Authors: Melody Carlson
Bad Connection (24 page)
“There was a shepherd who had one hundred sheep… “
The words of the old story, the one my dad used to tell at bedtime sometimes, begins to roll through my head. And I remember the parable that Jesus originally told—the one about the good shepherd who went to a great effort to search for one lost lamb. I remember how he left his other ninety-nine sheep behind and took off in the middle of the
night just so that he could find that one lost lamb. And I guess that's how it was with Kayla. God loves us that much!
And like that ecstatic shepherd who threw a big party after finding his beloved lamb, and just like Jesus when He rescues just one lost person, I'd have to agree that it was worth it. Totally worth it!
Ebony and I just took off from Phoenix, and we're on our way home. I recline my chair and close my eyes. I am so ready to just kick back for a while. The flight won't arrive in Portland for a couple of hours—perfect for a nice long snooze. It looks like Ebony has the same idea. I let out a deep sigh and feel myself slipping into a state of what I hope will be comatose slumber…
Suddenly I feel a sharp bump on my elbow and look up to see the stainless steel beverage cart attempting to move past me.
“Excuse me,” says the blond flight attendant. “Your arm's in the way.”
“Sorry.” I pull in my arm and sit up straighter as I rub the spot where she ran into me. You'd think they'd be more careful with those carts. Anyway I'm wide-awake now. So much for my nap, although it looks like most of the passengers ane fast asleep. Lucky them.
I watch the flight attendant slowly work her way up the aisle, and I can't help but think that that must be a boring job. Not only that, but a lot of the passengers, particularly during the holidays, are pretty rude and impatient.
She leans over to give a dark-haired man a cup of coffee, but as he reaches for it, the little tray is bumped and hot coffee spills all over him. He instantly leaps to his feet and attempts to brush it off, and the flight attendant apologizes and r>tries to help him. She finally takes him up to the front, where I o assume she'll find a towel to dry him off. Poor guy, not only did o he get scalded, he's probably sopping wet now too.
Then just as I think it's settled down, the man grabs the flight attendant by her arm. This is turning into one serious case of flight rage. I start to nudge Ebony in case this gets out of hand, but it looks like I'm too late. The angry man now has one arm wrapped tightly around the woman's neck, and her eyes are bulging as if she can barely breathe. But worse than that, he has a knife in his other hand! It looks like he's actually threatening to kill her. All this over a cup of coffee?
“Nobody move!” he yells with a strong accent. “I have a bomb!”
Just then I hear a scream from behind us, and I look back in time to see another man running forward in the aisle. Ebony is wide-awake now and looks just as shocked as I am. I wonder if she can help, although her gun is in her checked bag. Or maybe the man moving down the aisle is an air marshal who is armed and prepared to stop this crazy thing, but then I see that this man looks Arabic as well. And in his hand is a knife!
I'm about to stick my foot into the aisle to trip him when Ebody gives me a shove from the other side. And that's when I wake up!
“Are you okay?” asks Ebony.
I blink and look at her then look around the plane. All appears perfectly normal, and everyone is still asleep. No knives, no bombs…just peace and quiet.
“Bad dream?”
I nod and take in a deep breath. “Yeah, thank goodness. It was just a dream.” Then I see the blond flight attendant up in front, and she's pouring a cup of coffee for a dark-haired guy, and suddenly I'm not sure.
Was
Wjust
a
dream?
The book opens with what turns out to be a prophetic dream. What did you think when Samantha saw the news of the wreck that morning? What was your reaction to her dream?
Why do you think Sam wants to keep her gift a secret? What would you do in a similar situation?
Olivia Marsh is very supportive of Sam. Do you have someone like that in your life? Are you a friend like that? Explain.
Do you ever experience a “sixth sense” where you get an instinctive feeling or an intuition that later proves true?
Do you believe this gift of intuition comes from God? Why or why not?
How do you react to things that seem “supernatural”? Do you have a way to discern whether they are from God or something else? Explain.
Do you believe God gives special gifts to everone, or just to those He considers special? What gifts has He given to you?
Why do you think God gives His children spiritual gifts? What does He want us to do with them?
Do you think most people live to their fullest potential, using all the gifts that God gives? Why or why not?
List as many gifts as you can think of.
Do you think that everything about God is explainable? Why or why not?
As Christians, we all have the Holy Spirit within us, and God speaks through His Spirit to guide us in our walk with Him. Most often, He speaks through our circumstances, changing our desires, giving us insight into Scripture, bringing the right words to say when speaking,
or
having another Christian speak words we need to hear. Yet God, in His sovereignty, may still choose to speak to us in a supernatural way, such as visions and dreams.
Our dreams, if they are truly of the Lord, should clearly line up with the Word and thus correctly reveal His character. We must always be very careful to test the words, interpretations of circumstances, dreams, visions, and advice that we receive. Satan wants to deceive us, and he has deceived many Christians into thinking that God is speaking when He is not. So how do we know if it's God's voice that we are actually hearing?
First we have to look at the Bible and see how and what He has spoken in the past, asking the question,
Does what I'm hearing line up with who God shows Himself to be and the way He works in Scripture?
Below is a list of references to dreams and visions in Scripture that will help you see what God has said about these gifts:
Genesis is full of dreams and visions! Check out some key chapters: 15, 20, 28, 31, 37, 40, 41
Deuteronomy 13:1-5
Judges 7
1 Kings 3
Jeremiah 23
Several passages in the book of Daniel
Joel 2
The book of Ezekiel has a lot of visions
There are a lot of dreams in the book of Matthew, specifically in chapters '1 and 2
Acts 9, 10, 16, 18
The whole book of Revelation
If you want to learn more and gain a balanced perspective on all this stuff, you'll probably want to research the broader category of spiritual gifts. Every Christian has at least one spiritual gift, and they are important to learn about.
Here is a list of books and websites that will help:
Hearing God's Voice
by Henry and Richard BlackabyWhat's So Spiritual about Your Gifts?
by Henry and Mel BlackabyShowing the Spirit
by D. A. CarsonThe Gift of Prophecy in the New Testament and Today
by Wayne GrudemAre Miraculous Gifts for Today?
by Wayne GrudemKeep in Step with the Spirit
by J. I. Packerwww.enjoyihggodministries.com
. Click on Theological Studies Section and choose Controversial Issues. Check out Session 03-04 and 18.www.desiringgod.org
. Click on Online Library and choose Topic Index, then check out Spiritual Gifts. (Note: If you're doing a Google search on spiritual gifts or dreams and visions, please make sure you type in
Christian
as well. This will help you weed out a lot of deceitful stuff.)
As you continue to research and learn about spiritual gifts, always remember: The bottom line is to focus on the
Giver
, not the
gift.
God gives to us so we can glorify Him.
“Signs and wonders are not the saving word of grace; they are God's secondary testimony to the word of his grace. Signs and wonders do not save. They are not the power of God unto salvation. They do not transform the heart—any more than music or art or drama that accompany the gospel. Signs and wonders can be imitated by Satan (2 Thessalonians 2:9; Matthew 24:24), but the gospel is utterly contrary to his nature. What changes the heart and saves the soul is the self-authenticating glory of Christ seen in the message of the gospel (2 Corinthians 3:18-4:6).
But even if signs and wonders can't save the soul, they can, if God pleases, shatter the shell of disinterest; they can shatter the shell of cynicism; they can shatter the shell of false religion. Like every other good witness to the word of grace, they can help the fallen heart to fix its gaze on the gospel where the soul-saving, self-authenticating glory of the Lord shines. Therefore the early church longed for God to stretch forth his hand to heal, and that signs and wonders be done in the name of Jesus.”
—John Piper,
Desiring God
This is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogues are products of the author's imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
BAD CONNECTION
published by Multnomah Books, a division of Random House, Inc., and in association with the literary agency of Sara A. Fortenberry
© 2006 by Carlson Management Co., Inc.
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from:
The Message ©
1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002
Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group
Other Scripture quotations are from:
The Holy Bible
, King James Version (KJV)
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is a trademark of Multnomah Books, and is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
The colophon is a trademark of Multnomah Books.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without prior written permission.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Carlson, Melody.
Bad connection: a novel / Melody Carlson.
p. cm. — (The secret life of Samantha McGregor; bk. 1)
eISBN: 978-0-307-56236-4
1. Teenage girls—Fiction. 2. Missing persons—Fiction. 3. Teenagers—Psychic ability— Fiction. I. Title. II. Series: Carlson, Melody. Secret life of Samantha McGregor; bk. 1.
PS3553.A73257B35 2006
813'.54—dc22
2006013162
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