(Continued from) 

 

huddled against the wall, shouting abuse at her.  When Anna opened her mouth to defend herself, her sister’s husband stepped forward to slam his fist in her face.  As if everyone was expecting this assault, her sister’s youngest daughter quickly took a step closer to place herself between Anna and her father, deflecting the blow.  As Anna fled the scene, she met Peter in the hospital passage leading to the exit, where he was sitting in one of the huge window sills, smoking. 

Anna’s family, whom she loved so very much, and her sister, brother in law, and the instigating niece in particular, whom she never harmed at all, had effectively chased her away from her father’s death bed. 

Her father died that night. They all chose to let him go while surrounded with the most terrible strife.

Her mother was alone after 54 years. 

 

Meaning well, believing she would be God’s instrument to bring Peter and his parents together again, Anna’s mother asked someone to call Zeena at work to invite her to the funeral. 

That day of Anna’s father’s funeral was one of the worst Anna and the boys ever had to face.  Peter never said a word. 

There was a cold animosity between the funeral-goers to begin with. There were already ill feelings towards Anna over the baptism of her mother.  When they wanted to assault both her and Peter; giving the completely innocent boys the cold shoulder as well, Anna believed it was because Peter also chose to obey the Lord and live by the truth of the Scriptures. 

What she really could not understand, was why her niece was following Charles and Zeena’s example by isolating her, her husband, and sons from the whole family.  With sadness, she asked for an explanation of her relentless attacks on her, as Anna had always been good to her.  All she could get out of them, was that they blamed her for allegedly ‘driving a wedge between the two old people,’ “deceiving her mother to baptize herself ‘again,’” while Anna’s father chose not to obey Jesus commandment to personally accept Him and be baptized in the baptism of emersion, as per Jesus’ own example, (Jn. 1:12-13; 2:3-5; Mt. 28:18-20.) During the sort time since Anna gave her life to Jesus, she explained this Scriptural obedience to Jesus’ commandment to them as far as possible.  Her oldest brother and one of his sons, as well as her younger brother’s wife and two daughters were baptized by immersion as disciples.  They all turned from the truth that night when her mother and Peter were baptized, and ganged on her as if she were a criminal of some sort. 

 

Without hesitation, Manson and Zeena took advantage of the invitation to the funeral without showing a slither of mercy for the grief-stricken Anna, the two boys, or even Peter that was intricately involved.  They used this extremely sorrowful time as an opportunity to re-connect with Anna’s family to deliver a death-stab in Anna’s back. 

They have crept in with their lies and malice beforehand to do their trouble-making work among Anna’s family as well.  Charles did not attend the funeral, but that day at the memorial service and at the gravesite, Zeena kept far away from her son and his family.  Smartly dressed, she stood proudly among Anna’s furious family, gloating over Anna’s sorrow, the terrible strife between Anna, Peter, and the family — and the obvious rejection of literally all of Anna’s family members. 

She did not make the slightest attempt to come near Peter or to speak to him, to Anna, or to the boys. 

She found new ground to break in her and Charles’ great quest to destroy them all.

Completely absorbed in revenge, Zeena did not even give a single thought to the sorrow, humiliation, and rejection of her grandchildren.  Instead, she gloried in the knowledge that Anna’s father had died, that her mother was alone, and that Anna was rejected by her whole family. 

Charles hid behind the scenes that day, but Zeena made the most of the opportunity to set everything ablaze around Anna and to trample the young family pitilessly in public.

 

Three months after the funeral, Anna fetched her ailing mother to spend a week with her, Peter, and the children.  They sat together in the lounge, and for the first time, her mother spoke out against Manson and Zeena.  She told Anna how, at Anna’s younger brother’s house ten days earlier with his wife’s birthday party, (Anna, Peter, and the boys were not welcome anymore,) Charles and Zeena also walked in.  After the party, when Charles and Zeena eventually greeted to go home, Anna’s mother asked Charles whether they would consider “making peace with the children.” 

“No, definitely not,” Manson hissed through clenched jaws.  His face turned to granite, “Never, never, never.” 

They went outside, accompanied by Anna’s brother and his wife, and stood slandering Anna and Peter for more than an hour before they eventually drove off.  All the while, Anna’s mother had to sit alone in the living room. 

However, that cold-blooded attack on her daughter in front of her very eyes finally opened the spiritual understanding of this newborn spiritual baby in Christ.  Eventually, Anna’s mother could see what has been going on in the spirit world all those years, and how dreadfully evil Charles and Zeena were.  However, it was too late now.  Anna’s mother had done incalculable damage to Peter, Anna, and the children by inviting Charles and Zeena to her husband’s funeral. 

The Word of God states, “To be zealous without the necessary knowledge is not good.” 

 

Anna’s mother died that Saturday afternoon after Anna and one of the boys had taken her home, but no one knew. 

The next day was Sunday; Mother’s Day.  In the afternoon, Anna, Peter, and the boys drove to the farm to spend some time with her, but they found her laying dead on the bedroom floor, her suitcase open, but still unpacked on the bed. 

None of her other children and grandchildren had called, or came to see her anymore.  Everyone, Charles and Zeena included, were visiting with Anna’s younger brother and his wife, who lived about fifty meters away on their mother’s farm.  Although Anna’s sister in law and her oldest daughter saw Anna and her son arriving with Anna’s mother the previous day, they made everyone believe that she was still at Anna’s. 

Nevertheless, having wormed herself firmly into Anna’s family as well, that slithering black snake Zeena had the audacity to come to Anna’s mother’s funeral as well. 

Anna was too engulfed by loss and sorrow to confront that evil woman, or even to look at her.  At the funeral, the satisfied, gloating Zeena acted in exactly the same way as at the funeral of Anna’s father.  Charles and Zeena had stealthily claimed Anna’s entire family for themselves, ostracizing Anna, Peter, and the boys with their lies. 

In this way, they ensured that everyone whom the couple and their children ever loved, turned against them. 

The boys…  No one, Zeena and Charles least of all, cared about them or gave a second thought as to how all this incomprehensible abuse would affect their young lives.  They first lost Charles and Zeena eighteen months ago.  Then, in the course of only a few short months, they lost both their grandparents from their mother’s side, as well as all their once loving cousins, and their uncles and aunts.  

 

ANNA HOPED AND THUS BELIEVED THE HOLY SPIRIT WAS GRADUALLY LIBERATING PETER  

After Peter had accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as his personal Lord and Savior at the time Anna’s parents died, he was still controlled by many problems, which Anna then still believed, sprouted mostly from his abusive childhood and his uncontrolled life of sin without Christ.  Because Anna resisted his continuance in sin, it seemed that he gradually kicked the cigarettes and later also the booze, but still failed to protect her and his sons when necessary.

Additionally, he could not keep his lustful gaze off other women, and given the chance, he flirted with her friends and strangers.  What he forced Anna over a lifetime to accept as a “normal” part of life, began to smear her newborn life in Christ with dirt.  Anna hoped with all her heart that God had heard her prayers to save Peter and that He was gradually liberating him from his chronic womanizing as well.  But she knew God will only deliver those who repent from their sin.  Sadly, that secretive soul called “Peter” was not willing to “confess his sins to her so that they might be healed,” (Jam. 5:16-18.)  Thus, he remained chained to the bondage of his past.  There was no doubt in Anna’s mind that he willingly chose to remain unrepentant instead of following Jesus wholeheartedly.  She still could not understand what Peter was doing and why he wasn't fully surrendering to God.  Yet outwardly, he prayed and confessed Jesus diligently. 

Nevertheless, from the very beginning, Anna “instinctively knew” he was hiding terrible things from her.  There were many sins Peter had to confess to her to obey God and to truly renew their relationship.  Because she also believed no marriage or any other relationship can be built on lies and deceit, Anna kept on praying for God to show her what was going on while she pressured Peter for the truth.  He passionately denied that he buried his sins instead of confessing them to her as God commands.  As far as he was concerned, he was innocent and she was falsely accusing him of hypocrisy. 

 

About eight years after she gave her life to Christ, while watching a movie that portrayed the unfaithfulness of a husband and how he gave his wife venereal disease, God began to open that part of their life again.  Anna demanded to know who the woman was that gave Peter ‘The Clap,’ which he transferred to her while forcing her to ‘accept’ that he contracted it from a toilet.  She knew all along that he lied to her about his encounters with other women. 

She wanted the whole truth about everything. 

Anna left him no choice but to eventually “tell her what he had done.”  She refused all his lies and manipulation to get out of the situation again.  So, slyly covering his part in it all, he told her, “only” four times, he had casual sex with her sister’s eldest daughter, (the elder sister of the one that persecuted Anna for so long,) after she left school.  He said he never loved her.  She seduced him with every opportunity while staying with Anna when he had to work night shift.  Allegedly, she even waited for him naked one morning when he returned early from night shift while Anna was still asleep.  He said it was “merely sex,” it “really happened only four times,” and was “nothing serious.”  The words “serial adultery” never entered his mind.  He confessed “everything,” asked forgiveness, and sadistically claimed that Anna was now compelled to forgive him as God commands.  As far as he was concerned, the matter was settled. 

Forgiveness was not the problem, Anna realized.  The lack of his willing confession of the destruction of a marriage that never existed form then on...  The deception.  The humiliation.  The treason.  The rejection of her and the boys…  The lack of repentance…  Serial adultery; not serious?  They were so sly that she did not suspect anything in the least.  She knew the girl had a crush on him, but she wholly yet stupidly trusted him with her.  She did not believe it happened “only” four times, but Peter immovably stuck to his story.  She knew they did it in her home, and everywhere else they got the opportunity to adulterate.  And she was brutally manipulated and abused so that they could humiliate and betray her jokingly right under her nose. 

Peter’s lies, manipulation, infidelity, and her ‘loving’ niece’s sly treachery cut extremely deep, as this girl was like a daughter to Anna.  She also fetched her often to stay with her when Peter had to do military service.  This was supposedly where it all started while Anna was in the bath, busy with her young son and later, with the younger one as a baby and toddler, making them all dinner; and cleaning up while Peter and her niece were ‘relaxing in front of the television.’ 

What angered Anna even more, was that when she was helpless and severely ill in bed while pregnant with her younger son, or sleeping at night after working herself to a standstill during the day, they took advantage of her goodness and trust.  Completely oblivious to the filth that was proliferating underneath her own roof, Anna loved, helped and protected this girl so much that she called her “Mamma,” and most disturbingly, she called Peter “Daddy.” 

 

Anna went ballistic for a while.  She wanted him to make sense of it all.  In a single moment, she lost both Peter and her beloved niece who was like a daughter to her through their constant, secret adultery.  Much worse: this life-long treachery compelled her to know what was really going on behind her back.  She wanted to know when it began and if it ever ended, and how he could have been so sly, clever, and arrogant to commit, and keep on committing all those terrible things seemingly virtually in front of her while she always remained faithful to him and totally oblivious to what he was doing.  She wanted to know whether he continued after he was baptized in water. 

He kept on aggressively denying “her allegations, made up stories, and embroidering on the facts.  It was now her duty to stop being a martyr and get over it!”  He later remorselessly added, “I did it.  I enjoyed it, and you must stop pestering me about it. I have confessed everything and it is now over and done with, do you hear me?  You are going to hell because of your jealousy and unforgiveness — and then you call yourself a Christian!” 

She knew he lied about telling her the whole truth and “confessing everything” to control, deceive, and harm her even worse.  She responded, “Jesus said we will “know each other by our fruits.  Someone who has remorse for his sin would have confessed it all in detail and begged forgiveness, the moment he ‘gave his life to Jesus!’” (James 5:15-18.)  She had to push it out of him with great effort and he eventually “confessed” only what suited him.  When he kept on provoking her with such humiliating, taunting remarks and evasive, illogic answers, she once slapped him in his face for having the audacity to continually lie to her on top of all his other destruction of her life.  He then attacked her and hurt her badly. 

She never realized that he was deliberately provoking her to sorrow and anger because he was enjoying injuring her and playing his sadistic mind-games with her.  But as usual, Anna forgave him again and again because he revealed nothing and insisted that “she unnecessarily provoked his assaults on her.”  “If you are looking for something, you will get it.”   

“You did not just slap me in humiliation and anger for destroying your life and lying to you continually,” she protested. “But I deserve to be blue and black all over because I want to know why, when, and exactly how you destroyed my life?” 

“I refuse to take responsibility for such rubbish.  It was sex — what’s so terrible about that?  It’s over.  Why carry on about it?  One would think I pulled your head off or something…  Stop harming yourself and shifting your blame onto me...” 

Anna could only cry and shake her head in disbelief.  She still could not make peace with the thought that he shunned her and the children so continually and lied about it all along, and now he was so arrogant about it!  He threw all her goodness, trust, love, care, and hard work in her face to repeatedly commit adultery with her niece who called him “Daddy.”  There was something extremely filthy about that.  She could not believe that he ever loved her, although he insisted that he did, and that he will always be crazy about her.  When she accused him of lying again, he forbade her to “think for him.”  The fact that she could not wrap her mind around, was that he inconsistently and only under pressure confessed some of his sin, but his attitude and actions showed no remorse.  The next time something terrible surfaced, he strongly denied anything of what he previously ‘confessed’ and “solemnly warned” her that she is seriously mad. 

 

THEIR ABUSE ON ANNA DURING THE ENGAGEMENT AND AFTER THE WEDDING BECAME CLEAR TO HER 

In due time, as many suppressed episodes surfaced in Anna’s mind while she worked through the terrible trauma that Peter had caused in her life since she got engaged to him, the certainty strengthened that the filthy episodes with her niece was only the surface of a deep sewerage hole of lifelong deceit.  She really wanted to make sense of what Peter was doing with her love, trust, and life throughout all the years. 

For the first time, looking at her life with him without blinkers, she knew for certain he was also lying about Gwen.     

Anna told him she knew that he never broke up with Gwen and that is why his parents continually brought that woman into her life.  As she spoke, she realized with shock and anger he wasn’t a passive victim that day of the funeral or that night that he spent with Gwen.  They all worked together.  He was free to leave when Anna wanted to break off the engagement.  He was also free to divorce her, but instead, he had the cruel audacity to let Gwen come to their home after their marriage.  He and his parents even took her to Gwen’s house, and arranged that Gwen openly comfort him the whole day and into the night in hospital, because he was committing adultery with her all the time.  They did not expect that Anna’s parents would take her to visit him in hospital, but it was an added advantage for them to see how they humiliated and hurt her in front of her parents.  He enjoyed his parents help in all his adulterous affairs to destroy her, Anna, so that they could all laugh themselves breathless because of her stupidity! 

She also wanted to know the truth behind the long business hours he supposedly had to keep while he ruined their marriage, family, business, and finances.  Additionally, she insisted to understand why he remained so dreadfully unwilling to change after “he gave his life to God,” and why he failed to protect her and the boys during all the years of agony with him and his parents, while sneaking so cleverly and bravely behind her back all the time. 

“It wasn’t all the time.  I swear to you that day at the hospital wasn’t planned.  Her sister was sick there.  And I never asked them to bring her to our home.  It was Charles that insisted I take you with them to her home.  It was all their idea like with the funeral.  It was just that one time with Gwen after the funeral and the five… or six times with…  I’m not lying to you any more I swear…  I don’t know…” was the only so-called explanation he was willing to give.  “It was just on a silver platter…  I was too weak…  It meant nothing...”  he stumbled. 

“So, you did whore with her after the funeral and you lied to me all these years,” Anna whispered beyond anger. “In reality, you were lovey-dovey with her in front of your entire family that whole day, while deceiving me to believe your parents were to blame for it all.  Her sister was sick there but she was with you all the time?  You never wanted to take me to her home but Charles insisted, just as that day with the funeral, hey?  How many other times did ‘Charles insist’ you take them to her home after you supposedly broke up with her?  You three constantly brought her to my home but you had nothing to do with her?  Just four and now five or six times with my niece who called you “Daddy” wasn’t all the time… You were weak…?”  She swallowed hard.  “What a poor consolation that is.  You filthy pig, you were actually committing incest with her and I bet it continued throughout our life together.  What a despicable liar, thief, destroyer, and emotional murderer you are.  I also bet you never really ‘gave your life to the Lord.’  There is something terribly wrong here — was wrong all the time.  Dreadfully wrong from day one.  What is really the matter with you?”   

 

That night, Peter said a mob of demons attacked him in his sleep.  They kicked him, and slammed their fists in his face.  He tried to fight back, but they were too strong; he could do nothing against them.  He wanted to protest, wanted to scream for help, but each time he opened his mouth, a demon slapped him in the mouth.  He tried to wrestle free, and loosen their grip on him to escape, but they battered him back into passivity until he lay helplessly at their feet.  He could not move or utter a sound.  Then, with great effort, he managed to pull his fear-scattered thoughts together and began to cry out to Jesus in his mind. 

He suddenly awoke and flicked on the light. 

He was sweating and shaking.  He knew it was not merely a dream.  It was real.  It was an attack from the spirit world. 

He grabbed Anna in his arms and sobbed on her shoulder like a little boy, “Someone slapped me in my mouth since I was a baby.  It continued and continued…  It was demonic.  They always wanted to shut me up!” 

“Who was it?  Who wanted to shut you up?” 

“I don’t know! I was too young, maybe just a baby…” 

“Was it Charles, Zeena, your grandmother…  one of the many maids she left you with to go to work?” 

“I don’t now…  I don’t know…  I only know I was little when Charles began to kick me and hit me in my face with his fists…  They placed demons on me so I could never speak out when I had to…  So I could not tell what they were doing…  So I could never defend what was mine…  Never stand up to them and do what was right…” 

 

Anna knew he was probably playing her again as she confronted him prior to this because he never defended her and the boys.  It now seemed to her he enjoyed keeping quiet because he was deriving pleasure by watching them suffer. 

But that night she felt so much empathy for him she instantly began to pray, “Our Lord Jesus Christ is the King of kings, the Lord of lords, and the God of everything and everyone that is worshiped,” Anna immediately comforted him. “And He has promised, they will come against us on one path, but flee on seven paths before us.  Not a single plan or weapon formed against us will prosper.  Every tongue that raises against us, God will give us the wisdom to condemn.  This is the birthright of the children of the Lord!  Our God has seen it all.  He knows it all.  And He had promised to turn everything bad into good for those who love Him and obey His commandments!”

“Peter,” she continued when he calmed down, “I know there is more.  Tell me everything you did while you were supposed to remain faithful to me.  That is how we overcome the darkness that has stolen our lives through sin!”  

He denied this “allegation” again and promised her he told her everything.  There was nothing more; he finally came clean.  As usual, nothing could persuade him to budge.  Yet, Anna knew intuitively he was still lying to her.  Later, as she got to know the real Peter she married, she suspected this ‘demonic attack’ too, was just another clever ploy to cover his constant adultery and apathy towards her and the boys.  She could not shake the ‘gut feeling’ that he was again shifting all the blame for his filthy behavior onto other people, his parents especially. 

 

When she was over the shock of his ‘confession’ that he was with Gwen that night and lied about it all the years, she had to face the great possibility that he was dreadfully unfaithful from the very beginning; even before they got engaged and were still dating.  She told him it was her right to have known the truth from day one, so that she could have been able to make the right choices for her life.  She was never willing to play an immoral ‘lover’s triangle’ game with anyone.  If she suspected he was into such decimation of innocent lives, she would have walked away immediately.  But Peter, his parents, his ‘girlfriend,’ and her niece pillaged everything precious from her life.  And because he lied about it all the time, he left her no choice of whom she was allowing into her life and into her bed. 

He even married her in church under false pretences, she said.  An engagement is the first part of God’s holy marriage covenant. Hence, the virgin Mary conceived Jesus while she was engaged to Joseph, and he had to give her a letter of divorce to break the engagement.  As a result, Peter actually began to commit adultery during their engagement. 

Peter promised he told her the whole truth.  It was only that day of the funeral.  He lied then because he loved Anna, could not hurt her by telling her the truth, and he would never have been able to spend his life with anyone else. 

He refused to comprehend that nearly a lifetime of lies, deception, and violence added great insult to great injury.  Not just great injury, but life-destroying, emotional murder on her, and the demolition of their beautiful family, (1 Jn. 3:15.) 

He answered. “To me, all of that was just a ‘natural’ part of life.  That’s how I was raised; I knew nothing else.  But that was then.  Now I have changed.  I serve Jesus.” 

Anna quietly said, “You lie because you so perfectly pretended to be such a ‘decent’ guy.  No one can pretend things they know nothing about.  What’s more, your continuous fruit shows that you never loved me or truly accepted Jesus, because you are still backhanded, violent, and dishonest, to put it mildly.” 

He just shrugged his shoulders and said, “If that’s the way you choose to see it…” 

 

(Continue)

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