Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: The Pen is Mightier than the Sword (04/08/10)
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TITLE: The Power of True Love | Previous Challenge Entry
By Lisa Johnson
04/11/10 -
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I remember the night of the raid just like it was yesterday. The clouds had covered the moon, so there was no light. There were a lot of new recruits on the squad, so everyone was pretty edgy. But… this was what we had been trained for, so we were ready.
We had gotten a tip from a local snitch that a group of subversives had obtained some serious contraband and were holding a secret meeting. We had to go pretty far off the beaten path to find the old barn where they were meeting. Once we had the place surrounded, the Captain gave us the signal to move in.
I gripped my rifle tightly as I kicked in the doors of the barn. What I saw in the lantern light took me by surprise. There were women and children in the group, and they were all gathered around some stupid old book.
I thought to myself these Christians must be crazy. Surely they knew the penalty for having a Bible in their possession. After all, the Bible had been banned, and Christianity outlawed. The New World Order would not go easy on any of them, not even the children.
We herded them, like cattle, into the vans that would take them to the Detention Center. They didn’t even try to put up a fight, although we troopers were itching to give them one. They all started singing some insane song about standing up for Jesus. Religious fanatics the lot of them, they were holding on to some hokey religion, and some fairy tale god.
The Captain ordered me to burn down the barn, and to burn the Bible with it. To this day, I cannot explain what happened after that. Oh, don’t get me wrong… I burned down the barn alright… but… that Bible wound up tucked inside my flak jacket.
I guess it was the notion of having the last Bible in America… and no one would even suspect it. I didn’t ever intend to read it. I thought I could make a killing off of it on the black market, then we could arrest the Christians who bought it. I could see how it might become a very profitable venture.
Alone in my quarters, I felt drawn to the book. The soft, brown leather cover and the sepia pages beckoned to me. I tried to fight it. It didn’t make any sense. My hands were shaking as I opened the book and started to read… “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth…”
I put the book down, picked up my rifle and started cleaning it. What was I doing? I did not believe in God. God was just a crutch for weak-minded people. And, as far as I was concerned, Christians were the worst when it came to being weak-minded.
Still… something kept drawing my attention back to the book. Back to the Bible.
The more I tried to resist, the more powerful the urge became. The rifle forgotten, I opened the book again. Once I started to read, I could not make myself stop. I was like a starving man who had found himself seated before a king’s feast.
God became real to me in the pages of the Bible. Truths that I had never heard before started to chip away at the propaganda I’d believed my whole life. I had been indoctrinated into a life of hatred and vengeance. The Bible showed me the power of true love.
It became clear to me why the Bible had been banned. It became clear to me why the New World Order viewed Christianity as such a threat… why we had hunted believers down… why we had killed them.
The Bible told me “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come.”
I had never prayed before. I didn’t really know how to pray. One thing I did know… my old life was full of guilt and shame, and I didn’t want any part of it.
Now, I have a new life. It’s a dangerous life, that’s certain. But… I am not afraid. I live in earthly shadows, moving from one underground church to another. I know the risk I’m taking. I could be apprehended, at any time, by soldiers of the New World Order. But… for now… I’m spreading the Light of God’s love with the last Bible in America.
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Scripture References:
Genesis 1:1 NIV
2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV
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