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No, "Deliverance" has nothing to
do with the Burt Reynolds movie about the canoe trip and meeting up with
the weird inbred mountain dudes. It has to do with finally - FINALLY -
becoming a Christian.
This may come as a shock to any
who know or knew me and, after reading in this e-zine about all the things
I'd done as a kid - and even worse after I grew up - you'd be certain I'd
be the last one on your list. But it's true.
I've always been a
writer and, consequently, always a reader and researcher of anything that
interests me. I began researching Bible prophecy some time ago, thanks to
the Internet. It was shocking to discover that of the approximately 2,000
prophecies in the Old and New Testaments, all of them came true. ALL of
them! Except for .. except for ..
Those prophesied about the End
Times .. The Day of the Lord .. the Tribulation ... the imminent return of
Jesus Christ to Earth to reclaim His Kingdom.
The more I
read, the more convinced I became that every single word in the Bible was
true. First, no other religion even attempts prophecy. Why? Because they'd get it wrong and be proven a fraud. Prophecy was given to prophets to prove that their message was from God and not from man. Second, since miracles of the magnitude detailed in Scripture - including
Creation - could only come from an invisible, omnipotent, omnipresent and
eternal Creator - therefore, every word must have been
God-breathed.
At that point, I uttered a silent and very
scared, "Uh-oh!"
I was heading for hell. No doubt about that at
all. That place is described over and over again to warn us what the
eternal consequences that our actions - or lack thereof - and the free
will choices we make on Earth will lead to. (HINT: there is no multiple
choice or buffet line of how one worships God. There is one and only one
way. Ergo, cults beware.) Regardless of the rulings of liberal judges and
of society's changing moral standards, they are all misguided. "Everyone
else is doing it" is no excuse. Running through my mind was: "Where am I
heading and why am I in this hand basket?"
I'll spare you all the
in-between time when I began studying the Bible again for the first time
since I was a kid (and about 30 or 40 books on prophecy - whew! - scarier
than any Steven King novel) and fast forward to a project that came as a
result of that research. That's what I hope you'll read.
It
began as a songwriting project, using traditional country styles - you
know, the 50 year-old Hank Williams, Johnny Cash kinda style. Gospel is
probably not the right description, because the songs, in some cases, are
so sarcastic and political that they shocked people at some churches. I've
even been asked not to return to more than one church after they heard
them. Or maybe that was just my voice and guitar playing. But the songs
are, shall we say, conservative. Okay, right-wing. All right, far
right-wing. Anyway, the liberal churches were having none of it. I finally
found a little Southern Baptist church that has welcomed them. They even
laugh at the lines with jokes in them.
JOKES? Well, yeah, but not
ALL of the songs, but enough to shock the liberal
churches.
So, after two years of writing these songs, I began
re-arranging the order in which I'd written them. And something
interesting began to appear. There was a story arc - a beginning, a middle
and an end. It was a story about what I had been studying: prophecies that
will come true, as all the others have, about the End Times, when
the murderous tyrant appears, the final dictator: the Antichrist. I
started writing a stage play - actually, a musical - incorporating the
songs into the action.
It's called "Revelation - The Musical" - you
can view the entire play here: http://www.vojo.com/
Click on Act One, then
Act Two to read the scenes, and there are songs at the end of many scenes.
They're on the left, where it says "Lyrics." No music is on the site yet. Maybe
later. "Vojo" is my pen name.
It's written in standard play format (with CHARACTER NAME capitalized and
centered, then dialogue beneath), and is ready for production in
churches. Well, okay, conservative churches.
If you're
interested in Bible prophecy - and you should be, based on all the
news from the Middle East, which will be the flash point for the End Times
- my research may startle you. The arrival of the self-proclaimed
"peacemaker," who turns out to be just the opposite, could be happening
within the very, very near future. There have been more prophesies
fulfilled within our generation (since 1948) than with any generation in
2,000 years. The pace quickens. Something is about to happen. There is a link on the lower left that says, "Prophecies,"
and is divided into three areas, in reverse chronological order:
1 The End Times - prophecies fulfilled in our generation and previews of coming distractions.
2. The Rapture - WHAT is it? WHEN is it? WHY is it?
3. The Messiah - 300+ Old Testament prophecies fulfilled in the New Testament.
And, regarding my own transformation - yeah, yeah, I can
hear it now: "Bible thumper!" Well, as the sage military philosopher
Gomer Pyle used to say, "Surprise,
surprise!" |
