The Shepherd by Jack A. Ling (best books for 8th graders TXT) 📕

Chapter 3
The Sermon

“I write this letter whilst in my cold, dead prison cell in the middle of the place called nowhere. The sand of that hinterland which lay yonder my cell intimidates me as I stare out to the morning sky and evening dusk. For it has been in this cell that I have realized the true intents of my journey into life. But how complicated they truly are in their essence.”
– Prisoner 479, December 12th, 2012.
The burning eye of our Lord singed across the land of the sinners and the living. Staining the sky like blood-red veins, pillaging the innocent sky of the cold, bitter morning. A brisk gust of even colder wind tossed through the trees and over the leaves. Crossing and dicing through the trees and forestry, the wind picked up dust from the road which it did so come unto, but no shadow could be found. Just as this gust fell over a small settlement, the dust fell and the wind dispersed into the town, creating a cool breeze.
Inside of the church in that city, there stood two bodies: the crowd of citizens and the preacher. The man sported a long, black piece of clothing which resembled that of a pope, but this was no pope. He stood, facing the audience, with no remark of any emotion upon his face. Standing and flipping through the pages of an oversized book, he moved slowly as to not scare anybody. He placed his finger on a specific page, which had taken him several minutes to find, and began.
“The Lord watches over us as He watched over us through the millennia. Watching, caring, and guiding, He watched as we may have destroyed ourselves, but He was always there. Do we have the power to deny that which He loves? Do we have the power to eliminate those which He died for? Never shall we have this power! Never shall we be anything but imitators to what He truly is! The Lord once said, in the land of we, ‘Yes I am with you always, until the very end of time,” but we must show Him that we are worthy of eternal life with He and His angels! Let us gather and show those who would deny it that He shall prevail, and we shall prevail with Him as our shepherd! Thank you, and may God, and the Lord be with you,” the man finished with a large smile and turned to begin a trot to his room in the back of the church.
The man looked around his small, uncomfortable room and found a seat which was as uncomfortable as the room looked. But even with this horrid room, he had no reason not to smile. He had no reason to go anywhere else. He only had reason to speak the truth from his heart and mind. And so it was that whilst he was reading from that large book silently, another man slowly crept into the room and took a seat so rudely.
“May I help you, child?” the preacher asked, smiling as he had before.
“On my way to this horrible town, I had taken a small taxi which was driven by an even smaller man. But the man had told me that no matter where I am to go, death and the shadow of forever will follow,” the new man said, worry obvious in his voice. “So what do you think of this, father?”
“There will always be those who will attempt to turn you away from the path of love and forgiveness. But what we must truly see is that they shall never see the truth that illuminates from the holy lights.”
“And how shall we be sure that the holy lights exist? How will we know that it is the light which brings a good end?”
“A wise man once said that if you search for God and the Lord, you shall never succeed. For you shall only succeed in your travels and journeys once They search and find you. They do not exist unless you allow them to exist. Because if They are to exist, you must be helped by the divines, and in order to get divine help, you must allow the divines to help you. Understand?”
“Perfectly. But what of the shadow of forever?”
“Look at the table under the stained glass window over yonder. Do you see it?”
“Yes, but I don’t see how it matters.”
“Now look at those shadows under the table. Do you see how they only exist because the light from the window propels them to exist?”
“I guess so, father.”
“The shadows only have the will to do dark deeds because the Lord and God must show the sinners that evil exists in order to achieve the lightness of the heavens.”
“But why?”
“Only those who believe in Them and wish to serve eternity with them can see the evil in the world.”
“But non-believers believe completely in the world’s evil.”
“Yes, but only believers can see that the shadows are simply temptation to do that which is against the Lord and God. Only those who truly wish to have eternal life with Them will ignore the shadow and live as the light shows it to be.”
“I see. But what of this forever shadow?”
“As the light comes from a source, the shadow and darkness must also come from a source too. This being the forever shadow.”
“So who is it?”
“The Dread Lord, of course!”
“The Dread Lord?”
“The snake in the garden, my boy!”
“Why a snake?”
“Because the Lord of Dread knows that snakes show no shadow in order to fool the believers.”
“Why?”
“The sinning must be punished after judgement. So they are sent to he who bathes in the ashes of evil, darkness, and unholiness.”
“But why can’t God and the Lord do such?”
“Because They may do no evil, and only do good.”
“If God and the Lord exist everywhere, where does the Dread exist?”
“Only where the light does not shine. And the light shall release its grip in the future so the shadow shall exist. Oh so the heavens shall shake and the stars shall fall, David.”

Publication Date: 04-22-2012

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