Chapter Twenty-one: The Enemy of God

Later that night Jerry opened the drawer where he had placed the things that were dear to Connie, and carefully took out her King James Bible. The pages were worn for a book that was less than six months old, and hundreds of verses were underlined with notes written beside them.

He found the Book of Psalms and opened it again at Psalm 51.

Connie had neatly printed beside verse four, "See James 4:4," so he looked in the index and turned to the verse in the Book of James. It seemed to jump out of the page at him: "Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity against God? Whoever therefore is a friend of the world is the enemy of God?"

This time Connie had written another verse beside it: ­"‘You . . . were enemies in your mind through wicked works’ (Colossians 1:21)‑‑natural mind 'enmity' to God. See also Matthew 5:28‑29."

Jerry turned to the verses not knowing what they were. His heart skipped a beat as he read the same verse that Edwin had read to him, about lust being adultery of the heart. It wasn't marked by Connie so he thought, I must try and remember where this is. It was then that he recollected the bookmark he picked up in Kevin Kickham’s waiting room. He took it from his pocket, but as he went to place it in the Bible, his eyes fell on the next verse:

"And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into Hell."

He stared again at the heading on the yellow bookmark: "What can be more important than your eyes?" and said,

Nothing could be more important, except the eternal salvation of my soul.

He slowly turned back again to Psalm 51. It began by making reference to King David’s adultery:

"To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, when Nathan the Prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba." On the side of the Bible he found more neat handwriting, "See I Samuel Chapter 12," so, to get a background on the incident he turned there and began to read.

It was the story of King David and how he lusted after a beautiful woman named Bathsheba as he watched her washing herself. He found out she was married, committed adultery with her, had her husband killed, and then married her.

God then sent Nathan the prophet to reprove him. The man of God gave David a parable about something that he could, as an ex‑shepherd, understand. The parable was about sheep. He told a story about a rich man, who rather than take one from his own flock, killed a poor man's pet lamb to feed a stranger.

To be continued...