The Day the Telegram Came

By Annabel Santana

As believers, our lives can be turned upside down in an instant by unexpected crises and challenges that can shake our faith, fill us with despair, or radically transform our lives. How we respond to these challenges will be largely dependent upon what we believe, and what we believe will be dependent upon whose voice we choose to listen to. Jesus said that the enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy but that He came that we might have abundant life. But how do we experience abundant life in the midst of life's painful struggles?

In The Day the Telegram Came, we will take a glimpse into the lives of biblical and modern-day men and women who faced formidable challenges. Each was confronted with a choice-to believe the enemy's boisterous telegrams of doom, failure, and loss or to believe the promises of the One who came to bring us good news, to open blinded eyes, and to set the captives free. In choosing the latter, each encountered the miraculous and experienced abundant life amid seemingly impossible situations. As you read each account, you too will be challenged to trust God in the midst of your personal season of conflict, pain, and crisis. The choice is yours: telegrams of defeat or words of life-whose report will you believe?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Jul 5, 2021
• ISBN: 9781098087241

Book preview

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The Day

the Telegram

Came

Annabel Santana

ISBN 978-1-0980-8723-4 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-0980-8724-1 (digital)

Copyright © 2021 by Annabel Santana

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.

Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked MSG are taken from THE MESSAGE, copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Printed in the United States of America

In honor of Libby—

my grandma, mentor, teacher, and friend,

for your legacy of unwavering faith

and resplendent example of abundant life

beyond tears, tragedy, pain, and loss.

Looking forward to seeing you again.

Tan sólo espero ese día…

Foreword

There are those who feel that the Bible and its principles are difficult to understand and irrelevant. However, Annabel Santana, in her book The Day the Telegram Came, shatters any such notion. This book presents profound biblical principles but makes them relevant to everyday life. Chapter after chapter, I found myself drawn in by the real-world illustrations and how applying them would change my perspective.

On several occasions, I was compelled to stop reading to allow time to absorb the importance of what I just read. After reading one particular chapter, I was brought to tears. Annabel provided such a fresh glimpse of the love of God and beauty of the person and work of Jesus that my only response was tears of deep thanksgiving and praise. After reading another chapter, I asked Annabel if she would be willing to teach that lesson to the entire congregation—which she did.

Over the years, I have sat under Annabel’s teaching. She is soft-spoken but never fails to offer thoughtful and thought-provoking material. Her writings are the same. As you read The Day the Telegram Came, you will enjoy the story of each chapter, but by time you finish, the lesson of that story becomes melded into your own story. You will find this book thoughtful and life changing. If you want to have a better understanding of God, His Word, and what He has for His people, read The Day the Telegram Came.

Timothy Adour, PhD

Senior Pastor

Church of the Revelation

Preface

As I pen these words, our nation—indeed our world—is battling the ravages of a pandemic that has ferociously overtaken the international community. Peoples and nations that once touted themselves as powerful and invincible were brought to their knees and thriving economies brought to the brink of collapse by the invasion of a tiny, invisible yet formidable foe that arrived silently and unseen yet has infected and incapacitated many of the most vulnerable of our society. The tranquility and security that many once enjoyed have been displaced by fear, isolation, anxiety, and grief as daily we are bombarded by disheartening reports of disease and loss from medical experts and national leaders.

Life often confronts us this way. Our peaceful, tranquil routines and circumstances can be turned upside down in an instant and without warning by unexpected crises and circumstances or even by divine encounters that can shake our faith or bring us to our knees, fill us with despair, or radically transform our lives. Our faith in God does not make us immune to struggles and suffering that are inevitable in this fallen world; on the contrary, Jesus made it clear that in this world we will experience tribulation and sorrow (John 16:33), but He proclaimed that He had not only overcome the world but had come to give us abundant life (John 10:30)—to heal our broken hearts, to give us sight, and to release us from the enemy’s captivity and oppression (Luke 4:18–19).

For the believer, how we respond to pain, chaos, uncertainty, and tragedy will be largely dependent upon what voices we choose to listen to and believe. After four centuries of cruel forced labor, the people of Israel were miraculously delivered from Egyptian slavery through a mighty manifestation of God’s power that completely decimated the greatest and most powerful army of the day. Months later, as they stood at the threshold of the promised land, the Israelites received two conflicting reports from the spies that were sent ahead of them to explore the land:

a doom and gloom report from ten fearful men who focused on the magnitude of the giants before them and

a never-say-die report from two valiant men who acknowledged the reality of their circumstances but chose instead to focus on the magnitude of their God.

The people had a choice of which report to believe, and to their ruin, they focused not on the omnipotent Ruler of the universe who had slain Egypt’s armies right before their eyes but on the message of defeat fueled by the taunting enemy who reminded them constantly of their own human frailty as a throng of runaway slaves. As a result of their choice, they spent the next four decades wandering in a wilderness.

God still loved them—He fed them daily, protected them, and even ensured that their clothes and shoes never wore out—but because of their unwillingness to trust Him and to obey His word, none but the two valiant spies and the very youngest of the children ever entered into the land of promise and abundance that God had prepared for them and which was rightfully theirs as descendants of Abraham.

As we confront the painful challenges of our day, we too, like the people of Israel, will hear conflicting voices—the loud, boisterous telegrams of fear, failure, rejection, and doom from the enemy of our soul versus the gentle whisper of the living Word of God challenging us to trust and believe His promises of peace, security, restoration, provision, healing, and hope in the midst of life’s storms.

If we, like the people of Israel, choose to believe the report of the enemy, then we, too, will wander in a wilderness of fear, despair, bitterness, remorse, grief, and sorrow. God will still watch over and care for us, but we will fail to experience the fullness of the abundant life that God has prepared and ordained for us as His children. Regretfully, I as well as many other believers have needlessly wasted too much of our Christian lives in such a wilderness of shame, fear, failure, or defeat; but if we will choose instead to listen to and believe the Word of God, we will encounter the miraculous, enjoy greater intimacy with God, and experience real life—the abundant life—that Jesus came to give us.

In the midst of our current pandemic, the senior pastor of our congregation continually reminds us to speak life. Why? Because words matter. Words have power. Proverbs 18:21 (NASB) says that death and life are in the power of the tongue. The words we speak, and particularly the words we choose to hear, live by, and follow, can forever change the course of our lives. Such was the experience of the people of Israel. After wandering for forty years in the wilderness and watching their elders slowly pass away, the younger generation of Israelites and the two valiant spies once again stood at the threshold of the promised land. As he prepared to die, Moses gave them God’s prescription for life: love God, believe and obey His word, and live or turn your back on His word, follow after other voices, and die. Moses passionately appealed to the people of God: "Choose life!"

In the pages that follow, we will take a glimpse into the lives of several biblical and modern-day men and women who faced formidable challenges. Each had a choice to make: to listen to the enemy’s telegrams of doom, loss, and failure or to step out in faith amid the pain, chaos, and uncertainty and believe the Word of God.

My hope is that as you read these chapters, you will be challenged to believe God in the midst of your personal season of pain, temptation, doubt, and crisis. May you be encouraged to listen for His voice, trust His Word, and believe His promises. Don’t deny your pain, your fears, or your suffering; acknowledge the giants of your current reality, but like the two valiant spies, choose to focus on the magnitude of your God. Allow His Spirit to produce in you the hope, joy, peace, and patient endurance to sustain you in the midst of pain and loss, failure and rejection, storm, famine, earthquake, and pandemic. In so doing, you and I will be transformed, and we will experience life—abundant life—that can only be found in Christ.

Telegrams of defeat or words of life—whose report will you believe?

Chapter 1

The Telegram: An Introduction

An Introduction

We waited patiently for her arrival. It had been several years since she last visited, and the anticipation of her arrival evoked a myriad of emotions. To most