An Easter Stoy: To Those Who Have Loved in Return

To those who have loved in return.

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.”

The words rang through out the sanctuary, but no one heard them. No, this was another day; another service; everyone was interested in something else. This morning was not any different than any other. Except that this was Easter morning. Still, the congregation had no reason to listen, no real reason to care.

Shawn sat somewhere in the midst of the congregation with his mind on the same thing as everyone else. Breakfast would be coming soon then another service. If he were lucky, this man would be able to sneak out. Maybe then he could get some sleep for he had been up early hiding the eggs for his daughters to find. Another Easter, more cavities, and all too many eggs to hide.

He looked around at the congregation around him to see what other people were doing. He could see the kids fidgeting waiting to get out of the church as quickly as possible. He could hear a baby crying, an elder coughing, and saw a deacon snoozing. Each face was familiar as his own having seen each of the faces every week for the past year or so. He had started coming to church out of his wife’s hopes to bring morals and roots to their family. Shawn though, if not for his wife would have never come. Although he loved his wife dearly, he felt like the church was the last place he wanted to be.

The service moved forward and Shawn found himself reflecting on the past year. In the past year the church had been through a lot and it had been all he could do to continue on the road. At church everyone seemed somehow put together with smiles on their faces. One thing that Shawn appreciated was that the community at this church was strong. People were willing and ready to share their heartaches during prayer requests. This was one of the small moments everyone’s put together selves seemed real for a small while. It was here that Shawn maybe wondered if God did in fact care, but he was quickly reminded that God didn’t care when the very person the church was praying for would pass away.

In the past year the church had seen a lot of this. The congregation had seen two fathers pass, one grandfather, several aunts and uncles, and a few more grandparents. The church had also witnessed wars in Africa where their sister congregation was located. Money was donated and meals were given out to help the church be what it needed to be. Shawn, if he were to admit it though, didn’t believe in it. Everyone had a bleeding heart for certain causes and the church was no different than any other organization that chooses its battles to fight.

Shawn’s focus was then broken by the New Testament reading:

“¹⁰In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. ¹¹Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. ¹²No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.”

Foolishness, Shawn thought. If God truly loved us no one would die. If God truly loved us then he would come down himself and save this world from itself. As the thoughts laced his mind a different voice seemed to enter into his thinking.

But I did come down myself.

More of the reading entered into Shawn’s thoughts:

“By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. ¹⁴And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. ¹⁵God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. ¹⁶So we have known and believe the love that God has for us.”

Shawn’s thoughts once again took over. I never saw Jesus, how could I testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. Shawn couldn’t testify to anything. He had never been one who was interested in the divine. Religion was just another cultural image brought about by people who had probably hallucinated. And if Shawn was at all correct, he wondered if many people in the church where here for image, consoling, and tradition. There couldn’t be any fact in this.

But Shawn’s thoughts would not deter the message.

“God’s love was here with the beginning of time. The world was made out of the Lord’s love and through that same love Jesus Christ was sent to us to atone for our sins.”

Shawn was getting irritated. Every week the pastor had something similar to say about God’s redeeming voice throughout time. And every week Shawn had come away with his doubts only furthered; knowing good and well that history was laced with war, hatred, and certainly no trace of love. No love could abide in any individual of this world. The lack of feeling loved only affected Shawn’s judgement. The winter had been all to long and Shawn had seen his own grandma pass away.

Although this had changed Shawn’s plans his image of God had only become rougher. He hadn’t known his grandma very well. Death though, often has a way of telling the living a bit about the deceased. Often more than the living want to know.

Over his time in his home town, a small town in the United States not much different from any other farming town, he had learned quite a bit. He learned that his grandma had enjoyed Christmas music very much. He had learned that she loved dancing so much that when she had lost her dancing partner it really had brought her down.

The thoughts reminded Shawn that he was not the only one in the congregation that had experienced loss. He realized that many of the people who had seen loved ones were far more affected by their losses than he was over his grandma. Shawn wondered for a moment if those people had felt grace. As if the word grace called up the preacher to interrupt his thoughts; once again Shawn heard the preacher’s voice boom yet again:

“But on this day we celebrate an ultimate love. We celebrate what in and of itself is a love far greater than any we could ever understand. On this day we celebrate what hope we do have that is found in God’s own Son. That hope and love is found in not what we see in this world, but what Jesus Christ did. He lived a sinless life, died a prisoners death, and on the third day he rose again. This is not another fictional story for the ages, but God’s grace shown to the world through the death and resurrection of his own Son. In this way, we know love. In this way, we know hope.”

Shawn let the words seep in. For a brief moment Shawn’s heart welled up with the realization of the message being directly contrary to his every thought. His next thought was not his own, as if something deep inside was speaking for him: What hope you have is not your own. What good there is to cling to I have given. All grace and love comes through the Father.

In the next moment Shawn knew that the others in the congregation, whether they knew it or not, needed to hear this message as much as he needed to. Every moment of the past year had been chilling, depressing, and simply cold to the core. Even while he had been at his own grandma’s funeral he had tried to reject God. When his uncle had reflected upon his experience in seeing Shawn’s grandma go; Shawn had tried to discount the story as coincidence. For she could not have literally picked up her mat and gone up to see her Savior. No, it was simply her time to go. Shawn had further thought that it was simply cruel for those who had passed to have done exactly this. Most of them were too young or for some the timing was completely wrong. The past year had seemed to be cruel.

Once again though, the preachers message hammered home:

“This past Thursday our church remembered the darkest moment of Christ’s life. His realization that God had forsaken him, leaving him for death. Christ may or may not have known about God’s divine plan for His son, all we know for sure is that Christ accepted the cup given to him. I don’t think this matters though; no, I think that Christ experienced despair in his last moments. In the same way many of us have experienced despair in the past year. We have seen many of our congregation go with passing of the seasons. We all have endured the -40 degree winter and come out the other side wondering what it was worth. But even when the cold comes over us, even when the rain falls, even when the storm comes we can be sure of one certain thing: We have all been washed by the blood of Christ in our greatest time of need. We all can hope in the fact that God sent his son to live that sinless life, die that prisoner’s death, and on this day: Easter morning in which we all gather here, Jesus rose again so that none of us would die, but have eternal life.”

For the first time Shawn looked up past the preacher to see Jesus leaning against a rock looking up to the heavens. The stained glass had been there all year long, but Shawn had been one of the many of the congregation who had been distracted, looking to every other part of the world to get him through.

As Shawn walked out with his family he looked the preacher in the eye to shake his hand. Shawn thanked him for his message. Even the preacher, who Shawn had known relatively well from softball games over the summer, had something unusual to say on this day: “You my friend are forgiven and free. By God’s grace alone we live to die so that we can experience an eternity with Christ our Savior. Through his blood we are sanctified and forgiven. Through Jesus Christ resurrection, we can truly celebrate Easter.”

Shawn looked to his wife with tears in his eyes. For the first time since his wife had convinced him to come to church to have his family learn about morals, he realized that Church and religion had more to say about life than anything else. On this particular Easter, Shawn realized that even though history was laced with war and hatred, it was also laced with strange incidents of unity, redemption, and forgiveness. Shawn knew deep down that Christ’s life was not just another fictional story, but the redeeming love and atonement of God through out history.

Adam(Spoilers Included)

The funny thing about this book is that most of you wont be able to find it yet. Since I work at a Christian book store I happen to come upon it before many people will even know it is coming out and brought it home that day. With that being said, it is released to Christian book stores across the nation with an additional chapter added to help sum things up as well as an interview with TD and John Eldridge about the underlining premise of the book. The book I have also has a short excerpt from Sinner, what I know to be the last of the Showdown series.

Now that I have gotten that out of the way, to the point. For all those who fell in love with Dekker at his book Three, you have to pick this book up. Although it is not quite the page turner as Three was, it is just as good of an overall story line with just as many surprises(one huge one in particular). The research done for this book, as far as I know on the subject, is outstanding. The book's makeup is well crafted and well thought through. The theological ideas are a bit disturbing if you do not know where the book is going, but once you find out it will make light of your darkness.(notice the wording here)

Here comes the spoiler part, so unless you want to know what is going to happen, read no further.


The book starts out with a paper clipping (the first of nine found through out the book) in which may include some of the best ideas through out the book. It is literally walking the treck of the makings of a serial killer known only as Eve. These clippings though give great detail to a horrible upbringing that is steadally introduced to you as you read more of the actual story.
The actual story then is about an FBI agent going after this Eve, who has killed sixteen younger women. When Eve is able to put a bullet through the side of Agent Clark's head Daniel dies for twenty minutes and is brought back by his new partner Lori. When he is brought back though, Daniel begins having unnatural and horrible panic attacks that are simply unexplainable by any sort of psychiatrich means. The most important detail to this puzzle though, is that Daniel saw Eve's face and has the one piece to crack the case wide open. Or, he would if he could remember that instant before he was killed.
Lori and Daniel soon determine that the only way to retrieve this memory and possibly find out what is causing the panic attacks is to enduce a DMT, or loosely explained as a near death experience. The idea is that the brain introduces halocegens to the brain that are associated with the persons beleifs. Only when Daniel goes under he sees a small boy playing with a doll as if he is hurting it. The boy says he is not Eve, but Eve is in the next chamber just beyond.

As the reader learns more of Alex and Jessica Price, who are the two children who are abducted in the news paper clippings from the book only to be brutally tortured by a Satanic Alice Brown. When they escape they move forward to a Preist who helps them get back on their feet. Although Jessica is able to move forward, Alex becomes obsessed with belief and disbelief and what laws govern our world. He becomes frantic and violent at times. But you begin to learn a bit about Eve. My only critique of this section of the book is as a believer who has been introduced to spiritual warfare from when I first came to Christianity, I was making the connection of who and what Eve was in comparison to the panic attacks. Daniel was being stalked by Eve, a demon that had been controlling the killings of the girls and Alex's actions for some time.


The book comes to a climatic end back at the Eve's Holy Coven, the Satanic temple found on Alice's property in which she would leathaly punish both Alex and Jessica as children as sacrifices. It is here where Daniel's battle with the demonic becomes a little like "Exorist" and Daniel's ex-wife(who is developed through out the story and becomes very important to the climatic scene) tries to come save him along with a Priest. By this time Heather, the wife, has realized just how real possession can be.


The best twist is when the reader realizes that Lori, who had been helping Daniel from the very beginning, is actually Jessica. She shows up to be the heroine and a character needed in order to resolve the greater problem. When this happens I said aloud, wow, didnt expect that coming-But wait, if I would have paid attention, you did see it coming. 1. The character is introduced as an after thought to help Daniel through out the case. 2. You knew at some point Jessica had to show up, but no one, not even Alex, knew where Jessica was. and 3. How would they find a Jessica who had gone under the radar for 17 years. So, make her there all along.
In thinking it through, it really works out well, but also, Jessica who is developed through out the articles, does not seem to connect with Lori. The two characters only come to a meet because Dekker says they do, but if you look at who they are Lori had to have placed a mask over Jessica in order to truly do all the things she did through out the book. Because Jessica, is still afraid. Lori, is determined and the brains behind much of what happens.


Overall this book is really good. The last 200 pages flew by, and the first 200 were interesting to develop the story line and create a world apart from Dekker's Circle series in which has connected so many of his ideas as of late. Adam is able to create a worldview by the end of the book and even if the non-believer may dismiss the ideas in whole, the book makes a convincing argument that this could be true. I think wherever you are in life, if you pick this book up it will challenge you on many levels and give you a reason to rethink at least your presumptions about Good and Evil.

At the end of the day we must come to a realization that Evil powers do exist. We brush up against the horrors everyday whether it be from children being abandoned to all ought wars. There is something though about the name of Jesus that seems to bring pause to these Evils. I can not convince you that this is true, I can only advise you to keep it in mind if ever you truly come upon a more lethal form of Evil. Dekker has a great point and awesome idea in Adam, and it is a story to get you thinking deeper into the supernatural. You might as well, the supernatural thinks about you more than you can imagine.