meeting.
Varvel Returns to Williams
Back in Williams on Wednesday, Carl Varvel was again on the move looking for the Bookseller. He had another message from Iran, and as he walked to the warehouse, he still wondered what this could possibly have to do with the National Security of the United States.
Opening the envelope, the Bookseller’s whole countenance changed. He understood immediately what was meant by the message from the Iranian brothers. “Margaret, come here and look at this,” he said, walking into his study away from the ears and eyes of the waiting Varvel.
“Every message is more intense and more direct. Whether this threat is against America, clearly it is increasing in urgency, and the battle for the hearts and minds of the people is where it will be won. There has never been a comparable period in our lifetime where the spiritual issue has so clearly been drawn. These messages from the Iranian brothers seem to affirm what God has been showing so directly that it almost appears to be from the hand of God Himself.”
“I think, you’re right, Samuel. This note seems to be clear guidance from God,” Margaret said as she read again:
Brother, the days are now much shorter, and God’s protection is essential to prevent disaster and open eyes to deception. Don’t believe what you see. Ezekiel 3:17, Jeremiah 8:11, 15.
“When I read this, I almost want to turn off all the news channels and throw away the newspaper,” the Bookseller responded.
“Don’t be silly,” she answered tenderly but forcefully as only a wife can. “You must hear and read what the public is hearing and reading to know how to pray and how God would have you respond when He gives you the opportunity to speak. How can you identify the deception if you hide in a cave? Clearly, this message refers to the false video offer of peace which some have already foolishly embraced, and the verses are instructions to you. Please don’t start the ‘why me’ stuff. It is you because God has called you.”
“I surrender to you and to God,” he responded. “The verses are clear. I am accountable to God as a watchman appointed to warn the people, and I am not to be out there like others saying ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace.
“The one that really troubles me is that last one, Jeremiah 8:15.” He read, “‘We hoped for peace but no good has come, for a time of healing but there was only terror.’ Hope is not going to get us through this time. God will protect us, or we are finished just like biblical Israel and Judah. Whose side is America on? That remains the question.”
Taking the paper, the Bookseller paused to pray as he prepared his response for return delivery to the unknown brothers in Iran. He marveled at how God used them to encourage him and hoped that the day would come when he would meet them in this life.
The note read:
My dear brothers, please pray as Epaphras in Colossians 4:12 that I be as the man described in Jeremiah 23:22.
Once again, Carl Varvel was off for the return trip to Iran.
Preparations for the Morrow
In the physical world, those under the influence of the competing powers moved for good or ill accordingly. What was seen in the Bookseller and others with the light inside was contested by the actions of those whose minds were directed by Keepers for the forces of darkness. From Cambridge, Massachusetts and major US cities, the leadership coordinators for MD made their way to Phoenix, Arizona. They traveled under the cover of the American Teachers Society’s annual convention which was being held at the Kierland Resort in Scottsdale. There, in a secret gathering, final plans would be made for the March 11th attacks.
In Washington, the president had made his final plans for the secret trip to Williams for the memorial service. The Secret Service had objected with all the authority and influence they could muster, but the president had reminded them who was president, and that was the end of the discussion. Covertly, David Barnes and Tom Knight were to travel with the president and Janet under the cover of darkness. The president was strangely at peace as the journey began, looking forward to an opportunity to finally meet the Bookseller, yet still unsure what he was to say at the memorial service.
In Williams, another kind of final plan was being made. The three surviving terrorists from the original group of eleven were preparing themselves for what they hoped would be a series of attacks beginning in the morning at Kingdom Daycare. As they readied themselves to kill and die, darkness descended upon them, and anger and hate flooded their hearts. Their motivation was no longer their reward — they wanted only to hurt and kill and cause pain. Had they known of the president’s plans to attend the memorial service, they would have shifted their target, but they were ignorant even as the rest of America. Pastor Scribes, the Bookseller, and Paul Phillips had felt a strong compulsion from the light inside to guard their knowledge that the president was coming to Williams. The secret had been kept, and that alone would preserve the president’s life in the coming day.
Elsewhere, Susan Stafford still could not sleep. It was that sound again, the crying of the children. She could not shut it off. She had heard it before and knew what it meant, for The Curtain again had opened briefly, and she heard the sound of the children’s angels crying out to the Father for their protection. In her compulsion, she had called the office of the Citizen’s Militia and begged to be assigned to guard Kingdom Daycare. She sensed the risk was there, and that was her assignment from above. After much argument, Sam Will gave in and authorized her to be a part of a two-person team in the morning assigned to Kingdom Daycare. Knowing the physical limitations that resulted from her wounds, he assigned himself as the second member of the team and arranged to pick her up so they could travel together.
Susan had finished her letter. She sealed it in a plastic bag, then placed it carefully in an inside pocket of the new red jacket she had been given to replace the one in which she had been shot. She felt a sense of peace that was absurd when she considered her circumstances. She was a woman with no hope; a killer who now understood the full measure of the evil that had so dominated her existence in those months of the shooting spree. She deserved nothing but a slow and cruel death for all the pain she had caused. That she knew, but she no longer feared the second death, for she had come to believe that even she could be forgiven and be born again — and she did — the light glowed brightly in her heart.
In the invisible, there had been great rejoicing among the forces of light when God did that which only He could do and changed Susan’s heart by the new birth. “These humans do not understand God’s holiness or God’s love,” Barnabas began. “Because God is holy, all sin merits the second death, but when Jesus died, it was to offer the opportunity of forgiveness even to the vilest of all sinners.9 Remember Saul of Tarsus who became Paul. He was a lot like Susan. He killed and imprisoned innocents simply because they were believers, and yet God forgave and used him.10 God did the same for Susan because she, like Paul, came to the place of understanding her sin and God’s choice.11 She chose wisely.”
“Glory,” Lucius replied. “Even now I am still overwhelmed at God’s mercy which is available to all.”
“Yes,” Manaen replied, “but she still faces the earthly consequences of her sin. I wonder how God will allow that to play out?”
“We may see tomorrow,” Barnabas answered.
Another post had been completed earlier that day and was uploaded to the Together We Pray website. It had taken some time, but the Bookseller finally completed a short piece to send to the believers of the world. As he prayed and wrote, he was mindful of everything the Iranian brothers had said and the verses they had directed him to. He felt insufficient because he
