The Bronze Bow

Daniel, he said. I would have you follow me. Master!....I will fight for you to the end!. My loyal friend, he said, I would ask something much harder than that. Would you love for me to the end? ...I don't understand, he said again, You tell people about the kingdom. Are we not to fight for it? The kingdom is only bought at a great price, Jesus said. There was one who came just yesterday and wanted to follow me. He was very rich, and when I asked him to give up his wealth, he went away. I will give you everything I have! ....Riches are not keeping you from the kingdom, he said. You must give up your hate.

The impression of strength came from an extraordinary vitality that seemed to pulse in the very air around him

the demons that make a person afraid are the hardest to cast out.

We can never know," Simon answered slowly. "God hides the future from man's eyes. We are forced to choose, not knowing. I have chosen Jesus.

That lame man you saw-- is he grateful now? Is it worth it to get on his feet and spend the rest of his life dragging burdens like a mule? . . . It's not much of a world, is it? Is it worth trying to bring Leah back into it?" Thacia stood still in the road. "Oh, Daniel-- yes! If only I could make you see, somehow, that it is!" "All this--" she exclaimed, the sweep of her arm including the deepening blue of the sky, the shining lake in the distance, the snow-covered mountain far to the north. "So much! You must look at it all, Daniel, not just at the unhappy things.

It is the hate that is the enemy. Not men. Hate does not die with killing. It only springs up a hundredfold. The only thing stronger than hate is love.

Haven't you ever wondered,' he attempted, 'what good it is for them to be healed, those people that Jesus cures? They're happy at first. But what happens to them after that? What does the blind an think, when he has wanted for years to see, and then looks at his wife in rags and his children covered in sores? That lame man you saw - is he grateful now? Is it worth it to get on his feet and spend the rest of his life dragging burdens like a mule?' 'I never thought of it that way,' said Thacia, her eyes clouding. 'Is that why, do you think, that so many of them aren't cured?

No I have not asked Jesus to join us. All I hope and long for now is that He will ask me to join Him.