“What?” Alex asked.
“Nothing,” Lisa replied, winking at Alyson.
“Why do I get the feeling that ‘nothing’ is a something?”
“Promise me something?” Lisa asked, suddenly serious.
“The moon, Babe. It’s yours.”
“Promise me you won’t be too hard on her. I know you’ll want to be fair. You won’t want to show favoritism. I get that and I wouldn’t want you to. Just promise me you’ll let her grow slowly.”
“Talk to Kellan.” Alex replied. “He’ll be the one training her.”
“What? Why Kellan? I mean I love him. You know that, but I thought—”
“I thought it would be inappropriate for me to train her. Kellan and I both learned from Danny. He’ll be tough, but he’ll be fair. And don’t worry. She’ll be fine. She’s got at least a year on the street before she gets to us. I’ll make sure whoever gets that duty does her right.”
“I love you, Mr. Mendez.”
“Love you, too.”
He pulled her close, locking her in a hug so tight she felt as if she, too, had vanished, as Alyson had appeared to do just minutes before. In that moment, not one single thing was wrong.
Not one single thing.
After Words
Dearest readers,
First, I want to thank you for sharing this adventure with me. I’m writing to you, not to announce the retirement of Alex Mendez (Some of you can stop worrying about the fate of your favorite fictional family now. Others can resume whatever voodoo rituals you were pursuing to try and rid the world of Alex, Lisa and Yours Truly.)
I’m writing this for the sole purpose of giving clarity to a few things that might otherwise be misinterpreted. The story itself involves the murder of strippers and prostitutes. During the course of creating this tale (and the series in general), one of my editors worried that the story could be seen as glorifying prostitution, lust or other fleshy, sexual misadventures – something the Bible would consider a huge no-no! I want to say, without hesitation, that is not my purpose. It is, however, my point to show the heart of Jesus. Jesus loved sinners. In Jesus’ time, one of the biggest “wrongs” in the world was to be seen associating with the tax collectors. Yet, one of Jesus’ chosen twelve walked that road before joining Jesus.
Another person readily connected to Jesus for much of his life was Mary Magdalene. While her story is the subject of theological and scholarly debates even today, one thing is clear. She is a woman from whom seven demons came out, upon the spoken word of our Lord and Savior. It has been argued that, perhaps, she was a prostitute. According to some religions, Mary Magdalene is the “adulterous woman” Jesus defends in the Gospel of John. Other religions dispute this, claiming the two to be two separate women. (For me, I have never given it much thought. I know only that Jesus is Lord.) Whether or not these two women are one in the same, it cannot be argued that our Lord and Savior did, in fact, get between an angry crowd and a woman allegedly caught in adultery. (I’ve always wondered where was the man with whom she was caught. It takes two to commit an adulterous act and the Old Testament does not say that only the woman was to be stoned. If they were being “good and faithful” to the Torah, why was the man not beside, her awaiting his punishment?) (John 7:53-8:11 holds the story of the adulterous woman.)
Quite simply, my point is this. Man judges harshly – often unfairly rushing to a judgment that only later proves to be incorrect. Jesus judges through the eyes of patiene grace and loving forgiveness. Before you write this book off as not Christian or you suggest that it teaches poor theology, I ask only that you indulge me when I make a couple of points I feel are most important to make.
First, I am not attempting to indoctrinate anyone with my brand of theology. I am not Jesus. I am a man who has read his Bible from cover to cover multiple times, spent the better part of a decade researching biblical topics and weighing the historical reasons for religious splits that have occurred through time. As I explained to one reader some time back, I am not trying to write a Baptist book. I am not trying to write a Church of God book. I am not attempting to write a Methodist book, a Catholic book, a Mormon book, a Charismatic book, etc. Quite simply, I am trying to write a fictional story that exemplifies the spirit of God’s grace. The grace that was sufficient enough to send into this world His one and only son to be a way to freedom from the Curse of the Law. Jesus came so that we could have life, “and have it till it overflowed.” (John 10:10)
Furthermore, I am hoping to provide readers with an alternative to the sin-glorifying literature that is so commonplace in today’s market. I have done this while trying not to water down the story in such a way as to make it seem unlike the world in which we live. I want the reader to understand the evil of today’s world. As the Bible says, to be in the world not of the world. To that point, I want my readers to feel the disgust of Evil’s touch on people. I want you to feel sickened as you see people given to their selfish desires and grasping at any fulfillment, wherever they can find it. I want you to experience the lows to which many people sink before finding a ray of hope in this thing we call life. But, as Jesus would, I want you to find it within you to show these fictional people compassion.
I have come to call my books the training manual for 21st century Christianity. I say that because the world has changed. It is a dark place. One where sin seems to be the “It” thing to do now. Where morality seems taboo, even hateful in the eyes of the Anti-Christian rhetoric that fills the world today. Everyone is so caught up in looking for a person to name the Antichrist that they have failed to see the battle is not with a man but with the spirit of evil that is nothing if not Anti-Christian. We needn’t wait any longer. The Antichrist may well be here, though not in the way we expected. Not in the physical embodiment of one man, but in the hearts and minds of those who perhaps listened to the whispers of one or two men and spread their venom across the globe in the course of less than two generations. If we are going to reach people, we have to be The Truth. Not just live truth; we have to be Truth. We have to be the living embodiment of Christ. “For it is no longer I who lives, but Christ lives in me.” (Galatians 2:20)
Christ judged the church and the Pharisees far more harshly than he ever judged a sinner. Now, I’m not telling you to rush out and burn down the houses of every wealthy televangelist. Neither am I telling you all to rush out and become prostitutes so that, where sin abounds, grace could more abound. Both would defeat the purpose. The purpose is to do what Jesus said and take the plank out of our own eye before we seek to tell our brother he needs to remove the splinter in his.
Again, I feel the need to reiterate I am not a theologian. I am not trained to minister and know only that the Grace of God saved me from a life of addiction to pornography, self-hatred, burning anger and even suicide. I like to tell people that I’ve been to the bowels of Hell and stared Satan in the face. And in the end, Satan blinked. Of course, he did not blink because of me. Rather, because of the power that was behind me – My savior, Jesus Christ.
I am the first to tell you, I am not any religion. I do not accept religion. I have accepted Jesus Christ. As such, I do not have a religion. I have a relationship.
For those of you who’d like to understand my biblical reasoning behind this, I direct you to the following verses:
I can do ALL THINGS through Christ who strengthens me.
Philippians 4:13
And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.”
John 8:7
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Ephesians 2:8-9
But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
James 4:6
But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in
vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.
1 Corinthians 15:10
But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:8
And are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
Romans 3:24
Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Hebrews 4:16
“Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven;
Luke 6:37
Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.”
John 7:24
Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?
James 4:11-12
For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Galatians 5:14
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
John 3:16-17
Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.
Galatians 6:1
To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Romans 12:20-21
For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.
2 Peter 1:5-7
Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
Ephesians 4:32
As it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one;
Romans 3:10
We love because he first loved us.
1 John 4:19
Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord God, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live?
Ezekial 18:23
And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
Matthew 4:19
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Matthew 28:19-20
The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you.
2 Timothy 4:22
We are all beautiful in God’s sight. He made us all, sinner and saint alike. Black and white and every color in the rainbow. He made all that you see, feel, hear, smell, taste, touch and think. God made preachers and God made prostitutes. God made homosexuals, just as he made heterosexuals. This is not to say God made them to be a prostitute, homosexual, murderer or arsonist anymore than he made a three-year-old child to tell a lie to his mother about who spilled the orange juice on the new carpet. (Boy, did I get in trouble for that one!)
God made that baby in its mother’s womb. And it grew up never being taken to church. It grew up never hearing the Word of God. Likely, that baby grew into a woman or man that questioned God’s existence every time a drunken father engaged in unspeakable acts while under the inexcusable influence of any number of alcoholic beverages. Likely, that prostitute is the child-turned-adult that some of you reading this used to ignore in school. Perhaps, they’re the poor kid whose tattered, filthy clothes you used to ridicule before going to Wednesday night revival meetings with your parents. Some may well have been the school virgin who somehow got the reputation that she would sleep with any boy that came along. That rumor, of course, started by the very guy she rebuffed in the first place. That murderer was a school bully to whom no one ever managed to reach out. Or maybe he was the victim of bullying himself and sought relief from the pain the only way he knew how. By making others suffer. It’s a sad reality that the unconscious search for empathy is the driving force behind many murderers.
Again, I reiterate that I am not trying to indoctrinate anyone. Neither am I trying to denigrate the Church. Quite simply, I am trying to remind us all of the great commission Jesus left his disciples when he said “…This new commandment do I give to you. Love One Another as I have loved you…”
Simply put, I am trying to get more of us, regardless of our religious affiliations, to understand the true depths and power of the Grace brought into this world when The Word was made flesh. Jesus didn’t just come to call the qualified. We need look no further than the first twelve he called to understand that very basic point. He did not call preachers, priests, rabbis or saintly men of God. He came to qualify the called. And qualify them, he did! That, through the salvation and redemption of sinners, His power could be better comprehended.
To whom have you ministered today? To whom have you reached out? It is not the responsibility of the educated, ordained minister to go out into the world. They have their tasks and their plate is quite full ministering to each one of us. It is to you, dear child of God, the task has been given. To go out into the world and become the fishers of men first mentioned in the gospels. It is up to you – the construction workers, teachers, doctors, nurses, athletes, firemen, police officers, carpenters, fishermen and tax collectors. Now, get going! There are souls out there waiting to be saved if you look hard enough. Ask God to show you. If you’re truly walking in His spirit, I’m sure he’s more than happy to do so.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Edward Hancock II lives and works in Gilmer, Texas, where he shares a home with his four-legged children. When not speaking or traveling, he is hard at work on his next novel. You can keep up with Edward at his personal website, www.edwardhancockii.com. You may also catch him on Facebook.
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