Investigate~
The Investigation Begins
The First Clue
I ripped out the page.
It had been eight long years since her passing. (Some people had whispered behind closed doors, “She died,” but I knew that she had laid down her life for us, her Church.) I knew by the prophecy that we would see her again.
She had left the biggest, single clue: Her Story.
There it was, lodged in my memory like a left over bullet. I tore it out of my memory: I am going to write it down.
I was out to prove something to myself: Is there a root of sin? What is that root?
I knew that she never lied. I had watched her life. Not one time did she commit sin. She was always gracious: offering a kind word to all of us while teaching and living Jesus’ ways; firm when she had to be. I never heard her swear; she lived the Bible. She didn’t lie, cheat, steal, chase. She had smoked once, sworn a lot. She told us she had a bad temper (but not as bad as her father’s, who would froth at the mouth). She was accused of using her church for her own end, but I knew that wasn’t true. She said the root was taken out of her.
“The investigation begins today,” I told myself. I will find out what she meant. My husband knew some things. We would do this together.
Her Story~
Free from SIN
It seems that under certain circumstances, TEMPTATION is unavoidable, human nature being what it is. All of us are subject to being tempted. But in Christ, none of us has to sin. (Of course, you need the Holy Ghost in order to overcome all sin). Working in a tavern, you would face such desires as drinking, smoking, swearing, chasing. In one’s conscience we hear “UNCLEAN! UNCLEAN! I want to be clean, but I can’t. I give in.”
Yet there was A WOMAN, daily assisting in her husband’s business, a tavern, who one evening suddenly realized that the TEMPTATIONS she used to have to fight, were no longer even confronting her, pushing her, or challenging her. Harassing her. Like dynamite, on a short fuse about to be lit: No dynamite. No fuse. Nothing to be lit. What is this? I’m no longer tempted. What has happened to me?
She had once been a smoker and she once had a filthy mouth. A very filthy, swearing mouth. In a wayward time, she had slid. She had been drunk. It was before her husband. That date, that man. He spiked her drink. A time of sin. Darkness lay in her mind and in her soul. She was not clean. She worked her way back to Him. She fought sin, that desire to do evil. She knew the commandments. His. Now she worked in a tavern. The desire was gone. There was no desire for sin. It was a mystery. SOMETHING has happened to me.
So she prayed, asking the Lord why she was no longer bothered by things that used to tempt her. The Lord replied, “IT IS BECAUSE I HAVE REMOVED THE ROOT OF SIN FROM YOU.” And what he did for her, he can do for anyone. But it will cost you. Everything. But, what freedom. Free from sin. Like Christ. Clean.