As He Said

By Julia Haynes

Paul and Mary Watson have lived a peaceful life together in their town of Kingstown. Paul has preached at a local evangelical church for the past twenty years. Mary has been an able helpmeet at his side. Together they have raised a family and are comfortable in their life as the head of their family. Adam is a young single male who has attended the same church. He has listened to Paul's sermons his entire life. Adam has been a member of the church for his entire childhood. Of late however, Adam has new questions. Those questions are not being answered to Adam's satisfaction by Brother Paul. Gavin is a local teenager who identifies as a Christian and who participates in the local high school Bible club. He has a younger sister who is a cheerleader in that school. They both were born and raised in this same community. Their parents both have successful careers and are leaders in the community. What happens in a community of friends and neighbors when new rules are introduced? What effect do these new rules have on faith and fellowship? How can the acts of outside hostile forces affect a community and its people? And can these forces successfully change long-held beliefs and practices? Can beliefs and practices that have been held for over two thousand years be erased and new rules written?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Covenant Books, Inc.
• Release date: Oct 13, 2020
• ISBN: 9781644683460

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As He

Said

Julia Haynes

ISBN 978-1-64468-345-3 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-64468-346-0 (Digital)

Copyright © 2020 Julia Haynes

All rights reserved

First Edition

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Covenant Books, Inc.

11661 Hwy 707

Murrells Inlet, SC 29576

www.covenantbooks.com

Table of Contents

Section 1

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Section 2

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

My Heart Sings

When the mighty trumpets roar

When the mountains are laid low

When my Lord he does return,

My heart sings.

When the preacher tells

An old, old story,

When the saints with joy sing

Songs unto my Lord,

My heart sings.

When the homeless, my Lord does shelter,

When the hungry, my Lord does feed,

When the naked they are clothed,

My heart sings.

When men’s hearts are made of stone

When life is sore and unjust,

Then when my Lord races in

To save the lost and sinful sheep,

My heart sings.

Section 1

The Beginning of Sorrows

Chapter 1

The Son of God sat still as he gazed downward toward earth. Jesus was watching his children on earth as they scurried around, busy and distracted in whatever motivated them at that moment in time. One busy mother, while driving her children to school, was talking on the phone with a disgruntled customer. A child sat in her third-grade class listening to her teacher droning on about participles and incomplete sentences. A father was busy opening his coffee shop for another busy day of service. All types of humans—man, woman, and child—were busy working or being entertained, distracted as always from the things of God. Very few of the earth’s inhabitants were aware of the coming storm. Very few understood how that storm would forever change their lives.

The Son of God sat and listened, and he heard the prayers of His children. Jesus listened as faithful servants, believers, prayed for the welfare of their neighbors, their towns, and their countries. He listened as His children prayed for the health of their nations and the health of their families. Jesus listened as those who had lost loved ones grieved and cried in pain at their loss. He listened as His children asked for forgiveness for their sins. He listened as they prayed for the end to greed, lust, murder, sexual immorality, pornography. And the list of sins and grievances continued on and on and on. There seemed to be no end to the depravity that man was able to sink toward.

And then the darkness began to move and envelope more and more of the culture and of the city-states. For the love of money, man began to enslave his fellow man and to sell to the highest bidder what belonged to God and what was created by God. Man began to remake himself to change the image that God created into something else, something darker. Pagan images and idols began to increase and to be placed in public places. Sex was no longer seen as a gift from God to be enjoyed in the bonds of marriage. No longer was marriage seen as a holy bond between a man and a woman. Sex was sold everywhere and to anybody. Sex became whatever one wanted it to become. Men slept with other men. Women slept with other women, and children were defiled for the mere pleasure of another person.

The coarsening of society demanded that humans stop looking to God. Church attendance declined dramatically. The less that humans opened their Bibles, the less that humans read of God’s Holy Word and the less guilt they felt as they pursued their own agendas and their own wants and desires and the more man continued to remake himself in something other than God’s image. In this world, it became increasingly more difficult to profess a belief in Jesus Christ.

Jesus sat and watched and wept. He watched as hate continued to fill the earth. He watched as a milky, black evil began to cover the earth. He watched as Satan filled the earth with his hatred. He watched as Satan attempted to remake man into his own image. Jesus watched as Satan attempted to pervert every good thing that God had created. Jesus wept when man complied.

Chapter 2

Paul had been a preacher at the local Baptist church for the past twenty years. Paul was fifty, married to the same woman for the past thirty years. Paul was five feet and nine inches and was slightly balding. Physically speaking, Paul was unremarkable. He still retained his light-brown hair and had eyes to match the hair. Paul generally seemed to be a happy fellow and had a smile for anyone that he met throughout the day.

Paul and his wife, Mary, had been married a year after their high-school graduation had occurred. To all appearances, the marriage seemed to be happy and stable. Paul and Mary had raised two boys and were the proud grandparents of three grandchildren. Mary was a homemaker and had remained at home in order to raise her children and be at home with them. Mary maintained her home in such a way that the home was a refuge from the chaos of the outside world.

Mary was a bright and very capable fifty-year-old woman who loved to laugh. Mary loved her family and spent her time ensuring that their needs were met. As her husband was the pastor of a church, Mary was involved with her church family as well as her local community. Mary loved the Lord, and Mary loved that her husband had spent his life serving the Lord.

Paul and Mary began the day with prayer, and they ended the day with prayer. This had been their daily ritual since their first day of marriage. After their children had grown and left home, Mary had settled into the ritual of spending more time working at the church and ensuring that parishioners’ needs were met.

The church in which Paul and Mary ministered was in their midsize rural town of Kingstown, Tennessee. The church was a small white wood-framed building that was built in the early 1800s. There was a brick addition which added a kitchen and two bathrooms. Otherwise, there was the main church building which included the dais from which Paul preached weekly and the cushioned pews where the church members and visitors sat. The baptismal was located behind the dais where the preacher stood. This was a no-frills, practical church that was dedicated solely to the spreading of the gospel.

Just as other churches