Rock N Roll Prophets @ The YMCA

                As usual, I am up to my eyeballs in stuff I need to get done when the need to put something up here comes over me and I can’t resist. Chances are most of you won’t get this one at all but, here goes. Also, if you remember that post I wrote on art and the highest expressions of faith, you will see just how far a man can fall. J

            OK- Let’s start by making it clear that those of you hoping for a Village People reference (beyond this one) will be sorely disappointed as you read. So sorry. They weren’t prophets.

            It starts one morning a couple of weeks ago. My church has begun a prayer experience based on a book called, The Circle Maker and I have been keeping a journal of my prayer during this time. On this particular day, I wrote an entry that looked something like this. I’ve made a few adjustments so you can understand what’s going on. Go ahead and play this video as you read. Enjoy the music.

            I listened to a Cymbala sermon (Jim Cymbala is Pastor of Brooklyn Tabernacle and one of my favorite teachers) during my work out this morning called, “Protecting Your Head.”  Put on the helmet of salvation (Ephesians 6;17)  He talked about the need to keep out thoughts that come from the enemy, but even more importantly, filling your head with thoughts that are God’s. Part of the sermon said that we need to remember not the bad things of our past, but the places where God did good and great things in our lives.

            So, I guess to drive home the point, God gave me an incredibly funny (great sense of humor and a slow audience- nod to Don Deems), very real, and admittedly weird experience of His presence. You need to know that my ipod has almost 7000 songs on it. What happened was against great odds. The sermon podcast ends and I go to my playlist shuffle. After several false starts, I settle on Van Halen- Love Walks In as appropriate listening. Then I go down to the restroom. I can’t believe I’m putting this out there. I must be nuts.

            Sitting there on the toilet doing my business, God begins to speak through the music. ‘familiar faces, familiar sights-reach back, remember with all your might”-

            The Almighty takes over for Sammy (banish your thoughts of DLR being almighty) and says- “Reach back, Kevin, and remember when I first broke through to you, remember Tonni and the kids, remember when prayer became real, remember when I showed you your heart, remember when you confessed and she forgave you, remember the journey, remember the guys (God’s warrior angels)  around you, remember sensing your new calling, remember all the times I have been real to you.”

            I am laughing out loud now as God reveals himself while I’m going to the bathroom (that must have been a strange experience for the other guys in the locker room but, I digress.), all the while I’m asking myself,  “How will I preach this one?”

            But, wait! There’s more. There’s a great spiritual coda in the last verse of the song-“To my Master I’ve become a slave [bondservant of Christ] til we meet again some other day when silence speaks as loud as war, earth returns to what is was before!”

            “Remember,Kevin, even with all the crap in the world (I just thought of that part right this minute), I’m going to set everything right.”

            Really, Lord? Salvation, calling, and the completion of the Kingdom? Here? You’re funny! Thanks! Who knew VH was restroom stall prophecy?