The Apple of His eye Mentality: Encouraging the Olive Trees and Fruitful Vines

By Marion Victoria Green

What happens when we keep experiencing the dry and broken bones of faith? We all do at some point in our lives, don't we? It's easy to follow a path that is already created, but when we have to make our own path, the word "difficult" cannot begin to cover it. In fact, we rarely know what the next step is. Most people fear the unknown, especially w

• Language: English
• Publisher: Marion Victoria Green
• Release date: Oct 17, 2014
• ISBN: 9780692419373

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

Can our struggle to fulfill our destiny make us lose sight of God? If you never experienced this before, many believers can morosely assure you that this can and has happened more often than we would like to admit. One or two people might even pat you on the back in pity, because they know your turn is inevitable. Of course, no one has seen God face to face and lived to tell about it, but in the midst of contending for our faith, it might seem as if His presence, which we see with a spiritual sensing, is no longer tangible. Unexpected trials and pop-tests of faith can confound believers; suddenly, we can become uncertain in the face of God’s silence. We question, I am going through so much right now. And God – can He even hear me?! I can’t find Him! Internal panic may ensue with more private, painful questions, as we wonder how to handle the situation without His voice. We try to figure out where we went off the tracks and how to get back on. We attempt damage control. Finally, we don’t know what to do. So we wait and hope God answers us or gets us out of this jam so we can move on with life. When we recover, the questions begin again. Does God see me? Do I really have a destiny? Is He going to help me with it? Is this thing that I have been dreaming about mean anything or is it just fluff and clouds? While Adam and Eve may not have asked those types of questions, they do know how it feels to be confronted with information that directly contradicts all that we think we knew about God when it comes to our own skin. For a moment, they lost sight of Him.

There is something special about walking into a green, shady garden or cooling goodness of an orchard. However, I will be the first to admit that for years, I lived in fear of all types of snakes leaping out at me from low hanging branches, or that one might arch and recoil from the hiding places of green, fruitful vines in a strike against a vulnerable ankle before I had time to react. This was especially true if I was in an apple orchard. My active imagination seemed intent upon envisioning a serpent pretending to bite me and then laughingly snap his nasty little fingers, and attempt to wink a cold, lidless eye as if to say, I gotcha!

As humans, most of us have experienced the distasteful impact of a false rumor that attacks our characters. It’s just like a snake in a tree, isn’t it? If there is a tree in a warm climate, you know there is a possibility of a snake being in or around that tree, but it becomes a terrible, unwanted shocking reality when it is an accidentally discovered fact! It’s hard to deal with something like that from a place of dignity and calm. Imagine a false rumor as a poisonous verbal snake destroying the healthy cells of your reputation that you have built through honesty, decency and integrity. It seems so unfair that someone could be able to taint that reputation and to break down the ability of others to trust in your character just because of what someone else said.

Many times, a rumor happens without a reason visible to the naked eye. However, if one were to take a closer look and listen in on the mind of the conjurer of that rumor, one can begin to see that behind the words is emotion. That emotion, whether jealousy, envy, hatred, hurt, rage, is the catalyst for the rumor. It doesn’t matter if the offense that driving the emotion is real or imagined. What matters is that the person instigating the rumor has taken the first visible steps in hurting the person for which the rumor was perpetrated.

That’s what Absalom did to his father, King David. His tactics were truly cold-blooded. In essence, he told the people that David was not judging the kingdom correctly. He was undermining his father’s authority so that he could destroy him and take his position. He did this out of a place of wounded hurt, and misplaced thoughts of vengeance on David for David’s inaction in a situation that occurred with Amnon and Tamar. David didn’t try to quash the rumor. There was no way for David to put out the fire that threatened to consume his life and the lives of his family and kingdom. He simply ran for his life and put his hope in God’s mercy.

How can we get a rumor recalled? No matter what we say, there are some people who will believe that rumor anyway, even when it goes against the very nature of what they know to be true about your character. No matter how you run to put out the flames of what has been said, you will never extinguish every hotspot. How can we fight a lie when words are not able to be seen and snatched out of the air to be destroyed? Only God can invalidate a rumor and re-order a situation so that it works out for our good.

This event that happened to David is only one example of how a rumor can turn into the murder of your character. But then there’s that little thing with the apple.

Who put it into our heads that an apple was the original tree at the root of all mankind’s problems with sin? In Christian lore, the apple has gotten a pretty bad reputation as the fruit that caused Adam and Eve to fall into disgrace with the Lord and to be cast from the Garden of Eden. Thus, the apple tree has gotten the by-product of a bad reputation by being the progenitor of that fruit. But the bible doesn’t state that it was an apple tree that they were not supposed to touch; rather, it was the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil which wasn’t supposed to be eaten. And that fruit was eaten with all of the relish and pure delight that indulging in a moment of sin can give a person seconds before his eyes are opened in a different perception of his natural reality – facing the consequences.

Satan, using the serpent, essentially started a tiny rumor mill with Eve. He altered her perception of the truth. What he intimated was this: God isn’t truthful or trustworthy. Because Eve believed this, and chose to use her female powers of investigation to conclude the matter herself, both Adam and Eve fell to a temptation that opened their eyes. This new perception of the world, eyes and souls that now had an awareness of sin, caused them to feel naked and vulnerable, ashamed, self-willed, and disconnected from God. In a response to these feelings, they made coverings of fig leaves for their bodies, hid from the Lord.

If God were native to Louisiana, He’d simply have said, Adam! Where ya et?

The discourse, following the Lord’s presence in the Garden, was not because God didn’t know where Adam was or what the couple had done – it was to review what had occurred, so that Adam and Eve could discuss what they had done and how it had happened. It was the first opportunity ever for humankind to confess their fall from grace, repent, and renew the first broken fellowship. That didn’t occur. Adam and Eve systematically placed blame according to hierarchy. Therefore the Lord dispensed to them the consequences of their actions and the grace to lessen the impact of their consequences. It reminds me of how parents ask their children about some mischief their children have gotten into, even though the parents know what occurred. They just want the children to come clean willingly, because often a confession mitigates the consequences. When those darling, innocent cherubs don’t come clean, the punishment is greater.

The Adams’ first act of rebellion against God’s authority was the act of eating the forbidden fruit. The second act was the refusal to accept the blame for their actions. So, you see, the act of Adam and Eve’s eating the fruit did so much immediate damage that God found it necessary to shut Adam and Eve out of the garden after sacrificing an animal to mitigate their sin.

However, in His mercy, He clothed them with the animal’s skins to protect them against the elements that they would have to endure outside of the Garden of Eden. Then He placed a cherub armed with a flaming sword (Some people want and have tried to locate the Garden! It is fascinating to them, and as fascinating as it is to me, I am daunted by the thought of a powerful angel cutting me with a flaming, swinging sword) outside of the Garden to protect it from all sides, so that no one could access it again. Certainly, we can’t think that the fruit or seed of that tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil got a chance to physically leave that place, only its effect. Like a crack in the foundation of a home, that effect grew bigger and bigger until it affected all of humankind, the earth and all life forms in it.

Have you ever found yourself observing a tree in its seasons of growth? We pretty much understand that anything created in nature is unique visually and physiologically. In essence, we perceive with the eye that one type of tree is not at all like any other. For instance, apple trees are not like olive trees are not like orange trees are not like nut trees. And trees are not like vines. In fact, if you want to provide year after year sure support to a vine, just plant it by a tree and watch it climb.

The humble apple is not the most popular fruit in the world, though it certainly makes the top ten lists of successfully marketable fruit. Even though it’s not a panacea, it does its job of being desirable and useful. A quality apple is sweet, refreshing and delicious when eaten raw. We can add it to cooked dishes, pastries, and drinks, and make it into vinegar. And while the apple promotes healthy gums and teeth, its roughage is good for the digestive system, and actually helps in combating fat storage. Is it any wonder that the Lord doesn’t signify the pear, peach, or orange as the apple of His eye? No, He leaves that distinction to apples. But what does God really mean when He is referring to the apple? Could it be that He meant something entirely different than what we surmise through modern language? Quite simply, yes: another word for the apple of the eye is pupil.

It’s amazing that there are over five hundred and sixty scriptures in the NIV bible pertaining to the eye, many of which use the eye symbolically. The eye has its own preeminence because it is the visual witness to events that occur around us. It downloads those events to our minds so that we have a cognitive awareness and a picture memory of events. With the eye, we pick up nuances to help us discern situations. Or choose to ignore them by turning a blind eye. The greatest compliment to the eye is that God uses it as a metaphor to convey His omniscience and omnipotence in our lives.

The pupil – it’s just a small black hole in the middle of the eye. It can’t be that important. All it does is let in light. No, it doesn’t. It does so much more. The pupil dilates or refracts according to the strength of the light that shines into the eye. When there is more, the pupil closes to restrain that light. When there is less, the pupil dilates to accommodate the situation. The pupil even changes size with our emotions.

How would you like to find favor with a very wealthy and influential person who has no limit to expendable income? What if you found out that, unbeknownst to you, you always had this relationship? What if you could go to them at any time of day or night and ask them for help without hesitancy? Well you do! God has all power in His hands, unlimited resources and the willingness to favor you! It’s not wrong to go to Him and petition Him for your heart’s desires. The scriptures reveal that biblical characters routinely asked to find favor in the eyes of people and in the eyes of God. Further, God Himself, when pleased by the righteous conduct of some of His people, would bestow upon them His favor. By stating to a particular individual that he had found favor in His eyes, God was clarifying something for him in terms that he could understand. God was using a physical object, the eye, to convey a deeper spiritual, more intimate cognitive meaning.

Favor is essentially a reminder from the person extending it that he is aware that there exists some type of legitimate covenant relationship. Favor is more than just an expression of benevolence or approval. It conveys the action of applying the goodness of one person’s life to the life of another so that they will in turn benefit from that favor. Think of favor as the spiritual key that gives us access to the blessings that we could not receive in our own strength. In Genesis 6:8, the bible says that Noah found favor in God’s eyes because of Noah’s status as a righteous person existing in a corrupt society. Because Noah had this favor, God was obligated to make sure that Noah would survive the flood. In addition to God’s protection, God’s favor caused blessings to come upon Noah’s life to be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth.

There is a curious saying that the eyes are said to be the window of the human soul. However, this is not a part of scripture. My personal thought is that it may be based upon Jesus’ saying that a dim eye is an evil eye and an eye full of light is full of God. In other words, the only way that a person’s eyes can be dim is to be turned from God. The only way a person’s eye can be full of light so that the body is full of light is to have their spiritual eyes fixed on God. So fix your eyes on God. He certainly has His eyes on us.

It is with His eye that God looks into our hearts. He can look into the heart of a nation just as easily as He can for an individual. There are eleven references to the apple in the NIV bible, and, four of those references answer specifically to these apples that God has set His heart on to love and protect. Deuteronomy 32:10 states that God took care of Israel, doting on them as the apple of His Eye. David’s prayer in Psalm 17:8 was that God keep him as the apple of His Eye. Solomon tells the person he is instructing in Proverbs 7:2 to keep his teachings about the laws and commands of God as the apple of His eye. Then, in Zechariah 2:8, God again refers to Israel as the apple of His eye. He says, Whoever touches you is touching someone so close to My heart that I will take strong offense and do something about it. I will watch over you, I will move things around in the spiritual world and upset the natural order of the world to give you my blessings of life and prosperity. We have His unmerited favor, God’s statement to us that He is the God who sees us, just as Hagar proclaimed.

It’s amazing, the perception that we have through this sensory organ called the eye. It can look into our own soul and recall memories. It is an organic picture and symbol processor. It is the perfect data storage device. And yet, even with all of its known scientific information, the eye is still a beautiful mystery. The human eye can see almost unlimited distances. If the human eye is this wonderful, just imagine being the center of the eye of God all the time. You can be if you want to. I am not saying that you won’t ever experience sorrow in that position. Even God experiences sorrow. But you will be carefully cared for and directed, so that whatever dream or destiny that God has in mind for you will be fulfilled. You must remember this or you will lose sight of God. Once this occurs, you will delay own destiny. Maybe you will become so fatigued that you will shelf it. But it’s still there, waiting on you to expect God to move. You know, even if you do lose sight of God, He never loses sight of you.

Think of it in terms of your own eye. A reasonable person will not let someone else jab them in their eye. If a foreign object does make contact with our eye membrane, it is immediately irritating, and that irritation will not cease until we have removed the object. How much more must we protect the pupil, which is the window not only to the soul, but to the light which allows us to see the world which surrounds us. Because we are the apples of God’s eye, He protects us from harm.

Did you know that we have what science considers a third, internal eye? Yes! It has the same cones that differentiate colors in the refraction of light through our external eyes.

Here is something to consider: as the apples or pupils of God’s eye, we are used by God to bestow His favor on others. This is what blessings are about. When God favors us, He in turn desires us to be directed by His eye of favor upon the life of another. Are there times when you have been pricked in your heart to give someone money, or help someone, or even feed someone because they were hungry and didn’t have a way to provide for themselves? This is the time when you, being the pupil of God’s eye, see a situation that God has illuminated in order that you step in and handle it as His representative. This is largely what being the pupil or apple of God’s eye is all about. You, the pupil are just a black hole, a void without meaning, until the light of God fills you and gives you vision.

In light of this, I want to offer you one small challenge. Don’t worry; it won’t cost you anything but faith. I want to engage you to begin thinking in what I call the Apple of His eye mentality.

CHAPTER ONE

THE INDENTED IDENTITY

Who are you? It seems like such an easy question to answer, doesn’t it? But think of this - how can we define who we are if we don’t know where we came from? I’m not speaking of physical genetics. Some people live their whole existence without finding out exactly who their birth parents are. Others never get insightful information about their parents, because it was never forthcoming. Still, no one can ever really know another as deeply as we would like. We simply cannot define ourselves completely by tracing our physical genealogy.

Your identity is not in what you do. What you do is merely an occupation with your uniqueness branded on it. You Are.

Then, what do I mean, Who are you? How can I even begin to ask that question if I then say lineage does not determine who we are?

Ok, let’s just agree that in a physical way, lineage has a lot to do with who we are. However, the spiritual reality always supersedes the natural reality. Because all things are created by and through the Spirit of God, it is initially formed in the spiritual world. From there those things appear in the natural world. In other words, before you had a physical body, God had already created you in the spiritual realm. This is the place from which you manifested, or appeared in a physical body at the moment of conception. This is why the Lord could say to Jeremiah, Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations (Jeremiah 1:5)." You existed spiritually outside of the confines of time before you ever entered history in a physical body.

Suppose that I were to suggest to you that by knowing who God is, you can gain the true understanding of who you are? That’s right. You cannot fully define yourself. Only the person who made you (the one who formed you in your mother’s womb) can give you the full disclosure on you! You came into this world through a veil of water, blood, pain and God's joy over you. You are defined by your very existence as a creation of God. That’s wonderful news, because, He made us in His image, and in His likeness - and He desires you to be reborn so He can cause you to achieve the destiny He has always had planned with you in mind.

Who is God? Well now, that is such a loaded and unfair question that I am a little ashamed to ask it. How can I ask that when every person who comes into contact with the Lord and has a meaningful conversation with Him has had to ask Him personally Who He Is? He literally has to tell us, I am the Lord your God. He revealed Himself to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as God Almighty. When Moses asked God who he should say sent Moses to the Israelites, God told him to tell them, I Am has sent you. He further goes on to say that His name is YHWH and that this is His name forever. God constantly reveals information about Who He is the more that He dialogues with us. He desires for us to know Him. It is crucial to know just who you are calling more than you can clarify the reason why you would need to. Think of it in terms of dialing a phone number. 

What happens when we dial that phone number? The hoped for result is that you will get the person you are calling for, because you know the person for whom you should ask. If someone has to ask you who you want to speak with, you should at least be able to provide a description of them or what they do that sets them apart from other people. For example, when you dial 911, you may be asked if you need police, fire or ambulance. If you don’t know what each department is and what they do, this could leave you in pretty dire straits. God wants us to know Who we are calling.

Remember when we first learned that our natural father’s name was not just dad? He had another name that represented other associations: husband, uncle, brother, son, boss, and man, for example. As we matured naturally and mentally, we were able to ask the meaningful questions that received answers to who our fathers were. In other words, they filled in the blanks of missing knowledge that we, as children, could not perceive because we had only related to them as male, father- love, comforter, strength, discipliner, attached-to-mother, and teacher.

Well, just as with earthly fathers, we have to learn about our heavenly Father. If we don’t always have the vocabulary to adequately describe the unique, strange, beauty and workings of a single-celled organism, how can we fully describe or attempt to deny the existence of Almighty God? We could speak for a thousand years in ten thousand languages and never fully define him. We can only allude to Him by the names that we learn to call Him as we have been introduced to Him, as we have needed Him, and as we perceive Him. God fills in the blanks about Who He is as we continue to walk with Him in fellowship.

When we call on Him by Who He says He Is, we are agreeing with Who He states and proves Himself to be by His very nature. Suffice it to say, He has made Himself known to the world since creation began, and in many ways. He’s the Father, the El Shaddai, the Holy One, the Adonai, El Elohim, Yahweh, Jehovah, the Rock, our Shield, our ever present Help, our Comforter, Jealous, the Ancient of Days, our Healer, our Redeemer, our Lover ; He has an inexhaustible list of names that apply to what we need Him to be. But it all points back to who you are to Him.

So who are you? You are His masterpiece, the Apple of His Eye. This conversation that I am having with you is my attempt to show you how to develop some insight into His mentality about you – The Apple of His Eye Mentality – as you journey into the destiny that God has strategically planned for the unique and special individual that He designed you to be. Without understanding this, we run the risk of being a spiritual Jane and John Doe.

DON’T BELIEVE IT

I have been reading the bible for most of my life, since I was a kindergartener, but it did not make sense until I was saved and filled with the Spirit in November of 1996. With all of that power blowing into me, I was convinced! That proved to me that the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord. Wisdom is putting to action the directions that God gives us for spiritual living and natural living. God commands for us to reverence Him, but He will not force us to do so. He has designed the word to give you peace - He will not be at war with you to pull you to His heart.

Reading the bible consistently is part of our peace plan. We find that much of the chaos and bad feeling we may experience is washed away by the word of God, because the word washes our soul. Our mind and our heart house the will, the emotions, thoughts and memories. Quite simply, this is our soul. Without the Spirit of God, we can only understand the bible intellectually; it’s like expecting to find lots of oil in the soil just because it’s dirt.

If you believe that you have a stable self-identity besides Christ, what is it? Some people speak flippantly about God, and they say that they know they will never experience any type of loss because they rely on their own good, sound, financial planning, or their mention that their family has always enjoyed abundant health and plenteous goods. The Lord blesses everyone. He calls it raining on the just and the unjust. It is certain that they do not realize that the benefits which they are experiencing may just be God’s way of showing His goodness so that they will get to know Him. They rely on their strength and cunning. Some have even quoted bank account figures, home values, spousal income, self-income, accomplishments, their children’s achievements, their intelligence, their cars, or they just do the name-dropping game all day.

And people should be happy when they financially prosper, but if their identity was in Christ, they could find contentment in saying, I am a disciple of Christ, and let it go. Everything else is subject to change. Ask somebody who used to be a broke, homeless, jobless, childless, slowly - walking nobody who now is somebody in Christ.

If you don't believe that God exists, look at your blessings; if you don't believe evil exists, look at the nightly news.

EXCLUSIVE REAL ESTATE

What will eternity be like with God? It’s a mouth-watering, delicious thought. I trust that it will be very orderly, very gratifying. There will be no more sin, violence, death or crying, or pain. No night time. No loneliness, no hunger, no homelessness. Instead, there will be love, there will be peace, and there will be plenty, shelter, decency and order. We won't need miracles or prophecies. Miracles are events that occur outside of our own ability-who can make man out of dirt and breathe life and conscience into him? Miracles provide hope and validation that God is able to do everything He says. Prophecies point to the revealing of the Lord Jesus Christ as Messiah and Savior of Mankind from sin and the eternal consequences of sin. By the time Christ comes into the millennial reign, everyone, not just believers, will know God’s ability. There won’t be any need for proof through miracles or prophecies.

In the new heaven and the new earth, we will always be in the will of God and in the presence of the Word of God. We'll be with the Lamb doing administrative things. Everyone will be somebody who does something with true purpose.

We all have a part to play in life in the here and right now, because our natural lifespan is eternal on-the-job training. This training requires that we be assigned roles in different types of relationships. It doesn’t matter if that relationship is personal or business. Some people are better than others at fulfilling their roles, but unless we are just like Jesus, the roles are necessary for everyone.

You may be the CEO of a company, large or small. You may be the janitor of that company. The title is significant only in this time frame. In eternity, what will be of critical importance is how you actually handled your assigned position. Would the records show that you did it with excellence, or did you barely do enough to get your pay stub?

This life is only a test run of stewardship. It's the school for our eternal life. Just like elementary school, high school, and college prepares us socially, mentally, and with the tools that equip us to entrench ourselves in a desired career path. In life, we learn stewardship through our relationships with people. Life situations develop our trust in God in the hard places. We learn to go through trials without quitting. After the trials, we gradually learn to appreciate the good and beautiful blessings of everyday living. In this life, we have to make natural choices according to what is spiritually right and wrong. In eternity, we must deal with the consequences of those choices.

In eternity, the equation is made straight, true and easy to solve, because the sacrifice that Jesus Christ made on the cross will have eradicated (destroyed) sin and death, making those two things a non-factor for those who chose Christ for life in the here and now. Is this just a figment of the imagination? No, heaven is a real place. It is the throne of God. The bible seems to infer that the reason we are not able to see it is because God has hidden it as treasure. It, like the presence of God, is too pure for us to try to perceive using our natural eyes.

God is so pure that if we were to behold Him within the context of our natural bodies, we would be destroyed because of the impurity of sin in our flesh that was genetically passed down to us through the sin of Adam and Eve. God purifies, or makes purely holy, everything He touches. That’s right; the purification process of His total presence would destroy our natural bodies completely, because no good thing is in us. Isn't that a mystery? But then, it's a mystery to me how He made evergreens to stay green perpetually, or how fish spawn, or how birds sing so beautifully. We cannot put God in a box, or try to intellectualize His every facet. We would just sound pompous.

What will eternity be like with God? According to biblical description, it is unimaginably beautiful, and we just have to be patient in our wait to see this amazing place. So many people deny that they came from somewhere and entered into life and time, and when they die, they will exit out back into eternity. But that doesn’t make it untrue. Everyone comes from somewhere. That somewhere is from God. Will you choose to go back to Him? There is no pain in this world that will equal the pain of being separated from the sensation of Love, which is a gift that comes with God. How do we access God’s presence? We have gracious admittance through Jesus Christ. He is the gateway to the inheritance of the eternal kingdom of heaven.

I hesitated to tell you this, but there are two major events that occurred in my life when I was five years old.

The first event will always be a marvel to me. I began to think. That doesn’t seem so marvelous, does it? When you add in that from every moment previous to this age, I was slow of talk and slow of speech, the ability to think coherently was a gracious miracle of God. It was like my mind was locked, though my body was free. I found it difficult to articulate and grasp concepts. I cried often to explain without words what it was I needed. It was not simply that I was spoiled - my mind was foggy. The only way that I knew how to communicate was through the sounds I had been making since the time of my birth. I was so mentality challenged that upon my initial school screening for placement, I scored so low on the findings that I was placed in a special education class. My mother fought this placement, of course. I believe she was in denial.

However, within that year, I was introduced to the bible by my grandmother. From it, I quickly began to read quite fluently. My imprisoned mind unlocked. From there I began to be able to understand and articulate concepts clearly. On the next year’s placement screening, I was placed in a regular class, where I excelled so quickly that it was determined that if my parents so desired, I could be moved up a grade. It was determined that I was operating on a college-level intelligence by the end of the sixth grade. To some, this would only be an insignificant miracle. This will always be an abundant latter rain for me. Oddly, my parents never allude to that time of challenging development.

The second occurrence was a little more frightening. I was about five years of age when I had a vision. In its beginning, I was reflecting on the wide expanse of sky and the free feeling of expanding and being loved, when a stranger came to me, smiling and playful, in red outfit that completely encompassed his body from head to toe, with only hole that made his face visible. In his hand was a large winnowing fork. He invited me and literally many other children to begin playing with him. The games involved playing a type of follow-the-leader which ended with us following him below ground and into the earth. As soon as we went into the darkness, we discovered we could not climb back out. And more people were coming in behind us; we had no way of letting them know that they shouldn’t play with this man and come into the pits. It smelled like burning matches and rotted meat. No light, only sounds of suffering. I was crying too. The fun man had tricked us and it was no longer a game or fun.

That weekend, I preached my first sermon on heaven and hell to a sold- out crowd of siblings and cousins