Hadassah's Watchman Trilogy - Evangheline Farcas (pdf e book reader TXT) 📗

went beyond what others would have. Hadassah you my dear gave out of your own money enough for a warm place to rest my head, for I had mislead you to think I had no place to stay. To my great surprise provision had been given to me and indeed through your insistence St. Carla’s clothed me in fine clothes fit for a prince.
Yes dear heart yours is a rare jewel, and I come to wonder what fires have formed the beauty of your soul, this I must know. It is my great hope, no, my greatest desire that now we be formally introduced, I would be privileged to hear you claim me as your friend. Also, as it seems you find such great pleasure in caring for those who are cast aside, a special surprise awaits you, and should you choose to accept you will find that you will certainly touch others as you have me. Tomorrow we will meet, until then dear Hadassah, rest well and be at peace.


Sincerely yours

Prince Carl Philip


Her hands trembled, her heart thundered for this man could not possibly have known indeed what fires had formed her, yet he wanted to know. Each word was beautiful and elegant as befitting of a prince yet of the whole letter that one phrase stood out: “I come to wonder what fires have formed the beauty of your soul, this I must know.”
The fires of which he spoke, the fires of the past still burned her soul and at this moment she wondered if they always would. Her passion for these forgotten ones, they were not completely selfless, they were her attempt at atonement. How many times had she stumbled and fallen and left scars that refused to fade? Sure that brief time in May of 2006 was an innocent time, for all was done out of zeal and passion for Christ. Always her greatest desire had been to be the hands and feet of the One who filled her with joy, but in more recent times her charity given to others was more out of guilt then of love.
Johan had been the one who had swept her off her feet and she had given her heart to him, but his faith or lack there of led her to compromise. She had begun to drink, and behave as him, her work at the charity houses of Bolstabruk and Kramfors had become almost non-existent. Then he asked for more of herself then she was willing to give without any commitment she so longed for, when she refused he’d left her bruised and battered, he had made sure that she knew she was nothing more then trash, nothing special, she was nobody’s child, nobody’s love, just nobody. If Hadassah had not given so much of her heart she would not have lost all purpose when he left, but he had been the world to her. Yet now a prince claimed she was a jewel, and every part of her being questioned this wondering what his motives really were, but what could a prince want from her which he didn’t already posses.
Sighing Hadassah, walked into the bedroom portion of the suite immersed herself in soft bed pulling the covers over her, thoughts and doubts raging through like crashing waves until sleep no longer eluded her.
Whispers… mocking.
Evil chuckles… resonated.
Something… or lots of something tearing at the fibers of her clothing.
The beautiful gown was now nothing more then rags
“YOU are nobody’s love, fool!”
She gasped but couldn’t scream.
“YOU are not worth loving! Fool! Stupid, stupid fool!”
She whirled around trying to see, but darkness prevailed.
“YOU are trash, and HE will mock you exactly as that, hmmmm oh what joy that will be.” The voices continued to harass.
Fear caroused through her
“Even your Savior mocks you, give up now, you are not someone He’ll take back, you turned your back on Him, YOU spit on His face, YOU are a Judas!” they were relentless in their accusations.
Somewhere afar, through the darkness a melody tried to pierce through, but in fragments to hard to piece together.
Still she couldn’t scream, but in her mind she called: “Don’t leave me! I’m so scarred!” The cry within her was the same cry she had cried many times.
A still, small voice resounded in her soul even as the dark whispers continued. “Fear not, for I have not given you a spirit of fear, but of one that cries Abba! Farther! Call my name sweet princess!”
“Father!”
An explosion of light illuminated from her, the radiance burst forth and she could see the dark ones, with dirty wings dipped in blood fleeing, even as the angels drew out golden double-edged swords with which they valiantly fought and cast them to their own eternal punishment. The light materialized in front of her, and she trembled in awe and fear, for she could not gaze too long on the One before her, His eyes were truly burning like the deepest blue part of a flame. His hands cupped her face and wiped the tears of fear, “My Bride, that is all you ever have to do, just call My name and I will rescue you each time.”
“Each time?” she asked.
“Yes, this battle will keep raging, they will assault you with lies, but as long as you remember that who you are is not defined by man, but by Me, those very lies will destroy all that comes against you.” He assured her.
She looked down in shame, “I’m sorry, please forgive me, You have to know what I have done..”
“As far as the east is from the west Hadassah your mistakes are cast asunder, they exist no more, you are spotless.”
A smile filled His face, that smile of a loving Father, or perhaps a Prince, or more the smile of a redeeming Savior. It was His smile that remained imprinted in her mind as the morning sun shone in triumph over the Stockholm skies.


CHAPTER FIVE

"Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live, taking the form of a readiness to die." -- G.K. Chesterton

Deuteronomy 30:19
This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live.


Ionatan took a deep breath and prayed that God would give him the right words today. He had been invited to speak at the Alba’s city hall, where numerous speakers were to represent the different faiths now found in this monumental city. Though he was young, only twenty eight, he remembered brief periods from much harder times when talks like this would earn him torture at the hands of the securitate, the secret police. His own parents had been part of the revolution that brought down communism. Back then they had resided in a smaller city that was part of Alba Iulia called Cugir and it was there and also in the city of Timisoara that the revolt against tyranny had first begun. It was in these two cities that the battle cry had been give that the Romanian people have had enough, and as one they had stood, unshakable. It was interesting how on that day it hadn’t mattered that Orthodox was standing next to a Pentecostal and a Pentecostal was standing next to a Catholic and a catholic found himself standing next to a Baptist and a Jew, no, all that mattered that on that day they had stood for freedom at the cost of their own lives.
Today however was a different day, the sacrifice forgotten, and freedom once more was being taken for granted. Once more each word had to be weighed against the risk of offending someone, and in the next month offending the wrong someone could mean expensive penalties or jail.
He looked around at the room full of people, his eyes finally rested on Seraph, the watchman of this city. He had been here when communism had fallen, and as Seraph had explained to him, he had seen the dark ones fighting fiercely, but he had also seen the cry of the oppressed being answered by heaven itself as all of heaven had been dispatched on that day. Ionatan hoped heaven would hear his own prayer today.
Clearing his throat he began, “Doamnelor si domnilor, ladies and gentlemen, I have been given the privilege to stand here before you today to represent the Pentecostals and Baptist citizens of this city. As you may have heard a case had been brought before you a few weeks ago about an incident in one of our churches, while it saddens me that it has come this far and that offense has been taken the church desires to explain the situation in more clarity.”
Murmurs circulated as he paused for breath.
“In our church a situation had been brought to us regarding a man being unfaithful to his wife along with rumors of abuse against her and also against the person with who he had committed adultery with. While we do not take into consideration rumors, this was a situation in which the safety of the presumed abused could not be risked. Therefore two things were done, one, the wife and children were provided shelter by one of the members from the church. Also the woman with whom he had committed adultery with was also given shelter with another family. Two, and here in lays the offense, the church had decided to put the man aside for his proven adultery, meaning he was not to participate in the worship team at church or any other leadership activities until he showed he had repented of his wrongs.” Here, he paused as angrier calls began throughout the audience.
“Lies! Matei is a respected citizen! You are marring his name!” a man from the back shouted.
“How he spends his time with women is his choice, no one’s a saint!” shouted a woman towards the front.
Ionatan cleared his throat, courage was wearing thin, but as he looked at Seraph who’s hands were folded in prayer he continued.
“We are a church and as such in the church there is right and there is wrong. Adultery is wrong. Beating another human being is wrong! The Bible states that if someone does wrong they must be reprimanded one on one, if that person does not take heed then he is reprimanded once more this time with a witness present, if still there is no change it is brought before the church. At this point if there is still no change then the person gets put aside, meaning they will have no leadership functionality in the church. They may still attend, the person is not shunned, in fact we try our hardest to lovingly encourage the person to change his or her ways in hopes to heal relationships not break them.”
Angry yells and booing resounded from the packed room, some defending Ionatan some cursing him, but he stood firm.
“Ladies and gentlemen please, please listen.” He begged.
“Who’s to say that next you won’t put a person aside for drinking? Or his choice of a partner?” Someone’s voice reverberated above the rest.
There lay the real issue. Though Ionatan could not see what Seraph surely saw at this moment, he could feel darkness seeping into the room