundational attribute of attributes.  Above all, in my eyes, You are a holy God.  The angels in the book of Isaiah praised You on Your throne, saying, ‘Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts:…’  And the four beasts in the book of Revelation praised You on Your throne, saying, ‘Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty,…’  Being foremost a holy God, You hate and judge and condemn sin and temptation and deceit.  You hate unrighteousness, and You love righteousness.  Holy born-again believers are called upon to separate themselves from the world and the flesh and the devil.  They are to consecrate their lives to right living and to right thinking and to the right God.  We are called to be holy, because You, God, are holy.”  Just then a guilt came upon his thoughts in the middle of this letter to God.  Was it holy for a believer to skip out on his prayer life every day he had lived since his first day of salvation?  What

kinds of things were these letters he wrote to God that stretched back in time even before he had found

Christ as Saviour, written chronicles that took the place of praying so completely that no other Christian he knew of got involved in?  Had he been fooling himself and sinning great sin of omission these many years as a born-again believer?  Maybe he should start praying scripturally now for now on.

Maybe he should try now right this day.  He should put down the pencil and start thinking his words now to God above.  He turned to take a quick look at his pencil.  He gazed upon this pencil.  It felt good in his writing hand.  He ran his left palm across the pad of yellow lined paper.  It felt good to pet this paper with his non-writing hand.  He hugged his pencil.  He hugged his pad of paper.  He went back to writing his letter to God, and he finished this letter to God with the words, “In Jesus’s name, I write.  Amen.”

And this day was September 1986.

 

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CHAPTER V

Flanders Nickels and Gretchen Shetlanders were on a date toward the Fabled Lands, walking down the road piggyback-style.  Flanders, barefoot in his penny loafers, walking upon the gravel stones of the most rural roads, was giving Gretchen a piggyback ride in all of her red prom dress feminine

splendor.  Their pets the Shetland Sheepdog and the seagull were off playing together at Left Foot Lake some way away, wherein Left Foot Creek flowed into.  So boyfriend-and-girlfriend-in-the-Lord were celebrating good wholesome romance together unencumbered by animals and yet not shaming their

God.  And to Flanders and Gretchen, nothing was more romantic than going piggyback riding together.

“Gretchen, are you too hot out here in all of your acetate?” he asked in flirt.

“I’m the rider; you’re the pig,” she said.  He knew that she meant that she was not too hot, being the one carried, and that he was the one who should be too hot, being the one doing the carrying.

“Next time, you’ll be the rider, and I will be the horse,” he said in coquetry.

“You mean as in horsey-back rides, Flanders?” she asked.

“Yes, Gretchen.  We need to go horsey-back riding one of these days for a brand new romance between the two of us,” said Flanders.

“Would that be fun for you?” she asked.

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“Oh yes.  Yes indeed,” he said.  “Romance fun,”

“Flanders, that would be fun for me, too,” said Miss Shetlanders the elder.

“Well, we are about halfway to our Fabled Lands, woman,” said Flanders Nickels.

“Are your legs getting tired?” she asked in provocation.

“No.  My legs are not getting tired,” he said.

“Yet?” she asked.

“Not yet,” he said.

“Later, maybe?” she asked.

“Not later, either,” he said.

“Ever?” she asked.

“Never, girl,” he said.

“Well, boyfriend, my legs are getting tired and stiff,” she said.

“My my, the princess and the pea,” he teased his girlfriend the weaker vessel with a reference to the famous fairy tale.  Then he asked, “Do you want to get down?”

“No no!  I like riding you against your back like this,” she said.  “I never want to get down.”

“Will you want to get down once we get to where we’re going?” he asked.

“For our Fabled Lands I will do anything—even quitting a romance game like this, Flanders,” said Gretchen.

“Yeah,” he said, thinking upon so sublime the sand dunes there up ahead somewhere now not far.  “I, also, O Gretchen.”

“I cannot see them yet,” she said.

“I can’t either.  But we are almost there,” he said.

“Ooo, I can’t wait!” she said.

“It is like Heaven on Earth,” he said about the Fabled Lands.

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“It is a Paradise wrought by the God of beauty,” said Gretchen.

“Gretchen for the rest of our piggyback ride there, would you tell me the testimony of your salvation again?” he asked.  “I never get tired of hearing how you found Christ in your life, girl.”

“I never get tired of telling you how I found Christ, Flanders,” said his girlfriend in eagerness.

“It all started with a Packer-Bear game, the oldest rivalry in football.  I was watching the game on TV one Sunday afternoon when I was young, and I saw someone in the bleachers holding up a sign that said, ‘John 3:16.’  I never saw a sign like this before in a televised N.F.L. game.  (Now I know that lots of people bring such a sign with that message to the games.)  I thought upon that hard when I first saw

that.  I wondered if that meant anything to do with sixteen minutes after three o’clock.  No, I thought.

Then I wondered if ‘John’ were the first name and if ‘3:16’ were the last name of some guy out there.

No, I thought again.  Then I wondered if it were a secret code meant to communicate with a buddy out there watching on TV.  Again, I thought, No.”

“All three were bad guesses,” said Flanders.

“I was a silly little girl who did not know God and the Bible,” said Gretchen.  “But I was going to find out very soon after what that fascinating sign was all about.”

“You prayed to God to tell you what that meant,” said Flanders.

“Crazy thing for me to do, so far from even seeking God, much more getting saved from my sins,” said Miss Shetlanders the elder.  “But the wisest thing for any person on Earth to do at any age,

for sure,”  She continued the testimony of her salvation.  “And God answered my prayer the very next day.  It was a little booklet that someone had left on a bus seat of a city transit bus.  I was on my way

to McDonald’s, and there this pamphlet was.  Wouldn’t you know it, Flanders?  The cover said, ‘John 3:16:  What is it?  What does it say?  What does it mean?’  God answered my prayer with what I now know to be a salvation tract.  I snatched it up wicky-wicky!  And I turned to this tract’s second page, and it began by saying, ’It is written, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son,

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that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  John 3:16.  This is what it is.’  Then I turned to this tract’s third page, and it read this:  ‘God the Father loved the world of fallen sinners with a perfect love that only He could feel.  He saw the glory of his creation—mankind–as helpless and hopeless sinners who could not escape the damnation of hell.  He wanted to give all people everywhere the hope of Heaven to come instead.  So He brought His Son Jesus Christ into the world to die for mankind, in order to redeem them and to save them from their sins.  This Jesus Christ was His only begotten Son.  That meant that that He was the only One of His kind.  This God-man never sinned.  Only He could pay the price for our sins.  And He willingly shed His perfect blood unto death and rose again three days later for His perfect love for us sinners.  Those who came to believe on Him were saved and on their way to Heaven and no longer on their way to Hell.  Where this verse says that the believers should not perish, it does not mean that they will never die, but, rather, that they will never go to Hell.  And where this verse says that the believers will have everlasting life, that means that they will have eternal life in Heaven.  This is what it says.’  Then I turned to this tract’s fourth page, and I read this:  ‘To accept this verse in your heart means that you come to God in prayer and humbly ask Him to give you His free gift of salvation.  Jesus did the hard part for your salvation.  You have the easy part for your salvation.  Just ask Him for it.  And He will give it to you.  You cannot buy it or earn it or do good works to get it.  It can only be gotten by accepting it as a present from God Himself—the Good Lord Jesus Christ—the Saviour of the world.  This is what it means.’  And I saw a little insert in the middle of this four-page tract.  It was the prayer that I needed to pray to get saved.  I read it over once, twice, thrice.  Then I prayed it in silence and in conviction.  This was that prayer inside that tract in its exact words:  ‘Dear God in Heaven: I am a bad sinner who knows he or she is going to Hell.  I want to be a good person in Christ’s righteousness who knows that he or she is going to Heaven.  Christ

Jesus is the difference between the one and the other.  It is He Who died for me on the cross of Calvary.

And it is He Who came back to life three days later upon Earth’s first Easter.  And it is He whom I do

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ask to become my own personal Saviour.  Keep me from damnation.  Save me for salvation.  Hear my

plea.  Forgive me my sins.  Cleanse my soul.  And give me a home in Heaven in my time to come.  In Your Son Jesus’s name I pray thus.  Amen.’” Then Gretchen said to her boyfriend whom she was riding, “This, as you know, is how I got born again, Flanders.”

“Amen!  Amen!” he said.  “Love it!”

“I never did get to McDonald’s,” she said.  “I kind of forgot to get off the bus at the right stop.  I was so excited about becoming a born-again Christian that I forgot that I was hungry for a Big Mac.

Getting saved is exciting for a girl!”

“It is exciting for a boy, too, Gretchen,” said Flanders Nickels.

“Oh, do tell me your good and true story, too, O Flanders,” said the red prom gown gal.

“My testimony of my salvation,” said Flanders.

“Let me hear it all again, Flanders,” said Gretchen, with her great crush for this cute guy she adored so.

And Flanders Nickels began, “When I was a boy, a most unique evangelist named ‘Say Tell,’

came to town.  He was a traveling preacher who preached not at an official church, but, instead, at street corners and houses and apartments and all over on the road.  Say Tell would always say, ‘Jesus saves,’  and Say Tell would always tell of Jesus the Saviour.  We of our family were watching TV that evening.  I remember that it was the show ‘Green Acres,’ a rerun.  And we heard a knocking on the door like it was a mighty angel wanting to come in.  I opened the door and I saw a real dwarf of a man standing there with the biggest book I had ever seen.  He was a real little man, and that great big book was his own personal family Bible, King James Version.  The first thing he asked was, ‘Young lad, do you know that Jesus died for our sins and arose the third day?  That is called “the Gospel.”’  I shook my head and said, ‘No, sir.’  I had not heard of the Gospel yet in my young life.  In fact none of our family had heard of this good news yet.  Curious and wanting to find out more, Mom and Dad invited him

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into our house, and we found a most profound man of wisdom in our presence.  This man of God then said to us, ‘Jesus saves.’  And he went on to tell us about a God Who made a donkey speak.  Mom and Dad laughed, disbelieving, because they were adults.  But all of us kids did not laugh; we believed, because we were children.  And Mom and Dad were wrong, and we kids were right.  Say Tell told us all about what this donkey said.  It seems that a Gentile prophet named Balaam was riding his donkey to a place where he was hired to curse the Israelites.  God wanted only to bless the Israelites.  God had already told Balaam the first time not to go.  And Balaam was disobeying God.  And on his way there, Balaam’s donkey saw the mighty angel of the Lord standing in front of them with his sword drawn in his hand.  Balaam himself did not see this angel with the sword.  But his donkey did.  And in wise fear, his donkey stopped, only to be beaten by his master to proceed.  The donkey was forced to proceed.  This happened again.  And it happened the third time.  The donkey and God and the angel of the Lord having had enough, the Lord gave a temporary gift of speech to the unfortunate animal.  Though I do not know the Bible and do not know where this happened in the Scriptures, this most singular conversation was a miracle only God could pull off.  All I know is that Say Tell read three verses from the Bible all about what man and beast had to say to each other.  First the donkey said, ‘Master, what did I do to you that made you go and hit me these three times?’  Utterly unfazed that his animal was talking people words to him, Balaam answered his donkey and said, ‘Because you mocked me three times just now.  If I had a sword right now, I would cut you into pieces!’  In humble reply the donkey asked, “Aren’t I your own donkey?  Haven’t I given you rides ever since I became your pet?  Did I ever do anything like this before?’  Still too angry at his donkey to see the oddity of a talking donkey, Balaam simply said back to her, ‘No.’  Then God opened the eyes of Balaam, and Balaam now, also, saw the mighty angel and his mighty sword right in front of them.  And the prophet was rebuked, and he got right with God.  And in the will of the Lord, Balaam went on to where he was going, and he blessed God’s people instead of cursed God’s people, thus frustrating his clients.  And God was

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glorified.”

Gretchen went on to recite, “’But was rebuked for his iniquity:  the dumb ass speaking with man’s voice forbad the madness of the prophet.’  II Peter 2:16.”

“Would that I knew the Bible like you do, Gretchen,” he said.

“That conversation between ass and master took place in Numbers 22:28-30, Flanders,” said Miss Shetlanders the elder.

“Numbers.  Numbers,” he said, not knowing where the book of Numbers was in the Bible.

And the red prom dress woman showed it to him.  “Ah.  Amen.  Thank you, Gretchen.” he said.  And he read out loud the Bible’s words to that most fascinating dialogue, the words that Say Tell had read right from the King James years ago:  “And the Lord opened the mouth of the ass, and she said unto Balaam, What have I done unto thee, that thou hast smitten me these three times?  And Balaam said unto the ass, Because thou hast mocked me:  I would there were a sword in mine hand, for now would I kill thee.  And the ass said unto Balaam, Am not I thine ass, upon which thou hast ridden ever since I was thine unto this day?  Was I ever wont to do so unto thee?  And he said, Nay.”

Gretchen, already knowing, asked him anyway to hear it again, “What went through your mind when Say Tell read those three verses to you, Flanders?”

“Why, I thought, there is a real God out there Who can make donkeys talk, and I no nothing at all about Him,” said Flanders ever eager to tell his girlfriend again.  “I knew not God.  Where was I going to go when I die with God being a complete stranger to me?  Where might I go when I die if I knew all about God instead?  Did not people who did nothing at all with God all their lives go to a very bad place?  And was not that place called, ‘Hell?’  And did not people who gave all to God in their lives—people like Say Tell and other born-again Christians—go to a very good place?  And was not that place called, ‘Heaven?’  I was convicted of my sins and of my need for a Saviour and of my soul’s eternal destiny.  And I cried out to Say Tell, ‘How can I come to know all about God, Mr. Tell?’

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And he said, ‘Only trust.  Only believe.  Only pray.’

And I asked, ‘Could you help me to do that, sir?’

And he said, ‘Let me help.’  And he led me line-by-line through the most important prayer any unsaved person needs to pray, the sinners’ prayer that grants salvation to a humble and seeking and sincere soul.                                                                                                                                                          And this was what I prayed that made me become a born-again believer like Mr. Say Tell:

‘Dear God in Heaven:  I come before Your throne now, a sinner living on Earth.  I am sorry for being a sinner.  Forgive me.  I will do better for now on.  I know that this Jesus—Your Son, Who, also, is God—shed His blood and died and rose again for me and for my lost soul.  Please save my soul now and prepare a home for me Up in Heaven.  Jesus saves to the uttermost all who call upon Him for so great salvation.  I trust You—and You alone—to save me.  I believe and know that You are the only way to Heaven.  And I pray now that you keep me out of Hell forever.  I do trust; I do believe.  I do pray.  Thank You.  In Jesus’s name.  Amen.’”

Flanders Nickels went on to say, “That, girlfriend, is how I became a born-again believer myself.  And not only myself, but also all the rest of my family.  Say Tell led all of them through that same prayer all at once right after he had led me through the prayer.  Praise God for evangelists.”

“Glory!” said Gretchen.  “Glory!”

“Look, over there.  There it is,” said Flanders pointing off to the side of this gravel road.

Man and woman looked off to the side, and they saw a little patch of wilderness of field, and beyond that a majestic and divine rolling sand dunes, big and hilly and with a lone little tree in the midst.

“Ah,” said Miss Shetlanders the elder, “our precious Fabled Lands, O Flanders.”  The gal leaped off of the guy’s back, and she ran toward this tranquil haven in her pumps, and Flanders ran behind her in his penny loafers, his legs weary now from the piggyback carrying.  And they dove right into the sand and leaped and skipped and danced about in the world’s most beautiful countryside place.

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“We are home, girl,” said Flanders in joy of the Lord.

“We are in Heaven, boyfriend,” said Gretchen in rejoicing in God.

Just then an irregular smell of rot drifted in upon them from beyond these sand dunes.  “Do you smell something, Gretchen?” asked Flanders.

“Something stinks,” she said.

“That never happened here before,” said Flanders.  “It smells evil.”

“I wonder if a demon smells like this,” said Gretchen.

“What would a demon be doing so close to our Fabled Lands?” he asked.

“No demon would dare step out onto our sand dunes.  Would he, Flanders?” asked Gretchen.

“I never saw a real demon before,” said Flanders.

“Nor have I,” said Gretchen.  Son and daughter of God looked off to where the noisome smell was coming from.  Behold, just along the edge of the Fabled Lands, up at the top of the hill some distance away, an unnatural little rainstorm manifested itself.  It was like a supernatural rainstorm.

It was only about the size of a cabin.  And the sun was out everywhere outside of it.  And it seemed to be alive in itself.  And it began to approach them like it was a man walking toward them.  And as soon as this localized rainstorm entered into these Fabled Lands, man and woman leaned down in sickness and threw up upon the sand.  And they looked back up and saw this irregular phenomenon come right up to where they stood.  And this tiny little rainstorm suddenly stopped.  And there a fearsome and fell creature of myths stood.

It was a griffin.  And this griffin addressed them, saying, “Children of God, my name is ‘Slayer,’

and I am come to slay.”  This griffin was a demon.  He came first as a storm, and then he transformed into his normal form—this hybrid of aquiline and leonine.  And evil had first invaded God’s Fabled Lands.

“Have you come to slay the two of us?” asked Flanders, trembling.

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“I have come to slay the eight of you, O man of God,” said Slayer.

Gretchen, holding on to Flanders from his side with both arms, said, “That means all of us and our pets, Flanders!”

“I have come to slay you Christians in the spirit,” said the fell griffin.

“Flanders, what does he mean by that?” asked the young woman.

To find out for himself, Flanders asked, “Slayer, does that mean that you seek not to slay us in the body?”

“It does, O man,” said Slayer.

“What does a griffin like you do when you come to slay a believer in the spirit?” asked Miss Shetlanders the elder, her body quivering in fear of evil.

“It means that I go and tempt all believers everywhere and cause them to backslide on their God, young lady,” bragged Slayer.  “Ha ha ha!”  His laugh of derision was as the Devil mocking them for their mortality and weakness.

“Don’t laugh at us!” Flanders dared to rebuke this fell beast.

“Christian man, do not tell me when to laugh and when not to laugh,” said Slayer with authority.

“My father did tempt Christ in the wilderness.  And I am come to tempt Christians in the Fabled Lands

and throughout this wilderness about.”

Gretchen said, “Let’s not yell at him again, Flanders.”  Maybe they should let the demon laugh at them.  Slayer was a formidable foe.  They must be careful what they said to him.  To provoke the Devil without invoking the name of Jesus could only make things worse for them.

Flanders said, “We must keep our eyes on Jesus right now, I think, Gretchen.”

“I, too, shall keep my eyes on Jesus,” said Gretchen.

“Now that I have introduced myself,” said the great and terrible griffin, “I shall leave for now and allow you two to think upon what I did say.  But I shall come back.  And when I am done with you

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and have tempted you beyond your breaking point and have made you to backslide on your God, you will be too ashamed to face your Jesus ever again.  I have the power!  And I have the wisdom!  And I have the evil!  Woe unto you to the uttermost for ever and ever!”

Having threatened Gretchen and Flanders thus, the griffin transformed himself back into his temporary form as the little rainstorm.  And this little rainstorm walked away back out of this Fabled Lands and into the fields and woods beyond and left them there.  And boyfriend-and-girlfriend stood alone in these formerly pristine sand dunes.

“Flanders,” cried out Miss Shetlanders the elder, “what happened?”

And Flanders Nickels, grim and resolved, answered her, saying, “Trouble has entered Paradise.”

And boyfriend-and-girlfriend-in-the-Lord hugged each other in fear of evil.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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CHAPTER VI

Proffery and Destiny were on a date together here at the Fabled Lands, and they were playing in the big sand dunes games that young boyfriends and girlfriends were apt to do.  In flirt, speaking a Bible verse, Destiny Shetlanders said, “Proffery, is it not written in I Corinthians 11:8, ‘For the man is not of the woman; but the woman of the man?’”

“Yes, woman,” he said in wiles.  “And God also says in I Corinthians 11:9, ‘Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man.’”

“Then why is the woman carrying the man here in these Fabled Lands, man?” she asked.

“And why is not the man carrying the woman here?” he teased her right back.

“Horsey-back riding,” said Miss Shetlanders the younger.

“Good romance for us young adults,” said Proffery.

My hands and knees are getting scraped up as I carry you throughout all of this sand, boyfriend,” said Destiny.

“Better your hands and knees than my hands and knees, damsel,” he said.

“I really think that my prom dress is dragging across the ground in this horsey-back ride I am giving you, Proffery,” said Destiny.

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“It is, Miss Shetlanders,” he said, looking.  “I can see it dragging along the ground now as you carry me.”

“Real bad?” she asked.

“All around, girl,” he said.

“It’s not about to tear down there, is it, Proffery?” she asked.

“It is not about to tear,” he said.

“Is it still nice and blue?” she asked.

“It is still nice and blue, and it is still shiny,” he said.

“Oh good.  Let’s keep having our horsey-back ride then,” said Miss Shetlanders the younger.

And she continued carrying her boyfriend on her back as she crawled on her hands and knees here in the cherished Fabled Lands.

“Are you getting tired, Destiny?” he asked.

“Yes.  I am getting tired,” she said.

“Well, I am not getting tired,” he said.  “Keep up the good work, O sister-in-the-Lord.”

“Boyfriends!” said Destiny in vain.  And both laughed in the Lord.  And she continued merrily—albeit wearily—on in this young adults’ romance frolic.

Then Proffery Coins spoke and asked, “Did your sister tell you what Flanders told me?”

“They had a visitor here the other day,” said Destiny Shetlanders.

“Flanders said that it was a griffin,” said Proffery.

“That’s what Gretchen told me,” said Destiny.  She stopped her crawling for now.

“His name was ‘Slayer,’” said Proffery.  And he got off of his girlfriend’s back, and sat down beside her.  She sat down in the sand next to him.

“I never knew griffins to be real before,” said the prom gown gal.

“Maybe demons take on unnatural or supernatural forms if they transform into corporeal

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beings,” thought Proffery out loud.

“Aren’t demons fallen angels?” she asked.

“Yes, that is what they are,” he said.

“And angels are spirit beings in God’s creation,” she said.  “Good angels and evil angels.”

“I am worried for our Fabled Lands, Destiny,” said Proffery.

“For my first time I am afraid in these Fabled Lands now, Proffery,” said Miss Shetlanders the younger.  “What if that evil griffin comes back here right now with us here?”

“I am thinking that our Good Lord is taking away His hand of protection upon us four here in Beaver,” said Proffery Coins.

“But how come, Proffery?” asked the blue prom gown woman in indignation.

“Well, Destiny, as for myself, I still don’t pray as I should,” confessed Proffery.

“And I still refuse to tithe,” she confessed.

“And my best friend still keeps his Holy Bible shut up,” said Proffery.

“And still my big sister won’t come to church with me,” said Destiny.

“Is it any wonder why this griffin has come here to trouble us?” asked Proffery.

“We wayward Christians asked for it…and this Slayer comes around from Hell,” said Destiny.

“Maybe right now would be a good time to talk about happy things,” said Proffery Coins.

“Would you like to hear me tell you again how I got saved?” asked Miss Shetlanders the younger.

“Yes, that would be a very happy thing for us to talk about,” said her boyfriend.

And Destiny went on to say, “It happened for me upon the top of a tower.  I went to High Cliff State Park in Sherwood near Lake Winnebago that one day.  And I found this towering lookout tower all made of solid wood.  Of course, being a girl, I quickly ran up its flights of steps to the very top, and I looked out from way high up.  I must have been five stories high.  And I liked that.  So much a person

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can see of a state park and its pastoral beauty being five floors up from the ground.  Instantly this tower became my favorite part of High Cliff State Park.  Then a strange voice called up to me from the ground, saying, ‘Lass!  Lass!’  I looked down and saw a thin hirsute giant probably seven feet tall.

And he was looking up right at me.  He then called up again, saying, ‘Lass!  Lass!’  I turned and looked around myself to see if it were another to whom he was trying to speak.  But right then I was the only one here on top of the tower. It was I to whom he was yelling.  I became afraid.  But then he told me, ‘Jesus loves you.’  And with his good words and his good tone and his good countenance, I could see that he was a good man.  And I was not afraid anymore.

I spoke to him and said, ‘I heard of Jesus, sir.’  Then I asked, ‘Who are you?’

And he said, ‘I am a disciple of the Lord, and my name is “Teacher.”’

‘My name is Destiny,’ I told him.  Though five flights of steps separated the two of us, we could still hear and understand each other just like he was right up there with me.

‘Destiny, are you enjoying High Cliff’s tower?’  Teacher asked me.

‘Oh, yes.  Very much, Teacher,’ I told him.

‘Did you know that the Bible talks about history’s highest tower, Destiny?’ he asked.

‘It does?’ I asked this modern-day disciple.

‘It was “the tower of Babel,” Lass,’ he said.  ‘The Bible talks lots about it in Genesis chapter eleven.’

I said, ‘I bet it wasn’t as tall as the Empire State Building, Teacher,’

But he said, ‘The tower of Babel was built so that its top may “reach to Heaven,” Lass.’

“That is even taller than the Empire State Building,’ I did say.

‘But the Lord had told mankind to go forth and spread out across the Earth.  But instead mankind chose to disobey God, and they all settled in a city called Shinar, and they did not go forth and spread out across the world.  And in his own pride, mankind began to build a tower to glorify himself.

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Thus the tower of Babel, lass,’ he told me.

“They knew how to build things like that way back then, Teacher?’ I asked him.

‘It is written of those days, “And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.” Genesis 11:1.’ he told me.

And I said, ‘Well, if everybody in the world all spoke the same language, there might have been nothing that mankind could not do.’

‘Exactly what God does say in His word.  Very well said, lass,’ he told me.

‘It would have been good for God to go and make everybody start speaking different languages there at that tower,’ I said.  ‘If they all spoke different languages, they could never finish building the tower of Babel, I’d bet, Teacher.’

‘Exactly what God did do in His power and wisdom, lass,’ exclaimed Teacher.  ‘Very well thought out!’  Then he said, ‘It is written in God’s own spoken Words, “Go to, let us go down, and there  confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.”  Genesis 11:7.’  Then this

disciple said, ‘The tower of Babel was abandoned, and it never got finished, and mankind scattered across this Earth as God had told him to.’

In great enlightenment, I asked Teacher, ‘Was that how all of the languages of this world had first come about?’

‘Aye, O lass,’ he told me.

‘Then was it Jesus Who invented all of the languages of the world, Teacher?’ I asked him.

‘Aye,  Lassie,’ he said.

‘I must learn all about Jesus.  Could you tell me all about Jesus?  I need Jesus in my life,’ I said to Teacher.

‘Good Lassie, I perceive that this moment you are not far from so very great personal salvation,’ he said to me right out.

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‘Is that a good thing?’ I asked.

‘The second best thing to salvation itself,’ Teacher said to me.  And then he came up to be with me here at the top of this High Cliff State Park tower.  And he led me line-by-line through the sinners’

prayer, and that is how I became born again,” said Destiny Shetlanders.

“Amen, girl!  Amen!” said Proffery.

“Now tell me again your story, Proffery,” said Destiny.

“The honor would be mine,” he said.  And he told how he had gotten saved:  “It was on Christian radio.  The radio show was called ‘Truths from the Bible.’ It was on every night around my bedtime when I was a child still living at home.  And it was a fifteen-minute program.  And that night in which I got saved was my first time with ‘Truths from the Bible.’  The preacher was a man named Dogma D. Doctrine.  And he was known for his hellfire-and-brimstone preaching.  And he preached the  full doctrine of Hell right at me, rightfully scaring me right to Jesus. Praise Jesus for him!  Of course, the first thing he said in that night’s radio program about Hell was that it was a place of fire.  ‘Hell, O listener, is a torments of searing scorching fire,’ he said.   He then said that no thinking person would go and put his hand on a stove’s gas burner.  But yet men willingly chose to go and burn in Hell in their rejection of the Saviour.  What was more painful than a bad burn in one part of the body?  Hellfire in all parts of the body!  What was more painful than recovering from bad burns throughout the body?  Being burned by hellfire throughout the body with no recovery at all.  What was worse than dying from third degree burns?  Experiencing the second death by eternity in Hell’s lake of fire.  And there was no light in Hell.  So, it could be said that Hell’s fires were too hot to give off any light down there.  Hell was described as a “place of outer darkness” and “a place of utter darkness” and “a place of the mist of darkness” and “a place of the blackness of darkness.”  The damned will say, “I am sick of all of this darkness!  Does someone have a light?”  And Hell was also a place of great unquenched thirst and great

unfed hunger.  The damned soul in Luke 16 begged for one drop of water with which to cool his

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tongue, but he did not get that one drop of water.  A ravenous man down there will never get to eat again, and he will be starving for eternity.  And in Hell, everyone was falling and stumbling and slipping around in a horrible void, a limbo of the damned, wherein was no solid ground.  And also, men and women and boys and girls in Hell had slimy and creeping worms crawling all over his or her body.

And the worst thing about Hell?  It was for forever.  If a damned person down there had a hope for the future, that he might hear that a missionary would come down to Hell and preach salvation, and that the  damned person could repent and accept Jesus Christ as Saviour—and if this was a hundred years away for him down here—then he could say, “In a hundred years I’m getting out of here,” and he would have

hope in Hell.  But there is no hope in Hell.  And there is no salvation in Hell.  And Jesus Christ the Saviour does not visit Hell.  Truly Hell was more terrible than eternal separation from God.  And Hell was far worse than merely the absence of anything that is good.  And though Hell was originally created for the Devil and his fellow fallen angels in their own time to come, because sinners rejected the sacrifice of God’s Son on the cross, the lost people who died in their sins had to also go down there to pay for the price of their sins for ever and ever.  Such had denied the payment that Christ had made for them in His own sacrifice of His own life on the cross.  So they had to pay for their sins themselves by going to Hell and suffer the torments of eternal fires.  Fear was a good reason for people to get born again.  No thinking person would go out and step out onto a superhighway in the dark of night and stand there.  Fear would keep them from doing that.  In like manner, no wise person would say, “I want to go to Hell and burn.”  Fear would keep them from wishing that.  And fear for one’s eternal destiny was a good thing in regard for one’s eternal soul.  So, seeking a personal Saviour for fear of Hell and fire was a most wise reason to get saved.  Jesus, above all else, seeks to save lost souls from Hell.

That was why He had come.  And that was why He died and rose again.  And that is why He has not yet come for the Christians to rapture them up to Heaven—there are still some lost souls out there that need to get saved before the Tribulation comes.  If a lost soul had heard the Gospel before the rapture, and

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the rapture comes, and he is left behind to suffer the Tribulation, his spirit will be sealed with blindness, and he will never be able to get saved throughout the rest of the Tribulation.  All of this did Dogma D. Doctrine teach me in just that one fifteen-minute radio sermon.  And in the end he spoke the sinners’ prayer for his listeners to pray along with him if they wanted to be saved from Hell.  And, as you know,

Destiny, I was one of them.  I prayed the prayer the preacher prayed, and that was how I became a born-again Christian.”

“God is great,” said Miss Shetlanders the younger.

Just then Proffery saw a phenomenon in the field close to the edge of the sand dunes not one hundred feet away from where he and Destiny were sitting.  It surely was a simple little whirlwind of sand only about four or five feet high.  Though it looked good as a work of God, something about it felt evil as a work of Satan even from way over here.  Flanders watched it, and he wondered, how could a whirlwind of sand come up like this in a field where there was no sand?  The sand was here where he and his girlfriend were sitting, in these Fabled Lands.  There was no sand in that field yonder.  Then Destiny Shetlanders spoke, “Look, Proffery, a dust-devil from God.”

“A dust-devil, you say, Destiny,” he said.  “Take heed, maybe, to taking that word literally.”

Taking in his words in their gravity, she said, “Do you mean ‘a devil of dust?’”

And this little whirlwind began to move in toward them as if it were stalking them.  It quickly came in upon the pristine Fabled Lands, and it suddenly felt to man and woman like a snake coming into the Garden of Eden.  “Do you feel it, Destiny?” asked Proffery.

“These Fabled Lands feel like the world in its rejection of Jesus,” she said.  “I never felt this way before here.  What is that that has invaded our blessed refuge here, Proffery?”

“I think that we shall soon find out,” he said.

“Proffery, help me find courage,” cried out Miss Shetlanders the younger.

“Our God is with us and for us, O Destiny,” Proffery Coins said for the both of them.  And they

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stood up and watched as the supernatural little whirlwind of sand marched toward them where they stood.  And then it stopped right before them.

Behold, suddenly it became a little shadow man!  It was like a real little man hardly five feet tall, and yet it was like a black specter with great and terrible power.

“I don’t want to know what he is, Proffery!” cried out Destiny in fear of evil, her woman’s form trembling in his arms.

“What are you?” demanded Proffery Coins of this little shadow personage.

And it answered, “I am the bogeyman, O son of God.”

“From where have you come, O Bogeyman?” asked Proffery.

“I am come from beneath and from below,” said the bogeyman.

“And why have you come?” asked Proffery Coins.

“I am come to go to and fro in the Earth and to walk and down in it,” said the malevolent shadow of a man.

“What is a devil like you doing in the Fabled Lands made by God, O wicked minion?” asked Proffery, agitated at seeing his girlfriend so afraid in this sand dunes where fear had never been.

“I am come to tempt four young born-again believers to sin and to backslide and to deny Jesus,”

declared this bogeyman.

“Proffery,” said Destiny, “isn’t that just what that griffin said to Flanders and Gretchen?”

Proffery asked, “Bogeyman, are you also that griffin?”

“I am not that griffin, O man and woman of God,” said the bogeyman.

“Who then was that griffin?” asked Proffery Coins.

“That griffin is my familiar spirit,” said the bogeyman.

Destiny now spoke up and said, “Are you saying from that that you are even worse than him?”

“My Slayer and I are partners.  What he can do, I can do better,” said the bogeyman.

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“What does he do, that you can do better, O Bogeyman?” asked Proffery Coins.

“Slayer tempts believers with great visions of temptations to make them backslide on God,” said the bogeyman. “And I tempt believers with even greater visions of temptations to backslide on God.”

Miss Shetlanders the younger said to this bogeyman, “Do you mean that you make dreams to put Christians into?”

Flanders asked the bogeyman, “Dreams in one’s waking life, and not in one’s sleeping life?”

“Yes, O woman and man of Christ.  Dreams and visions in which no woman and man cannot end up sliding back on Jesus for the rest of their lives.  And I and Slayer are invincible, O son and daughter of the Lord,” bragged the mighty and fearsome bogeyman.

“Proffery, I am becoming more afraid of myself than I already am of this bogeyman and his griffin,” said Destiny, fearful of betraying her precious Saviour in a vision to come.

“I wonder what I will do when this bogeyman and his Slayer come for me and tempt me in one of their dreams, O Destiny,” confessed Proffery Coins.

“Will I say, ‘I know You not, Jesus?’” cried out Miss Shetlanders the younger.

“Will I deny Christ in like?” asked Proffery in worry.

And all that this bogeyman had to say to them in this moment was a most defiant and gloating, “Ha!  Ha!  Ha!”

Then, after laughing at the two young Christians at their expense, the bogeyman transformed himself back into his temporary coming-and-going form the whirling little sand vortex, and he left them alone in these Fabled Lands in the same manner as he had come upon them in these Fabled Lands.  And just like that he was gone.

But now these sand dunes were corrupted by a demon sent by the Devil.  These Fabled Lands were no longer beautiful as a fable.  And Proffery Coins and Destiny Shetlanders suddenly wanted to

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get out of this Utopia-run-amok.  And hand-in-hand, they fled this once-great sanctuary of God.  But wherever they were to run, they both knew that two demons were going to come and get them wherever they were sometime in the future as a great storm of valley.  Only God could help them now.  And He was more powerful than two demons more so than two demons were more powerful than four believers.  For He was the Most High God.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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CHAPTER VII

It was night here in the north country, and the griffin and the bogeyman were in a field of rocks, standing before a tunnel that led to the Bottomless Pit.  The new moon gave off no light down here upon them, and thick clouds covered up the stars in the firmament, and this made the two demons glad.

Devils such as these do not care for light.  Demons such as these care for darkness.

Slayer said, “This new moon is better than any other moon.”

“Clouds of night are better than clear sky of night,” said the bogeyman.

“Cloudy days are better than sunny days,” said Slayer.

“And night is always better than day,” said the bogeyman.

It is written, O reader, “For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.”  John 3:20.

“Let us go under the earth now, my familiar, and go to the Bottomless Pit,” said the bogeyman.

“Our master awaits us down there,” said the griffin.

And the two demons entered this tunnel in the field of rocks and began their walk down to their master down there.

For their long journey, the griffin had a little barrel of drink around his neck; and the bogeyman,

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a little wooden box of food along his hip.  Subterranean passages such as this one, all demons did know about.  These tunnels were their means of going and coming to their master.  No people knew about these tunnels, but some people have seen demons coming up out of the earth from such tunnels and standing upon the earth before them.  And to these two demon’s comforts, these tunnels below were even darker than the world of night above.  Their eyes could see better in darkness than they could in light.  And they continued onward deeper and deeper underground.

“I am thirsty, O bogeyman,” said Slayer.

“And I am hungry, Slayer,” said the bogeyman.

“Shall we stop and have a quick little picnic?” asked Slayer.

“We do have extra time before our master expects us,” said the bogeyman.

“What did you bring?” asked Slayer.

“Oh, this night I have Destroying Angel mushrooms and Death Cap mushrooms to eat,” said the

bogeyman.

“You lucky devil,” said the griffin.

“What did you bring, Slayer?” asked the bogeyman.

“I brought hemlock with me to drink tonight, Bogeyman,” said Slayer.

“Yesterday it was bleach,” said the bogeyman.

“Tomorrow it will be ammonia,” said the griffin.

“My familiar, let us stop for a break for now,” said the bogeyman.

And in these underground passageways the two demons stopped for a picnic of poison, deadly to people, but delicious to devils.

Then they got back up and resumed their journey to their master’s house in the deepest part of the Bottomless Pit.

Then the bogeyman said, “I’ve got nice delicious red mushrooms just right for our four

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Christians, my friend.”

“Yea, and I have some gasoline for them myself,” said Slayer.

“Ha ha ha!” said the bogeyman.

“Ha ha ha!” said the griffin.

“Those believers are so mortal!” scorned the bogeyman.

“The only good Christian is a dead Christian, O bogeyman,” said the griffin.

“Nay, my familiar,” said the bogeyman. “Our master has a better proverb.”

“Aye!  I heard him tell us,” said the griffin.

“Our master says, ‘A backslidden believer is my greatest trophy,’” said the bogeyman.

“A dead Christian glorifies God in his death, but a backslidden believer shames God in his life,”

said Slayer.

“Very well said, friend,” said the bogeyman.  “We surely do not want born-again Christians, dead or alive, to glorify Jesus.”

“We want Christians to make Christ look bad,” said Slayer.

“And our master has assigned the two of us to do his work upon our four of their Fabled Lands,” said the bogeyman.

“Wherever they are when we come upon them,” said Slayer.

“Visions and dreams,” said the bogeyman.

“Aye, bogeyman,” said the griffin.  “Visions and dreams.”

“They won’t know what hit them,” said the bogeyman.

“They won’t see it coming,” said the griffin.

“He he he!” said the bogeyman.

“He he he!” said Slayer.

“The Book says that the woman is the weaker vessel compared to the man, my familiar spirit,”

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gloated the bogeyman.

“It shall be easier to tempt the two women to sin than it shall be to tempt the two men to sin,” said Slayer.

“Also, my partner, the Book says, ‘And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression,’” quoted the demon from the Scriptures.

“That verse tells us that it will be easier also to deceive the two women than it shall be to deceive the two men,” said the griffin.

“Our master in the dawn of time came upon the Garden of Eden as a snake, and he tricked the woman Eve to do what God told her not to do.  Likewise the man Adam ended up doing the same sin as she did right after.  But, unlike the woman, the man knew better,” said the bogeyman.

“Either way, Bogeyman, both man and woman backslid on God, and paradise became troubled world, and they were cast out of Eden forever,” said Slayer.

“How happy will we be, good friend, when our four projects backslide on God themselves, and they are cast forever out of their Fabled Lands!” said the bogeyman.

“We were there, my comrade,” said the griffin.  “That sand of God was more painful even than the sun of God above.”

“Indeed anything at all about God is most uncomfortable to demons such as us,” said the bogeyman.

“We—you and I—prefer the things of our master more than the things of our Foe,” said Slayer.

“There are two of us and four of them,” said the bogeyman.

“Two demons and four born-again Christians,” said the griffin.

“Which ones would you like to get?” asked the bogeyman.

“I would prefer the younger twin woman and her boyfriend,” said the griffin.

“And I would like to try my hand on the elder twin woman and her boyfriend,” said the

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bogeyman.

“Then I get Destiny and Proffery all to myself that way,” said Slayer.

“And that leaves Gretchen and Flanders all to myself,” said the bogeyman.

“In our case, good friend, two does not outnumber one,” said the griffin.

“Mortals!” scoffed the bogeyman.  “And we demons live forever.”

“I think that we are coming close to the end of our hike,” said Slayer.

“Our master, Beelzebub, the prince of the devils,” said the bogeyman three appellations of the one who lived in the bottomless pit.

“The Great Grey Dragon,” said the griffin the title of their master in reference to his physical form, great and terrible.

From not far now, the two demons could see Beelzebub’s great yard abounding in his many bonfires all throughout.  They could see his sulfur trees burning in blazes.  They could see his castle of

pitch.  They could see the moat of brimstone.  And they could see the much smoke of burning fires filling the air here all about, as the devils took in the nice smell of blazes into their lungs.  They had arrived now in the deepest parts of the Earth.  They were in the depths of the Bottomless Pit.  And they were at the home of Beelzebub.  Then a drawbridge lowered before them, inviting the two demons to their Devil for a conclave between just the three of them.  Behold, standing in the great door, the Great Grey Dragon in his invincible and unconquerable saurian form.  “Good Bogeyman, good griffin,” spoke the Great Grey Dragon.  “I bid you both, ‘Welcome.’”

“Hail, Master,” said the bogeyman, bowing in obeisance to him.

“Hail, O Master,” also said Slayer, also bowing in homage to him.

“Hail, my good minions,” said the Great Grey Dragon.  “Let us come in and discuss matters.”

“I am ever at your service, O Beelzebub,” said the bogeyman.

The griffin Slayer said likewise, “And, I, too, O Master.”

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And the two demons followed the Devil into his official conference room.  Herein was a massive dark wooden table with twenty-two dark wooden chairs around it—ten chairs on each of the two long sides, one chair on the one short side that was always empty, and a throne on the other short side just for Beelzebub.  The Great Grey Dragon pulled out chairs for his two favorite demons, one chair across from the other chair, both on opposite long sides, and both at the far end of this table; and the griffin and bogeyman sat down.  And he himself sat down upon his throne at the near end of this table, indeed the farthest seat from his two guests.  And he spoke, “My minions, the region that I have assigned to you two is the most difficult region for any of my demons to work with in all the Earth.  As you know, there is a most divine and godly sand dunes in your region, a place where no demon has tread upon until you two did so in great valor.  Great is your courage, O valiant servants.”

“It hurt my eyes and choked up my lungs, Master,” said the bogeyman.

“And it weakened my legs and made my stomach sick, O Master,” said the griffin.

“That’s because God is there in a way He is not in all other places of this world,” said the Great Grey Dragon.

“The four Christians call it ‘The Fabled Lands,’” said the bogeyman.

“They are happy and healthy and at peace there,” said Slayer.

“Believers are not like devils,” said the Great Grey Dragon.  “What they like we dislike; and what they dislike we like.”

“Should we come in upon them in more neutral territory than their Fabled Lands, Master?” asked the griffin.

“Nay, O Slayer.  What you and the bogeyman did in bringing your own sins into the Fabled Lands have effectively corrupted those Fabled Lands.  Well done, both of you indeed,” praised Beelzebub.  “You two have my license to come in upon them in any place you two so choose at any time you two so choose and in any way you two so choose.  You are my best two demons of demons.”

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“Would we two be more effective assaulting the four believers outside of the sand dunes, Master?” asked the bogey man.

“Aye.  For sure,” said the Great Grey Dragon.  “But what I am saying about that Fabled Lands is that, even though it abounds with God amid its much sand, even all the area around this sand dunes, though to a lesser degree, also has God watching over it,”

“So, then, you’re saying, Master, that God is very much in the Fabled Lands and that God is much in the lands around it,” said Slayer.

“Indeed the Holy Spirit spreads outward from the dunes and diffuses in virtue,” said Beelzebub.

“So that means that the whole area there in Beaver is trouble for me.”

“And our four projects—the two young dating couples-in-Christ—are right in your great trouble spot, O Master,” said the bogeyman.

“We have to tempt the four believers right where their God is the most prevalent,” said Slayer.

“And for the most part, those four young believers are rocks in the faith,” said the prince of the devils.  Each of the four are without fault except for one thing they each do lack individually.  Gretchen will do anything for God except go to church.  Flanders is a mighty faithful man, except when it comes to reading the Bible.  Destiny is blameless in God’s eyes except for her lack of tithing.  And Proffery says, ‘Yes,’ to God in all things but prayer.  Otherwise, these four Christians are some of the mightiest Christian soldiers I have seen in a long time.”

“I look forward to pleasing you with my best vision for Gretchen and Flanders,” said Slayer.

“And I hope to do my best with Destiny and Proffery with my most imaginative vision yet,” said the bogeyman.

“Your conjuring of dreams is the most novel and effective means of tempting the Christians of all the means that any of my other demons use in their work of temptation, O Slayer, bogeyman,” praised the Great Grey Dragon.

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“We must keep God’s Holy Spirit out of our dreams,” said the bogeyman.

“And that might be hard to do, bogeyman,” said Beelzebub, “being so close to the Fabled Lands as you two are.”

“Where we send them, they will not even remember any sand dunes,” said Slayer.

“But their real bodies will still be there in the countryside near the sand dunes,” said the Great Grey Dragon.  “Though you may send their minds to another place, their physical presence will still be back with you not far from the sand dunes.”

“We cannot necessarily keep their Jesus our of our own visions that we create for them?” asked

the griffin.

“That I cannot answer for sure, Slayer,” said the Great Grey Dragon.  “Those Fabled Lands have the magic of Almighty God Himself.”  Then he sighed and said, “What you two must do with these four sons and daughters of God is to keep them from seeking God in any way throughout your whole visions beginning to end.  You must keep the Christians from asking Christ for help.   In that way, you will succeed.  They will fall into sin.  And they will backslide.  And they will no longer be any use to God again for the rest of their lives on Earth.  And I will have gained four trophies most pleasing and most gratifying and most rewarding.”

“We can keep them too busy to find time to seek Jesus,” said the bogeyman.

“We can dangle too sweet a temptation before them to make them want Jesus to keep them from it,” said the griffin.

“Bogeyman!  Griffin!” declared the Great Grey Dragon.  “Hearken unto the words that I now speak.  Let me tell you the ways of temptation.  I know them.  I use them.  I live them.  Hear my words now, and I will tell you how to prevail over all born-again Christians in your temptations upon them.

It is two things.  One of them is to keep them from prayer.  And one of them is to keep them from quoting Scripture.  If you do both of these consummately in your most efficacious visions, you will

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have successfully tempted into sin the four born-again believers of the Fabled Lands.  Only in that way will you keep the four Christians from seeking Christ for help in time of temptation.”

“I must keep Flanders and Gretchen from prayer and Bible verses,” said Slayer in understanding. “I have the advantage over Flanders.  He doesn’t know any Bible verses.”

And the bogeyman said, “Likewise I must keep Proffery and Destiny from praying and saying

Bible verses.  Proffery never prays; he’s not going to start now.”

“My good students,” said the Great Grey Dragon, “about keeping a child of God from praying to God, it is written for them and against us, ‘Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation:  the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.’  Matthew 26:41.  And again it is written for their admonition and to our chagrin, ‘Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation.  The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak.’  Mark 14:38.”

The Great Grey Dragon went on to say, “And about keeping a son or daughter of God from quoting scripture back at a demon, you both know about my defeat when I tried to tempt the Son of God Himself to my own undoing.  He quoted Scripture right back at me– the Devil himself– and I had to flee the Son of God in humiliation and humbleness.  I told Him, ‘Jesus, you’re hungry.  Turn these stones here into bread and eat them.  And most wise Jesus hit me with spoken words from Deuteronomy 8:3.  And He overcame that first temptation in the wilderness with this Bible verse.  Then I took Jesus up to a high roof on the top of a temple, and I said to Him, ‘Jesus, You have God as Your Father.  Jump, for it is written that He will have His angels catch you before you fall too far.’  And the all-wise Son of God then hit me with spoken words from Deuteronomy 6:16.  And He thus overcame this second temptation in the wilderness with this Bible verse. Then I took and set Him on the top of a very high mountain, and I said to Him, ‘Jesus, do You see all of these kingdoms of all this world out there?  If You fall down in worship of me, I will give You all of them.’  And this same Jesus then hit me with the spoken words of Deuteronomy 6:13.  And thus He overcame this third temptation in the

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wilderness with this Bible verse.  Griffin, Bogeyman, do you know what I am saying?”

The griffin said, “’Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.’  Matthew 4:11.”

The bogeyman said, “’And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season.’  Luke 4:13.”

“Yeah!  Yeah!” said the Great Grey Dragon.  “I can see that you two demons know Scripture.

See to it that those four children of this same Jesus forget any Scripture that they might already know.

Or the same thing will happen to you that happened to me.”

“I will not let you down, Master,” said Slayer.

“Nor will I disappoint you, either, O Great Grey Dragon,” said the bogeyman.

“If you tempt these four into backsliding, I will make you two my number two and number three demons, I being the number one demon,” promised Beelzebub the Great Grey Dragon.

“I am honored to be at your service, O Master,” said the bogeyman.

“I am flattered with your promise,’ said the griffin.

The two demons bowed before the Great Grey Dragon in deference and great respect.  Then the Great Grey Dragon sent them on their mission, “Good minions, go up now and do something bad.”

And the minions were thus given license of the Devil to attack Gretchen and Flanders and Destiny and Proffery unabated and unmitigated.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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CHAPTER VIII

The Shetlanders girl twins in their respective prom gowns got together with their pets for women fun at the Fabled Lands.  The Holy Spirit looked down from Heaven upon these two daughters of God, and He pulled back on Beelzebub’s leash and kept back the griffin and the bogeyman from

bothering them this day at the sand dunes.  This was the first day of autumn now, and the young women had bought each other a “first day of fall present.”  The wrapping paper and bows and ribbons were all of fall colors.  And they had carried their own first day of autumn presents all the way here, and they were tired now, and they dropped their presents upon the sand dunes, their arms needing rest.

“Woo!  My present got heavy after a while,” said Gretchen.

“Mine, too, Big Sis,’” said Destiny.

“It did not start out heavy,” said Gretchen.

“That’s because we are women,” said Destiny.

“Three miles is a long hike to carry a big box, Little Sis,’” said Gretchen.

“I notice, Gretchen, that your box is the same size as my box,” said Destiny.

“Yes.  It is.  Isn’t it?” asked Gretchen.  “And they are both the same shape.”  The Shetlanders women went ahead and lifted up both boxes and set them back down on the sand.  “And they both

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weigh the same, too,” said Gretchen.

“Yeah.  They do.  Don’t they, Big Sister?” asked Destiny.

“Both presents are the same then!” joked Gretchen.

“Ha ha ha!” said Destiny.

“Crazy idea,” quipped Gretchen in jest.

“They say that lightning does not strike twice in the same place,” said Destiny.

“That’s not in the Bible,” said Gretchen.

“Shires,” called forth Destiny to her Shetland Pony, “what do you think is in the box I got?”  He lifted his fore hooves up off of the ground and stamped them back upon the ground.  A little cloud of sand arose and settled back down.  “I don’t know, either, boy,” she said.

Then Gretchen asked, “How about you, Granger?  Do you know what might be in my box?”

“Whoof!  Whoof!” answered her Shetland Sheepdog, not knowing.

“I can’t tell, either,” said Gretchen.

“Woof!  Woof!” said Granger.

“I’ll tell her,” said Gretchen.  And she said, “Destiny, I bought your present at Montgomery Wards.”  Then she said, “I found it in the sporting goods department.”

“And I bought yours from Sears, Big Sis,’ and I also found it in the sporting goods department.” said Destiny.

“They are not both the same,” said Gretchen.

“No.  They are not,” said Destiny.  “Though I would not mind if they were.”

“I’d like mine to be the same as yours, too, Little Sister,” said Gretchen.

“We both want our own presents to be the same presents we bought for each other,” said Destiny.

“What are we waiting for?” asked Gretchen.

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“Let’s open up our presents!” said Destiny.

“Happy first day of fall, Little Sister,” said Gretchen.

“Happy first day of fall, Big Sister,” said Destiny.

And the two prom dress women quickly went and tore open their presents.

Behold, for each girl, a pair of women’s boxing gloves!

“Oo oo!  Pretty!” called forth Gretchen in girlish delights.

“Whoa!  I like this!  Lots!” said Destiny in novel fascination and wonder.

“Mine are nice and red,” said Gretchen.  “They match my prom gown, Little Sister!”

“And mine are nice and blue,” said Destiny.  “These match my own prom gown.  Thank you!”

“What should I do with these?” asked Gretchen.

Already Destiny began to put on her boxing gloves.

“I think that I will do the same, Little Sis,’” said Gretchen, and she also began to put on her boxing gloves.

“What do you think?” asked Destiny, her boxing gloves now covering her women’s fists.

Shires replied by drawing a question mark in the sand with his fore hoof.

And Gretchen replied, saying, “Are you going to punch with those on your hands?”  Her own new boxing gloves now on over her own fists, she asked, “Do you think that I look silly in these, O Granger?” He shook his head in a, “Nay,”

And Destiny replied, saying, “Can you hit hard with those?”

“I don’t know,” said Gretchen.  “But I would like to find out.”

Caught up in this brave new game, Destiny asked Shires, “Should I go and slug my own sister?”

And Shires drew an exclamation point in the sand.  Interpreting his answer, Destiny said, “I should go for it then.”

“I never punched a woman with boxing gloves,” said Gretchen.  In experiment she knocked her

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boxing gloves together.  “Do you think that it would hurt, if it happened?”

“Sometimes in women’s boxing, the girl actually gets knocked out,” said Destiny.

“Knocked unconscious,” said Gretchen.  “I kind of like that idea.”

“Neat,” said Destiny.  “That would be real neat.”

“If that were to happen to one of us today…here in the Fabled Lands…and one of us were lying here in the sand…out cold like that,” said Gretchen.

“Let it be me,” said Destiny.  “I would like for something like that to happen to me.”

“No, Little Sis.  I want to be the one KO’ed by a punch,” said Gretchen.

“Are you good enough at women’s boxing to throw a punch hard enough to do that to me?” asked Destiny.

“Can you take a punch from your big sister, Destiny?” asked Gretchen.

The Shetlanders women were all swept up in a passion over their brand new boxing gloves.  Both wanted to throw a punch with their boxing gloves.  Both wanted to take a punch from their twin sister’s boxing gloves.  And they waited not a moment longer to satisfy their women’s curiosity about

a man’s sport.

And Destiny threw the first punch.  It was awkward and cumbersome.  And it was new and weird.  And it was uncertain and unsure.  It was a little right jab, and it came up quite short of Gretchen’s face.  It was a clean miss.  Gretchen said, “Why, that is hardly a way to knock out your twin sister!” Then she said, “You cannot hit the broad side of a barn, swinging your glove like that!”

“That was my first time,” said Destiny.  “Can you do any better for your first time in the ring?”

“Yeah.  I can,” said Gretchen.

“Then go ahead and try,” said Destiny.

And Gretchen this time threw a punch toward her sister where she stood.  It was a slow and careless roundhouse right, and it bounced harmlessly against Destiny’s left glove that covered her

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face.  “I hit her!  I hit my sister, Granger!” called forth Gretchen in glee.

“You missed, Big Sister,” Destiny told her the truth.

“Oh, but I did hit something,” said Gretchen.

“But you did not hit me,” said Destiny.  “To knock me out you have to punch my face, not my glove.”

“This is getting intense,” said Gretchen, exhilarated.

“And this is getting good,” said Destiny.

The Shetlanders girls’ audience stood there, watching their mistresses in their brand new game in confusion and in puzzlement.  Neither the Shetland Sheepdog nor the Shetland Pony understood this game of strange fighting that the women were now doing before them.  It seemed to be a rough and tough little diversion.  And it looked to them that their mistresses were not very good at it whatever they were trying to do to each other.  It seemed to Granger that his mistress was more afraid of hitting than she was of getting hit.  And it seemed to Shires that his mistress was less afraid of hitting than she was of getting hit.  But surely neither woman was a professional like Sky Hosoya. The two pets turned

to look at each other to see what the other thought about all of this.  The dog smiled, and the horse smiled.  Then they turned back to watch their mistresses try to box here in the Fabled Lands.

“I’m going to try again with this,” said Gretchen, raising her red glove.

“I, also,” said Destiny, showing off her blue glove.  And the twin prom gown women both threw stiff right jabs.  And their gloves crashed into each other right in between their faces.  Both missed.

“Did you hear what I heard, Little Sis?’” asked Gretchen, remarking about the sound of glove on glove.

“That’s the sound of padded leather against padded leather,” said Destiny.  “I never heard that for myself before.”

“It sounds harder than it is,” said Gretchen.  “It sounds like it should hurt real bad if it hit a

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woman.  But I’ve seen women’s boxing.  A woman boxer can take lots of punches with one of these before she goes down.”

“Big Sister, how many do you think that you can take?” asked Destiny.

“More than you can dish out,” said Gretchen.  “How many can you take from me?”

“I won’t have to take any from you,” said Destiny.  “You will be too busy going down.”

Gretchen then began to swing her right arm vertically to her side in great show of power, and then she threw an uppercut.  The punch was far slower than her ostentatious prelude, and Destiny easily

backed up a step away, and Gretchen missed.  Destiny said, “Sister, you imitate the Crusher on All-Star Wrestling.  The Crusher is a real man, and he is tough and rough. But a woman like you cannot crush even a tin can, much less me.”

“I gave myself away,” said Gretchen.

“I will not give myself away,” said Destiny. “As they say in old-time radio crime dramas, ‘Take this!’”  And Destiny threw a shot to her sister’s belly.  But her sister backed up a step herself here, and Destiny also missed with her glove.

“What are we prize fighters doing wrong, that we are always missing?” asked Gretchen.

“Maybe, Sis,’ we are too far away from each other,” surmised Destiny.

“Where we are standing, you are too far away for my glove, and I am too far away from your glove,” said Gretchen.

“We are still too afraid to really go at it like women prize fighters are supposed to go,” said Destiny.

“Let’s get a little closer,” said Gretchen.

“Oo, we are daring.  Aren’t we?” asked Destiny.

“If we want to have our fun today with our first day of fall presents here in the Fabled Lands,

Little Sister, we have to become daring with these,” said Gretchen, raising her boxing gloves in

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indication.

“Then one of us is going to get hurt,” said Destiny.

“Both of us are going to get hurt,” said Gretchen.

“Bring it on, Big Sister!” said Destiny, moving in upon Gretchen.

“Go for it!” said Gretchen, moving in upon Destiny.

Both novice women pugilists threw stiff left jabs toward each other’s right temples.  And both women’s boxing gloves grazed both women’s sides of their heads.  A boxing glove finally connected in this experimental prize fight.  And it was two gloves that connected quite simultaneously here in the sand dunes.

“Hey, you hit me!” cried out Gretchen.

“Ouch, I hit you,” said Destiny.  “And you hit me!”

“Why, I hit you!” exclaimed Gretchen.

“I am really, really sorry,” said Destiny, shocked at what she had just done.

“I did not know what I was doing, Little Sister,” apologized Gretchen.  “Can you forgive me?”

Destiny shook her head instinctively after the punch.  “I don’t feel dizzy.  It doesn’t hurt up there.  I don’t feel knocked out or anything like that, Big Sis,”

“I don’t think I do, either,” said Gretchen.  “It didn’t really hurt real bad, being the first time I was struck by something like this.”  She raised her glove in indication again.

“Well, this is fun,” said Destiny.

“I like this,” said Gretchen.

“Let us forgive and forget and go on and do some more of this,” said Destiny.

“I forgive and forget and want more,” said Gretchen.

“I, also,” said Destiny.

And they resumed their most amateur women’s prize fight here in the Fabled Lands.  Destiny

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threw a clumsy roundhouse left toward Gretchen’s belly, and Gretchen was not quick enough to back up away from it, and Destiny connected.  Gretchen lost some of her breath from the blow, and this one hurt a little bit.  “Ah!  Right in the breadbasket!” Destiny bragged on herself.  “I socked my big sister in the gut!”

Gretchen readily got her breath back, and she got her strength back.  She saw Destiny throwing another clumsy roundhouse—this one, a right—toward her chin.  And Gretchen threw a left cross right into Destiny’s forehead.  The roundhouse missed; the cross did not.  And Destiny’s head snapped back from the cross.  Though this was not a jarring punch, it was the hardest punch thrown in this fight yet.

And Destiny felt a dizzy spell coming upon her and then leaving her.  “Ha! Right into your forehead!” bragged Gretchen.  “I socked my sister in the face!”

“I think that this boxing game we are having is beginning to hurt,” said Destiny.

“My stomach hurts now,” said Gretchen.

“And my head hurts,” said Destiny.

“But you do still like this.  Don’t you, Little Sister?” asked Gretchen.

“I do.  I do,” said Destiny.  “Let’s have some real fun and fight to the finish!”

And the Shetlanders girls continued their fun in the sand.  Destiny threw a quick and somewhat

feeble right uppercut.  And her glove collided into Gretchen underneath her chin.  Both women heard

Gretchen’s lower teeth crash into her upper teeth—Destiny from outside; and Gretchen, from inside.

The older Shetlanders woman now wished that she had used a mouth guard before she had gotten into all of this.  And her mouth hurt real bad.  She stood there, thinking that she had now lost some of her teeth.  But they were all still there, strong and sure yet in her jaws.  “Little Sister, you are getting pretty good at this,” said Gretchen.

“Let me do the same thing again,” said Destiny.

“No.  Now it is my turn, Destiny,” said Gretchen.  And Gretchen threw the well-known

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one-two punch.  First she threw a stiff left jab into Destiny’s belly; second, she immediately after threw a stiff right jab into Destiny’s nose.  Both gloves connected, though without the strength of a man. Destiny betrayed a grunt from the blow to her stomach, and she betrayed a feebleness to her knees from the blow to her face.  To Gretchen, it appeared as if her sister were going to go down!  Though a gal could not throw a punch like a guy could, neither could a gal take a punch like a guy could.  Then Destiny shook her head out of necessity.  And full awareness came back to her features.

Destiny said, “You almost got me there, Big Sis.’”

“I can see that you are back with me,” said Gretchen with a laugh.

“How sassy we two sisters are getting with our brand new boxing gloves,” said Destiny.

“And how naughty we two sisters are getting all of a sudden here in our favorite sand dunes,” said Gretchen.

“God does not mind what we are doing,” said Destiny.

“He’s probably watching us from Up There and waiting for one of us to give up,” said Gretchen.

“I’m not going to give up to you,” said Destiny.

“Nor am I going to give up to you,” said Gretchen.

And still the two prom dress girls continued their prize fight right to the end.  And their boxing quickly became careless in their pursuit of taking each other out in this “ring.”  Careless and without

inhibition, they began to throw wild and whacky punches that missed their mark or that struck harmlessly upon their opponent.  And with this, they began to wear our their own arms with their own punches.  Then, in this beginners’ first such bout, the twins began to box even more poorly.  Reckless

boxing exuded from their gloves in their hands for this first bout.  And all their punches became frenzy and chaos of recklessness.  Neither could hurt the other anymore the way the women were boxing now.

And their bodies wore out from the exertion.  And they could hardly stand up anymore.  And their arms

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hung down at their sides, neither woman able anymore to raise her gloves.  And they were huffing and puffing for air.

Then Gretchen asked, “Now do you give, Little Sister?”

“Do you give, Big Sis?’” asked Destiny.

“I will never give to you!” said Gretchen.

“Nor will I ever give to you,” said Destiny.

But the prom dress girls could not go on any more in this boxing match.  They were not beat up

really.  They were instead all worn out from the wild misses of the latter part of this prize fight.  Then, both at once, the girls sat down upon the Fabled Lands, and both said, “I give up.” at the same time.

And even though they had just had a knockdown shakedown fight, both young ladies began to giggle like girls.  And they could not stop giggling.

Again the Shetland Sheepdog and the Shetland Pony looked at each other in query.  Though their mistresses were not acting rationally right now and though they had just done the weirdest thing their pets had ever seen them do before, their two odd mistresses seemed to be all right.  And the dog came up to Gretchen and cuddled up next to her, and the pony came up to Destiny and stood by her.

And Gretchen said, “Don’t mind me, Granger.  I’m just an American girl having some fun with my sister.”

And Destiny said, “I’m okay, Shires.  I ache, and I am tired.  But this was fun for me.”

And their pets were reassured of their mistresses’ well-being.

Then the prom dress girls took off their boxing gloves.  With a smile and a titter, both Shetlanders sisters said to each other, “Happy first day of autumn.”

Then they thanked God for their most unique day this day together as sisters here at the Fabled Lands.  And after a good long rest, the girls stood back up, and the four returned home to their respective cabins.

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CHAPTER IX

The two men—the best friends—of the fellowship of four, took a walk to the Fabled Lands with their pets the seagull and the timber wolf.  Flanders and Proffery were going to have some guy fun here in the sand dunes, and their pets were going to have see them acting silly thus.

On their walk there, they discussed what they might do for their fun there.  Flanders asked, “Shall we make somersaults and do logrolling, Brother?”

“We did that last time,” said Proffery.  “How about what the girls did?”

“They got punch drunk without the punch,” said Flanders.

“You don’t mean without the punch that a girl might drink, Brother,” said Proffery.

“I mean the kind a girl can get with a boxing glove,” said Flanders.  “We could do that, but we don’t have any gloves.”

“How about what we call ‘football game,’ again, one on one?” asked Proffery.

“Football without the football,” said Flanders.  “Lots of running and tackling.”

“And no passing and catching,” said Proffery.

“I know, Brother Proffery,” said Flanders.  “When was the last time we had All-Star Wresting there in the Fabled Lands?”

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“When was the last time we played All-Star Wrestling anywhere?” asked Proffery.

“Let’s do that this time in the sand dunes,” said Flanders.

“Yes!  Let’s, Brother Flanders,” said Proffery.

And then they were there.  God looked down upon his good sons, and he desired their good happiness in their time here in His paradise.  And He pulled back on His leash upon the griffin and the bogeyman, keeping them from their work of the Devil upon the Christian men while they went and had their fun in His sand.  And He provided for these two brothers-in-Christ to have a day here with no temptations of visions from the evil demons.  God gave them rest from their labors.  And the masters and their pets reveled in simple play here at the Fabled Lands.

Even before the men started their play, the pets already went at it with their own novel game.

The she-wolf Gray pounced upon the sand, sat down on her haunches, and raised her right wolf paw, and looked the seagull right in the eyes.  In understanding the she-gull Skies made a loop in the air not at all far above the ground and came back in most fleet flight right in toward where Gray was waiting for her, her wolf paw still raised.  Zoom!  Gray swiped her wolf paw toward Skies.  Skies veered off to the side in evading this batting paw.  And Skies zipped right on past Gray.  And Gray missed.  Wolf and  seagull did this again.  Gray swiped her wolf paw again in trying to bat the seagull out of the air.  The seagull again eluded this paw.  And the she-wolf missed again.  And the pets did this a third time, and for the third time, the wolf missed the gull once again.

Flanders bragged on his pet, “Brother Proffery, your wolf is fast, but my seagull is faster.”

“This game that they suddenly came up with makes me think about that old cartoon called ‘Road Runner,’” said Proffery.

“I know the song of that cartoon ‘Road Runner,’” said Flanders.  “I know all of it.”

“Ooo, I want to hear it, Brother,” said Proffery.

And Flanders went on to sing that classic cartoon’s theme song:

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“If you’re on a highway, and Road Runner goes, ‘Beep!  Beep!’

Just step aside, or you might end up in a heap.

Road Runner, Road Runner, runs down the road all day.

Even the coyote can’t make him change his way.

 

Road Runner, the coyote’s after you.

Road Runner, if he catches you, you’re through.

Road Runner, the coyote’s after you.

Road Runner, if he catches you, you’re through.

 

That coyote’s is really a crazy clown.

When will he learn that he can never mow him down?

Poor little Road Runner never bothers anyone.

Just running down the road’s his idea of having fun.”

 

“What imagination that our Maker has given our animals, Flanders,” said Proffery.

“And how God had given us the wisdom to take two wild animals and to make them tame animals,” said Flanders.

“Pastor said that God made birds on the fifth day of creation; and animals, on the sixth day of creation,” said Proffery.

“So that means that on the fifth day, God made the first seagull, and on the sixth day God made the first timber wolf, Brother,” said Flanders.

“And on the third day, God made the continents and the seas,” said Proffery.

“He made the land and the oceans on the third day of creation.  Yes,” said Flanders.

“You know what that means,” said Proffery, extending his arm out over these celestial sand dunes.

“I think I know what you’re saying,” said Flanders.

“On the third day of creation, our great and wise Creator created these Fabled Lands that still stand here upon the ground six thousand years later,” said Proffery.

They came back to watching their pets play this brand new game of theirs: then the masters

decided that it was time for themselves to play their good old game.  “A.W.A All-Star Wrestling,”

 

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chanted Proffery.

“The best professional wrestlers from throughout the world,” chimed in Flanders.

“I like to hurt people, and I like to get hurt,” said Proffery in a made-up big voice.

“Ray ‘the Crippler’ Stevens said that in an interview,” said Flanders.

“Professional wrestling is not acting; it’s choreography,” mimicked Proffery another wrestler’s words in an interview.

“’Nature Boy’ Ric Flair said that,” said Flanders.

“Gonna getcha!” said Proffery in his normal voice.

“Who said that line?” asked Flanders.

“I did,” said Proffery.  “And I am going to get you in our All-Star Wrestling match in our sand dunes, Brother.”

“I dare you,” said Flanders.  “And I said that.”

And this most amateur “professional wrestling match” began between the two men of the fellowship here in Beaver, Wisconsin.

“Ding!” said Flanders in imitating the bell.  And their impromptu skit began:  “Forearm smash!” declared Flanders.  And he threw his right forearm right in unto Proffery’s jaw, and he intentionally came up short.  And Proffery threw back his head as if he had been struck.  And the showman Proffery began to shake “cobwebs out of his head”  in a mock-attempt to regain his senses from the blow.

Then Proffery proclaimed, “Flying drop-kick!”  And Proffery leaped, lifting both of his feet off of the sand, and then threw both feet in toward Flanders’s chest while Proffery was still in the air.  Of course, he deliberately came up short with his kick.  And he landed again surely upon his own feet after this wrestling move.  In game, Flanders threw his body back five feet as if kicked, and he landed hard upon his back, and he lay there, “dazed.”

Proffery then proclaimed, “Flying leg drop, like Hulk Hogan does!”  And he “attacked” the

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supine Flanders by leaping, extending his own right leg outward, and dropping that leg down upon the chest of Flanders as he fell.  Of course, he took care not to really land hard upon him.  And Flanders, playing the game, made his own form jerk where he lay and gave away a grunt “of pain.”

Flanders then proclaimed, “My opponent now goes on to boast before his audience out there, and he turns his back on me.”

And Proffery did so.  He turned his back on the fallen Flanders, and he began to speak to his fans “out there” and to his haters “out there”,  saying, “You love me, because I am real good.  And you hate me, because I am real good.”

“Yea!” said Flanders, and, “Boo!” said Flanders, making believe the response of the fans and haters of this wrestling braggart parading around as he was “in mockery of Flanders.”

“And then you rally where you lie, when I am not looking,” declared Proffery to Flanders.

And, taking the cue, Flanders did rally, and he jumped up to his feet.  “The turnbuckle, Proffery,” declared Flanders.  And Flanders came up to Proffery from behind, and he grabbed the back of Proffery’s head in his right hand, and he forced Proffery’s head down into “the turnbuckle at the corner of the ring.”

“And then I fall like a bag of potatoes,” declared Proffery.  And, after having had his head thrown into the turnbuckle, Proffery suddenly stood up straight and erect, and then fell down stiff and stretched out.  And he lay there, “quite dazed.”

And Proffery, “from the canvas,” proclaimed, “Then my opponent goes and celebrates now this time for himself.”

And Flanders this time paused for self-congratulations before the “crowds at ringside at the arena.”  Flanders began to flex his biceps and his triceps in front of everybody who could see him.

And he said.  “I’m bad!  I’m the baddest of the bad!  I am so bad I am good!”

Proffery gave forth catcalls “from the arena people.”

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Then Flanders declared, “And this time you rally from where you lie, with my back turned toward you in my pride.”

Taking the spontaneous cue, Proffery “struggled” and got back to his feet, and he stood behind Flanders and waited for him to turn back around.  Then Proffery proclaimed, “My opponent is brave when I am down, but when I am up again, he is cowardly.”  And, sure enough, when Flanders turned back around and saw Proffery there on his feet again, Flanders backed away, threw his arms out in front of him for protection, and fell on his knees before him for mercy.

Flanders then declared, “That old classic Greco-Roman knuckle lock.”

And the two all-star wrestlers proffered each other their two hands with their ten fingers, Proffery on his feet, and Flanders on his knees.  And they both accepted the challenge in this vintage test of strength so basic to professional wrestling.

“I start to lose” declared Proffery.

“I start to win, then,” declared Flanders.

And they pursued this stint.  And Flanders started to slowly get back to his feet; and Proffery, to slowly fall down upon his knees.  And then Flanders had the advantage now over Proffery.  But then Proffery proclaimed, “Now I give my dominant opponent a head-butt to the breadbasket.”  And he threw his head hard into the belly of Flanders.  And Flanders’ wrists weakened his Greco-Roman knuckle lock upon Proffery.

“My opponent does it again,” proclaimed Flanders.  And Proffery butted his head into Flanders’s breadbasket again.  And Flanders’s grip became more feeble.  “And once again,” declared Flanders.  And Proffery butted his head into his foe’s stomach a third time.

Proffery proclaimed, “My opponent lets go.”  And Flanders had to let go of his Greco-Roman knuckle lock due to his “pain in his belly.”

Then Flanders declared, “Headlock!”

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But Proffery declared, instead, “Double-headlock!”

And the all-star wrestlers here in the Fabled Lands each went ahead to give one another a headlock both at the same time.

“Squeeze,” said Flanders, his arm around Proffery’s head.

“You, too,” said Proffery, his arm around Flanders’s head.

And they did this for a minute, neither wrestler willing to submit to the other or forfeit this match.  And for a moment, neither young man knew what to do next in this “wrestling ring.”  Then Flanders came up with the answer, and he proclaimed “The DDT!”

“You mean ‘the pile driver,’” said Proffery.

“The ultimate wrestling trick that puts the opponent away for good, Brother Proffery,” said Flanders.

“You or I?” asked Proffery.

“I’ll let you do it to me and let you win this professional wrestling bout, if I get to win our next all-star wrestling here,” said Flanders.

“You’re on, Brother Flanders,” said Proffery.  And they released each other from their headlocks to go on and finish their game in the sand dunes.

Flanders said, “In one interview, Greg Gagne said in vengeance, ‘They pile drived my father on the cement floor.’”

“His father was Verne Gagne, the one-time heavyweight champion of A.W.A. wrestling,” said Proffery.

“You go ahead and do the DDT on your opponent in the ring,” proclaimed Flanders.

“And then I pin my opponent, to whom I have just done the DDT, and the referee counts him out,” declared Proffery.

And the game young men carried it out thus:  Proffery picked up Flanders and turned him

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upside-down and held him up; and Proffery put Flanders’s head between Proffery’s knees, and Proffery jumped up off of the ground, lifting Flanders up off of the ground with him, and Proffery then let himself fall and let Flanders also fall with him, driving Flanders’s head with Proffery’s knees “hard” down into the ground.  Flanders was “out cold” where he lay.  And Proffery put his left hand down upon Flanders’s chest and held up Flanders’s leg with his right arm to pin him.  And Proffery said in imitation of the referee, “One two three,” as Flanders imitated the referee by slapping his hand upon the

“canvas” three times with this count.

And Proffery Coins went on to imitate the ring announcer, “Winner and still heavyweight champion of the world—Proffery ‘the Grappler’ Coins.”

“And the crowd went wild,” declared Flanders.

And Proffery went into a monologue full of cheers and yells and clapping.

Then the young men got back to their feet, and they looked at their pets to see what they might be thinking about this silly little game their masters had just finished playing in front of them.  The seagull and the timber wolf were quite asleep.  Proffery said, “We just bored them to death.”

“Or else they got sleepy from playing their own silly little game,” said Flanders.

Proffery said, “I used to believe in All-Star Wrestling,”

“You mean that you thought that it was real?” asked Flanders.

“Yeah.  I was a little kid then,” Proffery said.  “I was in fourth grade when I discovered All-Star Wrestling.”

“When I was in fifth grade, I used to watch wrestling in the nice cozy basement, myself sitting in a washing machine box in front of the TV.  I thought then that it was real, too,” said Flanders.

“As people who know say, ‘If anybody hit that hard, they would be dead,’” said Proffery.

“Like when one wrestler jumps off of the top rope and crashes his foot upon the other wrestler’s

throat where he lies, and he is still living,” said Flanders.   “And what a disclaimer the ring announcer

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gives to professional wrestling fans out there, when he says on TV, ‘Don’t do this at home.  These are professional athletes.’”

“Brother, do you remember Wally Karbo?” asked Proffery.

“Yes!” said Flanders in reminiscing.  “He was the top dog of the A.W.A.  He was the final authority of all of wrestling.  His say was final.”

“And remember when Wally Karbo would go on the air and officially indefinitely suspend a wrestler from any further wrestling matches, Brother?” asked Proffery.

“Yeah.  I remember.  He would do that when a bad guy wrestler would go and do a horrible and terrible thing to a good guy wrestler that was real bad,” said Flanders.

“And remember Marty O’Neill, the interviewer of all the wrestlers?” asked Proffery.

“Yes!  He was good, too.  He always wore dark glasses.” said Flanders.  “He would talk calmly, and the wrestlers would talk mad and loud.”

“Do you remember ‘the claw?’” asked Proffery.

“Yes!  The claw!  He would extend his fingers of one hand and put them upon his opponent’s forehead and then squeeze them.  It was like a sleeper hold.  And after a while, the opponent lost his consciousness,”  said Flanders.  “That was Baron von Raschke.”

“Yes, and it was also his tag team partner Horst Hoffman who also knew and did the claw,” said

Proffery.  “At first I thought that his name was ‘Horse Hoffman.’”

“Yes.  I remember him,” said Flanders.  “You should have seen what I almost saw in my basement one day when the TV reception for All-Star Wrestling was real bad.  I thought that I saw Baron von Raschke and Horst Hoffman giving each other the claw!”

“Whoa!  What happened from that, Brother?” asked Proffery.

“I never found out.  The TV was not working well at all that night,” said Flanders. “It was all snowy on the screen.”

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“Oh, I wish that I had seen that,” said Proffery.

“Remember the wrestlers on All-Star Wrestling whose job it was to lose to the bigger stars of wrestling, Brother?” asked Flanders.

“Kenny ‘Sod-buster’ Jay!” said Proffery.  “He would be fighting the world champion Nick Bockwinkle, and he would be throwing the champion around the ring, and he would be winning, and the champion was hurting; then, all of a sudden, from out of nowhere, Bockwinkle would suddenly come up with a wrestling move so utterly devastating that all at once Kenny Jay was all finished, and the fight was over, and Bockwinkle pinned him.”

“And the other wrestler whose job it was to lose to the good wrestlers, Brother–’George “Scrap Iron” Gadaschki,’” said Flanders.  “He was tough and always lost, too.  I wonder if, maybe, the wrestlers who got paid for their job to lose matches got paid better than the wrestlers who got paid for their job to win matches.”

In this manner, the two brothers-in-the-Lord reminisced about Frank Hill and Bobby “the Brain” Heenan and Black Jack Lanza and Big Bad Bobby Duncum and the “High Fliers”–

Greg Gagne and Jim Brunzell– and Superstar Billy Graham and Billy Robinson and Larry “the Axe”

Hennig and Big John Studd and, of course. “the Eighth Wonder of the World” Andre the Giant.

And when at last their nostalgia remembrances were done for now, they woke up their pets, and the four left these Fabled Lands once again, soon to come back to them again for more fun outdoors and to relish the carefree peace of this little sandy Paradise of God here outside of Beaver.

 

 

 

 

 

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CHAPTER X

Flanders and Gretchen were on another date together at his cabin out in the front yard of much tall swaying field grass.  The girl brought her King James Bible, and he lent his listening ear, and they sat down side by side on the ground.

“It is hard to sit in this grass with my red prom gown in its much material all spread out like this around me,” said Miss Shetlanders the younger.

“It looks enchanting, Gretchen,” he said.  “You look enchanting in it.”

“Oh, I know,” she said.  “Let’s not go to the picnic table then.”  And she opened her Holy Bible and was about to read aloud Scripture rare to Flanders in his life.

Just then they both saw it.  It was happening right before them.  Not far away in this field a little whirlwind of dust arose from the beneath, and it hovered there like a bane.  “Hold me, Flanders,” said

Gretchen.  They quickly stood up.  He put his arm around her back, and she put her arm around his side and held her Bible tightly against herself in her other arm.  And, sure enough, the whirlwind began to skip its way right to right in front of them.  And then it stopped.  And then it became the bogeyman it was in its natural form.

“Greetings, children of the Most High God,” said the bogeyman.

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“Hello again, Bogeyman,” said Flanders, bracing himself for a most bad time.

Gretchen whispered in Flanders’s ear, “I wish he would just go away.”

“I heard that, O foul woman,” said the bogeyman. “When I do quite come, I do not just go away.”

“Are you come to tempt me and my girlfriend?” asked Flanders curtly.

“Flanders Nickels of God, I am come to tempt you and your girlfriend,” averred the bogeyman.

“What do you think it will be, Flanders?” asked Gretchen.

The bogeyman said, “I am right here, milady.  Ask me.”

“Probably one of your induced dreams, you devil,” said Gretchen, fearing him for himself and also for what he could do to her.

“I cook up mean visions,” bragged the bogeyman.

Flanders said, “Our God is with us wherever we go.”

“But He is not in a bogeyman’s vision, O fellow,” said the bogeyman.

“God is everywhere,” said Flanders with wavering faith.

“Is God ever in Hell?” asked the bogeyman.

“No.  God was never in Hell,” said Flanders.

“Are not my visions straight from Hell?” asked the bogeyman.

“Yes.  Surely a demon’s vision can only come from Hell,” said Flanders.

“Then it follows in logical reasoning, that God can not be in any of my dreams I do tempt with,” said the bogeyman.  “He cannot or will not help you two once I get my visions in upon you.”

“I do not think so,” said Flanders, not at all confident right now.

“Say after me, ‘I do think so, Bogeyman,’” said the bogeyman.

Gretchen said, “I kind of think so, Flanders.”

Flanders said nothing.  But the bogeyman said something again, and he said, “Flanders, your

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reticence bewrays you.”

Gretchen said,  “Flanders, say something.  Say something to God.  We should pray and ask God for help, maybe.”

The bogeyman said, “What’s there for you to pray about now in a time like this, O woman?”

Instead of praying, Flanders said, “Gretchen, read something from the Holy Bible at him.  That might help us more now.”

With a swing from his arm of shadow, the bogeyman knocked the Good Book out of Gretchen’s

arm, and the Good Book landed in the tall field grass ten feet away.  And he mocked the two believers and said, “Woman of God, you seem to have had a little accident.”  Flanders left his girlfriend’s side to go and retrieve the Bible.  The ground was no place for the Holy Bible.  “Little man, leave the Book right there where it is,” demanded the bogeyman.

Flanders, in his reverence for this Good Book, despite his negligence in reading it, boldly said, “No. I will not, O Bogeyman.”

“Oh, but you shall, Mr. Nickels,” said the bogeyman.  “If you do not come back here right now, I will throw you into a vision right where you stand!”

“Go ahead and try,” snapped Flanders in indignation of evil.  And Flanders reached down and picked up God’s holy Book.

“Frail child of dust, put that back down or I will go for your girlfriend instead first.” the bogeyman threatened.

“I’ll pray for you right here, Gretchen,” he said, knowing that she was imminently going to “be away” at the hands of the bogeyman.  And he gave her her King James Bible.  “Keep This and take good care of This,” he advised her.

“Now you went and did it!” screeched the shadow demon.  “Daughter of God, ‘Good-bye!’”

And Flanders saw his girlfriend’s face turn suddenly blank where she stood.

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And suddenly Miss Shetlanders the younger found herself in a strange and eerie new world.

Though she had never gone to Translation Baptist Church, she knew that this was where she “was

right now” at the conjuring of the bogeyman.  The entrance doors were just up ahead at the end of the sidewalk.  She began to walk toward them.  Lo, the sound of the swishing of acetate did not bring its music to her ears.  And she looked upon herself; here she was, for her first time not attired in her red prom dress.  Why, the girl had on blue jeans and a long-sleeved cotton shirt and socks and sneakers.  How utterly odd this was for her!  And she did not like it much.  The good Pastor’s flock was filing in with her.  And then a woman’s voice called out, “Gretchen, is that you?”

Gretchen looked up and saw Emmy, Pastor’s wife.  “Yes, Emmy, it is I and not my twin sister, here now at church for my first time.”

“It is so good to see you.  I’m so glad you came,” said Emmy.

“I’m glad to be here,” said Gretchen Shetlanders, not sure of her words right now.

And in like, all of the flock did greet her here on her first day at church.  And Destiny and Flanders and Proffery were also here with her.  Gretchen paused to wonder if she were dressed appropriately for church now in the eyes of God.  And she sat down in the front pew next to “Flanders.”

And she tried to remember things that she could not remember.  Where did she get a pair of women’s blue jeans like these?  When did she dress down like this?  What made her come here?  And when could she get back to Yahtzee and Kismet again?  Convicted of dice games, Miss Shetlanders reconciled herself to an hour of church in seeking of repentance.

And the service began.  Pastor started off with the announcements, saying, “As you know, this Friday is the fourth Friday of the month, and that is our Friday Night Fellowship for you guys and gals and boys and girls who want to play board games down the basement.  Monopoly is my wife’s favorite, and Life is my favorite.  Deacon bought them from St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store, so that saved our church a lot of money.  And if you don’t like Monopoly or Life, as you know we have dozens of other

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board games down there to play for young and old alike.  But you’ve got to wait until Friday to play them.”

Instantly Gretchen took to wondering: Is there a game of Yahtzee down there for me?  Is there a game of Kismet down there for me?  And she did not want to have to wait till Friday as the pastor said she had to.  She kind of wanted to go down to the basement as soon as she could to look around and see and find out.  Could she really wait until after the service was done?  Did she have to wait?  Should she sneak out now from the auditorium and go and take just a quick little look down there?

And then the sermon began.  Pastor said to his flock, “Turn with me, if you would, to Galatians 5:16-17, and read along with me:”  And Gretchen and her fellow parishioners of this day turned to Galatians 5:16-17, and Gretchen and all this flock of God read along with Pastor these two verses:

“This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.  For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh:  and these contrary the one to the other, so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.”

Why, Pastor was speaking right at her, and he did not know it.  And it was truth that he was preaching.  Her Spirit was saying to her, “Stay here and enjoy the sermon.”  And her flesh was saying to her, “Go down the basement, and maybe shake some dice.”  And Miss Shetlanders the younger came to understand the battle within her—when her friends would say, “Come to church with us,” and she would say, “I will not come to church with you”–to be the battle between her Spirit and her flesh.  Why, her battle within was the age old battle that all believers contended with.  Yet as she sat here in the front pew and began to listen to this sound preaching, she began to think thoughts that said to her, “Go to the basement right now, or you may never get your chance again.”

These thoughts came from the bogeyman she knew not right now in the vision, the demon that was still back there in Flanders’s front yard which she remembered not right now.  And the silent words of the bogeyman enticed her woman’s heart with great wiles.  They were “right.”  And they were

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“good.”  And they were “on time.”  Miss Shetlanders the elder looked first at her boyfriend, then at her sister, then at her sister’s boyfriend.  They were not looking at her right now.  The Holy Spirit spoke to her now in His still small voice, “My daughter, stay for the whole service.”  But the subtle and hidden

bogeyman told her now from outside of this vision, “Nay, woman.  Follow your heart and leave this morning’s service right now.”

This time Gretchen looked at Pastor and at Emmy and at the rest of this little flock gathered together in good worship.  Here, too, no one was looking at her.  And she got up and shamefacedly walked out of the auditorium as if on her way to the restroom, and she went down the stairs into the basement like a sneak.  And once there, she searched and found where all the board games were.

They were all neatly organized into shelves in a storage room.  And in great anticipations, she quickly began to rummage through these games in search of her cherished Yahtzee and her adored Kismet that should be there among them.  At first she saw not that familiar yellow box and that trademark green box.  She began to look harder.  It was surely to be here.  After all, that was why she had disobeyed God.  And she still did not find them.  Why could she not find them when she needed them the most?

Were they not here, after all?  She began to panic, making a mess out of order here in the little back room.  She began to grab recklessly, spilling contents of game boxes out upon the floor and murmuring at God Himself.  And she realized now that Translation Baptist Church had just about every board game except Yahtzee and Kismet.  And she knew that she had just sinned her most grievous sin of sins of all her walk with Christ.  Yet still she sunk deeper in sin.  With a huff and with a curse and with a rebel’s attitude, Gretchen Shetlanders came up out of the basement, left this church with a vengeance, and ran back home to her cabin; and she sought to spend the rest of the day playing her two dice games till she would be satisfied.  But just before she entered her cabin, Gretchen found herself back with

her boyfriend and that demonic bogeyman.

“You’re back,” said her faithful boyfriend, not knowing what she had just done.

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“I’m here now again,” she said, looking around.  “What happened?”

“You were in my dream, little lady,” gloated the bogeyman.  “Let me tell your ignorant boyfriend what you just did.”

“What did you do, Gretchen?” asked Flanders Nickels, now worried for her.

“I did it real bad this time, O Flanders,” cried out the woman, now knowing all of what had just taken place.

“Was it really bad, Gretchen?” asked Flanders in compassion.  “What happened just now in that vision?”

“Your girlfriend backslid on Jesus, Flanders,” she cried out in utter lamentation.  And Gretchen Shetlanders could speak no more words in her great angst right now.

Flanders held her in his arms as she cried, and he turned to the bogeyman in great rage, and he said to the bogeyman, “You can go to the Devil!”

“Sassy mortal fellow,” said the gloating and powerful bogeyman, “you can go to the vision.”

“You minion of Belial, I dare you to send a vision upon me!” yelled Flanders Nickels at the formidable bogeyman.

Invincible, the bogeyman laughed in great confidence.  And he sent the man this time to one of his dreams of temptations.

Behold, Flanders found himself in a library somewhere.  He saw a desk in front of him in a hidden back corner of this library.  And upon this desk were two big books.  Flanders knew what his own name was.  But he knew not anything in his life right now that had come before this moment.

He tried to think, but he could not remember anything that was not this library; and this library was a true mystery for him.  He sighed in curiosity, and he sat down at this desk.  The book on the left was a big book; but the book on the right was a massive book.  He picked up the books, and the book that was big was the King James Version Bible, and the book that was massive was an unabridged Webster’s

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dictionary of the English language.  He put down the Holy Bible first, and he felt a conviction of wrongdoing.  But he ignored his conscience.  And he held on to the tome of dictionary in both hands.

And he went ahead and opened it and looked into it and began to read some from it.  How he loved not the written Word of God.  How he loved dictionaries and their definitions.  A thought from beyond this library told him, “O young man of God, open the middle drawer to the desk and do its bidding for me.”

At first Flanders thought to have sensed an evil feeling to that voice.  Indeed it was the tempting of the bogeyman still back in his front yard.  Nonetheless, Flanders, quite curious went ahead and opened that middle drawer to this desk.  And he found an index card with the message, “Look up the great big long word, ‘honorificabilitudinitatibus’ in the dictionary that I have given you and memorize its definition, if you would.”  Whether it were the Holy Spirit or one that were not the Holy Spirit that had written this message, the word student Flanders did not have to be asked the phrase “if you would.”  This was the most exciting and novel vocabulary word that he had ever had the opportunity to learn.  He saw the Good Book that was written by God Himself out of the corner of his eye, and he said, “Not right now.”

And he went ahead and looked up this most lengthy word, and he read its relatively most brief definition, saying out loud, “The state of being able to achieve honor.”  Wow, the vocabulary word was almost longer than its definition!  And in delights of vocabulary enrichment, he went on to memorize this brand new word and its definition.

Next, the subtle and hidden bogeyman told this man in his dream from outside his dream, “Open that top middle drawer of your desk again, and see a second index card, and read it, and do it.”

Flanders told himself in doubts, “This is surely the voice of God.”  His head told him, however, “God does not sound like this.”  Yet, hoping for an even better surprise this second time than even that first time, he did not pause in his opening of that drawer again.  And as soon as he opened it, he saw his expected second word to look up and memorize to his intellectual edification, this word even longer still than the first word.  This note told him, “Now, fine scholar, look up the huge and most lengthy

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word, ‘hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia’ in the dictionary that I have given to you.”  He would surely do this at once.  Fun!  Fun!  Fun! Here in this library he had never been in before.  The unabridged dictionary heavy in his raised hands, he set it down upon the desk to go ahead and look up this even longer word.  In doing so, his left hand he did set unintentionally upon the Holy Bible that he had still not opened up in this strange new world he was in.  Again his spirit told him that he really should try to read God’s Book for his first time.  “But surely not right now!” he snapped at its Author

indirectly.  And he pushed away the Holy Bible to make more room for the unabridged dictionary

on this desk.  And he looked up this second vocabulary word in search for its most fascinating definition.  And he read its meaning out loud for himself, “a fear of long words.”  He laughed gaily and said, “The word that means ‘a fear of long words’ is the longest word I have ever seen in my life.’”

And he proceeded to memorize this word and its definition, again the vocabulary word harder to memorize than its definition.  And he sighed in happiness.

Then that dubious voice spoke and said those pleasant words again, “O great man of words, open up your desk drawer yet a third time, and I will teach you the longest word in the English language.”  Most hastily did Flanders Nickels pull open that magical drawer for the third time, and this third note was assuredly there, telling him the following:  “Flanders, look up now, ‘pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.’”  “Yes!  Yes!  Yes!” chanted Flanders in avid glee.

And he quickly searched for this word in his unabridged dictionary.  In dire warning from Above, God the Holy Spirit Himself spoke like a thunder, saying to him, “My son, my son, seek the Words which I have written.  It is said about My Bible, ‘Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life:

and they are they which testify of me.’  John 5:39.  Put down now the dictionary of which you are making a false god.”

Yet in a sin of sins, Flanders said to God in a diabolical rebellion, “Not yet, already!”  And Flanders found his third treasure word of this dream in his precious new dictionary, and he said its

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definition out loud to himself and to the captain of his vision somewhere out there, “a lung disease caused by inhaling very fine silica dust.”  And he studied and memorized and mastered this longest vocabulary word of the English language’s perhaps 400,000 or maybe 600,000 words.

“It is done,” said that omnipotent thunder.

And Flanders trembled now at this desk for what he had just done.  He knew now that he had just backslidden on Almighty God Himself.  And he feared the Lord with quaking.

Just then he found himself back with his good girlfriend and his evil bogeyman once again in the natural world of field of tall grass in front of his cabin.

He took one look at pretty Gretchen Shetlanders, and he confessed, “I did it, too.  What can I say? I have slid back on my Christ in a dream from a demon.”

“Ho!  Ho!  Ho!” laughed the bogeyman.  “My job for Beelzebub is done!”  And having said that, he again transformed himself into his traveling form as the little whirlwind of sand, and he danced away in this little vortex off down into the horizon and then disappeared from view far away.

Convicted of the worst sins they had ever committed since having first found their personal Saviour, young man and young woman stood there, saying nothing, moving not, feeling dirty, thinking

confused, giving up.

And Flanders and Gretchen now feared fellowship with God.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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CHAPTER XI

Destiny and Proffery were on a date at his place, and they were on the banks of Left Foot Creek in his backyard in a little clearing in the woods.  Talk was constrained between the two.  Their other couple had backslid, and it could happen to this couple.  His penny loafers and her pumps could not quite reach the creek from where they were sitting.  He did not right now say how he liked her blue prom dress; he always said good things about her prom dress on all of their dates.  She did not say,

“Praise Jesus,” or “Thank God,” for happy things on her date with Proffery this day here at the creek.

Boyfriend and girlfriend were dumb with gravity.

“Well…,” said Proffery, trying to break the silence.

“Well…,” said Destiny.

“It’s too bad what happened to Flanders and Gretchen,” said Proffery.

“Yeah.  It is,” said Destiny.

“I talked to Flanders this morning and tried to cheer him up,” said Proffery.

“I and Gretchen had a sister-to-sister talk this morning, and I think that I encouraged her some,” said Destiny.

“What happened to them could happen to us,” said Proffery.

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“Yeah.  I know.  That’s why I am scared,” said Destiny.

“I, also,” said Proffery.

“That horrible bogeyman,” said Destiny.

“The demon does his job well,” said Proffery.

“And his terrible friend,” said Destiny.

“That accursed griffin,” said Proffery.

“He’s just as bad,” said Destiny.

“It is he who probably might come after us,” said Proffery.

“You think so?” asked Destiny.

“Maybe,” said Proffery.

“When, do you think?” asked Destiny.

“Probably not long from now,” said Proffery.

“How I dread Slayer now, Proffery,” said Destiny.

“We born-again Christians have enemies in high places,” said Proffery.

“The Devil and his demons,” said Destiny.

“Just remember, Destiny,” said Proffery.  “We have Christ.”

“And Christ has us,” said Destiny.

“It is written, ‘…:  for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee,’” recited Proffery good Scripture.

“Hebrews 13:5,” said Destiny in assent.

Just then the sound of rain came down upon the woods on the other side of the creek.  “Do you hear something, Destiny?” asked Proffery.

“I do,” said Destiny.  “It sounds like rain falling over there and not over here.”

“Uh oh,” said Proffery.  “Brace yourself, Destiny.  He is coming.”

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The blue prom dress girl and her boyfriend stood up quickly and looked across the creek.  “Hold me, Proffery,” called forth Destiny.  He held her.  And, lo, just on the banks of the opposite shore of Left Foot Creek, the little rainstorm became the big griffin.  And Slayer stood there, glaring at them,

and laughing with the scorn of the Devil at them.

Proffery Coins spoke and said, “Slayer, I can see that you are back for more.”

“Much more, son of God,” said Slayer.  “I have just begun.”

Destiny spoke and said, “Are you going to throw me into a vision like you did my sister?”

“Oh, of course, woman of God,” said Slayer.

“A nightmare,” said Proffery in sober-mindedness.

“Oh, good man, not a nightmare.  It will be fun.  Until the end.  After the end, then it will seem like a nightmare,” taunted the demon griffin.

“The Bible talks about the pleasures of sin for a season,” Proffery said to himself.

“And then the harvest, O Christian man,” mocked Slayer.  “He he he!”

“How I wish he would not start laughing the way he does, Proffery,” said Destiny, her arms around her boyfriend holding tighter now.

“A merry heart doeth good like a medicine:…,” Slayer quoted Scripture.  “Proverbs 17:22.”

In rebuke Miss Shetlanders the younger said, “Slayer, a griffin like you should not go around saying Bible verses like that.  You make a mock at God that way because of what you are.”

Also offended, Proffery said, “Do not corrupt the Word of God, O minion of Beelzebub.”

“Do not offend me, O Christian youth,” snapped the mercurial griffin.

In most bold challenge, Destiny Shetlanders, afraid and tired of being afraid, went and said to this formidable demon, “He he he, O Slayer!”

And in rage of pride, the griffin told her now in most grave resolution, “You go first, wench!”

And from across the creek, Slayer lifted his right eagle claw and then stamped the ground with it.

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Behold, all of a sudden, Destiny Shetlanders found herself back at Translation Baptist Church again, her home away from home in her walk with Christ.  She definitely knew where she was in this dream, but she definitely did not know that this was a dream conjured by a griffin.  She did not know of a time before just now, but she did not pause to ruminate upon this.  She was alone in the auditorium, and the lights were all on, and dark of night lay beyond the many windows of this homey and cozy

church.  She heard voices from outside the building, and she went to the window and looked out upon what felt like a nice summer night.  These voices were the voices of all of her brothers-and-sisters-in-the-Lord who went to this church with her all of the time.  And she discerned the speaking of praises to

God, one person at a time.  This was the most God-honoring diversion that Pastor called, “Pass the praise.”  All of her fellow born-again believers were outside playing “Pass the Praise.” in God’s beautiful night of summer, and she wanted to go and be there with them and to praise the Lord with them.  And Miss Shetlanders the younger, in a griffin’s vision, turned to go to the exit door and to join the Christians in sweet fellowship.

Lo, the church collection plate full of money still resting upon the table up front from this Sunday Evening’s offerings.  She looked at it, and she looked away from it.  Destiny was not a stealer of other people’s money, and this pile of cash and coins was no temptation at all for the woman.  Though she in her selfishness did not give one penny to God in giving of tithes, she was not a greedy woman when it came to other people’s money.  She had heard Pastor preach many times on how a Christian who holds back ten percent to God was a robber of God.  So that must mean that she robbed God then in disobeying God’s commandment to give tithes and offerings to her local church.  But she was hardly a robber of the collection plate in itself.  And Destiny Shetlanders began to walk toward the exit door of the church for fellowship with the saints out there.

Suddenly, just as soon as she had turned her back on the money plate, she heard a sound of something small and hard landing upon something that was also hard.  With her great familiarity of

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gold and silver coins, Miss Shetlanders recognized this sound to be a clinking of a large coin upon a surface of wood.  And she stopped and turned back to the collection plate table.  Behold, a real large gold coin now suddenly upon this wooden table right alongside the offering plate.  It was not there just a moment ago.  It was dropped there on purpose by the secret griffin still back at Left Foot Creek, and she did not know anything right now about what was happening at Left Foot Creek.  She stared at this rare coin now beckoning her, itself being only five feet from where she was standing.  She at first refused to get closer to it.  But yet she extended her arm out toward it, and her right hand was not only

three feet away from it.  She then sought to resist temptation, and she drew back her arm away from the gold coin and held her arm tight against her side.  But then she took a step closer to this precious coin, and now she was only two feet away from it.  From where she stood, she right now did not take a second step toward it.  She reached out her right hand to it again from where she was now standing, and her five fingers of her hand were now only one inch away from this treasure.  She then drew back her reaching hand and held her arm, elbow bent, up against her front.  She then went on to take a second step toward this spoils, and now she was only one foot away from it.  She reached her arm outward just one foot, and her right hand touched the coin.  And she picked it up in her four fingers and her thumb, and it felt so good in her hand.  And she irreverently said, “Thank You, God, for letting me hold this.”

She studied it.  Why, was this a Spanish Doubloon?   It was.  It was a real Spanish Doubloon!  Such a coin as this she had not yet added to her collection of gold and silver coins.  She just had to have this!

And it belonged to no one.  It was not here just a moment ago.  It had not been in the collection plate.

No one of the flock had given this for this evening service’s offering.  It was suddenly just there, put there just a while ago, by a higher power supernaturally.  It had to have come from God.  And it was meant just for her.  And it was hers now.  And she leaned her face toward it, and she kissed it in the love of money.  The Holy Spirit spoke to her in His still small voice, saying, “My daughter, take this gold coin, and tithe off of it for My glory.”  The gold coin was from the griffin; the commandment

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was from the Lord.  And Miss Shetlanders the younger paused to consider and to make a decision.

She wondered, pondered, vacillated.  And then she said, “I think that I shall go and tithe off of my

weekly wages right now.”  This was neither what the griffin had put into her head, nor what the Lord had said to her.  By doing neither, she was pleasing neither.  But Slayer thought to have won the victory with this vision yet in progress.  And Destiny opened up her purse, took out her checkbook and pen, and did some simple arithmetic.  As a grocery store cashier she made a weekly gross income of $150 and a weekly net income of $125.  And Destiny thought to do most admirably in her first time of tithing in writing out a check for $12.50.  And she felt holy, when she put the check into this full offering plate.

Then Miss Destiny Shetlanders put the precious Spanish Doubloon gold coin into her purse.  And she sneaked out of the back door to Translation Baptist Church.  The griffin Slayer had efficaciously tempted Destiny into betraying Christ.

And he brought the errant young Christian woman back to Left Foot Creek in her boyfriend’s backyard.  “Destiny,” called forth good Proffery. “you’re back.”

“Oh, I was in a dream from the griffin,” she said.  “None of what happened was real.”

“How did you do?” asked Proffery with good hope.

She quickly opened up her purse to look for the rare golden coin, hoping now that it was not real, either, that her sin would not be discovered.  The Spanish Doubloon was not in her purse here in the natural world.

“My lady,” taunted Slayer, “could it be that you are looking for something?”

“No, griffin!” snapped Miss Shetlanders the younger.  “I am not looking for anything.”

Proffery asked her, “Did you think that you can bring things back from a vision?”

“It is gone.  And I am done for.  And I am in big trouble forever with Jesus,” confessed Destiny.

“How come?” asked her caring boyfriend.  “What happened back there where you went?”

The griffin said, “She tithed, but did not tithe, O man of God.  Didn’t you, O woman of God?”

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And the girl explained it to Proffery the best way that she understood it, “The Lord told me to do one thing, and I went and did another.  He never went out of His way before like this to ask me to do something for him—it must have been really important—and I said, in essence, ‘No way!’ to God.  And then I ran away from church with a gold coin to take home, refusing to give God back ten percent of its value.  I never did so many sins so fast before.  What happened to me in that vision?”

“I’ll tell you, woman,” said Slayer.  “You backslid on Jesus.”

“Backslid?” asked the young woman.  “Was it that bad?”

“Oh yes!” quickly agreed the griffin.

“What do you think, Proffery?” asked Miss Shetlanders the younger.  In mute reply, her boyfriend nodded his head.  And, understanding the seriousness of what she had willingly done in that dream, the woman said, “I am a backslider.”  And she hung her head down in shame.

Proffery knew that he was next to be tempted by so invincible Slayer.  And Slayer officially announced this by saying, “Now it’s your turn, O man.”  And Proffery Coins braced himself, stood there stiffly, and closed his eyes.  The griffin raised his right eagle leg, and then he stamped his right eagle leg upon the ground from across the creek.

And Proffery was sent into the vision that Slayer had prepared for him.  Behold an island with four oceans, and himself in the middle of the island.  From where he stood, he saw clearly four signs, one in each of the four directions of the compass.  In front of him was a sign that read, “The North Sea,

one-half mile ahead.”  To his right was a sign that read, “The East Sea, one-half mile ahead.”  Behind him was a sign that read, “The South Sea, one-half mile ahead.”  And to his left was a sign that read, “The West Sea, one-half mile ahead.”  This tiny little island must have been a square one mile by one mile.  And he could hear the seas roaring as they washed ashore upon this wondrous little sanctuary.

He came to wonder where this was.  He had never seen such a place before.  And how did he get here?

From where had he come? And where was his home?  He listened to the great and powerful waves all

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around him.  Their music was divine.  Proffery Coins remembered how the Bible in Ezekiel 43:2 said about God, “…:  and his voice was like the noise of many waters:…”  And the Bible student also knew how the Bible said about the glorified Lord Jesus in Revelation 1:15:  “…; and his voice as the sound of many waters.”  These four seas were the good voice of the Good Lord.  He wanted to listen to the Good Lord speak to him.  And Proffery heard a warning in the waves, telling him, “Get away from the center of the island.”  But he hesitated in this, because he wanted to stay still and hear the many waters continuing to come ashore. And delayed obedience was the same thing as disobedience.  God had warned him to get out of there, and he did not, and the tempting griffin put in his first temptation in his dream of temptations upon Proffery in his wavering.  It was a desk and a desk chair and a pad of yellow paper and a box of pencils and a pencil sharpener suddenly here right in the center of this island.  And the griffin who was not here, but who was “here.” said to Proffery. “Sit down, O writer, and write another letter to God.”  And Proffery Coins suddenly remembered all his joys of writing in his life before here, though everything else was blank in his head about his life before here.  He sat down at the writing desk, took up a pencil in his hand, and felt its utmost familiar sensation between his thumb and his index finger.  He could feel the callouses there from his much letter-writing to God, and they felt good. The sound of many waves called out to him from the four oceans, saying to him, “My son, pray to me.”  He groaned in chagrin.  He had to do it.  God told him to.  And he had to do what God told him to do.  And with no experience at how to pray, Proffery Coins in a vision from a demon, sought to attempt such for his first time.

Putting down the pencil, he began in unwilling spirit, “God, I ask You to save the world.  Look down from Heaven, and help those who are in need.  Bless the missionaries.  Give grace and mercy to the people at my church.  Build up your church in the world.   Heal all the sick.  Encourage those who are discouraged.  Give our president wisdom to rule our country.  Keep the demons from doing Beelzebub’s work.  Feed the hungry.  Give water to the thirsty.  May Your will rule over all the earth.

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Well, that’s all for now.  It’s getting late.  And I’ve got to move on.  And, also, thank You.”   And Proffery Coins finished his very first prayer since having become born-again.  And it was the most boring thing he could think to do in this most exciting little island.  Never again did he want to pray after having said this prayer like he did.  And he was sorry for himself that he had made himself go through with this.

He then took up his beloved pad of yellow ruled paper.  He knew its dimensions—eight-and-one-half inches by eleven and three-quarter inches.  He knew its sheet count—one hundred pages.

He knew its lines—blue and wide-ruled.  He knew its cover, entitled “Mead,” and he knew its back—a piece of cardboard.  And he hugged it to his chest like a puppy.  He wanted to do something fun here in this island of four seas.  And what was more fun in his many means of worship than going ahead now here in this paradise and writing another letter to his God?  And he heard that mysterious voice of the griffin he did not recollect saying to him, “Go ahead, man.  Write that letter right now.”

Suddenly the four oceans said to him from all around him, “No, My child!  Do not write to Me!”

But Proffery Coins began to write to God anyway.  And this was what he did write in this letter in paradise:  “Dear Father, Who rules and reigns righteously in Heaven, Where I am destined to go and be with You: Amen and amen!  And, Abba, Father!  I am so thankful to You for being there at home for me when I come home from a bad day at work.  Reading my King James Bible encourages me after a workday of stress.  And writing my letters to You are more pleasant than my day’s labor is unpleasant.

Pastor always preaches that there is no such thing down here as a perfect job.  But I know that my job for you when I get to Heaven will be one with happy workdays all the days of work.  The curse of sin will be lifted in the Millennial Reign, and there shall no longer be such things as stress at the work place. Work will be fun.  And it will be rewarding.  And it will be something I will want to do again the next day.  In the meanwhile, for the rest of my life with You down here, let me heed the words of

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Ephesians 6:5-7 in regard to going to work and earning my living:  ‘Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters, according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ:  Not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart;  With good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men:’  In Jesus’s name I pray.  Amen.”

“Whoa!” said Proffery Coins. “I am glad that I wrote just now to God even though He told me not to!”

And the unseen Slayer said to him in this dream, “Well done, my good man.”

But the four seas said to him, “Ill done, my prodigal son.”

And suddenly he was brought back to Left Foot Creek by the tempting griffin.  And he was no longer in his dream.  And Proffery knew now that he had done real bad for himself in that vision.  And now he had to face his disappointed girlfriend and his gloating griffin foe.

“Did it work out all right for you, Flanders?” asked Miss Shetlanders the younger tentatively.

He sighed and confessed, “Everything that I should have done right, I did all wrong instead, O Destiny.”

“Did you…?” she asked, afraid to say the word.

“I backslid,” he said the word for her.  “I backslid on my Saviour in that vision of temptations.”

“Yep!  He did.  That he did do,” quipped the hateful griffin.

“He won.  I lost,” confessed the sorrowful Proffery Coins.

“I won.  He lost,” repeated the proud Slayer.  “Ha ha ha!”  Then having ridiculed Proffery to his griffin heart’s content, he said, “I will go and tell Beelzebub what I did today.”  And after he said that, he transformed himself back into that little rainstorm, raining drops upon the two where they stood to add insult to injury, and then casually left them behind in a saunter off back to the bottomless pit below to brag to his master.

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CHAPTER XII

It was a time of sorrow.  It was a time of conviction.  It was a time of repentance.  And all eight—the four believers and their pets—were gathered together at the Fabled Lands.  These four born-again believers, ensnared by their individual visions, had fallen into backsliding sin in a weaker moment.  And they were gathered together here in confession of their sins unto God.  God would hear them.  God would forgive them.  God would cleanse them.  And God would help them to start over in His mercy and in His grace.

But at first, none of them knew quite how to go about it.  Where should they begin?  What should they say?  What could they do?

“Well, boyfriend,” said Gretchen, “any ideas?”

Flanders said, “Maybe a Word from the Bible.”

Destiny asked her boyfriend, “Do you have a verse for us right now to kind of get us started, Proffery?”

“Philippians 3:13-14, I believe,” said Proffery.  And he recited these two Bible verses out loud for them all:  “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended:  but this one thing I do, forgetting those things that are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before.  I press toward the

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mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”

“Amen, Brother!” praised Flanders.

“We must forget the past and go on from here,” said Destiny, understanding this Bible verse.

“Which one of us should go first?” asked Gretchen.

“I shall go first,” said Flanders.  “I volunteer myself to get right with Jesus first.”

“God shall hear you, Brother,” said Proffery.

And Flanders Nickels went first among this bond of four:  He had before him his exhaustive concordance and his King James Bible with thumb index tabs along the fore edges.  And with his unlearned association with the Bible, he cumbersomely sought out due Scripture verses that told how it was in God’s eyes what he had done that was so bad in his own vision from the bogeyman.  He found four verses in his concordance under the heading “backslidings,”all in the book of Jeremiah.  This was what he had done.  He had committed backslidings in a dream.  And in the next few moments he read these verses in confession of his sin to the Good Lord.  First he read Jeremiah 2:19:  “Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee:  know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God, and that my fear is not in thee, saith the Lord God of hosts.”  Next he read Jeremiah 3:22:  “Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings.  Behold, we come unto thee; for thou art the Lord our God.”  Then he read Jeremiah 5:6:  “Wherefore a lion out of the forest shall slay them, and a wolf of the evenings shall spoil them, a leopard shall watch over their cities:  every one that goeth out thence shall be torn in pieces:  because their transgressions are many, and their backslidings are increased.”  And last he read Jeremiah 14:7:  “O Lord, though our iniquities testify against us, do thou it for thy name’s sake:  for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against thee.”  Sober-minded silence fell upon Flanders’s tongue for a moment.  Then he fell right in upon prayer:  “Dear Father, Who art in Heaven:  At no time before had I sinned like I have in the vision.  You said to me, ‘Put down the vocabulary words,’ and I said to You,

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‘No!’  You said to me, ‘Pick up the Bible,’ and I said to You, ‘No!’  And You said to me, ‘Repent,’ and I said to You, ‘No!’  You had already been telling me all of this before all my years as a Christian, and I had always answered the same way, saying, ‘No, Lord!’  But the ‘No,’ that I said in my vision was the loudest ‘No,’ I had ever told You.  I yelled, ‘No way, God!’ so loud that You could have struck me dead.

I hear Pastor in his good sermons always preach to us, saying, ‘Good flock, we don’t have to read our Bible; we get to read our Bible.’  Proffery and Gretchen and Destiny understand what he’s talking about; they all love to read the Bible.  I do not understand what he’s talking about;  I do not love to read the Bible.  O Lord, teach me to love the Word of God just as Proffery does, just as Gretchen does, just as Destiny does.  I pray for the day wherein I can say, ‘I love the Holy Bible just as much as I love praying and going to church and giving tithes and offerings.’  I pray for the day wherein I can say,

‘Long ago, my first love was memorizing vocabulary words. But nowadays I love memorizing verses from the Bible instead.’  And I pray for the day in which I can say, ‘I no longer need these thumb index tabs to find the books in the Bible.’  By Your mercy, I did not commit the sin unto death in that evil dream.  Thank You that I still live.  I am willing to change, O Lord.  I want to be what You want me to be.  Teach me to look forward everyday to my Bible-reading.  Make Your Word ‘ the joy and rejoicing of my heart’ as Pastor calls it.  This moment this day this place, I hereby repent of my sins.  Take me.

Change me.  Mold me.  Your will be done thus upon my heart.  In Jesus’s name I pray.  Amen.”

The words of Flanders Nickels were done.  A while of silence followed.  Then Proffery spoke up and said, “I think that I will go next.”  And Proffery Coins went on to confess and apologize for and forsake his sin of backsliding before God Above:  Proffery, utterly lacking in prayer-warrior experience, did not now attempt a prayer even here in the Fabled Lands even at such a time as this, with his heart so full of words of penitence that had to come out.  But his Bible wisdom was consummate for a young man like himself.  And he knew that Psalm 51 was a classic penitential Psalm, and his heart was crying out to God now in his own grief of penitence.  So he “prayed” Psalm 51 not

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without a tear, his King James Bible open before him as he read out loud:  “Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness:  according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.  Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.  For I acknowledge my transgressions:  and my sin is ever before me.  Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight:  that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.  Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.  Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts:  and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.  Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean:  wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.  Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.  Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.  Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.  Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.  Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.  Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.  Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation:  and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.  O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise.  For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it:  thou delightest not in burnt offering.  The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit:  a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.”  Psalm 51:1-17.  In his passion as he read this Psalm out loud, Proffery Coins thought with God upon his own sin of sliding back.  His thoughts confessed his so many sins of his hundreds of letters to God that so supplanted his hundreds of prayers to God that he should have spoken in his years as a born-again Christians.  He confessed his great fervid written words that God would not read.  He confessed his great lack of spoken or thought words that God could have heard.  He confessed his inordinate and excessive love for paper and pencil at the expense of a “place of quiet rest,” a daily place for him to pray.  He knew how Flanders and Gretchen and Destiny could comprehend what that hymn,“Near to the Heart of God,” was all about, and how he himself could not comprehend that hymn

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as they could and as he should.  That hymn talked about a Christian’s special prayer site just right for himself or herself.  This was “that place of quiet rest,” “that place of comfort sweet,”  “that place of full release.”  This was that place “near to the heart of God.”  There was no such place as this for Proffery.

And he knew that he needed to learn to love prayer as much as he loved to read the Bible and to go to church and to give ten percent.  Throughout the Bible, God commanded His children to pray.  In no place in the Bible did God command His children to write a letter to Him.  And from all of his sins, there came out this very backsliding.  And Proffery Coins was now overcome with grief in the closest he had yet gotten to real Godly prayer.

“Proffery, you’re crying,” said Destiny.

“A tear or two,” he said in confession.

“God hears you,” said Destiny.

“I think I’m done now,” he said.  And his repentance God did hear and see, as He looked down from Heaven.

Then Gretchen said, “Maybe I should go next.”

“Then I get to go after you,” said Destiny.

“All right,” said Gretchen.  And Gretchen Shetlanders went on to confess and forsake her backslidings from her vision unto her Heavenly Father:  “O God, with my many dice I go after the world.  But with my absence from Translation Baptist Church I go not after worship.  I know that Beelzebub tempts us believers with sins of the world.  I John 2:16 defines the sins of the world as ‘the lust of the flesh’ and ‘the lust of the eyes.’ and ‘the pride of life.’  This is Yahtzee for me, and this is Kismet for me.  It keeps me too busy to want to go to church.  It does not keep me too busy to want to pray or to want to read my Bible or to want to give money to my church that I do not go to.  But church is where you want me to go to the most.  And that is the place I have avoided all the years of my life as a born-again Christian here near the Fabled Lands.  Destiny is always at Translation Baptist Church.

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And Flanders is always at Translation Baptist Church.  And Proffery is always at Translation Baptist Church.  They want to be there.  And they never miss a service.  And they are always the first ones there.  My friends love going to church.  But not I.  I am a prodigal woman.  I am a prodigal sister-in-the-Lord to my friends.  I am Your prodigal daughter, O Lord.”  Having said this, Gretchen Shetlanders thought upon the tale of the prodigal son in Luke chapter fifteen.  And she turned there now and read out loud to God verses 18-24:  “I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, And am no more worthy to be called thy son:  make me as one of thy hired servants.  And he arose, and came to his father.  But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.  And the son said unto him,  Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son.  But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet:  And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry:  For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.  And they began to be merry.”  She then paused for a moment.  And then she resumed prayer, “This is myself in that parable, O Lord.  In preferring Yahtzee and Kismet over a good Baptist church service I pursue fun for fun’s sake instead of fun for satisfaction’s sake.  It’s time now that I change these things in my life, O Lord.

And I am willing to do that now.  Help me to repent of dice and all.  Bring me to church next time the doors are open.  And show to me the blessings of corporate worship, of hearing a great sermon, of sweet fellowship with a flock, of singing of hymns, of being there with my three as we are now at these Fabled Lands, and of being where You are whenever two or three are gathered together in Your name, O Jesus.  In Your name I pray.  Amen.”

“Amen, Big Sis!’” praised Destiny.

“Could I maybe come to church with you in my prom dress, like you do, Destiny?” asked Gretchen.  “In my vision, I had on blue jeans and a shirt, and I did not feel comfortable at all in that.”

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“Oh yes, Gretchen,” said Destiny right out.  “Pastor always preaches that women should come to church in dresses, and men should come to church in suits and pants.”

“Well, guys,” said Gretchen Shetlanders, “I think that I am now ready in God’s eyes to come to church.”

“Praise the Lord I will have my girlfriend at my side in the front row for now on,” said Flanders.

“Just as I always had, Brother,” said Proffery.

“Well, now, my turn,” said Destiny Shetlanders.  Everyone gave her due silence now, and Destiny went on to confess her sin of backsliding on Christ and to confess and forsake and repent of her own vile iniquity and iniquities.  And this was what she said to God:  “Lord, I do know how in the Bible that You tell us that the love of money is the root of all evil.  I may not love anybody’s else money one iota.  But I do love my own money way too much.  I love my gold and silver coins with a

possessiveness that ever tempts me not to tithe.  I need to learn that my money is Your money.  I need to learn that my paycheck is Your paycheck.  And I need to learn that my gold and silver coins are Your gold and silver coins.  And all that you ask for from me is ten percent.  The church that I go to all the time has financial needs in order to do the work of the ministry here in Marinette County.  Pastor and Emmy need to make a living.  We have a church building to pay for.  We need money to pay for heat in the winter and for electricity all the year round and for repairs to the building and for upkeep of the

yard and for salvation tracts to give out and to help support other missionaries out there doing the same good work as Pastor does—both home missionaries and foreign missionaries.  And everybody in our flock gives.  But not I.  Gretchen and Flanders and Proffery all give tithes and offerings, and they do so with a cheerful heart. But not I.  I am not good like they are in this matter.  I need to learn to give myself to tithes and offerings as faithfully as I give myself to going to church and to reading my Bible and to praying, O Lord.  Because I have always been disobeying this ‘Thou shalt’ commandment I now

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find myself before you now a young lady who has backslidden in a dream from a sly and powerful griffin.  I ask You now to forgive that young lady and to forget her sins, as You promise to in the Holy

Bible.”  Destiny paused to ruminate upon the penitential Psalm 32, and she searched the Scriptures and did read it out loud unto God Above, verses one through eleven:  “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.  Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.  When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long.  For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me:  my moisture is turned into the drought of summer.  Selah.  I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid.  I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah.  For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found:  surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him.  Thou art my hiding place; thou shalt preserve me from trouble; thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance.  Selah.  I will instruct thee, and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go:  I will guide thee with mine eye.  Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding:  whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, lest they come near unto thee.  Many sorrows shall be to the wicked:  but he that trusteth in the Lord, mercy shall compass him about.  Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, ye righteous:  and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart.”  Destiny finished reading this Psalm.  She shut the Bible there upon her lap.  And she said, “As said the Psalmist to You, O Saviour, so say it now I unto you.  Take my will.  Take my body.  Take my money.  The love of Christ constrains me now.  In Your name I pray.  Amen.”

All was now in God’s hands.  All the four needed to do now was to wait upon God.  And joy and rejoicing came upon all eight here in the glorious sand dunes today of repentance.  Peace where there had been anxiety now exuded from the Shetland Sheepdog’s symmetrically-patterned face.  And in game, he pounced upon Gretchen’s red pumps where she sat, and he sprang back festively.  He called forth to his mistress, “Woof!  Whoof!” and she reached out and hugged his neck in both arms

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and smothered him with sweet kisses on his head.  Confidence where there had been uncertainty now shone in the Shetland Pony’s features.  He drew a period in the sand signifying a declarative, and Destiny said, “Yes.  Everything is now all right, good boy.”  And he gave forth a happy whinny, and she  pulled out some sugar cubes and gave them to him, and he gobbled them up with his big horse teeth most happily.  Sureness where there had been doubts now lit up the seagull’s little eyes toward Flanders.  Flanders raised his right hand and extended his index finger, and she lighted upon his finger, and she cooed like a dove.  Her master leaned his head over toward her, and she leaned her head toward  him,  And they held their heads together in gladness.  And contentment where there had been uneasiness now glowed in the wolf’s countenance toward her master.  Proffery said, “So great things in the Lord have happened for us today in the Fabled Lands, girl.  Everything is going to be all right now.  Come here and let me hug you around your shoulders.”  And the she-wolf gave herself unto her master, and he put his arms around her shoulders and hugged her long and hard.

Joy and rejoicing in the Lord came back upon the eight here in the surrealistic sand dunes, their home away from home.  And Gretchen said, “Let’s sing a hymn!”

“We all brought our hymnbooks here with us,” said Destiny.

“Which one should we sing?” asked Gretchen.

“How about a hymn about what happened today?” asked Destiny.

“That would be a hymn about repentance,” said Flanders.

“Or maybe it would be hymn about revival,” said Proffery.

“A hymn about both at once,” said Destiny.

“What hymn is about both?” asked Gretchen.

“I know just the right one,” said Flanders.

“Which one is it, Brother?” asked Proffery.

“Why, the hymn, ‘Cleanse Me,’” said Flanders.

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“Let’s sing it, boyfriend,” said Gretchen.

And Destiny said to Proffery, “Let’s sing that one, boyfriend.”

“Let us sing, ‘Cleanse me,’” agreed Proffery.

And the four born-again believers, now restored fully back into fellowship with their forgiving God, went on to sing this great hymn Up to Heaven, where the Lord was:

“1.  Search me, O God, and know my heart today;

Try me, O Saviour, know my thoughts I pray.

See if there be some wicked way in me;

Cleanse me from ev’ry sin and set me free.

 

2. I praise Thee, Lord, for cleansing me from sin;

Fulfill Thy Word and make me pure within.

Fill me with fire where once I burned with shame;

Grant my desire to magnify Thy name.

 

3. Lord, take my life and make it wholly Thine;

Fill my poor heart with Thy great love divine.

Take all my will, my passion, self and pride;

I now surrender, Lord—in me abide.

 

4. O Holy Ghost, revival comes from Thee;

Send a revival—start the work in me.

Thy Word declares Thou wilt supply our need;

For blessings now, O Lord,  I humbly plead.”

 

And from beneath, the griffin and the bogeyman saw this revival in the sand dunes, and they shuddered for a demon’s unrepentant fear of the Lord.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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CHAPTER XIII

The band of four Christians were spending a day at Left Foot Creek, playing and splashing around and sharing sweet fellowship in the Lord.  And the boyfriends wanted to tell how they had first met their girlfriends, and the girlfriends wanted to tell how they had first met their boyfriends.  And this  they did in the midst of the flowing waters of the creek that reached nearly to their waists.  Flanders and Gretchen went first, Flanders first telling of how boy met girl, his side of the story.  And the following is a narrative of what he did say:

It was a warm winter day amid the falling snow at the city park.  And the handful of young men were together talking young men talk on this side of the park, and the handful of young women were together talking young women talk on the other side of the park.  The guys and the gals saw each other from a distance away.  And Flanders was one of the young guys.  He said, “What should we men do for fun?”

One of the guys spoke up and said, “Let’s grab some snowflakes and see if we can find any two that are exactly alike.”  They all booed.

Another said, “Let’s build a snowman as tall as the Empire State Building,”  Catcalls shut down

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down his idea.

Another said, “Let’s build snow forts—one for us guys here and one for the girls there—and have a battle of the sexes at this park.”  Some assented; some dissented.

Another said, “Let’s make a thousand snowballs and have a snowball fight.”  Some said, “No”; some said, “Yes.”

Another said, “Let’s make slush balls and pelt each other with them.”  But all agreed that no slush ball could stay together.

And another young man spoke up and said, “Then let’s have an ice ball fight!”  But no one knew how to make an ice ball in this warm winter day.

But then Flanders came up with the most novel idea of them all, and he said, “Let’s make a snowball out of one of us!” And the idea stole the minds of the adventurous young fellows.  And they all began to chatter in confusion and agreement.  And when the much talking let up, Flanders said, “And I volunteer myself to become the snowball.”  And the chattering waxed, and then it waned.

And then the young men began their game.  Flanders lay himself down upon the ground, and his fellows at this park began to roll him over in the deep packy snow.

The young ladies across on the other side could see what the young men were doing.  And they all stood and watched from over there.  Some smiled.  Some pointed.  Some spoke.  But all watched in great curiosity.

Before long, a pack of snow began to form around Flanders’s body, and the guys continued rolling him over and over.  And the pack of snow gradually molded itself to a ball of snow around Flanders’s midsection.  They continued rolling him over repeatedly.  And the snowball around Flanders was becoming larger.  And he noticed that his fellows were rolling him toward where the cute gals were.  And before long he found the snowball beginning to pin his arms straight down against his sides.

And they continued rolling him into a great big snowball.  And the girls were watching in fascination.

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After a while longer, Flanders’s chest and his upper legs were stuck in the great big snowball.  And they continued rolling him.  Then his lower legs and his neck were sealed inside this human snowball.

And he was getting near to the pretty young ladies in his situation.  And the guys continued their work.

And at last the big snowball was done.  Flanders was parallel to the ground and stuck in the snowball three feet above the ground.  And only his head and his boots stuck out of the giant snowball.  And the women surrounded him in this in great wonder upon him and in women’s great curiosity.  He saw many  pretty gals in this little crowd, but one of them was gorgeous.  She was a beautiful brunette with bangs and long straight hair going down past her shoulders.  He wanted to tell her that she was his favorite girl now at this park, but he did not quite know how to say it, himself on display in the snowball like this.  But she spoke first, and she said, “Ooo, a real cute guy in a snowball.”  Though her words were funny, her admiration for him came out loud and clear in her tone.

And then Flanders found his words of flirt to say:  “O brunette, I would fall for you right now, but right now I cannot stand up in order to fall.”

And she flashed a smile of affection at him.  Then she asked him a wily question, “You cannot get out of that snowball.  Can you?”

“No.  I cannot.” he said.  “I can only move my head.”

“Good.  Don’t get out of that snowball.  And don’t move your head,” she said.

“How come?” he asked.

And the comely brunette leaned her head down toward him where he was incapacitated within the giant snowball, and she kissed his lips with her lips.  And she said, “That’s how come.”

“Woo!” he said.  “I liked that!”  No girl had ever kissed him before.

“I liked that, too,” she said.  “I never went and did anything quite that wild before.”

“What’s your name?” he asked.

“My name is ‘Gretchen,’” she said.  “What’s yours?”

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And he said, “My name is ‘Flanders.’”

This was what Flanders today, years later, had to say to the bunch here at the creek of how he had discovered Gretchen Shetlanders as girlfriend at the winter park.

And Gretchen Shetlanders at once went on and told her side of this same story of how she had first found Flanders as boyfriend that special first day together not too many years ago, also in narrative thus:

Gretchen and her girlfriends were at the park in the falling snow of winter.  The park was called

“Sled Hill Park,” because there were numerous steep hills off on the far away parts of the park wherein the people of the town sledded and tobogganed.  The women were doing women things at Sled Hill Park where Gretchen was.  They had made a snowman with a body of three sizable snowballs and a carrot nose and charcoal eyes and a top hat and a mouth of apples and arms of sticks and a scarf around its neck and three pears for buttons down its front.  And Gretchen herself, upon the completion of this snowman, threw herself into the snow and made a snow angel with her arms and legs.  And her fellow young gals went and did the same thing.

Then Gretchen looked over to where the cute guys were over on the other side of the field, and she saw what they were up to as they began to roll one of their own over on his side upon the ground.

Gretchen pointed there for her friends to look and see.  And they were as inquisitive as she.  And they all stood and watched.

One of the women asked, “Do you think that everything is all right with that fellow, Gretchen?”

“I think so,” said Gretchen.  “It looks like they are all playing some sort of game, and that he is playing along with them.”

“Crazy guys, and the one on the ground being rolled up is the craziest of them,” said one of the women, her tone betraying approval despite her words.

“I don’t know about you,” said Gretchen.  “But I think that he’s kind of cute.”

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“How can you tell from way over here, Gretchen?” asked one of the young women.

“I don’t know.  I can just tell that he is cute,” said Gretchen.

“Look, Gretchen.  They’re steering him toward us now,” said one of her friends.

“I don’t know whether I should run up to him, or whether I should wait for him to be rolled up to me,” said Gretchen.

And the women friends watched in the next part of a half-hour as the fascinating adventurer in the snowball was slowly rolled up to where they stood waiting for him.  And when he got there, he was inextricably sealed up in a snowball bigger than himself.  Sure enough, Gretchen’s crush on this man was justified now that she could see his face before him.  He was a most handsome fellow.

And she spoke to him and said, “What’s your name in that snowball, sir?”

And he said, “My name is ‘Flanders’ in this snowball and out of this snowball, miss.” then he said, “You in that red prom gown, what is your name?”

And she said, “My name is ‘Gretchen,’ whether in this red prom gown or in something else.”

Both laughed.  Then this Flanders asked her, “Maybe you can help me to get out of my snowball I am in.”

“Are you stuck in this snowball, Flanders?” she asked.

“I am stuck,” he said.

“Are you very stuck, Flanders?” she asked.

“I am very stuck, Gretchen,” he said.

“Very, very stuck?” she asked.

“Very, very stuck,” he said.

Completely assured that he could not resist her advances, she went ahead and kissed a cute guy for her first time, this cute guy who could not keep her now from doing this.  And this kiss was the most exciting thing that she had ever done before.  Why, she was acting crazy just like this guy was,

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who had let himself become this snowball.  She said, “I am sorry I went and did that, Flanders.”

“I’m not, Gretchen,” he said.  He smiled at her.  She smiled at him.

And they became boyfriend-and-girlfriend ever since.

Next Proffery and Destiny told how they had first fallen for each other.  Proffery spoke first of that day from how he saw it.  The following narrative tells what he did say:

Proffery was on a walk alone in the countryside that day.  He was walking down the railroad tracks barefoot, carrying his penny loafers in his hand.  It is hard to walk down railroad tracks with shoes on.  It is even harder with shoes off.  There are the awkward ties themselves interspersed every several inches just barely above the surface of the ground.  And there are the loose and big gravel stones in between these ties, and they are hard.  And there are the rails themselves skirting both sides, and standing some inches tall.  And worst of all are the steep little hills of those big gravel stones descending at an angle to both sides of the rails.  And then he came upon a railroad bridge some fifty feet above a deep valley below.  Though it be hard to walk down a railroad in bare feet, it is even harder to walk down a railroad bridge in bare feet.  On a railroad bridge, there are no gravel stones between the ties; instead there is empty space between the ties.  Proffery looked down between the wooden ties and saw the deep valley below.  And without a care and without a thought, he began to cross this lone railroad bridge in the countryside.  He crossed the halfway point and continued walking.

Then he heard a train whistle!  A train was coming toward him from up ahead!  What should he do?

At first he stood petrified.  Then he sought plans.  Looking back from where he had come, he saw three-fifths of the bridge before him.  Looking ahead to where he was going, he saw two-fifths of the bridge before him.  It looked to him that the best thing for him to do now was to run toward the coming train and cross the lesser span of the two.  And run he did.  He had to get off this bridge in a hurry.  The train whistle was louder now and nearer.  And he duly feared for his life.  He was almost there, back upon solid ground on the other side.  He felt something fall out of his hand.  It must have been his

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shoes.  And he saw this train right now right there!  And he was on the other side.  And he leaped off of the railroad and onto the solid level ground to the left.  And the train blew its whistle again and roared right by.  Proffery thought, Am I dead?  Proffery asked, “Am I dead?”  He yet lived.  And he was well and unharmed.  “Where did my shoes go?” he asked himself, asking incidental things after this most dramatic scare.  And he laughed at himself.  It was great to be alive.

Then he heard a woman’s voice calling up from somewhere below, saying to him, “Sir, you dropped them on my game of cards.”

What was a woman doing here, and from where was she speaking to him?  He stood up and turned three hundred sixty degrees in search for this girl up here.  “Who said that?” he asked, fearful.

And the young woman said, “My name is Destiny.”

He said, “My name is Proffery.” And he followed this voice to the right edge of this railroad bridge and did look down along its side.  Behold a girl in a pretty blue prom dress down there, sitting upon a flat concrete surface halfway down toward the valley.  A good twenty-five feet lay between her and him, and a good twenty-five feet lay between her and the ground below.  “Are you okay down there, miss?” he asked.

“Uh huh!” she said.

“What are you doing down there?” he asked.

“I am playing Solitaire,” she said.

“How did you get down there?” he asked.

“Why, I climbed down,” she said.

“How does a prom gown woman go and do that?” he asked.

“Why, with the ladder, of course, silly Proffery,” she said.

“A ladder, Destiny?” he asked.

“A railroad bridge ladder,” she said.  “See?”  She pointed.  And he looked.  Sure enough, from

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where he stood, a sturdy little ladder descended right unto this little ledge underneath the bridge.

“This is a railroad bridge ladder,” he said.  “I never saw such a queer thing before to have out here in the sticks.”

“You do not know much about countryside railroad bridges, Proffery,” she said.

“This is my first experience with a countryside railroad bridge,” he said.

“I saw what happened up there,” she said.  “A walker really should be more careful when he goes walking like you did in the countryside.”

“I’ll keep that in mind, Destiny,” he said.  Then he said, “Sorry about my shoes.”

“That’s all right,” she said.  “I was losing my game of Solitaire anyway.”

“Could I come down and get my shoes, Destiny?” he asked.

“Oh, do come down and join me,” she said.  “I would like that so much.”

This was what Proffery said to his brothers-and-sisters-in-Christ here in Left Foot Creek in sweet reminiscences about how he had first discovered so-pretty Destiny.

And Gretchen said, “Now let us hear the woman’s side of the story.”

“Tell us, Destiny,” said Flanders.

And Destiny Shetlanders told her story of how girl met boy that first day.  The following narrative tells what she told:

As Proffery was running for his life across the railroad bridge, Destiny was down below, playing Klondike with a deck of cards.  It was a still, windless day.  Otherwise her cards would have blown off of this ledge and be lost in the deep valley for ever.  So with confidence the girl arranged her cards out in front of herself here outside.  She heard the train coming.  She heard the train here.  She saw two men’s brown penny loafers fall down upon her solitaire.  And she heard the train leaving.  And she heard a strange man’s voice up there exclaim, “You were almost a goner, Proffery!”  And she now knew what had almost happened up there on the railroad bridge.  That strange fellow up there almost

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got hit by the train.  These penny loafers belonged to him.  She needed to get them back to him.

She spoke upward to where he was, “Sir, are you all right?”  And he came within her view from up there.

“I’m all right, miss,” he said. “Praise God for that!”

“What are you doing up there?” she asked.

“I went for a walk,” he said.  “What are you doing down there?”

“Oh, I’m playing cards,” she said.  “Is your name, ‘Proffery?’”

“How did you know?” he asked.

“I heard you talking to yourself just then,” she said.

“I am Proffery,” he said.  “What’s your name?”

“My name is ‘Destiny,’” she said.

“Could I come down and get my shoes?” he asked.  “I’m sorry that I dropped them on you and all.”

“Yes, Proffery, do come down and join me on my favorite place out here, if you would,” she said.

“I see a ladder right here,” he said.

“Proffery, be more careful climbing down the ladder than you are walking across railroad bridges,” she teased him.  Both laughed.  And Flanders climbed down the ladder to be with this girl.

He said to her, “That’s a pretty blue dress you have on, Destiny.”

“It’s my special prom dress, Proffery,” she said.

“Oh,” he said, disappointed.  “You must have a prom date then,”

“I have no prom date, nor am I going to a prom, nor have I come from the prom,” she said.

“How come you have on a prom gown then?” he asked.

“Because it makes a girl feel good in it, Proffery,” she said.

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“It sure makes you look good in it, O Destiny,” he said.

“Would I still look good to you in other clothes, too, Proffery?” she asked in coquetry.

In most judicious response he said, “Your prom dress is pretty, and your face is prettier.”

Seeking further confirmation, she said, “But what about my body?”

And he answered truthfully again, saying, “You are built like an outhouse, Destiny!”

“Proffery, I think that you kind of like me,” she said.

“Do you kind of like me, too, Destiny?” he asked.

“Oh, I think I do!” she said without hesitation.

“Maybe we could go out together sometime,” he said.

“Maybe we could go out together right now,”she said.

“Would you like to play a game of cards with me her on this little ledge?” he asked.

“Not solitaire,” she teased him.

“No.  Hardly solitaire,” he said, laughing with her.

“How about the game of Crazy Eights?” she asked.

“Yes!  I like Crazy Eights,” he said.

“Am I your destiny, Proffery?” asked Destiny.

“You are my destiny, Destiny,” said Proffery.

And that was in Destiny Shetlanders’s heart the day that she had first met her boyfriend Proffery

some years ago.

 

 

 

 

 

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CHAPTER XIV

Flanders Nickels was alone in his side yard, again in fervid prayer to God.  His prayer this time was an all-praise prayer upon God for His divine attributes:  “Dear Father in Heaven, I praise You, Lord, for Your mercy.  Were it not for Your mercy, I would someday have to die without hope and then go down to Hell and burn in fire forever.  I praise You, Lord, for Your grace.  As Pastor had taught me:

G-R-A-C-E:  God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense.  Were it not for Your Grace, I would have only this life down here and never get to go to Heaven for forever after.  I praise You for Your omniscience.  You not only know about what has already happened everywhere, and You not only know about all things that are happening anywhere right now, but You also know about that which will happen in time to come.  Your wisdom is perfect.  I also praise You for Your omnipotence.  One of Your titles as God is ‘The Almighty.’  And no one and no thing in Your creation can overpower You.  Even Beelzebub—once the wisest and strongest and most beautiful angel—You do hold back on a leash as even his Higher Power.

And I praise You for Your omnipresence.  You are in Heaven Above, and You are on Earth beneath both at the same time.  You are in all skies and all lands and all waters everywhere in this world.  And You are with us Christians at all times—good times and bad times.  I praise You for Your patience with us stumbling believers in our walk with You down here.  My flesh says to me, ‘Memorize some more

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words,’ and my spirit says to me, ‘Read some Scripture now, instead.’  And I let my flesh prevail over my spirit time after time again.  Pastor calls such a sin ‘the sin that so easily besets us.’  But You are a patient God, and I know that You will not give up on me in Your work on me.  I praise You for Your so great long-suffering.  I praise You also for Your forgiveness.  Pastor says that Peter asked if he should forgive someone seven times, and that Jesus told him, ‘not seven times, but seventy times seven times.’

You forgive us just as You told Peter to forgive others—every time we ask for it.  I praise You for Your holiness.  Holiness is most of what You are more than any other of Your divine attributes.  I praise You also for Your love.  Your love we call ‘agape’ love—a love so perfect that only You can give it.  I praise

You for Your righteousness.  Righteousness is loving good and hating evil.  And I praise You for Your eternal perspective so much more wise than us people’s temporal perspective.  Pastor says that for You

‘one day is as a thousand years; and a thousand years as one day.’  And for us people, we only know best the very present moment.”

Just then Flanders Nickels took notice of phenomena off to the north of where he was sitting.  Flanders discerned both a little rainstorm and a little whirlwind—both side-by-side—off in the distance, and they were both coming right at him from afar.  Flanders knew what these were.  And they were both coming together for him—two against one.  He gritted his teeth.  He told himself, “Flanders, keep your eyes on God.”  And he waited.  And they were there in front of him.  And they transformed their forms.  And there were the griffin and the bogeyman, sent by Beelzebub to entice the repented Flanders to fall into sin right away once again now.

“We have come back after a season, O Flanders Nickels of God,” said the bogeyman.

“I was kind of expecting you,” said Flanders.

“You did not think then that we would not come back, Flanders, even after your glorious day of revival you had at the sand dunes?” asked Slayer.

“I knew that you would come back, griffin demon,” said Flanders.

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The bogeyman said, “Ha!  I bet that you did not think that we both would come back together for the one of you like this.  Did you?  Ha!”

“I did not think to have to face the two of you at once,” confessed Flanders.

“Well, man of God, it happened,” taunted Slayer.

The bogeyman said, “We two shall vanquish you, little man.”

The griffin mocked and said, “If you thought the last time was bad with the bogeyman, just think how bad this time will go for you with the both of us attacking you together.”

“Our vision will be insuperable,” said the bogeyman.

“Irresistible,” said the griffin.

“Overwhelming,” said the bogeyman.

“Sweet to the taste now and bitter to your Spirit later,” said Slayer.

“Most well put, O familiar,” praised the bogeyman the griffin.

“I thought so, good bogeyman,” said the griffin.

As these two demons were scorning the man of God before them, Flanders most wisely thought upon his mistakes in his last vision, and he remembered that he had not prayed to God for victory over temptation when he was in the midst of that temptation.  He determined to pray to God in his next vision soon to come.  And he knew that these supernatural creatures who made dreams could not read his mind now as he plotted his spiritual strategy.  Indeed he thought now what a trouble he could shake up these two minions with in their braggadocio were he to pray out loud now for what he needed soon.

And he went and did it:  “Dear Father, I pray that You give me victory over temptation in this most imminent vision.  In Jesus’s name.  Amen”

The bogeyman suddenly betrayed a shriek of dismay; the griffin, a squawk of consternation.

They were positively rattled by Flanders’s surprise prayer spoken by a born-again Christian aloud.

“Man of God, don’t ever do that again!” cried out Slayer.

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“Try something like that again, Flanders, I’ll…I’ll…I’ll get you,” cried out the bogeyman.

With a refreshing spirit of confidence from God thus that was all brand new to Flanders toward these two demons, the Christian man, ready now for any vision that they might send him to, said, “Then get me, bogeyman, griffin!”

And the bogeyman and the griffin cast the man Flanders into a most involved dream right now before they might have had to listen to him pray out loud before them again:

Behold, Flanders suddenly found himself in a new world:  He was in a room full of shelves of books.  This looked not to be a library.  Nor was it a little bookstore.  It must have been a den in a house somewhere.  And there was no door out to be found anywhere in this den’s four walls.  He seemed to not be able to leave this den like he wanted to.  Before him was a dark brown wooden table with six dark brown wooden chairs around it.  On the side of the table closest to where he stood was a chair already pulled out for him; and on this table at this end were what looked to Flanders in his great familiarity with vocabulary study to be twenty-one vocabulary flash cards all spread out in a most beckoning manner, their vocabulary words on top facing him, and most probably their definitions underneath, waiting for him.  Though he remembered not now his side yard from where he had come, he did still, nonetheless, remember a most Good prayer-answering God.  And he prayed to this Good God, “Thy will be done,” and he found strength of will to turn away from these tempting little cards.

He then saw on the other end of this table, its chair pushed up tight against the table’s edge, what must surely be God’s Good Book.  But he saw not only a Bible which he did now want to read, but also Bible-reading accouterments, perhaps; there were pencils and a pencil sharpener and an eraser there on the table beside the Bible.  Utterly fascinating were these most novel appurtenances.  And he wondered in great marvel.  And, after having prayed that little prayer just a moment ago in this dream den, he made up his mind to go and read the Bible.  And he sought to walk over to that other side of this table.

But a force greater than himself did work upon his body, and he found himself forced to sit down at this

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near side of the table instead, and he found his arms pulling himself in his chair up close to this table in front of the vocabulary flash cards.  He turned his head to look longingly at the Bible at the other end of this long table.  He could not reach that Bible from where he sat, three chairs away.  He rallied and he sought to wrestle his way over there right now.  But two demons whom he could not now remember held him firmly there in that chair.  He could not even stand up right now.  The born-again believer, wrestling now not only against his own flesh, but now also against the Devil himself, stared at the Bible for a long time, keeping his eyes away from his greatest temptation right now right in front of him.  He refused to give into his sin that so easily used to beset him.  But then the hidden bogeyman and griffin began to get down and tempt real dirty.  A third party would call them, “cheaters” for what they were doing to the Christian now.  The two demons worked together in this vision, and they forced Flanders’s right hand to go and pick up the top vocabulary card, to read it, to turn it over, and to read the back side.  Without his own consent, Flanders read the word “skull,” and its definition “the head bone.”

And by supernatural means, the two minions of Beelzebub transferred to Flanders in this dream the message, “These twenty-one vocabulary words are the twenty-one different bones in the human body and their definitions.”  What a fascinating composite with which to edify oneself!  Flanders already knew what a skull was, of course.  But what big new words that he could learn now about the skeletal system, all twenty others waiting for him now to memorize..  How much he could learn.  Anatomy

had real neat words to study.  It would be so much fun.  And suddenly Flanders found himself tempted most sorely.  But Flanders still chose to willingly turn away to look again at the Bible.  Behold, though this he did choose, this now, also, he could no longer do.  His heart told him, “Look at God’s Word on the other side of the table.”  But his body could not turn his eyes away now from man’s words on this side of the table.  Demons fail not at any dirty rotten trick to tempt born-again believers to sin against Jesus.  And it was indeed the griffin and the bogeyman who held Flanders’s head frozen in its place upon his neck so that he could not now even look upon the Word of God over there.  And Flanders was

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at his wit’s end.  He was confused, and distraught, and helpless.  He wanted to read his Bible, but he could not.  And though he tried to flee the temptations in this vision, demonic forces stronger than himself kept him in temptation’s bondage.  He knew where the next vocabulary card was—the second one—but he shut his eyes tight.  At least he could do that in this evil den of iniquity.  Morbid curiosity called out to him, saying, “Go ahead and look at the next bone word to memorize.  It is not going to go away.  Just get it over with.  And then you won’t have to wonder like you are.”  And he was just about to open his eyes for just a peek.  Yet in his great storm of temptations, not knowing what to do, Flanders Nickels the prayer-warrior of his waking life, now became a mighty prayer-warrior of his  demon’s vision life.  His prayer was most brief, most urgent, most powerful.  He said three effectual and fervent words that God Almighty heard in Heaven Above in His creation that lay outside of this den of the dream.  And this three word prayer was, “Help me, God!”  And God did help him most mightily.  And the Holy Spirit Himself came down to be with Flanders Nickels in this devil’s dream.

And Flanders suddenly found his own body released from two devils.  He could turn his eyes, and he could move his head, and he could feel his legs!  It felt just as if Jesus had cast two demons out of his body.  “I’m free, Good Lord!” he praised God, jumping up and pushing back that chair and hopping around and laughing in great joy.  And the first thing he did was to run up to that other side of the big table, pull out that chair, sit down upon it, and pull up the chair back toward the table.  “Amen!” he said.  “Amen!”  Now the Holy Bible was there before him, ready for him to read willingly for his first time.  And, yes, this time he wanted to read It.  There had been something all wrong for him all his Christian walk in the way that he thought a believer should read his Bible.  But this time he was going to do it right.  He had a pencil now with him.  Maybe he could find his so elusive fulfillment in Bible-reading were he to use this pencil upon the open pages of the Bible itself for his very first time.

He knew that this time it would be different for him.  Why, this pencil felt alive with God as he held it in his right hand between his thumb and his index finger.  He reached out his left hand to touch the

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Holy Bible itself, and its feel of the pages brought into his heart a burgeoning of renaissance inside, this  Good Book feeling even better than did the pencil.  And Flanders Nickels now knew the key to satisfaction for a born-again believer in a Bible session:  a Christian needed to study God’s Word, not just read God’s Word.  And this simple pencil made the difference between a Bible-study and a Bible-reading.  Wonder of wonders!  He prayed, “Lord, would you show me where you want me to start in Here?”  And he opened his Book randomly and saw the title “Philippians.”  God wanted him to begin here.  And he prayed again, “Lord, would you teach me what I need to learn from this book today?”

And he began his very first Bible study, his brand new pencil ready now for underlining it It and for writing in It.  Marvel of marvels!  This was already fun!  Lo, real quick, a verse jumped out at him!

It said this:  “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:”  This was Philippians 1:6.  And he put his pencil to the Bible for his very first time, and he underlined this verse.  Then an idea about this verse came into his heart from the Holy Spirit, and he wrote in the Bible for his second time, writing this idea along the side margin next to this verse.  And what he wrote was this:  “sanctification all the way even to the rapture.”

He could not wait to get more.  He went on in his Bible study from here.  And soon he came to Philippians 1:21, which said this, “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”  He thought for a moment, then underlined it; he thought for another moment, then put in a note along its margin.  This verse’s note said in Flanders’s words, “life more abundantly, and then Heaven.”  Hungry for the Word of God, he continued.  And he underlined Philippians 1:23, which said this, “For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better.”  And he wrote this note along its side, “the tale of the crown of righteousness.”  This verse told him why he should love the Lord’s appearing, and those who loved the Lord’s appearing earned a crown of righteousness Up in Heaven.

This became his first favorite Bible verse.  And he continued thus.  Next his underlining underscored Philippians 1:29, which said, “For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on

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him, but also to suffer for his sake;”  This verse told him, “the cost of Christianity,” and this he wrote in the Bible next to it.  And he went on from here.  His next underscoring came when he discovered Philippians 3:5-6:  “Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee;  Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.”  And he wrote in the margins:  “the old tale of Saul of Tarsus.”  Next he put a line under Philippians 3:7, the next verse, which read, “But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.”  And he wrote this comment in pencil, “the tale of unsaved people.”  He studied further.  And he found Philippians 3:21, studying its Words:  “Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.”  Flanders underscored this longer verse, and he did write the following subtitle off to the side of this verse:  “’For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.’  I Corinthians 15:53.”  Flanders was familiar with this Scripture verse of his subtitle from many of Pastor’s sermons at church.  And the

new Bible student continued on thus.  And in Philippians 4:11 he did find another meat of the Scriptures and did underline it and write a comment about it in that page.  This verse said, “Not that I speak in respect of want:  for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.”  And his own words said, “for that time of lesser happiness.”  And he studied on.  He came to Philippians 4:13–”I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me”–and he underlined this, also.  And his written idea said this:  “how to do what God says to do.”  He then came to Philippians 4:19, wherein Paul says, “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”  And Flanders wrote this note in pencil, “Be content with God, and seek not that which He has not given.”  And he continued.  And he came to the end of the book of Philippians.  And he fell in love with his K.J.V. Bible as a first love.  And he praised and thanked God in a most unlikely place to praise and thank God—a dream conjured by two great and powerful demons.  And the gates of Hell shook.

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And a watching griffin hissed through his eagle beak.  And a watching bogeyman of black turned temporarily gray with frustration.

And in seething rage and rabid vengeance, the bogeyman and the griffin brought back Flanders Nickels from their vision back to the more natural world of Flanders’s side yard, not far from his cabin.

Having done this, they did concede defeat before the man of God.

Finding himself back from the dream and remembering both the fantasy from where he had come and the reality of where he was now, the child of God went on to say.  “I won.  God won.  God and I both won.  Didn’t we?”

“Curses to you and to the Lord!” snarled the bogeyman.

“Why, God cheated!” blasphemed the lying griffin.

“You mean that you both lost!” said the Christian man the plain truth of what had happened back there in that vision of temptations.

“I never lose!” screeched Slayer.

“I cannot lose!” said the bogeyman with a suddenly hoarse voice.

“Oh but you did lose—both of you,” told Flanders the two demons the truth.

“How about a little vocabulary study, Flanders?” asked the bogeyman, embarrassingly stubborn.

“Ha ha ha!” laughed Flanders, this time him laughing at them.

“Flanders, how would you like to memorize the names of the muscles of the human body right now?” ventured Slayer amid his manifest desperation.

And again the mortal man, strong in the immortal God, laughed at two previously indomitable demons, “Ha ha ha!”

Demons are most prideful spirits, and they cannot stand scorn.  But they could no longer think of anything that they could try to pull on this born-again Christian man.  They could no longer think of any more dreams to tempt the man with.  They could no longer outsmart him with words.  They could

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not even tolerate just to stand before him, so much of Christ being in him.  And with a devil’s flight from righteousness and justness, the bogeyman and the griffin took upon themselves their traveling forms, and they got away from the Christian soldier in a hurry.

And the first thing that Flanders Nickels did when they were gone was to go and get his Bible and a pile of sharpened pencils and to go ahead and study the four chapters of Colossians in his real life just as he had the four chapters of Philippians in his dream life.  The Bible was good.  God was good.  Life was good.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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CHAPTER XV

Proffery Coins was outside in front of his cabin, reading his Bible in study.  Of the group of four believers here near the Fabled Lands, Proffery knew the Bible the best.  And of the group of four believers here near the Fabled Lands, Proffery was the one who would not pray.  He had preferred writing letters to God instead.  He repented recently.  And he knew what had happened to his best friend Flanders after his repentance.  Just as the two demons had come to Flanders in their combined assaults to test him after his declared repentance, so, too, were the two demons soon to come and test Proffery, too, after his repentance at the Fabled Lands.  How serious was Proffery that day of revival for the four when he gave up writing his letters to God for the cause of saying prayers?  He was sure that he was soon going to find out.  In the meanwhile, the Holy Bible student was now out here getting ready for his visions soon to come by reading Bible verses about prayer to himself.

First he looked up his familiar Matthew 6:9, and he read this out loud:  “After this manner therefore pray ye;  Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.”  This verse said that a Christian needed to address God as his Heavenly Father in the salutation of every prayer.  Of course.

He had not done that in that impotent prayer of that last dream.  This was a good place to start.  He

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would go and do that in the next prayer to come.  After all, only born-again Christians could come to God Almighty and say, “Abba, Father.”

Next he looked up his well-known John 14:13-14, and he read this out loud to himself, too:  “And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.  If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.”  Yes, here God’s Word told the born-again believers that they must close each of their prayers in the name of Jesus.  That was how prayer-warriors in prayer meetings at church prayed; they ended their prayers by saying, “In Jesus’s name I pray.  Amen.”  Proffery knew the definition of the word “Amen” to be “so be it”; “so let it be”; “verily.”  This he had failed to do before, as well.  He would do so thus for now on.  After all, just as Jesus was the only begotten Son of God, so, too, were born-again believers like Proffery “sons of God.”

Next, Proffery Coins went ahead to look up the recently-discovered verse Romans 8:26, and he read this Scripture out loud to himself:  “Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities:  for we know not what we should pray for as we ought:  but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.”  Proffery Coins knew what this Bible verse said, too.  Here God was telling him that to pray, he must let the Holy Spirit guide his words as he prayed.  He must let go and allow the Holy Ghost to pray his words for him next time he was to pray.  Truly the Holy Spirit would not have a fellow pray mindless generalities as Proffery had done in that prayer in the vision.

Here in his front yard with the King James Bible open in front of him, Proffery now knew the three things that he needed to apply in his prayer life:  He must pray to his Father in the name of the Son in the words of the Holy Spirit.  He could do that!  He was ready now.  And he was just about to start.

Behold, from the east a disturbance in the weather came upon Proffery’s land.  He saw a little rainstorm and a little whirlwind.  It was they.  They were coming.  And he stood up and waited not long.  And they stood before them.  And they became once again physical griffin and amorphous

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bogeyman.  And wiles of great evil exuded from their countenances or from where their countenances were.

“I see two against one this time, Slayer, bogeyman,” said Proffery Coins.

“Yeah.  That’s right.  Us two against you one.” said Slayer.

“Look out with the smart talk, man of God, lest we bring Beelzebub himself with us next time,” said the bogeyman.

“Three against one then,” said Slayer.  “Ho ho ho!”

“He he he!” said the bogeyman.

“Tell me, Proffery.  How’s your prayer life?” taunted the griffin.

“Did you start yet?” mocked the bogeyman, knowing that Proffery had not yet attempted his first prayer yet after his revival and repentance at the sand dunes.

“How about writing a letter now?” said Slayer.  “God always reads His letters!”

“I’ll go and get some paper and pencil for you, Proffery,” said the bogeyman in derision of the man of God.

“Don’t bother getting me any paper and pencil for a letter to God, Slayer, bogeyman,” spoke up Proffery after this monopoly of conversation between the two demons.  “I was just about to pray just now, and then you two came, and now you two are keeping me from doing it.”

“Why, you can pray in one of our dreams, Proffery,” scorned the bogeyman.

“If you dare,” challenged Slayer.

“But we would prefer that you write a letter to God in our dream, O son of God,” said the bogeyman.

“We two will surely have lots of paper and lots of pencils for you just for that in your vision, O Mr. Coins,” said Slayer.

“And more,” said the bogeyman.

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“More.  Yes.  Lots more,” promised the griffin.

“Get it on, you fiends!” snapped Proffery in righteous anger.

“Are you ready?” asked the griffin.

“Get it over with!” said Proffery.

“He looks ready, Slayer,” said the bogeyman.

“Enough already!” yelled Proffery.

“Okay,” said the bogeyman.

“All right then,” said Slayer.

And suddenly Proffery Coins was in a world of temptations.  He found himself in a large room very unlike his cabin.  He saw four walls of wallpaper with patterns of gray dragons.  And he saw two

windows in each wall that let in sunlight from all four directions.  And he saw a door in the middle of each of these walls.  And he saw shag brown carpet upon the floor.  And he saw a desk and a desk chair and a green bin.  The desk looked to be made of maple.  The desk chair looked to be made of oak.  And the green painted bin, also of hardwood, he could see, had a lid and hinges that opened upward, and there were heavy metal handles on both sides of this bin.  He wondered to himself, What might be in the bin?  Inquisitive he went over there and opened it up.  Well!  In here were report cover books.  Report cover bindings of yellow and blue and black and red and green and brown and light blue abounded in this wooden green bin.  What were all these about?  He picked up a black hard copy and did read on its cover, “Letters To God:  1985.”  Why, yes.  These were his letters to God written just last year in a life before this vision.  He dared not open it now to read.  This was evil.  This compendium of letters was all wrong.  All of the contents of this bin was so great temptation to flee from.  Were not every last letter to God he had ever written—both before his salvation and since his salvation—stored here in this strange bin in this strange room in this strange world?  Yet he would not read a letter from 1985.  He refused to sin against the God Who had delivered him from writing letters

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to him at the expense of a prayer life.  As his God had delivered him from temptations of letters to God

in his life before this vision, so, too, would his God deliver him from temptations of letters to God here within the vision itself.  And he refused to open up this hard copy of his 1985 letters.  He set it back down into the bin and quickly shut the wooden lid down.  He thought now upon a Bible verse he had memorized back in his waking life.  It was Matthew 6:7, in which it is written, “But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do:  for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.”

He recited this efficacious Scripture alone in this big room of temptations, and he understood most fully what was the most wrong thing about his aborted prayer in that last dream he had been put into.  In that last prayer back then, he was not praying specifically, or sincerely, or naturally.  Why that prayer was as mindless a prayer as any rosary prayer, and he had always disdained the vain repetitions that

went along with the rosary.  Thinking upon this verse in the book of Matthew, Proffery came upon a Holy Spirit revelation that he most needed right now.   In his letters to God, his written prayers were full of specificity and sincerity and naturalness.  Could not his spoken prayers be spoken just in like as his letters had always been written—again, specific and sincere and natural?  Yes.  He could pray to God this day the same way he had written letters to God all those years!  And the nostalgic contents of this strange green bin were suddenly sans temptations upon this Christian man.  And he prayed a most

faithful petition:  “Dear Father, could you send a padlock down to me here in this dream?  In Jesus’s name.  Amen.”  Lo, a padlock suddenly appeared upon the green bin’s lid.  “Yes!” he said, a victor over

his greatest temptation for his first time.  And he steadfastly locked up this bin of letters to God, sealing

these contents out from his dream for the rest of its duration.  Behold, a manifestation of a padlock key appeared upon this green bin’s lid.  The bogeyman and the griffin put this here to tempt the man of God.  But he did not pick it up.  Neither did he push it away out off of the lid out of his sight.  He did not know how to rid himself of that key in this room of vision.  But he definitely did not now want to unlock that nasty wooden bin full of tempting memories.  In fact he got to his feet to go away from the

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bin of temptations, and he went to sit down at this desk on the opposite side of this room.  Precious of precious!  Here was a real King James Bible for him to read in a demon’s vision.  And he prayed again in glory of God:  “Dear Father:  Thank You for this Good Book in this evil time!  In Jesus’s name.  Amen!”

Suddenly a grating coarse pair of voices came into this room from somewhere outside this dream, and they said to Proffery here at this desk with the Bible:  “!985—December 25—Letter CCCLIX to God.”  What was this?  These two voices were reading to him now the words of one of his letters to God that he had absolutely refused to read for himself.  He had overcome the temptation of the black report cover book of 1985 with flying colors, and now two mysterious voices who would not give up were reading his favorite letter of that whole year to him now without his consent.  He knew what thing happened for him that Christmas Day last year, and the lure of hearing it all now once again as he had written it at that time was a most evil temptation.  The pair of voices began despite his great resistance:  “Today is my happiest Christmas Day of Christmas Days.  My beautiful blue prom gown girlfriend gave me my most exciting Christmas present I ever got from her.  She had hired a professional artist to draw pencil sketches of her in her prom dress just to give to me today.  And I saw them.  And I think that my love for her has grown even greater from seeing those drawings.  Praise You for Your fearfully and wonderfully made Destiny Shetlanders!  And I have You to thank evermore that You give me the gift of writing such letters as these to You.  I know that You love to read all of my letters to You.  I am so thankful that You have delegated the most unique ministry of writing to You every day.  No other Christian has such blessings as I have in all of my letters that I get to write to You.”  In this panic of so great temptation of reliving his carnal happiness of letters to God, Proffery Coins prayed now and said, “Dear Father:  What can I do to make this letter reading stop?  In Jesus’s name I pray!  Amen.”  And God put a thought into his head, saying “My son, cover your ears, and I will stop the reading to you of this greatly tempting letter of ago.  And then uncover your ears, and you will

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hear those two demonic voices no more.  And I will continue being there for you and with you.”  Proffery obeyed the good voice of God.  He put his hands over his ears tightly.  He no longer heard the sweet words of that letter to God.  He took away his hands from his ears.  And all was quiet in this room again.  Behold, the two demons, at war against God, sought to tempt the young man again, this time by conjuring a pad of yellow paper and a little pile of pencils upon this desktop right alongside of the Bible.  These two things were the basis of his original letters to God.  His first drafts of such letters were handwritten with these two very things.  In great Holy Ghost might, he swept his arm across this half of the desk, casting these writing tools right off onto the floor.  “Never, O Beelzebub!” he vowed,

angry at the two unknown demons who were tormenting him.  Lo, now there appeared on this same half of the desktop instead an electronic typewriter and its pad of blank typing paper.  These two objects were the tools with which he always wrote his second drafts of his letters to God all those years.

These drafts were the ones bound and locked up in the green bin right now in this dream.  “Minion or minions, I said, ‘Never!’” Proffery rebuked the griffin and bogeyman whom he could not remember right now in this vision. And he swept his arm across this half of the desk once again, and the electronic typewriter fell down to the floor beside the desk and broke, and the pad of one hundred loose pieces of typing paper scattered about and landed upon the carpet and covered much of the floor where its pages did land.

He heard one grating voice from out there saying, “Slayer, we’re losing this one.”

And he heard his partner replying from outside of this little world, “Bogeyman, I am growing weary fighting faithful Christians.”

And Proffery Coins found a moment of respite in this fantasy world.  He looked again upon his Holy Bible.  He wanted to pray.  The Holy Spirit told him now, “Before you pray your first long prayer,  my good and faithful servant, do search the Scriptures for two more Bible verses that I want you to learn that tell how I want My children to pray to me for their own fulfillment.”

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“What are they, O Lord?” he asked in good prayer.

“The first one is Exodus 33:11, O good steward,” said the Holy Spirit.  “You will read that out loud, and you will understand one of its meanings that I want for you to find out in order to be the prayer-warrior you wish to become.”

Proffery Coins at once obeyed the Word of the Lord.  And he most adeptly found Exodus 33:11, and he read it out loud for himself:  “And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend.  And he turned again into the camp:  but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle.”  Proffery focused on the first sentence of this verse now exclusively as God guided him in this evil vision:  “And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend.”  And Proffery Coins understood one reason why Moses and God were so close as prophet-and-Lord—they spoke to each other “face to face.”  In a real sense, a born-again Christian and his Heavenly Father, in good and godly prayer, were also “kind of” speaking to each other face to face, even though the believer could not see his Heavenly Father, Whom no man on Earth can see.  More significantly, when Moses prayed, he prayed to his Heavenly Father as he would talk unto his friends.  God is the believers’ best friend. When a Christian goes to his prayer, he must talk to

his Father just as he would talk to one of his friends on Earth.  Proffery, in order to desire prayer for the rest of his walk with Christ down here on Earth, must chat with God the same way he chatted with Destiny and Flanders and Gretchen.  To pray was to chat with the Lord.  That was the key to an effective prayer life for any Christian.

Then the Spirit of God said to him about the other Bible verse He had to tell him,”And the second one is Numbers 12:8, good friend.”

And the Bible student looked up that verse for further edification, and he did read this out loud to himself, too:  “With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches; and the similitude of the Lord shall he behold:  wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my

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servant Moses?”  Again Proffery Coins focused upon the first part of this designated verse:  “With him will I speak mouth to mouth,…”  And he understood much the same truths that he understood in the first designated verse.  The man Moses was so close to God in his walk with Him that the Lord spoke directly to him “mouth-to-mouth.”  In the same way a Christian needed to pray with the same humble familiarity to his God—talking to Him “mouth to mouth.” A believer needed not to be afraid when he came to God in prayer every day, even though he was communicating with the Highest Power.  A believer knows the Lord God better than any unbeliever does.  And the Lord God hears the prayers of the believer and does not hear the prayers of the unbeliever.  And the Lord God delights to answer the prayers of the believer, giving the believer showers of blessings.  That is one reason why man was created—to fellowship with His Creator in prayer—and only believers praying “mouth to mouth.” can glorify God in this way.  And Proffery Coins’s wisdom from the first verse was reinforced by his wisdom from this second verse.  He was now ready to pray a prayer that would surely reach up to God’s throne in Heaven, even from within this temptation dream of two demons.

But the griffin and the bogeyman tried to pull one last trick on him in this showdown between good and evil.  They both said in his head, “The key!  The key!  Read Letter I of the red report cover in progress for this year of 1986.  January 1, New Year’s Day.  Read it.  Relive it.  If you want, write a letter about it now.  Then go and repent for the rest of your life.”  Flanders remembered how that day he had a wonderful New Year’s celebration with fair Destiny as they went out into the beautiful falling snow in town and went door-to-door, singing,”Auld Lang Syne” until their voices went hoarse.  What a New Year’s Day of New Year’s Day that was for boyfriend-and-girlfriend-in-the-Lord together in so magical and wholesome romance.  But to read about it again in the temptation of a letter to God, and to tempt himself right here and right now to write another letter to God about it was an idea right from Hell.  And Proffery would have nothing to do with that red report cover book.  And he most faithfully ran up to the key upon the lid of the green bin to throw it out of this dream.  He grabbed it and went to

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the nearest door to throw it out of this room.  The door was locked, and he could not get out.  He went to the three other exit doors; they, too, were all locked, and he could not get out.  And the key to the padlock of the wooden bin was still in his hand.  “Dear Father, I pray that you open one of the windows for me, if you would.  In Jesus’s name. Amen,” he prayed to God.  He ran up to the nearest window, tried to open it, and it opened right up for him.  And with a heart set upon the will of God, Proffery threw this padlock key outside, now forever lost from him.  And Proffery defeated the final temptations of the bogeyman and of the griffin.  The two most inventive and creative demons were at a loss for what to do anymore in this dream.  And they gave up now on tempting Proffery Coins any more.

And they brought him back to his yard by the cabin.  Greatly disturbed, the griffin said, “You’re too much like Christ now, Proffery.”

Equally upset, the bogeyman said, “You’re a blooming rock of faith,  and I hate you, Mr. Coins!”

“I’ve had enough, bogeyman!” said Slayer.  “Let’s get out of here.”

“I, also. Slayer,” said the bogeyman.  “Maybe we’ll have better luck with the women than we did with the men.”

All this while, Proffery stood there, amazed at their utter defeat despite their apparent unconquerable power that he had first seen in them when they had first come into this land not long ago.  The bogeyman and the griffin lost!  They lost to God and to Christian!  They lost to himself!

To God be the glory!

And without saying another word, the two demons transformed into the rainstorm and the whirlwind and rudely fled Proffery with the brusk demeanor of demons scorned.  And Proffery was alone now.  And he still wanted to pray long and well back here in the real world.  And he fell upon the kind of prayer referred to in the great hymn, “Sweet Hour of Prayer.”  And in his first sweet hour of prayer alone with God outside here he relived in proper prayer sweet nostalgia about his favorite New

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Year’s Day with beautiful Destiny Shetlanders.  And praying that prayer was even more joyful in rejoicing for him now than having written that letter had been that day of January One of this 1986.

Proffery Coins was now forever after a prayer-warrior.  God is great.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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CHAPTER XVI

Gretchen Shetlanders was alone in her backyard, reading her Bible and praying in the comfortable autumn afternoon of autumn.  She was at her picnic table made by her boyfriend just for things like this.  What a wonderful man was Flanders.  All she did one day was to tell him how sore her

legs and knees got in her worship outside sitting upon the ground every day, and he went and made this picnic table just for her so that she could be comfortable outside in her daily worship.  “Thank You, God, for my good boyfriend,” she prayed.  The picnic table was made out of box elder wood, and she loved it as she loved Flanders.

Gretchen knew that her church life was lacking, even though her quiet time with God here in the picnic table was not lacking.  In the revival at the Fabled Lands, Miss Shetlanders the elder repented of Yahtzee and Kismet.  But she had not been tested of God for her stand she made at those sand dunes.  Neither had she been tempted yet for her stand by the bogeyman and the griffin as the two men of the group had been.  God tests; Beelzebub tempts.  And Gretchen just knew that she was next to be visited by the two demons.  And it was to be soon.  Maybe even any time now as she worshiped at her picnic table.  In preparations for the vision, she turned now in her Bible to Job 23:10, and she read

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silently to herself, “But he knoweth the way that I take:  when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.”  She prayed now, “Lord, I pray that I come forth as gold by the time the dream is all done and over with.”  How was she to do this?  What was her part in all of this?  How would God work this out?

And she turned to Isaiah 26:3, and she read silently to herself, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.”  How could a woman keep her mind on Jesus when the Devil and all his temptations came upon her like a hailstorm in two demons’ vision?

How could a girl trust Jesus in a dream where no one can see Jesus?  She prayed and said, “Lord, I will do my best to keep my mind upon You and to trust You when I need You most.”  She then turned to Psalm 16:8, and she read this verse silently for herself, too:  “I have set the Lord always before me:  because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.”  How could she feel Jesus at her right hand in a vision from the bogeyman and the griffin at the same time?  How could a vision not move her toward

another sin unto backsliding?  And she said in most effectual and godly faith now in prayer, “Lord, I now leave my next dream in Your hands.”  And the red prom gown girl Christian found rest now in her soul, her life now on the precipice of greatest temptation soon to be wrought by two devils.  She waited for them now to come.

And they came.  She could see them coming from the south—a little rainstorm and a little whirlwind.  And Miss Shetlanders the elder felt God’s peace within her now as they approached her.

And, behold, the tawny griffin and the black bogeyman manifested themselves before the young woman.  And the young woman spoke first, “Well, Slayer.  Well, bogeyman.”

“Well?  Well?” ridiculed Slayer.  “Young lady, this day will not go well for you at all.”

“Indeed.  Well said, Slayer,” said the bogeyman.  “Miss Shetlanders, this day will go most ill for you, instead.”

“I heard that you both lost your fight with my boyfriend the other day,” said Gretchen.  “And then you both went and lost your fight with my sister’s boyfriend not long after that.”

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“Never mind that!” snapped the bogeyman.

“Nasty God had come down to help them,” said the griffin.

“What makes you two think that the same God will not help me to win my fight with you this time, guys?” asked Miss Shetlanders the elder.

“He cannot!” said Slayer.

“He will not!” said the bogeyman.

“Oh, but you do know that He can and that He will, griffin, bogeyman,” said Gretchen.

“Milady, we two will fill your life in vision with so many temptations that you will not have time to ask your God for any of His help,” declared the bogeyman.

“Can you strike my mouth dumb from speaking prayers in the vision?  Can you make my lips mute from quoting Scripture in the vision?” asked Gretchen in defiance of evil.

Slayer and the bogeyman looked at each other, then at her.  “It is done,” said the bogeyman.

She was expecting to be sent now right into the dream.  But she was still here in her yard by the cabin.

She then sought to ask the bogeyman, “What is done?”  But she found that her voice had left her.

She had severe laryngitis here in her waking life.  She could neither now quote Scripture nor speak prayers in the Lord’s way of prevailing over temptations.  She had taken the two demons too lightly and had been too flippant with the two fallen angels, and now they had made her speechless and

helpless to any temptations that they would sent to her in a vision.

And suddenly she found herself in a vision:  She found herself standing alongside Highway 141.  A countryside gravel road lay off to the right of this highway.  She must still be in Beaver, but no longer by her cabin.  She saw the sign for this gravel road read, “Translation Drive.”  She remembered that Translation Baptist Church that the others of the group went to was on 777 Translation Drive.  The good Baptist church that she had promised God that she would go to that day of repentance was only seven blocks away from here.  And she began her walk down the gravel road of dream.  There was a

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time for Yahtzee and for Kismet, and there was a time for going to church.  This time now was the time for going to church.  And she steadfastly began her walk to church from Highway 141.

Behold, two card tables suddenly appearing up ahead that were not there before.  They were about fifty feet away, and they each had one little box resting upon them in the middle.  The little box on the card table to the left was green; the little box on the card table to the right was yellow.  Even from here Miss Shetlanders the elder recognized them: the game Kismet and the game Yahtzee.  They stood there in defiance of her and God between herself and her new church.  Confident, the young Christian woman sought to quote a Bible verse, thinking to say Psalm 35:1:  “Plead my cause, O Lord, with them that strive with me:  fight against them that fight against me.”  But no words came out of her throat.  She had completely lost her voice.  She could not quote Scripture against her two unseen adversaries of Beelzebub.  Bible verses seemed to be rendered ineffective for her now in this vision of temptations.  The girl could not talk!  And she remembered how she unwisely had provoked two fell

foes back in a world before here.  They had taken away her speech.  And her speech was still gone from her even here in this vision.  And now she was all the worst for this just when she needed her speech the most.  And, unsure and not at all confident of herself, she came up to these two tables, and she looked right and left and left and right upon her two favorite games, all sealed up tight and wrapped in plastic and calling out to her.  Being a prayer-warrior of her picnic table, she thought to pray out loud now and to say, “Jesus, give me strength.”  But, again, her words did not come out audibly.  She fell upon dismay.  Her prayer life was stifled here in a dream where she had to rely on praying and waiting upon God to answer her prayer in order to overcome her great temptations.  She could not even pray!

Miss Shetlanders the elder had never thought to see such a day as this.  But now it was here.  And she was helpless and at the mercy of two most merciless ambassadors of Beelzebub.  Yet, Gretchen found in her soul a strength that had come from Above somehow someway.  And with this strength of resolve,

the Christian gal put her right foot up against the one card table, and did push with that foot, and did

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push that flimsy card table over upon its side.  There lay the Kismet game, knocked off of the table and lying upon the gravel stones of this road.  She proceeded to do the same with the other card table with her kicking leg.  And there lay that knocked down card table, and there lay that game of Yahtzee, fallen down into the gravel road as well.  Where did she get the strength to do that which she had never done before with her two dice games?  She had tried to pray, but could not.  The words of prayer had been struck mute.  And no words of supplication had come out in this dream.  Yes, the Lord had still heard her prayer even when she could not hear her prayer herself.  Of course, back at the picnic table her prayer was mostly all thoughts and no utterances.  That is how the believers did their prayers in their daily quiet time alone with God.  They would think their words to God.  Only in prayer meetings at church for her three others of her group and any other church person were prayers spoken out loud.

She had in like just now, for all practical purposes, given her prayer for petition for strength from God as a traditional silent prayer.  And, of course, God heard her, just as He had been hearing her thought-prayer at the picnic table much of this afternoon.  And God answers thought prayer just as He answers word prayer.  No wonder she found the inner strength of will of God to kick over these two tables of temptation on her way to church right now.  Confident in the Lord, Miss Shetlanders the elder resumed her little trek to Translation Baptist Church, passing by the two dice and dice cup games.

Lo, two more card tables sent by the griffin and the bogeyman appeared again up ahead some fifty feet away.  “Conjurers,” said Gretchen, seeing the two lures tempting her.  And of course, Kismet was again on the left table, and Yahtzee was again on the right table.  But the tempting was more open to the girl now.  When she came up to these two card tables, she saw that the two boxes were open.

Their covers were off and set upon the table behind the games.  And the games themselves were right there before her eyes, all its pieces open before her to look at in their original boxes.  She wavered.

She paused.  Then she prayed in thoughts, “Jesus, give me strength to overcome these two temptations.”  And she found strength from the prayer-answering God, and she put her foot first against

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the one table and did kick down that table; and then put her foot against the other table and did push that table down the same way.  But inside her thoughts she did confess that this second temptation of this vision was harder to defeat than was the first temptation in this vision.  And she worried, How was the third temptation going to go for her?  Demons never quit.  And she knew that the next two card tables were going to be even more difficult.  And they would come, somewhere suddenly just up ahead,  probably very soon.  And Gretchen stepped up her pace on her short walk to church.

And, yes, the third pair of card tables suddenly were just there, not fifty feet away.  Fleeing temptation prudently, Miss Shetlanders the elder sought to turn off of the road to the right and pass them by way off to the side out in the ditch.  Suddenly a wrought iron fence was there, keeping her from escaping to this side.  She then tried to get off of the road to the left, but here again a wrought iron fence was magically conjured that kept her from escaping to this side as well.  Now the girl had to stay on the road for the rest of these several blocks to church.  She had to confront her temptation again and to persevere over it again.  Calling upon God in her thoughts she came up to these two card tables with Holy Ghost wisdom, and she looked upon her two games there before her.  On the left, this little table’s Kismet box was opened and emptied and neatly all laid out upon the table; the scorecard pad and the little pencils and the dice cup and the colored dice and the rule book were all there, ready for her to play now.  And the same was for the other table; here, too, the Yahtzee box was opened and emptied and neatly organized upon the table—again its scorecard pad and little pencils and dice cup and plain dice and the rule book.  But her Holy Ghost wisdom gave her most discerning understanding of this that she was trying to run away from.  God Himself was telling her in answer to her silent prayer that, yes, there was nothing wrong with Kismet and with Yahtzee in itself.  These two popular games were good games and wholesome games and games meant to be enjoyed.  She only needed to learn in her personal life to play these fun games at a time not when church services were going on at Translation Baptist Church.  She had never thought of that before on her own in her own thinking.  God had to tell

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her this now.  And her morbid fear of these third pair of card tables on Translation Drive drifted from her stressed mind like a sickness going away.  And though these games were not any longer the devil’s snares all of a sudden, because of this she had an even greater desire now to go to the Baptist church to hear a good sermon.  And she knew still that this walk down the road was not her right time to play the dice games, and that this walk down the road was definitely the right time to go to church right now.

A concealed griffin spoke from outside this dream, “Miss, don’t listen to Him!”

And a hidden bogeyman spoke also from somewhere out there, “Milady, He is tricking you!”

And a third voice coming from the Spirit within told her in benevolence, “My daughter, kick down the card tables anyway.”  And Miss Shetlanders the elder kicked down the two card tables with swift upper kicks this time.  And the card tables and all the dice game parts flew out into the gravel road before her.  This hurt her foot, but she laughed anyway, despite her laryngitis.

And in confidence Gretchen continued her short walk down this road.  And a fourth pair of card tables were suddenly conjured upon this road before her fifty feet away.  She prayed in her thoughts again for God’s will to be done again here in this dream.  And God filled her heart with love for Him and from Him.  And with this love she did come up to these card tables to look upon her former greatest temptations that had used to give her so much trouble with God.  Turning first to the Kismet table, she saw its scorecard all filled up except for the blank Kismet box.  The dice cup had the five dice in it, all ready for her to try to make a five of a kind with three last shakes before the game was done.  Interesting, she thought.  But she turned away from the Kismet table.  And she turned now to the  Yahtzee table.  Here the same situation lay there before her.  This Yahtzee game was in progress with only one last turn to go.  The only thing not filled up upon the scorecard was the Yahtzee itself.  She had one last chance to finish this game with a hope of shaking a five of a kind with three or less shakes.

Fascinating, she thought.  But her love for God made her right now interested only in getting to Translation Baptist Church and hoping to be the first one there of the flock.  She could come back here

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after the church service was over if she wanted to.  But right now it seemed like a pesky distraction that

kept her from her walk.  Church was now only a couple blocks away.  And church was where she wanted to be right now.

A bogeyman told her, “Miss Shetlanders, you don’t really want to go to church.”

“Oh, but I do, whoever you are,” she called forth to this invisible watcher.

“Shake the dice girl!” called out the watching griffin.

“I don’t want to!” she yelled out at this obnoxious voice from outside this dream.

Just for that, Miss Shetlanders felt like kicking over these pair of card tables, too.  And in rebellion against her two masters of temptation, the young lady kicked the legs out from underneath these tables.  And the two nearly finished dice games were now sprawled haphazardly all over the road.

Suddenly she realized that she had just yelled!  That meant that she could speak again.  Her voice was back now.  And she looked at what she had just done to the temptations conjured by the demons.  And she said, “Now that felt pretty good!”  Then she said, “I would like to do that again!”

And she then said, “You two who torment me, bring up a fifth pair of card tables, and I will do the same thing to them, too.”  And she continued walking toward the church.

And there did not come the fifth pair of card tables upon the road anymore.  The young Christian lady found no more temptations coming upon her for the rest of this walk down Translation Drive.  And soon she stood before the doors of the church of Destiny and Flanders and Proffery.  No one was here.  None others were here yet.  That meant that Gretchen was the first one for church this day just as she had desired.  She looked upon herself, at what she had on today, and she saw her beloved red prom dress on again.  Yes, Gretchen was dressed appropriately for her new Baptist church.

She waited.  Soon her sister came along, and they hugged and praised God together that Gretchen was at church now.  Then her boyfriend came along, and he leaned his face toward her and kissed her on her  lips, so glad that his girlfriend had finally come to church to sit next to him.  Then her sister’s boyfriend

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came along, and he shook her hand and said, “Praise God you have come to our little church, Gretchen!”  Then the Pastor and his wife Emmy came.

Pastor said, “Is that you, Gretchen?  You look so like Destiny.”

“Oh, it is really I this time, Pastor,” said Gretchen.

“My my,” said Emmy.  “I am so glad to see you here, Gretchen.”

Then the deacon and his wife came along.  And before too long, all one hundred members of the flock of Translation Baptist Church had arrived.  Then they all filed in through the double doors, Gretchen right behind her three fellow believers of the Fabled Lands here in the front of the line.

An evil griffin spoke two words that only Gretchen could here in this dream gone good, “You dog!”

And an evil bogeyman, equally frustrated at losing control of his vision to God also spoke two words here that were meant only for Gretchen to hear, “You beast!”

But God said to her in His still small voice, “My good and faithful daughter!”

Suddenly she was no longer in the auditorium of the Baptist church.  She was sitting at a picnic table out in front of a cabin.  And a griffin and a bogeyman were standing to each side of the picnic table.  Why, she had been in a dream.  And now she was back.  And the griffin and the bogeyman were arguing with each other!

The bogeyman said to the griffin, “You went and wrecked my work!  I was just about to tempt her over the edge, and you went and botched everything up on me!”

“How could I know that God would come?” asked Slayer.

“You stupid familiar!” yelled the bogeyman.  “Did not God come into the previous two visions?

Did you not stop to think that He would come into this vision, too?”

“I didn’t see Him coming!” hollered Slayer.  “Why didn’t you try to keep that from happening yourself, bogeyman?”

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“All that I know is that He did come, and I did not know what hit me!” exclaimed the bogeyman.

“What are we going to say to our master?” asked Slayer.

“Beelzebub will be very mad at us,” said the bogeyman.

“Let’s get away from this Christian woman.  She’s as bad as the Christian men,” said the griffin.

“We have one last chance to make our master happy with us,” said the bogeyman.

“The other woman—the younger twin sister,” said the griffin.

Watching this division in the ranks of demonic hierarchy amazed this mortal Christian woman, and she looked on in silence as this took place before her.  The two minions of Beelzebub now took notice of this girl that they had brought back from their vision, and they grew silent with embarrassment.  Saying no more to each other and not addressing this woman believer who beat them in the dream, the griffin and the bogeyman transformed themselves into their transporting forms and fled away from Miss Shetlanders the elder as a dog with his tail between his legs.

And the red prom dress girl went to church on the very next day of services in her real waking life with the other three of the group of the Fabled Lands.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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CHAPTER XVII

Destiny Shetlanders was in quiet time with God in her side yard next to her cabin.  She was sitting upon her bench and reading her Bible and praying amid the goldenrod and the milkweed.  In her thoughts of prayer, she knew that indeed Flanders and Proffery and Gretchen had all been sorely tested by visions from both the bogeyman and the griffin working together—two against one—and those three had prevailed.  And that was because of God.  Surely she herself could do in like—them two against herself one—because of God on her side also in like.  She confessed now out loud to God, “I am still afraid, though, Lord.  These satanic dreams are scary things.  It is not so much what they could do to me, so much as it is what I could do to You…again.”  She paused, then said, “Pastor always tells us, ‘Cheer up, child of God.  We are on the winning side.’  And he also preaches, God, ‘With God even a minority is a majority.’ And I heard him also say, ‘With God we can move mountains.’  Just then a gentle and refreshing zephyr blew upon her in her blue prom dress, and she could tell that it had come from God.  And she was reassured of the Presence of the Lord here.  And she went on to read in her King James Bible about tithing the two verses Proverbs 3:9-10, “Honour the Lord with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase:  So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine.”  Solomon, who wrote these proverbs, knew even back then in the Old

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Testament that it paid to give tithes to God and to His work.  And Destiny knew that it did not pay to not give ten percent.  And in these times of the New Testament church, it was the local church that one belonged to to which one was to give his or her ten percent.  Next, Miss Shetlanders the younger looked up her familiar Genesis 14:18-20, and she saw how the great patriarch Abraham himself gave tithes; he gave his to Melchizedek, the priest of the most high God.  Could it be that this mysterious Melchizedek was greater even than Abraham the friend of God?  Then Destiny looked up another Bible passage she knew about in her great Bible wisdom—Genesis 28:20-22.  And here she again read how

Jacob promised God “…:  and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee.”  And she next went to a tithing verse in the New Testament—I Corinthians 16:2, which said that a believer must give his tithes on the first day of the week.  That day was the Lord’s day, and that was Sunday.

Tomorrow for Miss Shetlanders the younger was Sunday.  On that day of great revival at the sand dunes, she had repented of her sins of not tithing.  And tomorrow was going to be the first day of church since that day.  And she was going to do it this time.  There was no turning back—even if if meant not buying any more gold and silver coins for herself anymore.  She had meant what she said at the Fabled Lands that day.  She was no longer going to rob God Himself.  But Destiny did also know that before she could learn to tithe for forever in the real world, she first had to learn to tithe one time in a vision full of temptations.  And the bogeyman and that Slayer were going to make it harder for her to do that it really was.  And most primarily, Miss Shetlanders the younger had learned that a tithe was not ten percent of one’s weekly net income, but rather ten percent of one’s weekly gross income.

She then looked off to the west in hopes of another zephyr from the Holy Spirit.  Behold the coming of two demons instead from not far away off from the west—a little rainstorm and a little dust vortex.  And they stopped in front of her and became the big griffin and the short bogeyman.  And they looked unhappy, and they glowered upon her.  This took her aback.  The griffin and the bogeyman that she had gotten to unpleasantly know were always jovial and merry at her expense, their countenances

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proud and sure of themselves before her own mortality, and their demonic throats laughing at her in derision of her Christ.  But now they just stood there, looking at her, and saying nothing.

This became quite embarrassing for the vulnerable young lady, and at last she finally spoke, saying, “What are you guys so mad about?”

And Slayer said, “Do not think just because we had run ins with Flanders and Proffery and Gretchen, that we will also have a run in with you, Destiny.”

“A run in, Slayer?” asked Miss Shetlanders the younger.

“Sly girl, you know what a run in is,” said the bogeyman.  “It is an altercation, a quarrel.”

“Oh!” said Destiny.  “You mean the hard time you ended up having when you put my three friends in visions.  That’s what you mean.  Isn’t it?”

“It seems that we took those three Christians too lightly,” said Slayer.  “We will not make the same mistake with you, young lady.”

“We shall make it twice as hard on you as we did on any of your three friends,” said the bogeyman.  “And that’s no lie!”

“We kid you not!” said Slayer.

“So you’re saying that you came to get me,” said Destiny.

“Yes,” said the bogeyman.

“To get me, you first have to get God,” said Destiny with a believer’s wisdom.

“Girl, don’t say that name in front of us like that!” said the griffin.

“Why, all you two are are a bunch of bullies,” said Destiny.  “You’ll go and pick on me, but you  cannot dare pick on the name of the Lord.”

“Don’t go and say that name out loud, either,” said the bogeyman.

“You suddenly look like a bunch of weaklings to me now,” said the Christian woman.

“Perhaps we will seem more formidable to you in a dream than we do in this world, girl,” said

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the bogeyman.

“Let’s throw the saucy little girl in a vision, partner,” said the griffin.

“Yes.  Like right now, comrade,” said the bogeyman.

“Uh oh!” said Destiny Shetlanders.  She went and did it now.  And her confident words left her at once.

And she was cast into a demons’ dream of temptations.

She found herself standing before two men in suits at two desks, their countenances looking at her as if she had been here for a while.  “Why, where am I?” she asked.

And they both spoke up at once and said, “You are on ‘the fence.’”

“A fence?” she asked.  She looked down upon her feet and saw her customary blue pumps standing firmly upon a dusty wooden floor.  “I don’t seem to see a fence.”

They both spoke up at once again and explained to her, “Here in this office you are a fence rider.”

“Why is that?” she asked.

And they both spoke up at once and said, “You must choose the words of which one of us two gentlemen to believe and then to act upon it.”

“Who are you two?  What do you do?  What kinds of things will you say to me?”

And they both said at once, “We two are church deacons.”

She asked, “Are you good deacons like the deacon I have at Translation Baptist Church?”

“That’s for you to find out,” said the deacon to her left.

“That’s for God to tell you,” said the deacon to her right.

She stood there in silent rumination for a moment.  The deacon to her right was dressed in a man’s brown suit and tie.  The deacon to her left was dressed in a man’s black suit and tie.  Already she

found the deacon to the right to be more credible in his words.  But she had to be sure.  She asked the

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deacon to her right, “What church do you go to?”

And he said, “I go to Righteous Baptist Church.”

And then she asked the deacon to her left, “And what church do you go to?”

And he said, “I go to Faux Community Church.”

Destiny pondered the word “Faux,” and did not quite know what that meant as a word.  But it sounded not right to her discerning ears.  In her silent thoughts she turned to God in prayer.  And suddenly two name plates appeared on these men’s desks.  On the desk to her right, the desk of the man  of the Baptist church, was now the name “Deacon Beacon.”  And on the desk to her left, the desk of the man of the community church, was now the name “Deacon Belial.”  In her mind, she knew that a beacon was a good light, like a light from God.  She knew not what a “Belial” was, but in her mind this did not sound good and godly to her as she stood there, thinking.

In great discernment, Destiny asked the men, “Do you two agree about everything or about nothing at all?”

Deacon Belial quickly spoke up and said, “Beacon is one of those fundamentalists, if that tells you anything, young lady.”

And Deacon Beacon thought upon his words and said, “To find truth, look into God’s Perfect Word the King James Bible, O daughter of God.”

Again Beacon made more sense in his words than did Belial.  And in her wise Christian mind she could tell that these two men agreed on nothing.  One of these deacons was right about everything, and one of these deacons was wrong about everything.

But then Belial spoke a most insightful query right at her as if he knew why she were here:  “Destiny Shetlanders, you have come to the fence to ask about whether you should tithe or not tithe.”

“That’s right!” she said hastily.  But she was wrong.  She had not come into this vision to find out if she should or should not tithe.  Back in the world before, of which she could not now remember

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all, she had already made up her mind to both tithe and give offerings.

“Take heed with your words and with your ears, good Destiny,” warned Beacon.

She needed to try the words of Belial with the words of Beacon, and she asked, “Deacon Belial, what do you believe about God’s commandment for the believer to give ten percent to her church?”

At once Belial said, “My lady, tithing is not for today, nor for you.  Tithing was an Old Testament commandment for the nation of Israel.  That’s what it was.”

“Is that what your community church teaches?” she asked him.

“Well, our pastor doesn’t teach that,” said Belial.

“How about your church?  Does your church say that about tithing?” asked Destiny Shetlanders.

“Not per se,” he admitted.

“Just you then,” she said.

“I and many others, Destiny,” he said.

“Who are the many others?” she asked.

“Those many others who believe what I believe,” he said.

“Deacon Belial of Faux Community Church, you lie,” said Miss Shetlanders the younger.

Deacon Beacon of Righteous Baptist Church praised her and said, “Miss Shetlanders, you are rightly dividing the word of truth.  Well done, good sister-in-the-Lord.”

“I’m not going to let anybody change my mind anymore about tithing and giving offerings,” she declared in this vision.  “I want to give back to Jesus now.”

Deacon Belial, crafty and sly like the griffin and the bogeyman, went on to say, “Good woman of God, is the commandment to keep the sabbath day for the New Testament church or the Old Testament Jew?”

“Oh, that’s for the Old Testament Jew,” she said right out.  “Pastor taught us that in a sermon on Exodus 31 a few times.”

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“He did?” asked Belial.

“Uh huh,” she said.

“Well just as the way it is for sabbath-keeping, so is it also with tithing,” he said to her.  “I’m sure that you do know from your days at church that in the Scriptures God has some things for the Jews, some things for the Gentiles, and some things for the Christians.  In order to truly rightly divide the Words of truth when reading the Holy Bible, one must accurately interpret to which of these three groups that God is speaking.”

“Yes,” she agreed.  That was how the Bible worked.

“And so you agree that you are not sure then that tithing was a commandment given to both Jews and Christians.  Are you?” asked Belial.

“Oh, but I am still sure,” she said, wise in the Scriptures.  “I remember just this morning how I was reading Scripture that talked about tithing; and these were both Old Testament verses and New Testament verses.”

“Woman!” scolded Deacon Belial.

“Wise lady Christian,” praised Deacon Beacon.

“Fine.  Give your little ten percent.  Do without extra spending money for yourself.  Think upon what you can no longer have.  And do that for the rest of your life on Earth,” tempted Belial.

A little too confident, Destiny Shetlanders went on to ask him, “What can I lose that I do not need if I give what I want to to God?”

“Oh, a gold coin to buy here, a silver coin to buy there,” he said.  “Your precious bag of coins will never get filled up now.  Think upon that before you make a hasty decision that you will later regret.

“Oh yeah.  I forgot about my gold and my silver,” she said, remembering her sin of her waking life.

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“Girl, give God almost ten percent,” Belial tempted her.  “Give Him nine percent instead.  That way, after a while, you can at least buy a silver coin to look at and to hug.”

“I did love doing that,” she said in sweet remembrances.

“Drop it down to almost five percent instead,” Belial tempted her further.  “If you give God four percent, after a while, you can finally buy another gold coin to hold and to kiss.”

“I loved doing that,” she said again.

“Give up on tithing completely, girl, and after a little while, you can double the gold coins and silver coins that you have now so far,” tempted Deacon Belial.

“It is written, O Belial of Faux Community Church, ‘Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom.  For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.’  Luke 6:38!” declared Destiny Shetlanders in great Holy Spirit rebuke. “I will tithe and give offerings to my good Baptist church if I have to starve for it!”

Deacon Belial was struck dumb, and he could tempt the young woman with his words no more.

Deacon Beacon spoke again after she had prevailed over the hidden bogeyman and griffin who were making this dream, “Well done, good and faithful handmaid.”  God was in this vision with her.  And Beacon was speaking on behalf of God for Destiny.

“Oh, Deacon Beacon, would that I could tithe right now.  If I could I would do it right now,” she  promised.

“Oh, but good lady, you can,” said the deacon of Righteous Baptist Church.  And he raised his hand, and, lo, a church collection plate appeared in that hand.  He handed it to her, and she looked at it.

It was empty and waiting for her to give an offering.  And it looked exactly like the collection plate of her own Translation Baptist Church that she had always turned away from when it was passed down the pew her way.

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“If only I had my checkbook and my pen to write out a check for my tithing,” she said.

Behold, the good deacon conjured into this vision her checkbook and her pen and proffered them to her.

“Praise the Lord!” she said.  “Thank you, Deacon Beacon.”  With a weekly income from her grocery store job at a gross of $150, she promptly and properly wrote out a check for $15, and she joyfully put it in the collection plate.  Then she said, “How I wish that I had my wallet with me now, too, Deacon Beacon.  I want to give an offering in addition to my tithe right now if I could.  Could you bring my wallet here from my desk drawer?”

Lo, with the power of the Holy Spirit, the good deacon brought her wallet from outside this vision into this vision as well.

“Oh, I am so happy!” she said.  And she reached out and took her wallet and she pulled out a ten-dollar bill and did put that in the collection plate for her offering that Malachi mentioned in the Scriptures.

“I did it!  I did it!” she said, in rejoicing over consummate victory over her sin, whose victory had begun back the other day in the sand dunes.  “I am now an official tither of good Translation Baptist Church.  Amen!  Amen!”

Now Belial opened his mouth again, and he said, “Not quite yet, young lady.  It isn’t over until it’s over.”

“But what did I not do?” she asked.

“Beacon knows,” said Belial.  “Ask him.”

She turned to Beacon and asked, “What is it that I forgot?”

Beacon said, “You have to let Belial show you.  And then you will know whether you are the giver that God wants you to be or not.”

She turned somewhat angrily at Belial and said, “Test me!”

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And Deacon Belial conjured into this vision that she was not aware of as a vision her very own bag of gold and silver coins that she had remembered in this dream.  And Belial said to her, “Let’s see you tithe off of this!  Ha ha!  Now I know that you will never do that!”  Deacon Belial handed this treasure to her hands, and he said, “See?  See, Beacon?  I told you.  See how quickly she grabbed for her coins!”

Yet just as quickly did Miss Shetlanders at once set the whole bag of gold and silver right into the collection plate lock, stock, and barrel.  “I give these to You, O Jesus!” she prayed.

And the bogeyman and the griffin were vanquished in one fell swoop with this one hundred percent gift of money to God.

And just like that, Miss Shetlanders the younger found herself back at her bench outside by her cabin.  She saw the disgruntled visages of the tawny griffin and the black bogeyman, and she knew that she had beaten them in her vision, also, just as had the three before her in their visions.

She went on to praise the Christ Who gives His saints victory over temptation, saying, “Hallelujah!  Alleluia!”

Utterly at a loss for any more attempts at any more visions upon these four rocks of the faith who loved the Fabled Lands, the griffin and the bogeyman looked at each other with the evil spirits of demons provoked beyond reason.

Then Slayer the griffin spoke to this victorious woman words for the four victorious born again believers, saying, “There will be Hades to pay for this!”

And the incensed bogeyman said to her for the four of them, “Hell will open up her mouth and swallow the four of you!”

And without speaking further, the griffin and the bogeyman transformed into their temporary forms and fled away from her.  And Destiny Shetlanders praised and glorified Christ for having seen her through her great testing of vision.

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CHAPTER XVIII

“Christ the Lord is risen!” said Flanders Nickels.

“Christ the Lord is risen indeed!” said Proffery Coins.

The four believers were gathered together at these Fabled Lands now to celebrate Easter in autumn.  God was giving them rest from their labors.  They had persevered and prevailed and found victory in Jesus over their banes of visions from the bogeyman and the griffin.  And they knew that no more dreams of temptations were going to happen to them anymore.  And they were here now rejoicing in fellowship with each other in the name of Jesus.  Beautiful were these good sand dunes wrought by Christ.  The four were gathered together with their pets and their Bibles and their hymnbooks.

“Christ arose!  He lives!  Jesus saves!” proclaimed Flanders three titles of good Christian hymns.

“Amen!  Amen!” praised the four.

“Christ the Lord is risen today!”  proclaimed Proffery the title of another Easter hymn.

“Amen, and Amen!” praised the four.

“Whoof!  Woof!” barked Granger.  Gray gave forth a wolf bay.  Skies called forth her seagull

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song.  And Shires gave forth a whinny.

“Alleluia, guys!” said Gretchen Shetlanders.

“Yes.  Hallelujah, Big Sis!’” said Destiny Shetlanders.

“Let’s make a joyful noise unto God with an Easter hymn!” said Gretchen.

“Which one?” asked Destiny.

“How about the one that your boyfriend just talked about, Little Sister?” said Gretchen.

“Christ the Lord Is Risen Today?” asked Proffery.

“Yes, that’s the one, Proffery,” said Gretchen.

“Hymn number 137,” said Flanders.

And the four opened their church hymnbooks in this sand dune, and they began to sing here in the Fabled Lands, their pets listening and rejoicing with them:

“1.  Christ the Lord is ris’n today, Alleluia!

Sons of men and angels say:  Alleluia!

Raise your joys and triumphs high, Alleluia!

Sing, ye heav’ns and earth reply:  Alleluia!

 

2. Lives again our glorious King, Alleluia!

Where, O death, is now thy sting?  Alleluia!

Dying once He all doth save, Alleluia!

Where thy victory, O grave?  Alleluia!

 

3. Love’s redeeming work is done, Alleluia!

Fought the fight, the battle won, Alleluia!

Death in vain forbids Him rise, Alleluia!

Christ has opened Paradise, Alleluia!

 

4. Soar we now where Christ has led, Alleluia!

Foll’wing our exalted Head, Alleluia!

Made like Him, like Him we rise, Alleluia!

Ours the cross, the grave, the skies, Alleluia!”

 

Flanders then opened his Bible and declared, “Guys and gals, it is written about Easter, ‘To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God:’  Acts 1:3.”

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Destiny said about this Bible verse, “After His glorious resurrection, the real, physical Christ walked upon this Earth for another forty days, and then He ascended back up to Heaven.”

Gretchen went on to say about this verse, “It was a physical resurrection, and not just a spiritual resurrection.  It was the Lord Jesus Himself in the flesh—and not some spirit—Who was raised from the grave.  Remember how he stopped to have a meal with His disciples after His resurrection.  A spirit cannot eat a meal.  A real Person can.”

Proffery said, “Yeah.  You’re right.  I believe that that was the time when our risen Saviour had broiled fish and honeycomb with His Apostles.”

“I know another great Easter verse in the book of Acts,” said Gretchen.  “It is Acts 13:30-31.

Let me find it and read it.”  And she found it and read it out loud, “But God raised him from the dead:  And he was seen many days of them which came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are his witnesses unto the people.”

Flanders said now about this verse, “All eleven of the remaining Apostles saw Jesus after His resurrection, indeed some more than once.”

“Even Paul, also an Apostle, who was born out of due time,” said Proffery.

“And you know who the first one was who saw Jesus right after he arose on the third day,” said

Destiny.  “It was a woman.”

“Mary Magdalene, out of whom Jesus had once cast seven devils!” said Gretchen.

“Indeed, for those who do not believe in that first Easter, those who do not believe that our Lord  rose again on the third day, the Bible tells us that over five hundred Christian men all at the same time saw Him after His death and burial and resurrection, and He was very much alive and well when they saw Him,” said Flanders.

“As Paul said to Timothy in II Timothy 2:8,” said Destiny, “Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel.”  Then she said, “That is my Easter

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verse for today.”

“Let us hear the Gospel!” said Flanders.

And the four Christians chanted the Gospel, “Jesus died for our sins and rose again the third day!”

“It is written about the Gospel and its Easter message, ‘For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;  And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:’  I Corinthians 15:3-4,” said Proffery.

“That men and women may be delivered from Hell,” said Gretchen.

“And that we may enter through the gates into Heaven,” said Destiny.

“It is written in Matthew 28:6, fellows, ‘He is not here:  for he is risen, as he said.  Come, see the place where the Lord lay,’” recited Proffery.  “The angel of the Lord had said these words about the risen Jesus.  And this angel had a face like lightning and clothing as white as snow.”

“In a parallel verse, boyfriend, Mark 16:6, it says, ‘And he saith unto them, Be not affrighted:  Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified:  he is risen:  he is not here:  behold the place where they laid him,’” said Destiny. “Here the angel was described as a young man sitting on the right side and clothed in a long white garment.”

“Luke also has something to say about that first Easter Sunday on Earth,” said Proffery.  “In Luke 24:6, it says, ‘He is not here, but is risen:…’  Here it is said that two men stood by them in shining garments.  These were two angels who proclaimed these words to a group of women.”

“And all of these declarations and angels and people on that Easter day in those three verses were in Jesus’s now empty tomb, that cave in the earth from where He had arisen,” said Flanders.

“As the glorified Jesus told the Apostle John about His resurrection in Revelation 1:18, ‘I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen;…’” recited Proffery.

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“Like it says about Easter back in Acts again, chapter two, verse twenty-four:  ‘Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death:  because it was not possible that he should be holden of it,’ said Gretchen.  “And again in Acts 2:27, ‘Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither will thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.’”

“Would you guys like to hear me read about Easter from the book of I Corinthians?” asked Destiny.

“Ooo, Yes!  I Corinthians chapter fifteen, girlfriend,” said Proffery. “The resurrection chapter.”

“Let’s hear it,” said Flanders.

“Read it, girl,” said Gretchen.

“I Corinthians 15:12-20,” began Destiny.  And she read from the Scriptures out loud to the seven others here at the Fabled Lands, people and animals alike:  “Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?  But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is not Christ risen:  And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.  Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not.  For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised:  And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.  Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.  If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.  But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.”

“Well read, Little Sister,” said Gretchen.

Flanders exposited upon this passage and said, “Like it says, without the resurrection of our Lord and Saviour, all preaching is vain, and all faith is vain, and we are all still in our sins.”

Proffery added to Flanders’s words and said. “If Christ had not arisen from the grave, that would mean that He is now a dead God.  And a dead God can save no souls.  Only a living God can

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save souls.  And without Christ alive there can be no Saviour of the world.  And that would mean that there could be no forgiveness and no redemption and no hope for fallen mankind.  None of us Christians could someday come home to Heaven.  There would be no chance for any people in this life and in the life to come.  All born as human beings would have to go straight to Hell when they died.  Further, if the Lord Jesus had not risen the third day, there would be no Gospel message to preach.  There would be no reason for the four of us go to knocking on doors as we do, witnessing for Jesus.

Without the Easter miracle, all men and women and boys and girls would have no hope in this world and no hope in the world to come.  There would be no reason for Pastor to keep open the doors of our Translation Baptist Church.  There would be nothing for Pastor to preach to us.  The salvation tracts we give out every day would have no meaning.  There would be no truth to our words, ‘Jesus is the way to Heaven.’  Instead we witness-warriors would be liars.  Indeed what more can I say were our Jesus still in the tomb?”

Gretchen spoke now and said, “If our Lord were not raised that third day, we would have only this life in which to live.  Suppose that there were no living God, and suppose that we all returned to the dust from which we have come—like the animals of God’s creation.  Think now if instead of damnation awaiting us we had annihilation awaiting us.  What can be worse than burning alive in hellfire?  Maybe not being at all anywhere anymore.  With this in mind, what if God in this destiny of annihilation He might have for us because of no resurrection of Jesus, were to bless the born-again believers with a life down here abundant with the joys of Bible study and prayer and church?  We all four have these joys down here right now in our walk with the living Saviour.  But if we were blessed so richly with these joys with a dead Saviour, and we knew that someday we were going to be no more at all anywhere when our lives down here ended, what true joy could we get from worshiping Him if we could do that only in this life?  If we knew that our lives were going to cease sometime for forever after, and we would be six feet under, what satisfaction could we Christians get even with daily quiet

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time with our Heavenly Father in our temporary life?  The specter of death would ever make us think about the end of all that we are, an end of all that we do, an end of all that we know, and an end of all that we like.  Like the unsaved people of the world, we would say, ‘Let us eat, drink, and be merry; for tomorrow we shall die.’”  She then said, “But I can say in truth and wisdom, ‘Because He lives again, I, too, shall live again.’  And I will see Him There.”

Destiny then went on and spoke of what she knew would be so were not Christ risen from the dead:  “If my Lord were still in the grave, then I would never get to see my loved ones who died in Christ who have gone on before me.  And none of us would ever get to see each other again when our time came to die in Christ.  Death would part us asunder the one from the other.  And our lives down here in the Fabled Lands would only be a memory of happy times gone and never to come back.  And we four born-again believers would never be able to worship our God together in Heaven as we do on Earth.   As it says, however, in I Thessalonians 4:14, ‘For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.’  And I believe in the risen Jesus.

And so I also believe in the rapture of the church.  We four here in the Fabled Lands, because Jesus rose from the grave, have the blessed promise of the blessed hope of the rapture.  Is not our own church’s name a tribute to this glorious translation of us saints of all the world?”

Last, Flanders shared what he was thinking now about the empty tomb of Easter two millennia ago:  “If Christ’s body were still in that cave, I would never get to meet my three Bible heroes—David and Peter and James.  Because of Christ’s resurrection, though, Heaven will be abundant with all of the saints of both the Old Testament and the New Testament, all very much living.  I will see King David There—the man after God’s own heart.  I will see the Apostle Peter There—the only mortal man who had enough faith to walk on the water toward Jesus.  And I will see James, the little brother to Jesus Himself, a half-brother to the Lord.  And most of all, I will see Jesus Himself.  What a future I will have Up There with all the great people of the Bible and with Christ most of all.  And this awaits me

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in Heaven because of what God did on Easter long, long ago.”

Destiny asked, “How many different times did the resurrected Lord show Himself in those forty days between the resurrection and the ascension, do you think?”

Proffery said, “Pastor said, ‘ten times.’”

“I know the first time,” said Destiny.  “The first one who saw Him was Mary Magdalene as you all know.  She was crying because His body was not there in the cave anymore.  A man came up to her whom she thought was a gardener.  She asked him, ‘Do you know where they took the body of Jesus?’

And the gardener spoke her name, and she found out that He was Jesus.  And her sorrow was turned to joy.  And she quickly ran to tell His disciples.”

Flanders said, “In another time, the resurrected Jesus showed Himself to a group of women on their way back to the city to tell the eleven disciples that He arose.  He came to them and said to them, ‘All hail.’  And they fell down in worship and hugged His feet.”

“At one time, Jesus, after He had arisen, appeared to His good friend and bold Apostle Peter, also called ‘Simon’ or ‘Cephas.’  Jesus spoke to him and gave him needed encouragement when he needed it,” said Proffery.

“In one of those ten times,” said Gretchen, “he came up and joined two walkers on their way to a town called ‘Emmaus.’  This city was about seven and a half miles from Jerusalem.  As the three talked, Jesus sealed his two travelers with blindness as to Who He was.  He asked the walkers why they were sad.  And one of the two, Cleopas, asked Him if He had not heard how Jesus, Israel’s Redeemer

and mighty Prophet, had been executed just the other day.  They then said to Him here that they had heard that this same Jesus, now three days after his execution, was now alive again and walking around

the area again.  They told Him, ‘They found His tomb empty!’  Jesus, as He walked with these two travelers, then went on to preach the Gospel to them.  Then He opened their eyes with insight as to Who He was.  And they now knew that their fellow walker was Jesus Himself.  And he disappeared.”

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Destiny then said, “Among His resurrection appearances one time Jesus came to the ten Apostles sans Thomas.  Though the ten disciples, in fear of the authorities who had killed Jesus,

locked themselves in an inner room, in came their resurrected Jesus with the great power of God right through the locked door.  To encourage them, He said to them, ‘Peace be unto you.’  And He showed them the nail prints in His hands and in His feet.  And by doing this, He was telling them, ‘I am flesh and blood—not spirit.’  He then commanded them, ‘As My Father hath sent me, even so send I you.’

And He sat down with them to eat.”

Proffery then said, “And then there was that time he came back to the Apostles, and this time Thomas was with them.  Thomas, when he had been told by the ten other disciples that they had seen Jesus, did doubt.  Hence his name ‘Doubting Thomas.’  But this time Thomas could see the resurrected Jesus standing before him, and this time Thomas declared, ‘My Lord and my God!’  And Jesus said to him, ‘Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.’”

Flanders also said now, “There was also another time when He came up to all eleven Disciples all together in His resurrected body.  This time He came up to them in a mountain.  There He told them, ‘All power is given unto me in Heaven and in Earth.’  And there He gave them the commandment of the Great Commission:  ‘Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature.’”

Destiny said, “And also that time when He met them at the Sea of Tiberias.  Remember how Jesus had asked Peter there, ‘Do you love me?’  And how He asked him that three times?  And remember how Peter kept saying, ‘Yes, Lord.  You know that I love You.’  Jesus wanted to hear Peter say that he loved Him.  And remember how Peter kept saying, ‘I love You’ and how Christ kept saying, ‘Feed My lambs,’ ‘Feed My sheep,’ ‘Feed My sheep?’  The Lord was teaching Peter to love fishing for lost souls more than to love fishing for fish.”

“Yeah,” said Gretchen.  “But remember how Pastor told us that the resurrected Jesus appeared to five hundred men Christians all together all at once.  We heard it from Flanders, too, just a little

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while ago, here in the Fabled Lands.  Five hundred men like we twins’ boyfriends cannot be wrong about a thing like that, Destiny.”

“Jesus lived again,” said Destiny.  “And He still lives today.”  Then she said, “Then, in Jesus’s last appearing in those forty days, he met James, then all of the Apostles.  And just before His ascension back Up to Heaven, he gave them the commandment of Acts 1:8:  ‘But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.’”

Proffery said, “That was the fortieth day.  Then Jesus ascended in the ascension.  And it happened in the town of Bethany.”

“All because Christ arose, Brother,” said Flanders.

“Christ Arose!” said Proffery.  “Let’s sing that hymn right now in the Fabled Lands here!”

“Amen!  Another Easter hymn!” said Gretchen.

“Hymn number 138 in our hymnbook, guys!” said Destiny.

And the four Christians of the Fabled Lands sang this hymn up to Jesus:

“1.  Low in the grave He lay—Jesus, my Saviour!

Waiting the coming day—Jesus, my Lord!

Up from the grave He arose,

With a mighty triumph o’er His foes;

He arose a Victor from the dark domain,

And He lives forever with His saints to reign:

He arose!  He arose!  Hallelujah!  Christ arose!

 

2. Vainly they watch His bed–Jesus, my Saviour!

Vainly they seal the dead–Jesus, my Lord!

Up from the grave He arose,

With a mighty triumph o’er His foes;

He arose a Victor from the dark domain,

And He lives forever with His saints to reign:

He arose!  He arose!  Hallelujah!  Christ arose!

 

3. Death cannot keep his prey—Jesus, my Saviour!

He tore the bars away—Jesus, my Lord!

Up from the grave He arose,

 

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With a mighty triumph o’er His foes;

He arose a Victor from the dark domain,

And He lives forever with His saints to reign:

He arose!  He arose!  Hallelujah!  Christ arose!”

 

The four born-again believers shut their hymnbooks now in these Fabled Lands.  Their pets were silent and in awe.  The women said no more.

Proffery Coins spoke and said, “Our Good Lord Jesus Christ’s miracle of miracles.”

And Flanders Nickels said, “The foundation of the truth of the Christian faith.”

And God looked down from Heaven upon these dunes of sand, and He was well-pleased.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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CHAPTER XIX

It was mid-November now, and the eight were gathered together again in fellowship at the sand dunes.  All was quiet for them from the bogeyman and the griffin now.  A few weeks had passed since their great talk about Easter here.  And a feel of northern Wisconsin winter was now blowing upon the born-again believers here with a cool north wind upon these Fabled Lands.  And not long from now snow would soon come upon Beaver.  And this sand of God would be covered by snow of God.

Looking off to the south, Gretchen said, “I see a tiny little white cloud off at the edge of the horizon, and it is the shape of a man’s hand.”

“Aha!  The storm cloud of Elijah!” joked Destiny.  Both girls laughed.

Flanders and Proffery did not laugh.  They silently watched this cloud and rubbed their brows in anxiety and said nothing.   The women noticed this in the men, and they also watched this little cloud. This cloud began to float toward them.

Destiny asked, “Proffery, what are you thinking about?”

Proffery said, “This is odd.  The cloud comes from the south, but the wind comes from the north.”

Gretchen asked, “Flanders, is that an unusual thing to happen in the weather?”

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And Flanders said, “I don’t know.  The cloud looks more like white smoke to me.”

And this seemingly innocuous cloud moved in upon them with supernatural force.  Then it was right above their heads.  Then it stopped moving.  And it stayed there in the sky right above them.

Gretchen said, “It almost looks like it’s on fire.”

Destiny said, “If I jumped, my head would go up into it.”

And these Fabled Lands were now shrouded completely in this cloud’s spooky shadow.  The sun was gone now from these Fabled Lands from edge to edge.  This cloud was the same area of size as these sand dunes.

“Look!  It’s getting bigger!” said Flanders.

Indeed this white cloud began to billow out supernaturally to the north and to the east and to the south and to the west.  And as it did so it neither ascended nor descended.   And after a while, all of Beaver was clouded over with this intimidating cloud so low.

Then the white cloud began to turn into a gray cloud.  Thinking upon Destiny’s words, Proffery reached up his hand into this gray cloud to feel it, and he could not see his hand.  He took his arm back down out of the gray cloud, and he could see his hand again.  “Queer thing,” he said in apprehension.

“Are we going to die, Proffery?” asked Destiny.

“Only if our Good Lord wants to take us home,” said Proffery.

“I am afraid to die,” said Gretchen.

“We will not die this day,” said Flanders.  “Our God still has work for us to do down here.”

The wind became a cold wind now.  “I feel cold now in my prom dress,” said Gretchen.

“I, too, Big Sis,’” said Destiny.

The men, clothed in fall blue jean jackets, took off their jackets and put them upon the shoulders of their girlfriends.  The gals thanked the guys.  And the eerie gray light of day smothered the Christians with the feel of a familiar evil.

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Then a great and terrible force opened up the floodgates of rain from this eerie gray cloud, and a rainstorm of icy cold raindrops came down like unto the rain of a hurricane.  The eight were instantly drenched and cold and dripping.  No such storm of rain was ever unleashed upon the Fabled Lands before, nor would any such storm of rain to ever be unleashed upon the Fabled Lands again.  This rain was making so much noise that none of the four could hear what any of the other four were saying.  It became hard even to breathe.  The four squatted upon the ground in a pile with their pets and held each other for the sake of warmth.  And the Fabled Lands became a big puddle.

Then an explosion filled the skies.  What a thunder that one was!  It sounded like a bomb. Quickly more thunder began to boom from above.  And it began to sound like many cannons firing in battle.  Gretchen hid her head in her arms.  Destiny began to cry.  Flanders prayed.  Proffery quoted Scripture.  And the great storm of rain continued falling.  And now the sand dunes was filled up into a little pond.

Lightning lit up the gray cloud above and filled the air with electricity.  Bolts struck the water that the eight were in and stung them painfully.  It felt like punches in the upper arm. Their eyes began to water.  Some of the four were nearly hit with some of these lightnings.  And the gray was brightened by the white lightning.  And the great storm of rain continued.  And the sand dunes was now filled up into a little lake.  The believers now had to stand up here in the water.  Gretchen’s Shetland Sheepdog had to stand on his hind legs and brace his forelegs up against his mistress’s hip.  Destiny’s Shetland Pony, alongside his mistress, had to stretch his neck a little higher to keep his head above water.  Flanders’s seagull was perched upon her master’s shoulder.  And Proffery’s timber wolf made herself to float in the lake next to her master.  And the supernatural rainstorm continued falling from this very low gray cloud.

Then the sand dunes was filled up into a big lake.  And the eight had to flee these once pristine Fabled Lands.  And they all climbed up out of the lake and onto the dry shore of the adjacent field of

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grass and shrub and brush.  Behold, there was no rainstorm in this outer field beyond the sand dunes.

Not only was this land outside the Fabled Lands not flooded, but neither was there even one drop of rain upon its grass and weeds and bushes.  Here now the eight could hear each other.

And Flanders said, “There’s something rotten in the state of Denmark.”

Gretchen cried out, “Look what happened!  Our Fabled Lands are ruined!”

Destiny stammered and said, “The sand of our Fabled Lands are corrupted by evil.”

Proffery said, “We never had to escape our favorite place like this before.”

Flanders said, “I think that I know what this storm is.  Brother Proffery, do you remember our nefarious visitor who always came to tempt us, coming as a harmless little rainstorm?”

“I do.  Our adversary the griffin Slayer,” said Proffery.

“I believe that this big storm is also he,” said Flanders.

“Why, boyfriend, even he did not have this much power,” exclaimed Gretchen.

“Unless he were now endowed with power from Beelzebub himself,” said Flanders.

Proffery said, “Slayer’s silly little rainstorm, with a little help from Beelzebub, could become a most fell big rainstorm that could drown out our Fabled Lands.”

“What can we do to make it stop?” asked Destiny.

“I believe that we simply wait upon God,” said Proffery.

“Or maybe wait till Slayer thinks that he is done messing with us,” said Flanders.

“O, our beautiful, beautiful Fabled Lands, now washed out with rain and thunder and lightning!” lamented Gretchen.

And the eight stood upon the perimeter of the sand dunes and watched its great and ignoble destruction.

Suddenly the storm stopped. Behold, beside them on the dry field stood the griffin.  And Slayer said in great Satanic malevolence, “Hades has paid for this, Flanders, Proffery, Gretchen, Destiny.

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Just like I said it would.  Glory to the Great Grey Dragon!”

“Can it get any worse than this?” asked Gretchen.

“What can be worse than to see what has just happened to God’s Fabled Lands?” asked Destiny.

“We must expect the other demon soon to come, Destiny,” said Proffery.

“The bogeyman,” said Destiny.

And, behold, above the lake that was once a pastoral and placid dunes of sand, there appeared no longer the gray clouds of the griffin, but now the green clouds that indicated a possible tornado to come down.  It suddenly was indeed getting worse.  Then a scary, windless stillness filled the air about.

Then they saw a thin spiral of dark green funnel descend from the black cloud above down upon the lake above the sand dunes.  And they all heard what sounded like a railroad train.

Lo, a waterspout had come ravaging upon the remnant of the sand dunes, swirling up great buckets of water from the lake that was there now.  And, of course, it was coming toward the eight where they were standing.  This was the manifestation of the bogeyman that was once the harmless little whirlwind of dust and sand hardly any taller than the little black shadow of his normal form.  Indwelt by Beelzebub, now the whirlwind had became a redoubtable tornado that destroyed everything in its path.  And right now it was finishing the utter destruction of the holy Fabled Lands which the griffin had begun.  And now it was coming upon the four believers and their pets to destroy them from the earth and to finish them off in their ministry for Jesus.

Strong in the Lord and in the power of His might, Flanders, facing very real death this time, bravely spoke comforting words of scripture to himself, “’For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.’

Philippians 1:21.”

Putting on the armor of God likewise, Proffery also quoted from the Word of God here probably in his last moments of life in this Earth, “’We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.’  II Corinthians 5:8.”  And he was comforted of God.

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Likewise did Gretchen prepare herself to meet her God with a Bible verse of exhortation to herself, “’For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.’  II Corinthians 5:1.”

And so did Destiny encourage herself in this imminent death with a good Word of God, “’Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.’  Psalm 116:15.”

Shires nestled faithfully against his mistress’s right side.  Granger huddled up against his mistress’s legs.  Timber stood bravely before her master.  Skies perched obediently upon her master’s shoulder.  Gretchen reached out her hands to Flanders, and he took them in both of his.  Proffery offered his arm to Destiny, and she took it in both of hers.  And they knew that God was with them during this tornado that was the bogeyman.

And the mighty waterspout was skipping across the lake in the sand dunes right toward them, its

funnel cloud now drawing nigh to where they were standing.  And as it marched across the lake made by the griffin, it was drawing out the water of the lake back up into the skies.  The Christians saw the big lake subside back into a little lake.  The tornado drew nearer to them.  And the Christians saw the little lake subside back into a pond.  The tornado drew nearer, and the Christians saw the pond subside back into a big puddle.  And then the tornado was right there in front of them.  And the Christians saw the big puddle now subsided into bare ground once again.  And still God kept the believers and their beloved pets safe despite the proximity of this very real tornado.

Behold, this deadly waterspout now ascended back up into the skies.  And, lo, there stood the shadow-man the bogeyman in the field with them at the edge of the sand dunes.  And he declared, “Remember what I had promised, Destiny, Proffery, Gretchen, Flanders.  Didn’t I tell you that Hell would open up her mouth and swallow all of you up?  Well, I did it!  I had you all scared to death.

And it was so easy for me.  Not every demon gets to have Beelzebub indwelling him as I did as that waterspout!  The Great Grey Dragon does very good work.”

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Flanders spoke now and said, “Then where is this Great Grey Dragon now?”

“Oh, he’s gone now, back in the bottomless pit far away,” said the bogeyman.

“What was this great work that he was supposed to have done?” asked Proffery.

“Just look at your Fabled Lands now and see what I and Slayer have done with them this day,” said the bogeyman.

The four born-again believers looked upon their Paradise.  Behold, all of its sand wrought by the Creator was now washed away out of its demesne!  The sand dunes were now most harsh wet clay all throughout.  And the Fabled Lands were fabled lands no more.  God was no longer there.  And in shock the four born-again Christians began to step back away from this edge of their once-beloved

place.  It looked now just like any other place on the Earth.  And they no longer wanted to fellowship out there again.  Even their pets betrayed fear at that place that had once given them their greatest happiness.  The griffin Slayer and the bogeyman, with the great evil power of Beelzebub, had quite destroyed the beauty right out of the Fabled Lands that was once the most beautiful sand dunes in all the world.

The women felt like fainting.  The men had to rally to stay standing up.  The pets began to run away.   Nobody among the four believers could find any words to say.

Yet the griffin said, “Ha ha ha!”

And the bogeyman said, “He he he!”

Then the griffin said, “Would you like it if we brought it all back to you just the way it was before today?  Would you like your precious sand dunes to once again be all that it was?  We can make the Fabled Lands of God once again the beauty of original creation.  We have the power and the wisdom and the will to do that for you.”

The four believers in Christ found their senses coming back to them in their head upon hearing this promise.  They spoke not, but did nod their heads in the affirmative.

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“You four have to do for us just one small little thing,” said Slayer.  “Just do me and the bogeyman one small favor, and we will do you the big favor and restore to you your sandy paradise all brand new once again.  That’s a promise from us to you.”

The four believers wanted to believe the demon Slayer’s words.  There was nothing more that they had ever wanted before more than this restoration of their Fabled Lands that they wanted now.

They each secretly felt that they would do anything and give up all and even fall again into temptation from these two most effective tempters just to get back their most dear and beloved sand dunes.  They waited upon the griffin now to tell them what they had to do to have it all back for them once again

right in front of where they were standing.

The griffin and the bogeyman looked at each other.  The griffin said to the bogeyman, “Now it’s your turn.  Tell them what they need to do with us for us to give them back their precious little land of sand.”

The four, with bated breath, now looked upon the bogeyman and did await his words of stipulation.  And the bogeyman said, “All you four need to do is to fall down and worship us.”

These thirteen words woke up the good believers to the deceptive ways of all demons who make promises.  These good believers suddenly no longer desired the revival of the Fabled Lands’ sands at the cost of everything.  These good believers saw the griffin and the bogeyman for the incorrigible evil that they both were.  These good believers would not yield to the requests of the two minions of Beelzebub no matter what.  And these good believers were not going to fall down and worship this griffin and this bogeyman of the Great Grey Dragon Beelzebub.  Not now.  Not later.

And as the griffin and the bogeyman watched, to their utter surprise, the servants of Christ before them turned their backs on them and began to walk away from them and did not turn back to them.

“Hey!” called out the bogeyman.

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“Halt!” cried out the griffin.

But the demonic tempters were ignored.  And the good servants of Jesus kept walking away.

And the demonic deceivers were completely and ignominiously and soundly beaten at their own game.

The griffin and the bogeyman could do no more with them; they had enough to do with them; they wanted no more to have anything to do with them; in fact, this time, they were glad to be rid of them.

They were too much like Christ.  And, standing there alone together, both embarrassed and humiliated and ashamed, the bogeyman and the griffin watched the four servants of Christ and their pets walking away until they could see them no more.

Then Slayer said, “Let’s get out of here.”

And the bogeyman said, “Even the remnant of that sand dunes is bad news for us.”

Just then Christ Himself descended from Heaven and did stand before the two devils in His day of judgment upon the griffin and the bogeyman this day.

Slayer fell down upon his knees before Christ and did screech out at Him, “What have we to do with Thee, Jesus, Thou Son of God?  Art Thou come hither to torment us before the time?”

Falling down likewise before Christ, the bogeyman hissed out at Him, “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!”

And together the two demons begged Christ now, “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!”

The Good Lord Jesus looked upon Slayer the griffin and said, “’The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them that do iniquity;  And shall cast them into a furnace of fire:  there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.’  Thus is it written, O griffin of Beelzebub:  Matthew 13:41-42.”  Behold, a host of angels came down from Heaven, grabbed a hold upon the griffin, opened up the earth beneath into a chasm, and cast him down

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into Hell to burn in eternity, never to come out and work evil on the Earth again. And the ground closed back up.  And the host of angels returned back up to Heaven.

Jesus Christ then looked upon the bogeyman, and He said to him, “’So shall it be at the end of the world:  the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just,  And shall cast them into the furnace of fire:  there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.’  Thus is it written, O bogeyman of Beelzebub:  Matthew 13:49-50.”  Behold, that same host of good angels came back down from Heaven, grabbed a hold of the bogeyman, opened up the ground again into an abyss, and did cast him down to Hell to burn in eternity, never to come back and do his work for Beelzebub in the world again.

And the earth closed up again. And the host of the Lord’s angels ascended back up to Heaven again.

The Lord and Saviour then turned to look out upon the ravages that had once been the Fabled Lands.  He spoke one word to the place where the sand dunes had once been, “Revive!”  And the sand returned to the sand dunes.  And He restored his Paradise for his four blessed believers of Beaver..

And He made the Fabled Lands fabled once again to His glory as Creator and Maker and Designer.

And then He returned back to Heaven.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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CHAPTER XX

The four born-again believers and their pets were once again rejoicing in the joy of the Lord at the Fabled Lands.  The four Christians had indeed been most reluctant to come back here because of what they had seen happen to it the last time they were here—in that last encounter with the bogeyman and the griffin.  So afraid of seeing Paradise still utterly lost in their once celestial Fabled Lands, they had every day, since that terrible ravaging by the two redoubtable demons, agreed in consensus not to come back here.  And this had gone on for the seven days of one week.  But they, nonetheless, had to come back and see what it looked like.  And in a somber type of march, they and their pets had come back here to see what they had expected to still be a dead and morbid wasteland.  But, behold, sand!

And, lo, all was good and Godly with the Fabled Lands once again.

“This must surely be the work of Jesus Himself!” declared Flanders.

“Only Christ could undo the wreck that the bogeyman and the griffin had done to our sand dunes!” said Gretchen.

“Our Lord fixed this place up so well it is like nothing bad had happened to it,” said Proffery.

“And it looks even better now than it did before the devils had spoiled it,” said Destiny.

“Thank You, God!” praised the Lord’s most blessed children of the Fabled Lands.

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“I think that things will be different for us now for now on,” said Flanders.  “Things are getting better for us, and even better things are going to come to us after that.”

“You’re talking about Slayer and the bogeyman.  Aren’t you, boyfriend?” asked Gretchen.

“Where are they?” asked Destiny.  “Here it is late November, and they have not come to bother us now for a whole week now.”

“Do you know what I think?” asked Proffery.

“I think that I am thinking the same thing, Brother,” said Flanders.

“Might they be gone from us now?” asked Destiny.  “Are they not going to ever come back?”

“Maybe the same God Who gave us back these Fabled Lands may also have gotten rid of our tempters,” said Proffery.

“Could it be that they might now be in Hell?” asked Flanders.

“Oh, that would be so good for us,” said Gretchen.

“Brother, you were saying something about even better things to come even than these sand dunes made new again,” said Proffery.

“Yes, Proffery,” said Flanders.  “I feel it now in a way that I had not before.”

“I think that I feel the same thing in my Spirit now, too, as I walk around in these Fabled Lands,” said Proffery.  “Even greater things to come await us.”

Gretchen said, “But what can be better than living the rest of our lives here in our sand dunes with no more griffin and no more bogeyman?”

Destiny asked, “Big Sister, there is that one thing better even than here that we two sisters have been waiting for ever since we got saved.”

“Of course!  Heaven!” said Gretchen.  “Our Home forever with our Saviour.”

“We all four had known ever since we got saved that the Lord’s Coming was soon,” said Flanders.  “Remember how Pastor has been preaching these past years that the rapture is an imminent

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event.  Remember how he has been telling us at Translation Baptist Church that there are no more things that God has to do before He takes us Up.”

“The fullness of times is drawing to its close, Brother,” agreed Proffery.

“We believers will very soon go to Heaven, and we won’t have to die to get There,” said Gretchen.

“Our blessed hope,” said Destiny God’s promise of the rapture.

“Indeed of all places of God’s creation of sky and land and sea, only Heaven is a more beautiful Place than His sand dunes that we are in right now,” said Gretchen.

“Yes, Sister.  And even more than the Lord is here with us now in the Fabled Lands, He will be all the more with us then in Heaven,” said Destiny.

“The rapture could happen this very day,” said Proffery.

“Yes.  And the rapture could happen for us right here,” said Flanders.

“I’m ready,” said Proffery.

“I, also,” said Flanders.

“Better now than later,” said Gretchen.

“Better here than anywhere else,” said Destiny.

“It is written about Heaven,” began Flanders, “’For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.’  Hebrews 11:10.”

“Also is it written about Heaven, ‘For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country.’  Hebrews 11:14,” recited Destiny.

“Further about Heaven, God’s Word says this:” said Proffery, “’But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly:  wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God:  for he hath prepared for them a city.’  Hebrews 11:16,”

“And finally Hebrews says about Heaven in chapter thirteen verse fourteen, ‘For here have we

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no continuing city, but we seek one to come,” shared Gretchen.

“The city,” said Flanders.  “The city Up There called ‘new Jerusalem.’”

Proffery said, “The city prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.”

Gretchen recited about new Jerusalem in Heaven, “’And I heard a great voice our of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.’  Revelation 21:3.”

“New Jerusalem, prepared by God as a bride adorned for her bridegroom,” said Destiny.  “Remember how Revelation talks about ‘the marriage of the Lamb.’  Our Jesus is the Lamb.  We born-again believers are the bride of Christ; we Christians are the wife of the Lamb.  Revelation 19:8 talks about we four here the wife of the Lamb of God Jesus Christ:  ‘And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white:  for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.’”

“And let’s not forget about the marriage supper of the Lamb that we all four get to go to,” said Gretchen.  “Up in Heaven, we will get to eat a most great feast with our Saviour and with all of the other Christians like us.  Think of all the food.  Think of all the big tables.  Think of eating with God Himself!”

“New Jerusalem, the holy city, coming down from God out of Heaven,” said Proffery.  “A great wall surrounds this great city, and this wall has twelve gates, and these gates have twelve angels—one angel at each gate—and each gate has the name of one of each of the names of the twelve tribes of Israel.”

“And this great wall has twelve foundations, and each of these foundations has the name of one of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb,” said Flanders.

“And, also, our Lord will be the light of this new Jerusalem,” said Proffery.  “There will be no sun or moon or stars to give their light.  The glory of the Lord will be the city’s light.  There will never again be dark of night in this most holy city.”

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“And only those in the Lamb’s Book of Life—that is, those who are truly born again—will get to be in this great city of Heaven,” said Flanders.

“Oh, how my soul pants to be with God as the hart pants for the water brooks,” said Gretchen.

“Big Sister, my soul thirsts for God now, too,” said Destiny.

“I have a daydream in my fantasies about what Heaven will be like for me,” said Gretchen.

“Tell us, girlfriend,” said Flanders, eager.

“It’s about me and Jesus,” said Gretchen.

“Let’s hear it,” said Destiny, awaiting a secret she had never heard from her twin sister before.

And Gretchen said,  “I am going to have two beautiful little gardens in Heaven when I am There.  Guys, do you know what horsetail plants look like?”  All three shook their heads, “No.”  She said, “Well, one of my gardens Up There will be full of horsetail plants.  Horsetails are those strange little green tubes of plants which are divided up into partitions.  They are only about one or one-and-one-half feet tall.  And they are only a fraction of an inch across.  They are hollow.  And they have segments going up toward their tops that divide it into sections.  Mom told me that they grow in poor soil.  Well, mine in Heaven will be growing in good soil.  I am going to invite my Lord Jesus to come over and take a look at my horsetails.  And the same with my cattail plants.  I will have a garden of cattails that I will get to show my Saviour Up There, also.  Do you guys know what cattails look like?”

All three nodded their heads, “Yes.”

Destiny said, “Those are those tall plants that sway in the wind, and they have those big fuzzy brown heads on top.”

“Yes, Little Sis,’” said Gretchen.  “The Lord and I will walk around together in my two extra special gardens, and I will praise Him for His creation of these my two favorite plants that He created.”

“That’s a beautiful thing to look forward to, Gretchen,” said Flanders.  “Could I get to see them There with you, too, maybe?”

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“Oh, Flanders.  I would be thrilled to get to show you my horsetails and cattails,” she said.

“Or, as they say in biology class, my Equisetum and Typha.”

Destiny then spoke and said, “Do you guys want to hear what Heaven will be for me?”

“Yes!  Yes!” they all said.

“You all know all about John 14:2,” said Destiny.

Proffery recited it:  “In my Father’s house are many mansions:  if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.”

Destiny continued, “Well, we all four know that Jesus is saying here that He will build us four our own mansions to live in in Heaven forever.  You all know what my favorite food is in this life.”

“Bisquick coffeecake,” said Gretchen.

“Yes, and it will be my favorite food in the life to come, too,” said Destiny.  “And in my kitchen in the mansion built by Jesus, I will cook my dear coffeecake.  Jesus is coming over on a visit in Heaven.  I had will have invited Him over for dinner.  And He is on His way to my mansion.  He comes.  I let Him in.  We go to my dining room of my mansion built by Jesus.  And we sit down at my dining room table.  And we eat my coffeecake together for dinner—the Lord Jesus and I—all alone together. And to drink we will have cinnamon apple cider.  And He will say to me, ‘My daughter, this is the best coffeecake I ever had.  Thank you.’  And I will say, ‘You’re welcome, my Lord and my God.’

“This cinnamon apple cider, Destiny,” said Proffery.  “Would that be Speas Cinnamon Apple Cider?”

“The one in the big glass gallon bottle?” asked Gretchen.

“Uh huh on both counts,” said Destiny.

“I have a dream for Heaven, too,” said Flanders.

“Do tell us,” said the other three.

“I came upon it in my fancies from looking at a picture in a calendar of country scenes for one

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of the autumn months long ago,” began Flanders.  “In this picture was a small paved road in the countryside with no gravel along its sides.  Green grass grew right up to it on both sides of the road.  Just up ahead a little way off to the right was a little red barn.  To the left of the road was a green field of tall field corn ready for harvest.  To the right of the road was a golden field of wheat also ready for harvest.  I am here–”in that world of picture”–in Heaven, walking down this tranquil road barefoot, my spirit and my soul at utter peace found only Here in Heaven.  And on this road, I am walking to go and see Jesus at the end of this road.  I come up to the little red barn, and I know that now I am not far away from the end of my pilgrimage.  I thrill inside at the thought of meeting my Saviour.  He is sitting upon His throne, waiting for me to come and to chat with Him.  Then the host of angels in the skies above in Heaven begin to sing the Christmas Carol, ‘The First Noel.’  And I begin to sing ‘The First Noel,’ also.  So much happiness there is in Heaven.  And such beautiful rural places there is There that look just like that calendar picture.  And when I get to where Jesus is, I will fall down before His throne and worship Him.  I will talk to Him, and He will talk to me.”

Gretchen said, “Heaven’s country must be as beautiful as Heaven’s city.”

Proffery said, “Heaven’s countryside must be even more tranquil than Earth’s countryside here in Beaver.”

Destiny said, “Tell us your dream about Heaven, Proffery.  You must think about Heaven lots, too, being a believer all these years, like us.”

“My dream is like ‘a triumphal entry,’” said Proffery.

“You mean like in Jesus’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem?” asked Flanders.

“Kind of like that, Brother,” said Proffery, “except I see it happen right before my eyes in Heaven.”

Destiny said, “You could call it ‘Jesus’s triumphal entry into new Jerusalem,’ Proffery.”

“I did think of it kind of like being that, Destiny,” said Proffery.

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“Tell us your daydream,” said Flanders.

“Well,” said Proffery, “I am standing in my green grass of my front yard of my mansion.  Right along my front yard, only a few feet from where I am standing, is a street of gold.  Suddenly I hear an angel from Heaven’s skies declaring, ‘I am Gabriel, that stand in the Presence of God.’  Then I hear another angel from Heaven’s skies declaring, ‘I am Michael the chief prince.’  Then all the hosts of Heaven’s angels Above proclaim, ‘Behold, thy King cometh unto thee.  He is just and having salvation, lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.’  I now know that Jesus is coming down this street of gold right past my place.  I look, and I see a procession coming from my right.  I stare.  And there in the center of this procession is the very real and living Jesus, riding upon a donkey.  I can see God!  And God sees me!  I fall down in worship of Him.  And I bow my head before Him.  And I say, ‘My Jesus, I love Thee,’  And he stops before me.  He reaches out His hand to touch my head.  And He blesses me.  Then He proceeds onward down this street of gold.  And I look and see

Him off down this road now off to my left.”

Destiny said, “Hosanna to the son of David!”

Flanders said, “Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord!”

Gretchen said, “Hosanna in the highest!”

A moment of reverence toward Jesus filled the hearts of the four believers after this sharing of secrets about Heaven.  Then the four Christians opened up their church hymnbooks here in the Fabled Lands and sang together a hymn all about being with Jesus in Heaven:

In The Garden

 

“1.  I come to the garden alone,

While the dew is still on the roses;

And the voice I hear, falling on my ear,

The Son of God discloses.

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,

 

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None other has ever known.

 

2. He speaks, and the sound of His voice

Is so sweet the birds hush their singing;

And the melody that He gave to me

Within my heart is ringing.

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.

 

3. I’d stay in the garden with Him

Tho the night around me be falling;

But He bids me go—through the voice of woe,

His voice to me is calling.

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.”

 

Another moment of silence in awe of the great God passed among the four Christians in these sand dunes.  And they understood this moment.  And their pets also understood this moment.  And for this moment, the four pets walked away from their masters and mistresses.  And the four believers were now alone with God in these sand dunes.  And three words that officially began eschatology came down from Heaven to Earth:  “Come up hither!”  And Gretchen and Flanders and Destiny and Proffery came Home in the rapture of the church.

 

Here in the Fabled Lands’ sand dunes, benevolent and blessed and benign whirlwinds skipped about across throughout.  These were not the whirlwinds of a late bogeyman.  Nor were these rainstorms of a late griffin.  These were the deified whirlwinds of God the Holy Spirit, also called the Holy Ghost, indeed the Third Person of the Trinity.  These Holy Spirit whirlwinds were skipping about upon these sands in a ceremony commemorating the end of the church age, the end of the dispensation of grace.  This Holy Spirit was going to leave the Earth for a season.  Behold, the good and gentle whirlwinds all lifted up from the Fabled Lands and all ascended back Up to Heaven.  Behold, the Holy

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Spirit had now left the world for seven years.  When He would return, Christ’s Second Coming will have happened.  And the world would be a world without Beelzebub and without Bogeymen and without griffins.  And Christ would sit upon His throne in Jerusalem for a thousand years in the glorious dispensation of the Millennial Reign.  And four born-again Christians who had worshiped Him in the Fabled Lands would now worship Him in Jerusalem.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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