“How did you know?”
“Richard, he tries to do it to all of us. He's still going to come after you, even though he's lost you today, because he wants to discredit you and to make you ineffective with others. But now you belong to God, and you can fight back with God's miraculous power. Richard, God can do anything, even help us fight Satan.
“In case it hasn't hit you yet, there's a spiritual war going on. Satan wants Janet, Susan, and Tommy. You're now the spiritual head of your family. Rejoice in what has happened today, but get ready to do battle. Like all of us, you'll need all the help you can get, meaning the Holy Spirit and other believers. I'm sorry, Richard—I didn't mean to get so serious, just when you're first feeling the joy and the power of God. But Satan is very definitely here among us, and he would like nothing better than to destroy our loved ones.”
Richard, realizing he had a lot to learn, nodded to Court and walked back to his office, where his coat was still thrown over the chair. He smiled at Mary on the way by her desk. “Have you had a good morning, Mr. Sullivan?” she asked.
“The very best one ever,” he replied. “I just let God find me!”
He left her with a puzzled look, walked into his office, hung up his coat and sat in his chair. He was about to call Janet and invite her to lunch. Then he remembered that it was Thursday, and he was supposed to see Kristen in ninety minutes.
Kristen had shown a home to clients early that morning and was reviewing her listings at her desk in the office when her phone rang. She put down her coffee and answered.
“Kris. Hi. This is Peter Dowling in San Francisco. How are you?”
“Peter. Long time no see. I'm fine. How are you?” she replied, happy to hear from the man with whom she had had a “fling” at the end of college. He had been a journalism graduate student, a few years older than she was, and now he was working for a big newspaper in California. They had not seen each other in several years.
“Listen, I'm coming out your way this weekend. I wondered if you would like to go out, maybe on Saturday night?”
Kristen hesitated for a second and then said, “Sure. I'd love to see you. I think the symphony is giving the last concert of the season. It should be good. Would you like me to try to get tickets?”
“Sounds great. I arrive tomorrow morning and will be staying at the Carlton Hotel. I'll call you when I get there. It'll be wonderful to see you again.”
Kristen could hear the genuine anticipation in his voice, and she remembered the happiness they had shared during their two months together. “Me, too. I'm glad you called. See you on Saturday.”
She had barely put down the receiver and picked up her coffee when the phone rang again.
“Kristen. Hi. Listen, something has come up, and I just can't make it to lunch today. I'm sorry, but it's important.”
Remembering the teddy she had laid out on her bed that morning and the thoughts she had been having about their “lunch” for days, she was terribly disappointed. “But, Richard, you couldn't come on Tuesday, either, and I was planning something special for us today. Why do you always have to cancel us? Why don't you postpone the other meeting?” she pushed.
Richard knew it would be impossible to explain on the phone all that had happened to him that morning, and he also knew he had to make a break. He just couldn't see her that day. “I'm sorry. I really am. But this other matter has sort of overwhelmed me. I just can't come.”
“I hate it. But if you have to. You will be here on Tuesday, right?”
“Uh…yes. Sure,” Richard replied, not really knowing the answer, but wanting to end the conversation.
“All right. Call me later. I want to see you.”
“I will. I'll try to explain better then, when we have time. Goodbye.”
Kristen again returned the handset to the telephone. She had so wanted to see Richard. The teddy was out. Could she wait until Tuesday? As she sipped her coffee, she remembered that Peter Dowling had said he would be arriving the next day. She thought to herself, “I wonder what he's doing tomorrow? Why do we have to wait until Saturday night to get together? Maybe he just thought it wouldn't be proper to ask me out on such short notice. But what if I ask him out!” And she looked in her Rolodex for the telephone number she had kept for him.
Janet was surprised to receive a call from Richard so early in the day. “Is everything all right?” she asked.
“Dear, it's fantastic. I've got to tell you about what happened to me. Are you free for lunch?” he asked quickly.
She couldn't remember the last time her husband had invited her to lunch, and she could hear the excitement in his voice. “Are you talking about the prayer breakfast?” she asked.
“Yes, and more. Can you get free? Say 12:30 at the Cafe Grille? That's about halfway between us.”
“Sure, Richard. I'll change something around and be there. My curiosity is up now. Goodbye, dear.”
Sitting at his desk, looking out at the city, Richard felt brand new. He felt younger and lighter and happier. He wanted to call people and shout the good news to them. He took out his phone book, looked up a number, and dialed Bob Meredith.
When Bob answered, Richard described what had happened with Court Shullo just thirty minutes earlier.
“Richard, that's wonderful!” Bob said with obvious joy. “Praise God. Let's pray.” Richard had never prayed on the telephone before, but he was open to trying anything Bob suggested. So the two men bowed their heads, and Bob thanked God for Richard's deliverance. He then prayed for protection for Richard and his family. He concluded by praying for similar experiences and protection for all the men who had attended the breakfast.
When they finished, Bob said, “Why don't you and Janet have dinner at our home this Saturday? I know that Anne would like to see Janet again. And I think Bobbie has been talking to Susan about trying our church, so why don't you come on Sunday morning as well, all four of you?”
“Bob, you've done so much for me in the last few hours, why don't you let us take you two to dinner?” Richard replied.
“Next time. This time you come to our place, and we'll cook out. Casual. OK?”
“I'll check with Janet at lunch, but it sounds great. I was also going to ask you about your church. Thanks for inviting us. What time does the service begin?”
21
THAT AFTERNOON – Richard arrived early at the Café Grille and found a booth. He could not shake the feeling of being a kid again. He knew that what he had been through and what he had to change were as serious as anything he had ever experienced, but the joy still lingered. And when Janet walked in, for the first time in a long time he smiled at the sight of her.
“Hi, Richard. You look like the little boy who just found the buried treasure,” Janet said, returning his smile and sliding into the booth across from him.
“Maybe I did…I had to see you today, and tell you what's happened to me,” Richard began, reaching across the table and cupping her hands in his. “I can't really explain it, but I found God this morning, Janet. Or He found me. No, really,” he continued as she made a questioning face. He went on to tell her about the men who had cared enough about his salvation to ride to the hotel with him, to take his car for him, and to carry his briefcase to his office, without even attending the breakfast themselves.
“And Bob Meredith told me he called you for leads on people from our past who might have a strong belief. These were waiting for me at my place.” He handed her the note from Henry Coker and the placemat from the Petersons. “And, Janet, every man—I mean hundreds of us—had notes and placemats at our places. Can you imagine what that took to organize? I realized riding over here that all of that unselfish work and love was just a small way for those believers to prepare us for the incredible love of God.”
The waitress came and they ordered soup and sandwiches. “Yes,” Janet responded when the waitress left, “Bob called me for some names and asked me not to tell you. But I didn't realize they were doing the sam
e thing for every man at the breakfast.”
Richard went on to tell Janet all the details of the prayer breakfast, especially Ben Fuller's message. He had just finished when their lunch arrived, and as he took the first spoonful of his clam chowder, he said, “But the most important event happened a little later, at the office.”
Richard slowed down and told Janet about praying with Court Shullo. As he spoke, she was at first skeptical, then realized that something powerful had in fact happened to her husband, though she could not really understand it. But he seemed different. She noticed it in his face. And he almost looked as if he was sitting up straighter. It was crazy, she knew, but he looked younger and happier than he had looked just that morning. How could that be? What had happened to him?
“After we prayed, Court told me that I need to pray and to read the Bible daily and to find a church where we feel comfortable—I know that's a leap, Janet, to say ‘we,’ but I hope you will try it. The whole point is to begin a relationship with the One who made us, who loves us, and who wants to empower us to defeat the devil, who is out to destroy us.”
Janet sat for a moment, not speaking. “Wow!” she finally said, smiling and shaking her head once. “You've had quite a morning! In six hours you've acquired a belief in both God and the devil.”
“Yes,” he replied, looking in her eyes, “because I've seen what God's power has done to and for others. I've also felt His power, for the first time, in me, and I've realized that almost everything I've been doing lately would be an abomination to God if I met Him today. I can only deduce that someone—Court called him Satan—is out to ruin us, to keep us from God.”
“Well you certainly seem different, I must admit. What does all this mean, Richard?”
“In some ways, I'm not sure yet.” Now it was his turn to be silent for a moment, searching for the right words, then continuing. “Janet, I don't know how it seems to you, but I'm the first to admit, after this morning, that my life—and to a large extent our life—is a mess right now. I…I…have done some things…of which I'm not very proud. I asked God to forgive me this morning. I believe He did, but I still feel like I'm not worthy.” Janet frowned. “Believe me, I have a lot to be forgiven for and to change.
“But the main thing is I want to follow Court's advice and begin a relationship with God. Imagine! The same God who hung the stars in the sky wants to have a relationship with me!” Richard smiled. “It's incredible. So I'm going to do the things Court suggested and hope that I hear Him. Oh, and I want to go to church on Sunday. Bob Meredith has invited us over to their home on Saturday night and then to their church on Sunday. Is that OK?”
“Yes…but we have those symphony tickets from your office. I think this Saturday's concert is the last one of the season.”
“Well, I'd like to go, but Bob sounded like they would really like to see us, and he has done so much for me today—plus Bobbie and Susan are such good friends. I'll ask Mary to find someone else to use the tickets, if that's all right with you, and we'll go to the Merediths.”
“Fine. Anne is a nice person, although I don't know her all that well. Bobbie is certainly a fine girl. By the way, when and what are you going to tell our kids about this morning?”
“I'll try to say something to them this weekend. And that's the other thing, Janet. The mess I referred to earlier involves them and me. I don't think I've been a very good father lately; Ben Fuller and Court referred to fathers as the spiritual heads of their households. I know that description doesn't fit me. It struck me, sitting in my office this morning, that if I yearn for a relationship with my heavenly Father, imagine how Susan and Tommy want to have a relationship with me! And how relatively simple it is, compared to knowing God. It will just take time—and the same active steps I want to take to open up to God.” Richard was smiling again. “Maybe God can teach me something, and I can teach them! Wouldn't that be great?”
For the first time Janet could imagine that a real transformation had actually taken place that morning, a real physical event. A miracle. She could not believe what she had just heard Richard say. She thought to herself, If he really changes like this and his actions follow his words, then there really may be a God! How incredible that this has happened …
As the waitress cleared their plates and brought them coffee, Richard asked, “Well, we've talked a lot about my morning. Is anything going on at the station?”
Another miracle. Richard had asked about her work in a positive way. What did happen to him this morning? she thought. After a moment of reflection, she said, “Oh, the usual. But the ‘911 Live’ controversy is heating up. These strong Christians—” and she had to pause for another moment to realize that maybe Richard now had a budding faith like Tom Spence “led by a good guy named Tom Spence, want the show stopped or shown later, as I've told you. The latest development is that Bill Shaw is arranging for some of us to ride in or behind city police cars and ambulances in two weeks, when Network does a test run of the concept here on a Friday night, so we can see what the show will really be like.”
“I hope by that ‘we’ that you don't mean ‘you’,” Richard ventured, as he filled in the credit card charge ticket.
“Well, yes. Tom, Bill Shaw, Connie Wright, and me, along with the network people. Why?”
“It certainly doesn't sound very safe. Especially on a Friday night. I see the police reports, Janet, on occasion. I don't think riding with or behind emergency vehicles at night in this city makes any sense. And—please don't take this as sexist—I'm saying this to you as my wife and the mother of our children. I particularly don't think it's any place for an untrained woman. You just have no idea what you could suddenly find yourself involved in.”
“Well, I hadn't really thought about it that way. I just assumed everything would be OK.”
“But these people are going to be out looking for trouble, in a way. Couldn't you and Connie, at least, evaluate this program just as well by watching and participating in the control room at the station?”
Janet was silent. She could not remember Richard caring about her job—or even recently about her—in this way. Out of habit, she searched his eyes for duplicity or a put-down, but saw only sincerity. Finally she spoke. “Maybe so, Richard. I'll think about it…But right now I think we've both got to get back to work. You know, I don't know how long it will last, but you really are kind of different, and I must say I like it,” she smiled.
“Isn't it funny?” He returned her smile, “I do, too!”
* * *
That night at home, after reading through some papers from the office, Richard went to their bookcase in the den, while the kids dressed for bed, and found a Bible he had been given years before. He looked inside the front cover and found the inscription, “Merry Christmas and may God bless your family. The Petersons.” Richard smiled. He returned to his chair and opened it to the Gospel of John, as Court had suggested, and began reading.
It had not been a good day for Nepravel—he had already lost seven men in his small neighborhood alone, and a couple more were wavering. Worse, he knew from experience that once a husband and father had the Light in him, it usually followed that the whole family eventually shook off their deceptions and learned about God's promise of salvation. And, worse yet, most of these men were in positions to influence other men and women in their businesses and in their community. Yes, it had been a very bad day for all of the demons in their sector. Balzor was understandably livid as they gathered for their first meeting after the prayer breakfast. Nepravel knew it was not the time to be a hero by speaking out and trying to blame all their problems on the incredible prayer cover that had brought all the angels.
As he neared their nightly cabal, Nepravel took one last look back at his neighborhood and was sickened to see the white light of prayer coming from the Sullivans’ home! Richard was apparently praying, and Nepravel was suddenly racked with terror. If Balzor saw that particular light, given his angry state and all the time and pl
ans they had invested in Richard, Nepravel feared this might be his last night on earth for a millennium or more. Those infernal people praying so much! And giving themselves to God! And those angels! Had Balzor seen those angels? They were everywhere! He started to formulate his defense, if he might have even a moment to speak before being blasted …
As their meeting began, all of the streetleaders vied with each other to stay as far away from Balzor as possible. Balzor began by asking for reports, and the roll call was frightful. Halfway through, it was obvious that their losses were worse than when Ben Fuller had spoken in Pittsburgh.
It came to be Nepravel's turn. He reported as simply as he could that there were now seven more men in his neighborhood with the Light burning inside them. He saw no reason to mention that he had been present himself when the Holy Spirit indwelt Richard.
He thought his problem might have passed, but Balzor asked, “And what about Richard Sullivan?”
Nepravel paused for an instant, then said, “He accepted Christ today, too, but I think we can isolate and confuse him so he will have no effect on others. He still has not spoken at length with the Holloway woman, and there is potential there to discredit and to defeat him …”
He was going to continue, when Balzor cut him off, “Enough! We'll come back to you and Richard Sullivan for a reckoning later. Next!”
Nepravel stopped, dreading Balzor's threat. The reports went on and continued to be dreadful. But as they were nearing the end of the reports, the demons began to hear a haunting sound, like thousands of men crying out, screaming, all blended together. It started like a whisper, but grew in intensity until it became a low roar. It was coming from the center of the city.
Balzor stopped in midsentence when he first heard the sound. He turned in the direction of the source. Nepravel turned, too, and the blackness from which the sound came was radiating, giving off darkness in the same way a human lightbulb gives off light. Nepravel had never seen and had only heard about a lord of the darkness such as this. The Darkness and the agonizing screams were coming towards them. Nepravel glanced back at Balzor, and the fear on his countenance was plain for all to see. Alhandra! This must be the Lord of the City, coming himself to their sector meeting! Such was unheard of. All the demons began to cower in fear, following Balzor's lead.
On the Edge Page 36