The primary aim of the "Novel Excerpts" blog category is to showcase my creative writing, specifically from the novels I've written. Hopefully, these posts will provide a glimpse into my storytelling style, themes, and narrative skills. It's an opportunity to share my artistic expressions and the worlds I've created through my novels.
The Boaz Scorekeeper, written in 2017, is my second novel. I'll post it a chapter a day over the next few weeks.
Sunday morning came suddenly. At daylight, I left the office and went home. I was exhausted so sleep came easily. Karla woke me a few minutes before 9:00 telling me she and Kaden were headed to Sunday School. I told her I would see her for the worship hour. They left and I continued to lay in bed wondering what Wade’s sermon would be, or whether he would be at church at all.
I guess it was just too much to ask Pastor Wade to abduct and kill his wife on Saturday and to present a powerful and persuasive sermon the following morning. David Adams introduced our visiting preacher, Brent Danforth from Oneonta. He was an older man, tall, heavy, and balding with a voice that reminded me of Brother G from Clear Creek Baptist Church.
Danforth preached on slavery, giving credit to internationally known John MacArthur for the primary substance of his sermon. Danforth argued all believers were slaves of Christ. He did a very credible job of reviewing New Testament scriptures calling attention to how most English versions of the Bible avoided the subject by mistranslating the Greek word as servant instead of slave. Danforth argued that servants were free, they did a job for a wage, but that slaves had no freedom at all. They were owned outright by their masters and did what they were told, when they were told to do it. He did a good job of making our slave-hood to Christ appealing, saying that Christ makes us His sons, and gives us full rights. He adopts us into His family, calls us joint-heirs with Christ, and finally takes us to Heaven where we join Him as rulers having lavish riches poured out on us, forever enabling us to enjoy unmitigated wonder while basking in the light of His own glory.
I particularly liked Danforth’s take on those who teach and lead the church. He argued that not only were believers who sat in the pews, slaves, but pastors themselves were slaves to Christ. He said, referencing MacArthur, that ‘the Apostles took this identification to themselves. The most noble authors of the New Testament took this signification to themselves.’ Danforth then referenced 2nd Timothy Chapter 2, verse 24: “The Lord’s slave must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged with gentleness, correcting those who are in opposition that perhaps God may grant them repentance, leading to the knowledge of the truth.”
As the choir began singing the invitational hymn, I couldn’t help but wonder if Wade had watched on TV this morning as Danforth delivered his sermon. If he had, did he believe that yesterday he and James were merely slaves carrying out Christ’s orders? No sane believer would ever reach this conclusion, not if he focused on the New Testament. But, what if this hypothetical believer focused more on the Old Testament? There, God had an entirely different take on slavery. Or, so it seemed. There, God gave instructions on what happens to a slave’s family after the slave has served his master for seven years. It all depends on whether the slave was married when he came to be his master’s slave. If so, his wife and children could go free with him. If the slave had taken a wife after becoming a slave then the wife was not free to go with her husband. She continued to be the property of her master. But, Danforth hadn’t brought up the Old Testament at all. And, he hadn’t said anything about how nowhere in the New Testament does Christ condemn the slavery that was an integral part of life in the Roman Empire. No wonder Wade could be deluded, especially if his primary allegiance was to the God of the Old Testament, who clearly condoned hardcore slavery and even murder of those who gather sticks on the Sabbath, and girls who are not virgins on their wedding night.
The worship hour ended with no confessions of faith or requests for membership. It also ended with Wade and James no doubt plotting their next move.
The Pencil Driven Life 