XLIX

ABSTAIN FROM ALL APPEARANCE OF EVIL

(1 THESSALONIANS 5:22)

SEVENIA SALLIE (GIRL PROPHETESS)

“Are you ready, Sweet Pea?” my dad asked after he kissed the top of my head and then ruffled my short nest of unintentionally spiky, naturally auburn hair.

“Sure,” I giggled.

“How about you, Lex?” he asked our companion in his studio.

“Aren’t you gonna kiss me on top of my head, too?” Lexi Gomez asked with a slightly seductive, yet serious tone. I saw my dad try to conceal the stunned expression that came onto his face. Then Lexi laughed, and a relieved look washed over my father’s face before he chuckled along with her.

“I’m just kidding,” Lexi said happily. “Yeah, I’m ready as I’ll ever be. I guess.”

I first met the former exotic dancer known as Sexy Lexi two years ago. It was shortly after she was delivered from demon possession that we became friends. Her ordeal was the final straw in my dad’s own hesitation to follow Christ fully. As frightening as the experience was for him, he said her transformation was beautiful and miraculous. It was also a blaring alarm that awoke him to the facts of spiritual realities. He said it was like witnessing when Jesus casted out demons, and the delivered was clothed and sitting in his right mind. (Mark 5:15).

Although Lexi experienced an amazing deliverance, it didn’t free her from being human. She still had immense struggles and temptations. After giving birth to a healthy baby boy more than a year ago, she had suffered from postpartum depression. She also still had an abrasive personality. As she and I settled into my dad’s studio to do an interview, her aggressive nature was on display before we even got started.

My dad is a podcaster and broadcaster, mostly known for his former show, The Seven Sallie Showdown. At one time he had millions of listeners and social media followers. For a long time, his topics were culture events, along with political and religious corruption. He was often crude, obnoxious, and mean spirited.

After his conversion, my dad’s personal character changed, as did his approach to his broadcast subjects. Crude was replaced with kind, obnoxious with patience, mean spirited with spiritually instructive. He rapidly lost his fan base, causing his partners to dump and replace him.

So he began again with his own podcast. He called it, The Seven Sallie Lowdown. But human beings tend to prefer the carnal over spiritual. Although over the last two years he had gained new followers, it was a fraction of his heyday. Yet I had never seen my daddy more content.

There was one hold over from the old days that he still had kept. It was his introductory theme song. Whereas Rush Limbaugh’s signature start to his broadcast was The Pretender’s song ‘My City Was Gone’, my dad’s was ‘Hells Bells’ by some hard rock band named after an electric current. AC DC, I believe they’re called.

To me it was dark, so I never cared for it. Yet I didn’t pay it much attention. I know it did create controversy when my dad’s topic became more spiritual and Christian based. Yet my dad simply explained it away as it was just music. He said he saw nothing evil with guitars and drums. He proclaimed that after the haunting church bells, sinister guitar play, and progressive drums, he faded out and began talking before the singing began. Something was about to happen that would cause him to change his introductory music forever.

The interview I was about to do with Lexi had to do with the dangers of dabbling with the occult, and how dark forces have permeated our culture and entertainment. Our session was thankfully going to be prerecorded. Because as soon as my dad’s theme song began to play, things quickly went awry. As soon as the first gong of the church bell rang, I noticed a stunned look Lexi’s face. Then when the guitar began, she bolted up from her chair.

“Stop!” she barked. My dad spilled and spit up the sparkling water he had been sipping.

“Lexi, what’s wrong?” my dad asked with a concerned look on his face.

“What are you doing?” she asked. Her expression revealed both disgust and confusion.

“We’re starting the broadcast, I thought you were ready.”

“I mean that music,” she barked as she haphazardly pointed at the sound board.

“It’s introductory. It will fade out after a minute and I’ll start talking. Then I’ll…”

“It’s evil!”

“Um, well, It’s just the music. I fade out several seconds before any singing begins.”

The drums began and the song picked up speed. Lexi slapped her hands over her ears and a squeak emanated from her throat. My dad stopped the song.

“It’s gonna be in my head,” she croaked, on the verge of tears.

“I don’t understand,” my dad said with spread arms. “It’s just music.”

“I’m gonna get ya, Satan get ya,” Lexi said desperately.

“Huh?” my dad replied.

“It’s part of the lyrics,” she said as tears now ran down her cheeks. “I’m not going back there. Lord help me!

“It’s okay, Sweetie,” I said, reflexively doing a Destiny imitation as I put my arm around Lexi. She put her arms around me and whimpered. It was so pitiful that I began to cry myself, and I didn’t even fully understand what was going on. My dad stared dumbfounded at us.

“I need my sister,” Lexi said with a quivering lower lip. This once hardened, worldly woman now seemed so childlike and vulnerable. “I can’t do this right now.”

“That’s okay. I’ll call Amy,” I told her.

“Okay,” she said meekly. Then she hugged me so tight I struggled to get to my phone. But I managed, and Amy said to come right over.

Lexi and her younger half sister Amy had become extremely close over the last two years. Amy had been instrumental during Lexi’s demon possession ordeal. A year or two before that, Lexi had put Amy in a situation where she was almost gang raped. Yet Amy not only forgave her, but now helped her get her life together. Johnathan Ember’s tells of this twisted situation in his e-book ‘Knight Storm.’

“Do you want me to drive you?” I asked Lexi as I walked her to her car.

“No, I’ll be fine,” she said as she put a hand on my forearm and winced. Her long dark ponytail had flopped around to her front side, and she began to stroke it with both hands. Her intense brown eyes looked sorrowful. “I’m so embarrassed. It’s just, well, I have occasional nightmares about my old life and that song just, it just set me off I guess. Plus I was really nervous about our interview. I like to keep my old life out of my mind as much as possible.”

“Lex, you don’t have to do this interview,” I said softly.

“No, I want to,” she said insistently. “I need to warn people about the dangers of the occult. I think I just didn’t have enough time to get my head around doing this project. I should have counseled and prayed with Amy in the first place. Nobody understands me like her. Tell your dad I’m sorry. Maybe I could come back later today even.”

“You just take care, Sweetie,” I said. “And don’t feel pressured to do this interview thing, okay?”

“Okay,” she said with a forced smile.

I prayed with her, and then I returned to my dad. He was praying with an open Bible in front of him. He got up when he heard me enter the studio. He had a stricken look on his face.

“Daddy, are you all right?”

“How could I be so stupid?”

I didn’t say anything. I just gazed at him sympathetically.

“I used to love it when religious people complained about my intro song when I was on The Showdown. Then when I started The Lowdown, I got even more complaints, even though I had a fraction of the listeners. I just found it annoying, all the complainers, busybodies and legalists. Then Lexi’s reaction, especially given her background. It was, well, it was…”

“A wake up call?” I asked mildly.

“More like a fire alarm actually,” he said and then chuckled without humor. Then he picked up a post it note with his chicken scratches on it. “I looked up the lyrics. Here are a few that stuck out to me. Won’t take no prisoners, won’t spare no lives. Nobody’s put up a fight. Got my bell, gonna take you to hell. Here’s the part Lexi quoted. I’m gonna get you, Satan get you, hells bells. Here’s a couple more lines. I’ll give you black sensations up and down your spine. If you’re into evil, you’re a friend of mine. If goods to the left, I’m sticking to the right.”

“So are you changing it then?”

“Yes, I’m never using it again.”

“What are you gonna do?”

“Well, after Captain Kirk became the latest to rebuke me for using it, I found a song I liked and had it in reserve. I’m ashamed to admit, if it hadn’t been for Lexi, I probably wouldn’t have considered it.”

“What’s your new song?”

“Boom by POD.”

I nodded.

“Have you heard of it?”

I shook my head. He played it. I nodded. “Yeah, I’ve heard it before. They’re a Christian band, aren’t they?”

He nodded.

“So, when did Pastor Samson rebuke you?”

“A few weeks ago.”

“What’d he say?”

“He told me a lot of people he respected, had expressed concern about my intro music. He said he knew nothing about hard rock music other than he didn’t personally like it. I told him what I had told you and Lexi. I fade the music out before any lyrics start. He said to beware, music is powerful and that the music could trigger the lyrics in peoples minds. Then he said to please pray over it.”

“Did you?”

“No,” he said quietly as my typically bold father meekly hung his head.

“I Thessalonians 5:22 says to abstain from all appearance of evil,” I said softly.

“I know,” he nodded solemnly. “I was also thinking about Romans 14:13 instructing not to put a stumbling block or occasion to fall in a brother or sister’s way.”

My phone chirped, as if on cue, with a text from Lexi. She wanted to come back and do our interview. She said she was sorry for bailing, and being so weak and wimping out. I called her and told her that when we are weak we become strong (2 Corinthians 12:10), of course,  through the power of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I also told her that my dad had changed his intro song permanently because of her influence. I told her he had changed it to ‘Boom’ by POD. She blurted a praise God so loud it startled me. But in a wonderful way!