Tag: faith

HEAVY METAL MIRACLES – PART 2 – CHAPTER 20

Posted on by Johnathan Embers

HEAVY METAL MIRACLES

PART 2

CHAPTER 20

ARLO ALDO

THE LORD YOUR GOD IN YOUR MIDST, THE MIGHTY ONE, WILL SAVE; HE WILL REJOICE OVER YOU WITH GLADNESS, HE WILL QUIET YOU WITH HIS LOVE, HE WILL REJOICE OVER YOU WITH SINGING. (Zephaniah 3:17)

            When Nancy and Drew arrived back in Iowa, it was on the back of my son’s mind to read Izzy’s suicide note. What he wasn’t expecting to read was a goodbye note from the woman he was supposed to marry. My normally even keel son was angry, and I felt his rebuke keenly when he slapped down her note on my kitchen table.

            “My Dearest Andrew,” Nancy’s note began. “I’ve never loved anyone more deeply in my life than you. Yet I never felt worthy of you. Recently you convinced me that I am in fact worthy, not only of your love, but of God’s. Thank you for introducing me to my Lord and Savior. However, I cannot join your family without your father’s blessing. Even if he were to recant, he made his true feelings known. When you read this I will be on my way back to California to stay with my mother for a while and hopefully, prayerfully get some direction for my life.  I’m sorry for this act of cowardice in giving you a Dear John letter instead of telling you in person. But to be perfectly honest, it would have been too painful. I know you will do great things in life. Please forgive me for breaking your heart but believe me when I say mine is even more shattered. With all my love, Nancy.”

            The paper rattled in my trembling fingers and my own heart broke when I saw the pain in my son’s countenance. I said, “I truly did recant.”

            “Too late, she’s gone,” he replied icily.

            “Not quite,” my wife said as she briskly walked into the kitchen.

            A couple of minutes earlier as I made my way to the breakfast table, she had ignored my greeting of  ‘good morning’ as she glared at me. I had hoped her coldness was due to her not being a morning person and her silence because of the phone to her ear.

            As she grabbed her purse she said, “I was just informed by Destiny Knight-Storm that Nancy spent the night with Sevenia Sallie. I’m gonna convince her that my blessing cancels out your idiocy.”

            “I’m coming with,” Drew declared passionately.

            “No,” I barked as I stood.  “You’re right. I was a complete idiot…”

            “Ya think!” my wife interjected fiercely.

            “No, apparently I don’t think very well. That’s how I created this mess.”

            “I’m coming with,” Drew repeated.

            “I am too,” my wife insisted. Then she added, “In case I have to pull your great big foot out of your mouth.”

            We were greeted at the door by Seven Sallie, Sevenia’s father. His eyebrows rose at the sight of our eager trio looking for admittance to his home. I told him the reason why we were standing on his doorstep.

            “My daughter took Nancy to the airport about a half hour ago,” he informed us.

            I had only met Seven a couple times before our encounter on his stoop. He, his wife Zella, and Sevenia went to a sister church of ours on the other side of the Cedar Rapids metropolitan area. He was a podcaster, well known as a religious liberty activist.

            After we apologized and turned to walk away, my wife with clenched jaw did one of those sideways kicks and the side of her foot smacked me on the seat of my pants. As I clutched my behind, my son normally would have laughed at something like this. But instead his gaze was somber as he stared at the sidewalk in front of him.

            I heard the bling of a phone, and after a few seconds, Seven calling after us. “I just got a text from Sevenia. Nancy missed her flight, and they are on their way back here.”

            When the two young ladies returned, Nancy looked surprised at the little group waiting to meet her. Remembering what had transpired between my wife and herself not all that long ago; I repeated the method my wife used in seeking her forgiveness.

            I knelt in front of Nancy, took one of her hands in both of mine. “Nancy, please forgive me. I know in the note you said that even if I recanted that I had made my true feelings known. But that is not the case. True, I was shocked to find out Izzy was your father. And in that shock I responded like a superstitious fool. But in the aftermath I was rebuked by the Holy Spirit. And it is the Spirit that matters, not the flesh. I fully believe God orchestrated your relationship with my son. If you refuse to marry him, I will have to live with the biggest mistake of my life.”

            “Even bigger than joining ‘The Sons of Molech’?” she asked with a little smile. That little grin told me everything I needed to know.

            I grinned back. “I’m gonna have to say yes. I was a foolish kid who didn’t know any better back then. But when Drew and I talked on the phone the other day, I should have known better. So what do you say? Do you forgive me?”

            Nancy knelt in front of me, hugged me, kissed my cheek and said, “Yes.”

THE END

WRITER’S NOTE

            A bit of a strange coincidence has occurred that I’ll get to in a bit. After doing 20 chapters of Heavy Metal Miracles Part 1. It was a goal of mine to do 20 chapters of part 2. Then my plan was to begin a new story, coming full circle from the start of this blog, by using its namesake, Seven Sallie, once again.

            So a couple months ago when I was thinking and praying about what direction to go next, I felt compelled to write about a scenario based on the last piece of the Biblical prophetic puzzle to be fulfilled. In particular, the mark of the beast. Many think that the mark of the beast is a literal chip in your hand and forehead. Who knows, maybe that will be a small factor. But the main characteristic of the mark of the beast is your behavior. What you think (forehead) and what you do (Hand).

            This last piece of the prophetic puzzle actually has to do with the law of God, the Ten Commandments. In particular the fourth commandment, right in the middle, the Sabbath. Which, contrary to popular belief, is the seventh day of the week, not the first. The seventh day is Biblical, the first day, or Sunday was created by man. Most prominently by Emperor Constantine in the fourth century AD.

            What role will the Sabbath play in the last days you might ask? At some point, possibly in the near future, there will be a push for Sunday laws. There have already been summits between political, religious, and environmental leaders about implementing “green Sundays.” A day of the week for the planet to rest. There has also been a push for the Ten Commandments in the classroom. Not necessarily a bad thing, but it is, however, a subtle joining of church and state.

            At first it will likely be business closures that will ultimately evolve into mandatory worship. The question is what exactly will transpire to bring this about? Will it be war? Even a possible WW III? Will it be economic? Something of a supernatural or miraculous nature? And also how long between simple closures and mandatory worship? All this only God knows, so ultimately we are in good hands.

            If you have followed my blog for any length of time, you have already read about some of these prophetic occurrences that have taken place in history. Prophecy has mostly been fulfilled. It is not something off in the future with a secret rapture to take place first. If you want to learn about who the anti-Christ is and what the mark of the beast is, I suggest looking up one of my favorite presentations. David Asscherick’s ‘Five Good Reasons’ series on YouTube. Or probably the most popular preacher who holds the correct Biblical interpretation is Doug Batchelor, President of ‘Amazing Facts’ ministry. He too is easily found on YouTube.

            It has been my desire to write a futuristic tale of what I imagine could possibly happen. That said, I’ve never done a futuristic story before in all of my writing endeavors. Also, because the Bible teaches we don’t know the day or the hour of Christ’s second coming (Matthew 24:26), I am in no way at all predicting His second coming, or when exactly all of this will go down.

            But I will say this. I believe a secret rapture is Biblically false. I’m actually baffled by popular religious leaders, some of them with the title of doctor, claiming such theology. The rapture theory is not even two hundred years old, and you will not find the word rapture anywhere in the Bible.

            Yet most who boldly preach such a false teaching belittle the Sabbath which was established at Creation. (See Genesis 2:2:3) Then WRITTEN IN STONE in the Ten Commandments. (See Exodus 20:8-11 and Deuteronomy 5:12-15). The Sabbath is the sign and seal of God that recognizes Him as not only as our Creator but also our Redeemer. By the way, the sign and seal of God is the opposite of the mark of the beast.

            We are saved by grace modern religious leaders say. One hundred percent true! Therefore we don’t need to keep the law, they say. One hundred percent false! (See Romans 6:15 for one example) So which one is okay to break, Doctor’s of Theology? Is it okay to worship idols? Is it okay to steal? Is it okay to lie? Is it okay to cheat on your wife? No, of course not! The one problem most religionists have with the ten is the fourth. The Sabbath. The one that acknowledges Him as our Creator and Redeemer.

            The dark ages are over, and we can all read the Bible for ourselves. The small percentage of us that actually study it every day, with prayerful guidance from the Holy Spirit can see that the law of God is perfect, converting the soul! (See Psalm 19:7).

            So, to sum this up and explain the coincidence I mentioned. The following idea for the next story I have been thinking about and even discussed with several close friends months ago, was and is going to be called ‘Black Sabbath’. God as my witness, I had this planned before the passing of Ozzy Osbourne last week. May God be with his family as they grieve their loss!

            One more thing. I have a day job, so if you have any theological questions, please contact the ministries I have previously mentioned. Plus a couple more suggestions. ‘It Is Written’ with John Bradshaw and Shawn Boonstra, Amazing Discoveries, or 3ABN.

            Thank you for your interest!   

HEAVY METAL MIRACLES – PART 2 – CHAPTER 19

Posted on by Johnathan Embers

HEAVY METAL MIRACLES

PART 2

CHAPTER 19

NANCY

  THE ANGEL OF THE LORD ENCAMPS ALL AROUND THOSE WHO FEAR HIM, AND DELIVERS THEM (Psalm 34:7)

             “Dad?” Drew had petitioned. My fiancée had his phone on speaker and had just told his father that his former bandmate, Donald Reed, was my biological father.

            Donald Reed was more known by his stage name Izzy Iscariot. He had been a hardcore satanist, whereas Arlo, Drew’s dad, had been, shall we say, a nominal occultist. Then Arlo left the band he shared with Izzy when he became a devout Christian. Not long after, Izzy had committed suicide in a very violent manner.

            Apparently the news rendered Mr. Aldo speechless as Drew tried a second time. “Dad?”

            “Oh, yeah, son, I… I’m sorry,” he finally stammered. “This just takes me by complete surprise.”

            “Yeah, I can imagine,” Drew replied. “Maybe I should have waited to tell you in person.”

            “No, no, that’s fine… But are you sure? How did you find this out?”

            Drew told him about how my mom was actually my biological aunt. He explained the connection between my mom’s family, their occult ties and Izzy.

            There was a long enough silence that it prompted Drew to say “Dad?” again.

            “Yeah, Son… Maybe you should reconsider marrying Nancy.”

            I felt my face flush as Drew looked at me with a stunned expression. I loved Arlo Aldo, and I thought he loved or at least liked me. So his suggestion to his son hurt and I felt tears sting the back of my eyes. But I clenched my jaw and pushed them back.

            “Dad, I love her. I want to spend the rest of my life with her. She’s a child of God and her own person, no matter parentage.”

            Yet again Drew was a balm to my tortured soul. I loved him more than anyone in the whole world and desperately wanted to spend the rest of my life with him as well. So his father’s words were very much a threat to my insecure psyche.

            “I understand that, but you see… What you just told about her parentage. It’s, I don’t know, all wrong.”

            “Dad, I’ve been on speaker, so Nancy is hearing all of this.”

            Silence again. But before Drew could say Dad, I meekly cut in. “Hi, Arlo.”

            “Nancy, hi. Listen, I didn’t mean anything personal. It’s just that there are things you don’t understand.”

            “You mean about me originating from demons?” I replied cooly.

            “No, no, no!” he responded. “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”

            “Then why do parents I never even knew make me unworthy of your son?”

            “It’s not that. It’s complicated. You see, before Izzy offed himself, he wrote several people letters, me included. Actually they were notes cuz Izzy was too deranged for a proper letter. Anyhow, he threatened to, um, have me haunted me in a particular manner.”

            “Oh come on, Dad, you can’t be serious! You know what the Bible teaches about the state of the dead.”

            “Yeah, yeah, of course, the dead don’t know anything (Ecclesiastes 9:5). Notice I said have me haunted. In other words curse me with the demonic.”

            “Dad, you also know God is bigger and stronger than the devil.”

            “Yes of course, but I can’t escape the ramifications of what I was involved with. You don’t come away from years of dabbling in the occult unscathed. Jesus Himself referred to Satan as the ruler of this world.” (John 12:31)

            “Yeah and He also said, ‘If I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.’ (verse 32) Of which you are a part.”

            “Jesus also said we would have tribulation.”

            “Yes, but what did He say before and after?” I began to clarify. “Before what you quoted, He said, ‘In Me you may have peace.’ After, He said, ‘Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.’” (John 16:33)

            “You’re missing the point. Even though we are Christians, we shouldn’t test fate. The devil goes about as a roaring lion seeking who he can devour. (1 Peter 5:9) Look, I don’t do certain things regarding, say, lust or drugs, so I won’t be tempted. I also should heed the warning of a curse Izzy promised to put on me and my family.”

            “A curse? You’ve got to be kidding! What exactly did this lunatic write that has you so bent out of shape, so unreasonable?”

            “I don’t know verbatim; I haven’t looked at it in years.”

            “You mean you still have it? You saved a, um, suicide note?”

            “I did.”

            “Why? What for?”

            “For a reminder of what God rescued me from. Also for a possible time like this.”

            “I don’t understand, Dad. What could he have possibly threatened you with that has you freaked out about me marrying Nancy?”

            “You just told me she’s his daughter.”

            “Biologically. But he apparently didn’t even know he was gonna be a parent. He died a half year before Nancy was even born. Shoot, the woman that birthed her didn’t even raise her. So how dare you accuse her of bringing a curse to our family.”

            “It won’t bring a curse if you don’t marry her. I’m sorry, Nancy. I love you like you have been part of the family. But some things just aren’t meant to be, like if you would have found out you were siblings separated at birth. You certainly wouldn’t marry then.”

            “I don’t mean any disrespect, my father,” Drew told him calmly. “But you are being superstitious and ridiculous.”

            “Am I? Do we or do we not wrestle against principalities, powers and the rulers of darkness, spiritual hosts of wickedness in high places?”

            “Once again you are leaving off the before and after. By that I mean the putting on of the whole armor of God. (Ephesians chapter 6) So tell me what Izzy said that has you this rattled.”

            Arlo sighed heavily from more that fifteen hundred miles away. “Izzy wrote a half dozen notes to people he thought betrayed him. Most of his message to me was crazy rambling. But he ended it by telling me that I sold my soul as much as he did, and you don’t get to just leave the band, just like the mafia. He said I was breaking up his family, so he was gonna infiltrate mine and curse it. The very last thing he said was, we mingled our blood and seed, now my sacrificed blood will mingle with your lineage unto the third and fourth generation. Then he signed his name in blood.”

            “What did he mean by you mingled your blood and seed?” Drew asked.

            “You don’t want to know.”

            “Of course I do, that’s why I asked.”

            “Haven’t I told my children that I didn’t want them researching my time in ‘The Sons of Molech? The person I was then is dead, just in a different way than Izzy.”

            “And I’ve honored that request. But now you’re telling me that something about your time in that situation has rendered the woman I love unworthy to marry.”

            “When I partook in the ritual to sell my soul for rock and roll, we drank a strange concoction. It contained three ingredients mixed in a large chalice.  The base was liquor, but the other two ingredients came from our bodies. We each submitted a vial of blood and…”

            “Okay, I get what was in it.”

            “You wanted to know,” Arlo said with more hostility than I had ever heard from the man.

            “I had no choice… So you guys drank each other’s…”

            “Eli and I were nineteen. Izzy and our drummer Kyle had already had a taste of success in the rock scene. Eli and I were young and dumb and on our own in LA. We were willing to do whatever it took to achieve fame and fortune.”

            “Okay, I don’t need to know any more about that aspect,” Drew said and looked me right in the eyes as he continued speaking with his father. “But I still don’t find that reason enough, at all, to call off our marriage. As a matter of fact, after we get back, I hope Nancy will agree to marry me as soon as Pastor Samson will perform the ceremony.”

            I was confused, distraught, and unable to hold Drew’s gaze any longer. I looked at my feet.

            “I don’t believe in coincidences,” Drew’s dad said forcefully. “What are the odds that you and Nancy just happened to become friends? Then romantic? Then to find out she shares fifty percent of her DNA with a deranged satanist who warned that he was gonna mingle his blood and seed with mine. I have the written documentation to prove it.”

            “Documentation?”

            “Hey, he may have been an out of control nut job in the end, but he took his demonism seriously.”

            “So what exactly do you think is gonna happen?” Drew asked incredulously. “You seem to be putting more faith in Izzy cursing you, or us, or whatever, rather than trusting God.”

            “No, it’s not that at all. Let me be frank for a minute.”

            “You mean other than Dad or Arlo?”

            “Under normal circumstances I would find that funny. However, to be frank, I don’t like the idea of Izzy and I having both of our DNA existing in the same grandchild.”

            Rather than tell his dad I likely couldn’t bear children, Drew simply replied, “Look, if we ever have a boy I promise we won’t name him Damien.”

            “That’s not funny.”

            “I’m not trying to be. Forgive me but this whole conversation has seemed ludicrous.”

            “I know it has. But on the other hand we live in a strange, fallen world.”

            “Look, here’s the way I see it, Dad. The flesh profits nothing, it’s the Spirit that counts. As in the Holy Spirit. You look at Nancy and my lives converging as a bad omen. The way I see it, her mother came to Iowa as an answer to prayer. And that answer to prayer was seeing you and Uncle Eli on the cover of a Christian magazine. She read how you and Eli repented of your lives in ‘The Sons of Molech,’ and were both living for God and family in the heartland, and she moved there herself in hopes her daughter could find healing from extreme abuse. That causes me to trust in light rather than fear darkness.”

            “I respect that, Son, I truly do. But I’ve also tried my best to protect my family from the dangerous dark stuff I was involved with for many years. God saved me and blessed me, and I’m very thankful for that. But there has also been an element that has haunted me all these years. With all that you have just informed me, I feel like the walls of protection I have constructed with God’s help through the years are collapsing in on me with this news.”

            “I’m sorry you feel that way, Dad.”

            “Please tell me you’ll consider my warning.”

            “With all due respect, I don’t need to consider. I love Nancy, I trust God, and I’m not superstitious. For me, she’s a gift from God, not an obstacle from Satan like you seem to think.”

            Arlo sighed heavily. “Look, we’ll talk when you get home. This conversation is not going anywhere.”

            “I want to see Izzy’s letter or note or whatever it is.”

            Pause. “Fair enough.”

            Drew and his father exchanged goodbyes. Then Drew took my hand. “Sorry about all that.”

            I shrugged, looked away from him for a few seconds, then back and asked, “How come you left that call on speaker?”

            “You want the truth, right?”

            I nodded. “But it hurts. I don’t get why Arlo is blaming me.”

            “He’s not blaming you.”

            “How can you say that when he was practically insisting that you don’t marry me?”

            “I don’t know what to tell you. He has always appeared to me to be such a man of faith. It completely took me by surprise to hear him react so irrationally. But I also thought his time in the occult was behind him. It never occurred to me that he felt haunted.”

            “His reaction surprised me too.”

            “Please don’t take it personally.”

            “It’s hard not to.”

            “I know. But his problem ultimately is with Izzy.”

            “I didn’t choose who my parents were.”

            He smiled warmly and said, “But Phebe chose you.”

            “Yes, she did!” I replied. Then several sobs burst forth. Drew hugged me tight, but I felt so tired and weak I could barely get my hands onto his shoulders.

            When I calmed and we separated, he said, “Despite my Dad’s bizarre reaction to Izzy being, you know… We will still get married as soon as possible.”

            “No,” I replied shaking my head vigorously.

            The smile left Drew’s face. “Why not? Don’t tell me you agree with his reasoning.”

            “It’s not that. I don’t want to get married without both of your parents’ blessings.”

            Drew began to chew on his lower lip as he looked away from me. I knew what he was thinking. His mother was repulsed by Izzy every bit as much as his father.

HEAVY METAL MIRACLES – PART 2 – CHAPTER 9

Posted on by Johnathan Embers

HEAVY METAL MIRACLES

PART 2

CHAPTER 9

DREW

“THE LORD IS MY PORTION,” SAYS MY SOUL, “THEREFORE I HOPE IN HIM.” (Lamentations 3:24)

            “The man who impregnated my mother,” Nancy began quietly with her hands pressed between her knees as we sat across from each other in the living room of her apartment. She was perched on the edge of a velvety blue chair, while I was in the middle of her sofa.

            I knew she meant her father. It also occurred to me that this was the first time in our decade of knowing each other that she had acknowledged male parentage. Not once had I ever heard her mention a dad or father in reference to herself. This also led me to suspect that she was abused by a father figure in some fashion. What I didn’t suspect were the next words to come out of her mouth.

            “He used me in making pornography,” she told me, barely audible.

            Like an idiot I almost asked her to repeat what she said. But thankfully I stopped myself. “You mean before you and your mom moved to Iowa?”

            She nodded.

            “You were only eight when you moved here.”

            She nodded again, and her breathing became rapid. She pressed her hands so hard between her knees I thought she might crush her fingers.

            “Did your mom know?” I asked gently.

            “Not until… After she found out, that’s when we came here.”

            “Did she have him arrested?”

            “She didn’t know about what he was doing until he was arrested.” Nancy actually gained some composure, arose, and began to slowly pace as she hugged herself. “Give me a minute.”

            My instinct was to rise and take her into my arms. But I got the feeling she would demand to not be touched. “Nancy, I’d like to hug you, but I get the feeling you don’t want to be touched right now.”

            She smiled sadly, her eyes filling with tears. “You mean I’m not too disgusting?”

            “Never!” I insisted, as I stood.

            She took hold of my hand. “So you see, Drew, I lost my virginity when I was only six or seven years old. Besides me not being in harmony with your spiritual beliefs, I’ve been not only horribly defiled… I get afraid of intimacy.”

            “What happened wasn’t your fault.”

            She snorted. “Yeah, I’ve been told that by every therapist I’ve been to. But that never gave me my hymen back.”

            “You’re a virgin in God’s eyes.”

            She snorted again. “That’s doubtful since He watched it happen, since He let it happen.”

            I felt that now wasn’t the time for a discourse on apologetics. It was a time for Nancy to get this heavy burden off of her shoulders. But she had said before that she wanted what I had. By that, whether she knew it or not, it was the peace only God can give.

            “Aren’t you gonna defend Him?” she asked with a bit of bitterness in her tone.

            “I think we both blame two different enemies.”

            She frowned. “I don’t understand.”

            “It’s simple. You blame God, while I blame Satan.”

            “Well, you refer to your God as the Creator, right?”

            “Of course.”

            “Then He’s the one ultimately responsible.”

            I offered up a quick silent prayer that the Holy Spirit would enlighten me with what Nancy needed me to say to her. Then I tried to give a brief explanation about the great controversy between Christ and Satan. I told her about the war in heaven, which I believe was a war of ideologies, not war as we know it as mortals on this fallen planet.

            I asked for her Bible and shared texts of scripture that told of Lucifer’s fall. Lucifer being Satan’s name before he was banished from heaven. I recited portions from Isaiah chapter 14, Ezekiel chapter 28, and Revelation chapter 12 that related to this fall that had a dramatic effect on the world we live in. Then I shared scriptures that suggested Satan has a great deal of power in this fallen world. John 12:31, 14:30, 16:11, and 2 Corinthians 4:4 to name a few.

            Nancy quietly listened. I gave her a minute to absorb what I told her. Then I cautiously asked, “Do you believe Jesus is God?”

            “I tend to believe that,” she replied mechanically. “What to believe about him? That I don’t know.”

            “Can I tell you how he can relate to what you experienced? How he was horribly abused Himself.”

            Her eyes flashed with hot anger, then cooled as she said, “Go ahead.”

            I started by reading Isaiah chapter 53 regarding the prophecies about the coming Messiah. By the time I got to verse seven, her eyes were softening. Then I told her very graphic details  about what happened to Jesus before He even suffered the excruciating pain of crucifixion. His mental anguish in Gethsemane where He sweet blood (Luke 22:44).”

            Her eyes had a look of both pain and wonder. “How come I never knew this when I read the Bible cover to cover? I just came away thinking, especially how God in portrayed in the Old Testament, that God is violent, vengeful, and just lets bad stuff happen.”

            “The way I see it, even now one generation can’t relate to the next. So how can we fathom society and cultures thousands of years ago? I simply trust that God is good, perfect in judgement, and righteous. Also, after studying the loving, compassionate, and sacrificial life of Jesus,  He declared that if you have seen Him, you have seen the Father (John 14:9).”

            I gave her a moment to absorb this. Then I continued to explain why Jesus can relate to victims of abuse. He was spit upon, His beard plucked, and His flesh whipped into a bloody mass of lacerations. All the while having the power to stop it by calling twelve legions of angels. On top this, it was all this instigated by religious leaders.

            I could tell Nancy was finding hope in God. But then the rulers of the darkness of this age showed up. Spiritual hosts of wickedness from heavenly places. I had on the whole armor of God, but would it be enough to cover Nancy as well? (See Ephesians 6:10-20). How much of God’s Word had she absorbed?

            There was a rattle at the door. Nancy looked with a confused countenance. I heard the bolt lock slide, and in came Addison Dressler, Nancy’s roommate.

            “Addie, I told you I had a date… I mean a guest tonight and needed the apartment to myself until at least nine.”

            It was a few minutes after eight, and Addie, as she was typically called, was clearly drunk. She said, “Well, I was thinking, my dear. Your guest needs a little test.”

            After Nancy ended our friendship early in our high school career, she seemed to have replaced me with Addie. She was a big girl, just over six foot, and not fat at all. She had been a superb athlete until a nagging rotator cuff injury diminished her prowess. Although she had been popular, she had the nickname among many of the male population as Amazon Addie.

            She had shiny black hair that was usually pulled back into a ponytail, and intense gray eyes. She was quite pretty and made me think of an angry Courtney Cox from ‘Friends’ fame. After her injury during a basketball game her senior year, her popularity declined. She was no longer wowing spectators in gymnasiums. Couple that with her close friendship with Nancy, still very much a Tomboy, and the rumors ran that they were more than friends. That only escalated when they went to the same college and moved into this apartment together.

            Nancy looked at me with a confused frown, then back at Addie. “What kind of a test?”

            Addie reached behind her back and pulled a gun from the waistband of her jeans. Staring at me as if we were sporting opponents, she pointed the gun at my face. Nancy wasn’t prone to screaming or panicking. So she simply barked. “Addie, what do you think you’re doing!”

            “Shut up and watch!” Then she demanded from me. “Deny your faith, Andrew! Tell Nancy that your God and your Bible are nothing more than myths and superstitions.”

            Although adrenalized, I felt surprisingly calm for having an unstable person aim a gun between my eyes. It was the power of the Holy Spirit, AKA the Comforter. The tune, ‘Stand up, stand up for Jesus’ began to play in my head as I boldly declared, “Never!”

HEAVY METAL MIRACLES – CHAPTER 16

Posted on by Johnathan Embers

HEAVY METAL MIRACLES

CHAPTER 16

ARIEL

BEHOLD, NOW IS THE ACCEPTED TIME; BEHOLD, NOW IS THE DAY OF SALVATION (2 Corinthians 6:2)

            It was the day after I accused Eli of impregnating me, and he suggested marriage. Band practice had ended ten minutes ago. I had just returned from the restroom after an emotional breakdown as the last song they played concluded. My mental turmoil was both positive and negative.

            The song was an acoustic cover by the band Pearl Jam. They said it was called something like ‘Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town.’ Why the long, strange title, I didn’t know. But the song moved me in an unexpected way. Whether my interpretation of the lyrics were correct or not, I don’t know. But it spoke to me of former young lovers reacquainted many years later.

            Eli and Arlo played acoustic guitars, while Ethan displayed his deep rich voice. Amy, the band’s drummer, sat next to me with her daughter on her lap. The song made me think about Eli reentering my life after a two decade absence. But then the last refrain that my son sang soft and melodious several times went ‘Hearts and thoughts they fade, fade away.’

            This part made me think of the passing of my second husband half a year earlier. That’s when I lost it. But it was not only grief, but guilt. How had I moved on so quickly? Was it Eli back in my life? Was it the fact that during both of my marriages, I loved, but wasn’t in love with both of my husbands? What was the defining line? What was it about Eli that bound my heart to him so much stronger than the two men I was actually married to?

             Ethan, Amy, Penny, and Arlo were sitting around a card table, probably in deep discussion about this coming Saturday. The four were going to be baptized, and Penny and Arlo were to be married afterward.

            On the other side of the large room, Eli gave our little five year old granddaughter Crissy a lesson on her small acoustic guitar. Her little tongue stuck out from between her lips as she concentrated, following Eli’s instructions. He was so patient with her and eyed her adorningly as she strummed.

            She spotted me watching her and said, “Look, Gammy.”

            “I see, Sweety.”

            “Do you think I’m good?”

            “I think you’re wonderful!”

            Eli looked at me with a twinkle in his eye, and I felt that heart flutter that no other guy had ever given me. Was it because he always seemed so elusive? I was even more drawn to this forty year old version of Eli than the seventeen year old version.

            Whereas the teenager was cocky, cool, turning girl’s heads with his macho strut and long flowing mane of dark hair, the current Eli was distinguished, like an aging movie star. He was gentle, relaxed, and surprisingly humble.

            Another thing that had changed about him was his world view. When we would talk into the night as teenagers, he would express teenage angst and atheism. I would counter with God’s love. In particular the fact that God became one of us in the person of Jesus Christ.

            Fast forward two decades and Eli was not only is expressing love for God but parroting, what I then perceived, as legalism via the influence of his old, dear friend, Arlo Aldo. Who would have thought that the former bass player from ‘The Sons of Molech’, who looked like a professional wrestler, would also be able to sway my sister?

            Penny was smart, rational, and had graduated at the top of every phase in her academic career. She was a doctor and a successful, gifted veterinarian surgeon. But now she was joining what I had viewed at the time as a Saturday cult. Why a cult? Well, the majority can’t be wrong, right? I mean, ninety plus percent of Christians view Sunday as the sabbath, don’t they?

            The foursome being baptized in a few days stood and held hands. Arlo was about to lead them in prayer, and he invited Eli and me to join. Eli accepted, but I initially made no reply. Eli joined them, and the chain of arms and hands accumulated one more link.

            I tried to gather my granddaughter onto my upper legs as sort of a human security blanket. But as I tried to gather the little energy bundle onto my lap, she squirmed away and petitioned, “Can I pray too?”

            “Of course you can, Sweet Pea!” Arlo said delightedly.

            Feeling left out, I gave in. “Can I pray too?”

            “Of course,” Arlo replied happily.

            “Aren’t you gonna call me, Sweet Pea?”

            Arlo grinned. “I’ll leave that to Eli.”

            I blushed and glanced at Eli. Everyone in the circle knew I was with child. They also knew the embryo was created in sin. Yet Arlo asked for a blessing upon my unborn child and me. Then he followed by asking the same for Amy and Penny, who also were pregnant. As he  finished the prayer, he asked God to be with all those getting baptized, and to be with anyone who might be on the fence. I thought this was directed at Eli, and I felt a flash of annoyance at Arlo for what seemed like presumptuous zeal.

            After the prayer ended, Eli and I lingered in the parking lot, and it wasn’t long before we found ourselves alone. He leaned against his truck and pulled me into a reverse hug. As we admired the night sky, bright with being only two days past a full moon, I expressed my irritation with Arlo. But typical of cool and calm Eli, he simply shrugged, and an easy smile played on his lips. “My old pal is just worried about my soul.”

            “And you’re not?”

            “Sure I am. One of the Bible verses I have memorized is Philippians 2:12. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling.”

            “It doesn’t seem like you fear and tremble over much.”

            “If you only knew,” he chuckled. “It’s easy to keep it together when you’re not alone. But you don’t realize how many nightmares I have had and still have over my association with occultists. The guilt over all the impressionable minds our band influenced.”

            “Is that why you’re not getting baptized with the rest of them?”

            “That and you.”

            I stepped out of his embrace, spun and looked at him. “Me? You mean because of…”

            “Fornicating,” he finished.

            My jaw clenched and my eyes narrowed. “Well just so you know, Mister, we’re done fornicating. You putting a bun in my oven was the rebuke I needed for giving in to sin.”

            “Hey, you opened the oven door, and your warmth drew me in.”

            “Well, this oven door is staying shut from now on.”

            “So marry me and lets start a bakery.”

            “This is the last loaf of bread coming out of this oven.”

            “I agree that we don’t need any more loaves of bread, but we can still bake, though.”

            I crossed my arms and kept a steady gaze on him. I didn’t want him to know just how close I was to accepting his offer of marriage. Plus, I really did want to turn my oven on again, metaphorically speaking.

            I shifted the subject away from loaves of bread and how they are made. “So these nightmares you speak of. Did they happen to Arlo too?”

            “Some, but when he became a Christian, they subsided. More than the rest of us in the band, Arlo was the most uncomfortable with the satanic imagery and the dark lyrics. But, like me, he justified it by telling himself it was just an act and that we were similar to Alice Cooper. Which I suppose we were similar. But it became harder to deny that Izzy, our singer and writer of lyrics, was in fact a satanist who was obsessed with Aleister Crowley.

            “Couple that with the fact that both Izzy and our drummer Kyle were spiraling downward in their drug and alcohol addictions. I had my own problems that way, but I still functioned. Then when they both died, it was a wakeup call for me to get sober as well. Once sober, I was impressed with how Arlo changed his life.”

            “Was Arlo steeped in addiction as well?” I asked.

            “No. Oh, he partied plenty throughout the years, but he was never a daily drinker. And never did drugs, other than an occasional joint.”

            “So it was Arlo’s conversion that led you to become a seeker as well?”

            “That and something he said that you had said when we were kids.”

            This took me by surprise. “Something I said?”

            “Yeah, you probably don’t remember. I was talking about the meaninglessness of life…”

            “You did that a lot,” I interrupted.

            He chuckled. “Yeah, but this time you said, if life had no meaning, we wouldn’t know that it had no meaning. That stuck with me. In the aftermath of Kyle and Izzy’s deaths, Arlo and I were talking. Although I was impressed by Arlo quitting the band and changing his life, I wasn’t convinced enough to do the same. I was half drunk and told Arlo that life was meaningless. When he replied with the same exact words as yours, I sobered. Literally, I went into rehab the next day, and Arlo gave me a copy of the book he got quote from.”

            “C.S. Lewis’s  book ‘Mere Christianity,’” I told him.

            “That’s it,” he replied happily.

            “So reading that made you became an Arloite?” I said, trying to sound lighthearted rather than cynical.

            “An Arloite?” he laughed. “No, it didn’t. I still couldn’t get past one doctrine, and you might recall what that was. You and I went round and round over this topic more than anything else.”

            “Hellfire,” I replied immediately. It had always been a bit of a stumbling block for me as well. I always thought that by faith we would learn in heaven how a loving God could torment even the most wicked with no end.

            “Precisely,” Eli returned. “After Arlo began studying material from ‘Amazing Facts’ ministry. (Amazing Facts is a real ministry. You can google them or find them on YouTube.) The first Bible study I did with him was on the subject of hell. Hellfire is more like an event rather than a place.”

            “As much as I hate to, I beg to differ. The book of Matthew, chapter 25 clearly says that the wicked go to everlasting punishment.”

            “Correct, punishment, not punishing. Romans 6:23 tells us that the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus. I think you’d agree that the wicked don’t inherit eternal life, so how could they be alive in hell forever and ever? Also, the book of Jude, verse 7 refers to Sodom and Gomorrah suffering eternal fire. But let me ask you. Are Sodom and Gomorrah still burning today?”

            “Well, no, of course not.”

            Eli retrieved a Bible from his truck. He pulled a piece of paper from it, and unfolding it read. “This is the main note I took on the subject. Does the word hell as used in the Bible always refer to a place of burning? No. The word hell is used 54 times in the KJV Bible, and in only 12 cases does it refer to a place of burning. It is translated from several different words with various meanings. 31 times from Sheol, which means the grave. 10 times from Hades, which also means the grave. 12 times from Gehenna, which means the place of burning. 1 time from Tartarus, which means a place of darkness.”

            “Look at you, Mr. Bible scholar,” I said, dumbfounded, yet truly impressed. I also felt guilty for participating in intimacy without the commitment of marriage.

            “I’ll read one more note I took on the subject,” he said and then grinned. “Then I’ll stop boring you with my Biblical acumen.”

            “I’m not bored.”

            “Then why does your face look like you’ve been driving hours down a long desert highway?”

            “Because I’m stunned to be getting a Bible lesson from Eli Endor.”

            “Alderson,” he corrected with a slight edge to his voice. “Endor was a stage name, never ever my real name.”

            “Sorry,” I said, making my eyes wide and innocent.

            “Just setting the record straight, Sweet Pea Senior.”

            I giggled. “Okay, finish your lesson.”

            “Here’s a list of scriptures that indicate the wicked are destroyed, not tormented forever and ever in hell. Romans 6:23, the wicked suffer death. Job 21:30, they suffer doom, in other words, destruction. Psalm 37:20, they will perish. Malachi 4:1, will burn up. Psalm 37:28, will be destroyed. Psalm 37:20, will vanish away. Psalm 37:9, will be cut off. Psalm 62:3, will be slain. Psalm 145:20, God will destroy them. Psalm 21:9, fire will devour them.”

            He looked at me. “One more thing. Ezekiel 33:11 says that God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked. And Isaiah 28:21 says that the destroying of the wicked is a strange act for God.”

            My head was spinning when I went to bed that night. It is said God works in mysterious ways, and I never realized that more than that night. Eli had always moved me carnally. Even when I spotted him in a rock and roll magazine. Even as I despised him on those glossy pages, I thought of him as sexy, ridiculous goth get up and all. But since he had reentered my life the previous autumn, he had been moving me more spiritually than carnally. For the most part.

            The Spirit moving the people I loved to get baptized this weekend was like a personal, mini day of Pentecost for me from Acts chapter 2. Only instead of three thousand people being added to the church, four were being added to Cotton Creek Cove Fellowship. I was convinced I needed to make it five. With a phone call to Eli, possibly six.

            In my excitement of feeling spiritually drawn away from the present world, I didn’t consider the time. It was very early in the morning when I heard the alarm in Eli’s voice. “Ariel, what’s wrong!”

            “Nothing’s wrong, Eli,” I said and then cringed. “It’s late, isn’t it?”

            “Or early,” he replied mildly. “Depends on your perspective. So what’s up?”

            He was hard guy to rattle, I have never known a more laid back, go with flow person in my life.

            “You know when we parted ways last night, you decided you that you might just get baptized.”

            “Yeah,” he replied, and I’m pretty sure he yawned.

            “Will you get baptized if I do too, you know this…” I referred to Saturday this way for the first time. “Sabbath?”

            “Really?” he answered, and I could tell he perked up. “Sure, I mean, yeah, yes.”

            I giggled. “One more thing. Do you think Penny and Arlo would object to making it a double wedding? I mean, I know Penny wouldn’t, what about Arlo?”

            I think I heard him sitting up in bed. “No, I don’t think he’d object at all. As a matter fact, when we ask, he’ll probably pick you up, spin you around and yell ‘Yee Ha!’”

            I laughed and then felt happy tears on my cheeks. “Good.”

            “Good,” he repeated, and I could visualize his sexy smile when he said, “Well I ain’t getting back to sleep tonight, but sleepless will have never been more worth it!”

HEAVY METAL MIRACLES – CHAPTER 11

Posted on by Johnathan Embers

HEAVY METAL MIRACLES

CHAPTER 11

PENNY

FOR YOU FORMED MY INWARD PARTS; YOU COVERED ME IN MY MOTHER’S WOMB. I WILL PRAISE YOU FOR I AM FEARFULLY AND WONDERFULLY MADE. (Psalm 139:13, 14)

            “I can’t stand to be around you, Penny,” Arlo had told me.

            “Well hey, that’s just what every girl wants to hear when she feels drawn to a guy.”

            He laughed, but then sighed and ran his hands through his long blonde hair, causing his large biceps to bulge like softballs under his dark blue long sleeve dress shirt. A moment before he had declared my presence to be a nuisance as he had disconnected our faces, which had been joined at the lips.

            It had been four days since my sister snapped me out of my denial of pregnancy. It had been three days since my doctor officially confirmed that I was with child. It had been two hours since I had surprised Arlo by joining him at Cotton Creek Cove Fellowship. It had been one minute after we had sat down on bench down by Cotton Creek. The rippling brook was about a football field’s length behind the church. It was also exceptionally warm for late February.

            With my heart pounding, I opened my mouth to tell Arlo that he was going to be a father. But before my words could come out, Arlo stopped them by covering his mouth over mine. I didn’t resist, but after around sixty seconds of an extremely friendly mouth embrace, my pulse quickened for a different reason. But then he separated from me as if I was the devil. Who knows, maybe that wasn’t far from the truth.

            Although a professed Christian since I was a girl, my faith was more like an insurance policy, rather than a personal relationship with the Savior. Until the Lord used Arlo and Abby to open my eyes to Bible truths, my conversation during the judgement might have gone like this. “Haven’t I gone to church dozens of times every year? Haven’t I saved many animals from death and discomfort? Haven’t I devoted time and resources to animal rescue organizations?”

            And the response I received would have likely been “I never knew you; depart from me you who practice lawlessness.” (Matthew 7:21-23).

            Arlo looked at me and grinned sheepishly. “Sorry Pen, that wasn’t very gentlemanly.”

            “Which one? Saying you don’t like to be in my presence, or taking liberties with kissing me?”

            “I actually love being in your presence! But due to your extreme loveliness, coupled with our night of passion, and coupled with my abstinence ever since that night, I feel tormented around you.”

            “It would be fun to end your torment,” I told him with a sultry smile. Keep in mind I wasn’t converted yet.

            “That doesn’t help,” he said with a smile. Then his face grew serious. “I was so glad to see you show up at church today. But were you there for me or the pursuit of God?”

            “Both,” I replied. Then I told him all about how I had been studying the Bible, and that I had read the three books Abby had given me. ‘Steps to Christ,’ ‘The Desire of Ages,’ and ‘The Great Controversy’ (between Christ and Satan).

            We talked about spiritual things for the next ten or fifteen minutes. Finally we reached a point in the conversation where I had both an opening and the nerve. “So Arlo, there’s something I…”

            “Hey kids,” A voice called, causing me to jump, and then making my jaw clench in frustration.

            It was the pastor. He was a man in his sixties, but lean and fit. He had a long white beard and was known affectionately as Captain Kirk. His name was Kirk Samson, and he had been a Chaplain in the army and was honorably discharged with the rank of Captain after a decade of service.

            “Why don’t you two come on up to the church basement? We’re gonna play Bible Trivia?”

            “That doesn’t sound fair, you’ll clean up,” Arlo replied with a chuckle.

            “No I won’t, son. I’ll be playing the role of game show host.”

            “What do you say, Pen?” Arlo looked at me.

            I didn’t want to be a party pooper. Plus the mood was ruined at the moment for me to reveal parentage news. “Sure, but I get the feeling I’ll be watching more than participating.”

            We made our way back to the sanctuary. I had worn a tan and white stripped dress with white tights, and toeless heels to church. But before Arlo and I walked down to the creek, I went to my truck and retrieved my hiking boots. Now back inside the church, I kicked them off and reached for my heels. I heard Arlo chuckle as he watched me.

            When I had changed into my hiking boots before the walk, Arlo had said, “Watching you walk in those heels was pretty intense.”

            “Yeah?” I replied with a coy smile.

            I had assumed he was admiring my attempt at femininity. But instead he declared, “Yeah, I thought for sure you were gonna twist your ankle.”

            I had stuck my tongue out at him then, but his chortle now was for a different reason. I discovered his amusement was centered on my shoeless feet. From my ankles to my toes, my white tights were stained with a brownish hue from my dirty hiking boots. “Oh no, my brand new tights.”

            “I guess you can take the girl out of the country, but not the country out of the girl.”

            “What’s that supposed to mean?”

            “I mean that you’re better suited for jeans and flannel rather than dresses and pantyhose.”

            “Thanks a lot,” I said, tossing one of my heels at him. He dodged it and I threw the other. He caught it with one hand. “But jeans and flannel are more comfortable.”

            He knelt in front of me, apparently pretending to be a shoe salesmen, and attempted to put one of my shoes on my foot. “I can’t wear those with all the dirt stains.”

            He picked up one of my hiking boots and carefully placed it on my foot instead. Then the other. Then he grinned at me. “There you go princess of the outdoors. Nobody will even be paying attention to your feet.”

            He was right, for the next three hours they stayed under the table as we first played Bible trivia and then conversed. There were three other couples besides Arlo and me. Even though I was the only one at the table that had a doctorate, just as I figured, I was more of a spectator than a participant.

            However, I also was the only one under forty. With the exception of Arlo, all of the rest were also long time Bible believers. At sundown that late Saturday afternoon, the Biblical Sabbath ended (See Genesis 1:5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31, 2:1-3), and the pastor closed out our little gathering with a word of prayer.

            Although I had enjoyed the fellowship, I also had anxiously awaited to get Arlo alone and tell him the news about my womb and what resided there. But my plans were foiled yet again. Arlo had offered to help pastor Samson work on the church’s sound system, and I could tell that it was going to be a while. So I left alone and went home.

            Getting together with Arlo Sunday was also out. Early that morning he flew out to California to take care of some legal matter first thing Monday morning. That week had been busy for me as well, and although Arlo returned Tuesday, we were unable to get together in person for a few days. The couple of times I tried to call, he didn’t answer, and I didn’t leave a message.

            Then I got a visit from my sister on Friday morning. She greeted me. “So apparently Arlo took the news of fatherhood bad?”

            “No, I haven’t had a chance to tell him yet.”

            “Well, he must know, because Eli’s concerned about him. He hasn’t come out of his room for the last two or three days. All Eli knows is it has something to do with parentage.”

            “You mean you told Eli that I was pregnant with Arlo’s child!”

            “No, no, no! I haven’t told a soul, I promise!”

            “Well, how would he be upset then? You, me, and my doctor are the only ones that would know about my pregnancy.”

            “Cross my heart, Pen. Maybe you should go talk to him.”

            Fortunately I had most of Friday afternoon off. Arlo and Eli were still staying at Mrs. Mendelbright’s bed and breakfast. It was the off season for her, and she was often cooking two meals a day for the pair. They were also paying her handsomely, and she was delighted! She said it was the first time she had made a larger profit in the off season.

            It was a large beautiful Victorian home. Although I was familiar with the location of the place, I had never been inside. It was like a combination of a historic old home and a hotel. I told Mrs. Mendelbright who I was and why I was there. She too seemed concerned about her tenant, and it only made me the more apprehensive.

            I could hear a TV inside Arlo’s room. I knocked three times, but there was no reply. I tried the door handle, and it was unlocked. I opened the door slowly and discovered Arlo laying on his back, fully dressed in jeans and a blue flannel shirt, mouth agape, and snoring softly. The old sitcom ‘Three’s Company’ was playing on the tube. I sat on the bed and took hold of his hand. He moaned, his eyes fluttered, opened, and turned their gaze on me.

            “Janet?” he croaked, gazing at me with squinted eyes. He looked at the TV and then back to me. “You’re not Janet, are you?”

            I glanced at the TV. I resembled one of the characters on ‘Three’s Company’ who was named Janet Wood. I wasn’t offended since she was pretty. Since I had let my hair grow out the last few months, from what my sister called a man cut, I had also recently been told that I looked  like Joan Jett.

            “Sorry to disappoint, Arlo, but it’s me Penny.”

            He sat up rubbing his bleary eyes. “Oh, hey, Pen. I’m not disappointed in the least. How’d you get in here?”

            “I knocked a few times, but apparently you were sound asleep. The door was unlocked, so I came in. I was worried about you.”

            “Oh?” he said, raising his eyebrows. “Why is that?”

            “You haven’t answered my calls, and Eli said you haven’t come out of your room for the last couple days.”

            “Yeah, yeah, I guess I’ve been in a funk,” he said, looking at me, and I could tell he was concentrating on focusing on my face. “You’re so pretty, Pen… I’ve been watching you on TV. There’s what they call a marathon of this show. I couldn’t stop watching because you look like you on it.”

            “Arlo, have you been drinking?”

            His eyes widened. “No, Pen… No I haven’t, but I’ve been sleep deprived all week.”

            “Can you tell me why?”

            “I’m no good, I’m no good,” he groaned, and then put his face in his hands.

            Was I in the ‘The Twilight Zone’? First I meet an older lady named Mrs. Mendelbright, who happens to be Arlo’s landlord. Just like a Mrs. Mendelbright was Barney Fife’s landlord on an episode of ‘Andy Griffith.’ Then Arlo, seeming like he was drunk due to sleep deprivation, starts declaring ‘he’s no good,’ just like I’m pretty sure Barney did on that same episode. Also, the actor Don Knotts, who played Barney, was on both ‘Andy Griffith’ as well as ‘Three’s Company.’

            “Arlo, Honey, why are you no good?”

            He lifted his face toward the ceiling, his face scrunched in pain. “Oh, Pen, it hurts!”

            “What hurts, Arlo?”

            “My soul.”

            “Why does your soul hurt, Sweety?” I soothed. I wasn’t good with terms of endearment. But my sister was, and I mimicked her form of speech that I had witnessed her use throughout the years, especially when she consoled someone.

            Arlo got out of bed and gulped down half a bottle of water. Then he said, “A couple of weeks ago, my ex-wife informed me that I was the father of a three month old little boy.”

            My whole body tensed, and Arlo pinched his nose and wept again. I just stared at him as my mind reeled. After a minute he continued. “I thought, wow, I have a son! But then I thought, wow, I don’t want to have to be involved with that betraying witch for the rest of my life. But I have a son! And I want to be a part of his life. Maybe I need to move back to California.”

            I was now so stiff with tension, I thought I might topple off of the bed. “So you’re moving back to California?”

            “No,” he said shaking his head, and snorting sarcastically. “Tt turns out he’s not my son after all. My ex claimed he was mine, because a DNA test determined that it wasn’t her current husband’s, with whom she was having an affair with while we were still married. But then a DNA test also determined that it wasn’t mine either. She discovered this the other day in my lawyer’s office. Then you wouldn’t believe what she started babbling to her husband.”

            Arlo was both crying and laughing as he shook his head. I gave him space, and then he continued. “That can’t be, he wore a condom, he wore condom. Her husband asked who and I couldn’t believe her reply. It was their pastor, the Reverend Bruce Simon. He was also the man who baptized me. I now feel like my baptism was illegitimate. Can you believe the Reverend that baptized me not only committed adultery, but with my wife!

            I noticed how when Arlo called Bruce Simon Reverend, he did so mockingly. Interestingly, Pastor Kirk Samson gave me a little lesson when I had called him Reverand at Cotton Creek last week. With a twinkle in his eye, and like a loving grandfather, he said softly. “Please don’t call me Reverend, my dear, for I am not worthy. Scripture declares in Psalm 111:9, King James Version, that Holy and Reverand is God’s name. You can call me Kirk, or some like to call me Captain Kirk, or if you like formality, Pastor Samson is fine also. Shoot, I’ll even answer to hey you.”

            I laughed, and thought, I like this guy!

            “I believe you deserve the respect of at least Pastor Samsom, Captain Kirk,” I said with a grin. With his long white beard, he reminded me of Moses, and with his self-deprecating humor and powerful sermon, my first impression of him was as a man with impeccable character.

            “I don’t believe your baptism was illegitimate, Arlo. The so called man of the cloth is the one that sinned. Also, Captain Kirk enlightened me on the title Reverend.”

            I shared with him the verse, and he seemed pleased despite the emotional pain he was dealing with. Then he gave me a quick scripture lesson along the same lines. “I do know that Jesus said in Matthew 23:9 that we’re to call no man on earth father. Of course he’s talking in the spiritual sense. He didn’t mean we couldn’t call our dad, father. But I did not know about the Reverend thing.”

            After a moment of silence, Arlo sighed and declared, “I deserve it.”

            “Why do you say that?”

            “All those years promoting evil in our band. Plus, I’m ashamed to admit, I fathered two abortions in the past… How ironic, as nihilist in a hardcore, hedonistic rock band, I gave no thought of exterminating my child’s life. Now I’m grieving the loss of what turned out to be a fictional child of mine.”

            “So is that what you’re mostly upset about right now? You wanted to be a part of your ex-wife’s child’s life?”

            “Yes, big time! I have a different world view nowadays. It seems like it was possibly my only chance at, what would you call it, heritage? Family? At least for a long while.”

            I was no longer nervous or hesitant about revealing his impending fatherhood. “Arlo, you can still be a father to a child.”

            “Are you out of your mind! You expect me to be a father figure to the child of my cheating ex-wife? Fathered by an adulterous pastor? Forgive me if that’s unforgiving.”

            “That’s not what I’m talking about,” I said. I lifted the old comfy purple flannel shirt I was wearing up to my chest, exposing my entire stomach. My faded blue jeans were unbuttoned because they were otherwise too tight on my expanded waist. Yet I honestly wasn’t trying to entice him sexually. “Our night together more than four months ago now. This the result.”

            If ever there was ever a stunned expression on a face, it was Arlo’s. His mouth gaped open, and his eyes were bulging from their sockets. After a moment, he gathered himself and stepped toward me. He put a hand on my lower cheek. Although it was warm, I felt goosebumps rise. He spoke quietly as his eyes welled. “So there’s gonna be a human being that is part you, and part me?”

            I nodded.

            “For real, and you’re sure it’s mine?”

            “For real, and there’s a one hundred percent chance my egg was fertilized by you. I told you before we ever made love that it had been half a year since a man had been allowed into my sacred spot. Just so you know, I haven’t even kissed a guy besides you since.”

            Then he went onto his knees in front of me, and kissed our child cocooned behind my flesh.

HEAVY METAL MIRACLES – CHAPTER 10

Posted on by Johnathan Embers

HEAVY METAL MIRACLES

CHAPTER 10

PENNY

  BEHOLD I STAND AT THE DOOR AND KNOCK. IF ANYONE HEARS MY VOICE AND OPENS THE DOOR, I WILL COME IN TO HIM AND DINE WITH HIM, AND HE WITH ME. (Revelation 3:20)

            “So Penny, what was going on with you and Arlo last night?” my sister demanded with hands on her hips.

            “So Ariel, what was going on with you and Eli last night?” I replied, mimicking her hands on hips.

            She folded her arms over her chest, lifting her chin. “I asked first.”

            “Give me a break, what, are we kids again fighting over a doll?”

            “You didn’t play with dolls.”

            “I did so.”

            “Yeah, only to play doctor with them.”

            “And what did I become?”

            She snorted a laugh. “Eli and I were simply reminiscing of our time as teenagers. It was an innocent, nostalgic look at the stars.”

            “Yeah? As he hugged you from behind?”

            “It was cold. Now what about you and Arlo in a lip lock and a tight embrace?”

            “It was a friendly kiss.”

            “On the lips? I’ve never kissed a friend, male or female on the lips.”

            “Well, I guess I’m friendlier than you.”

            She laughed menacingly. “Yeah, Penny, ‘I hate people.’ Baldwin is friendlier than me.”

            I sighed and sat down behind my desk. We were in my office at the clinic I shared with two other vets. I was tired. Abby, our best assistant, quit with less than two weeks notice. Yet, I understood her situation, and we parted on good terms. The night before I slept poorly due to the uncertainty of Arlo’s  and my relationship. Then twenty minutes before my sister arrived, I lost a family’s beloved Cocker Spaniel.

            Although I had warned them it was a long shot, and although I try to stay detached from defeats in veterinarian practice, the moment had worn me down. I couldn’t stop a couple tears from my eyes. I whimpered, “I’m in love with Arlo.”

            “Oh Sweety,” my sister replied, pulling up a chair next to me, and taking one of my hands. My sister was a very empathetic person. She was right about me having a hard time liking people, although hate was too strong of a description. I think anyway. So just as a yawn often causes another person to yawn, my tears produced tears to emit from Ariel’s eyes. “Isn’t Arlo seeing Abby, though?”

            “That’s what I was talking to him about.”

            “And?”

            “When Arlo first showed up in town, he was hanging out with both Abby and me. But he had the Bible in common with Abby, and nothing is more important to him. I was jealous, and knew he and I had chemistry. So four months ago I seduced him… And it worked.”

            Ariel’s large brown eyes became even larger, and her mouth gaped in surprise. She whispered, “You and Arlo had… Sex?”

            I cringed, the word sex never sounded dirtier. But I didn’t feel that way about the passion between Arlo and me that night. So I declared, “We made love.”

            “I don’t get it, he’s so devout. He makes such a big deal about what day a person worships on. Yet he fornicates outside of the bonds of marriage?”

            “It’s not like that Ariel. All have sinned. He was devastated. He even tried to flee right before we, you know…”

            “You mean you had to talk him into it?” She frowned. Her words and expression made me feel like a tramp.

            “Let’s just say I persuaded him.”

            “How?”

            “Well sister, I may not be as striking as you, but I can still be rather sexy.”

            “Me more striking? Hardly! I’ve always been envious of how you can still look lovely even when you’re dressed more like a guy.”

            “I’ve always been envious of…” I pointed at her chest.

            “And I’ve always been envious of your perfect legs.”

            “Okay, we’re a couple hot sisters,” I said. But then becoming uncomfortable with the beginnings of a love fest, I teased, “Despite you being in your forties now.”

            “Yeah, well you’re not far behind,” she grinned. Then she grew serious. “So, after your night with Arlo, what happened?”

            “Nothing,” I shrugged. “I felt terrible that he felt terrible. I also knew that Abby had a thing for him, and that they were better suited for each other, so I stayed out of the way. Besides, I found it highly unlikely that Arlo would give into temptation again. And at the time I was mostly interested in him physically.”

            “So why did Abby give him a Dear John letter then?”

            “She confided in me that Arlo didn’t reciprocate her feelings for him. Also that he asked about me on a regular basis. Then last week she asked me about the few times I hung out with Arlo. I told her I began to avoid him so she could be free to win his heart. My seemingly selfless act moved her. So now she has switched things up so I could be free to be with Arlo.”

            “By the looks of last night it would seem that you are.”

            “It’s complicated. Due to religious convictions, we would have to be married before we would, um, well, you know…”

            “Have sex?”

            “Make love.”

            “Apples and oranges, my dear. So let me ask you this. How come you’re so willing to fornicate? Are all the times I’ve seen you in church just for Mom’s benefit?”

            “In all honesty, pleasing Mom plays a big part. But I’m also a seeker, and sanctification is a process that is the work of a lifetime. Besides, like you always say, we’re saved by grace.”

            “That doesn’t mean we’re free to do whatever we want.”

            “Oh really? So let me get this straight. It would be a sin for me to fornicate with Arlo. But it’s okay for you to worship on the day that religious systems appointed rather than the day God Himself  blessed and made holy.”

            “Once again, apples and oranges.”

            “I beg to differ. Sin is transgression of the law, says 1 John 3:4. And the Ten Commandments are the only part of the Bible that God wrote Himself. You can’t pick and choose which ones are necessary and which aren’t.”

            “I understand your point. However, you can’t compare getting naked with another person with what day you choose to worship on. You should worship God every day.”

            “True, but there is only one day that God set apart as particularly special and blessed. Malachi 3:6 declares that God does not change. So where do human beings get off on thinking they can change the law of God? Yet the Bible predicted that the religious system that ruled in the dark ages would think to do just that. Daniel 7:25 talks about this persecuting power that would think to change times and law. The Sabbath is both. And the Word of God predicted this many centuries before it happened.”

            “Well, it’s tradition now,” Ariel said with a shrug.

            “In vain they worship me teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men. That’s Mark 7 verses 7 and 8.”

            She snorted. “It seems Arlo and Abby are turning you into a legalist.”

            “That depends on your reason for obeying the law of God. If you’re doing so just out of duty, then yes, you’re a legalist. But Jesus said in John 14:15, if you love Me, keep my commandments. So our motive to obey should be because we love Him.”

            Ariel’s mouth hung open and her arms were crossed defiantly across her chest. But then she forced a smile. “Look at you, Pen, you’re not only a DVM, but a Bible scholar as well. How did that happen?”

            I shrugged. “It has been a lonely few months, so I’ve been studying for myself the things Abby and then Arlo have been telling me. I guess you could say Abby had planted the seeds, and Arlo watered them.”

            Ariel changed the subject. “So what would you do if Arlo asked you to marry him?”

            “He’s not going to because we haven’t known each other all that long.”

            “That’s not what I asked. I asked what would you do if he asked?

            “I don’t know,” I replied and then bit my thumb. “But we’d need to see each other for a while first.”

            “Oh my word! My confirmed bachelorette sister would consider a husband?”

            “Whoever said I was a confirmed bachelorette? Just because marriage has never been a priority with me? I’d consider settling down with the right guy one day.”

            “And Arlo, former wild rock star, might be he?”

            “Doubtful, but never say never. Now it’s your turn, buckaroo.”

            “What do you mean?” my sister asked with wide innocent eyes.

            “You know very well what I mean. That backwards hug between you and Eli. I don’t buy for a second that it was just cold. Otherwise you wouldn’t have stepped out of it so quickly.”

            “Honestly, I was just reminiscing. My senior year of high school was the happiest time of my life, mostly because of Eli. But then it ended up the worst time of my life after he not only left town but left me pregnant.”

            “You know, last night when we saw each other, I swear it looked like Eli was about to kiss either your neck or cheek.”

            “Really?” Ariel asked, and then bit her thumb and began to stare at nothing.

            “Reminiscing my foot,” I suggested.

            Ariel snapped out of her trance and then laughed. “What are we… a couple of teenagers?”

            After she left, I took of my white lab coat and hung it on a hook. My t-shirt rose a couple inches, and I yanked it down in annoyance. I needed to stop snacking in between meals. I frowned, went to a mirror, and lifted my shirt. As I studied my midriff, Ariel walked back into my office.

            “I forgot my…” She started to say, and then froze. “Pen… are you… pregnant?”

            “Of course not,” I snapped, yanking my shirt back down.

            “Are you sure?”

            “Sure I’m sure. I think I’d know, being a doctor. I just need to go on a diet.”

            “When was your last period?”

            “I don’t know, a couple months ago. Look, the last couple years it’s been inconsistent. I think I’m perimenopausal.”

            “You know your night of passion with Arlo. Did he, um, wear a certain something when you two became one?”

            “No,” I replied quietly as I felt my face flush. Denial is a strange thing. “Do you really think I could be pregnant?”

            Ariel looked sympathetic, yet sarcastically said, “I don’t know, Sis, I’m not a doctor. But I’m gonna go out on a limb and suggest Abby wasn’t the only one that planted a seed in you, albeit this being a different kind.”

HEAVY METAL MIRACLES – CHAPTER 9

Posted on by Johnathan Embers

HEAVY METAL MIRACLES

CHAPTER 9

ELI

THE LAW OF THE LORD IS PERFECT, CONVERTING THE SOUL; THE TESTIMONY OF THE LORD IS SURE MAKING WISE THE SIMPLE (Psalm 19:7)

            Life is a strange trip. The whole year I lived in Iowa as a seventeen year old, I could not wait to graduate high school and leave. But one thing that did give me contentment was my friendship with Ariel Grobstick. Then that friendship turned romantic right before Arlo and I fulfilled our plans to go west to pursue our dream of rock and roll stardom. I still remember those last words exchanged between Ariel and me as if it were yesterday.

            “I gave you my virginity!” she had told me with tears pouring out of her eyes. “You said you love me more than anybody on the planet.”

            “I do, I truly do, Ariel,” I pleaded, her words were like a knife in my gut. Yet the second part of my response displayed how cold hearted I was. “More than any person, Ariel. But my first love has always been music. I need to do whatever it takes to be successful, and the L.A. rock scene is the best place for that. Come with me.”

            “Why, so I can be your mistress?” she replied bitterly.

            “What do you mean? I would never cheat on you.”

            “You just said you love your guitar more than me.”

            “Ariel…”

            “Goodbye, Elijah,” she spit, turning and walking briskly away from me. I didn’t see her again for more than two decades.

            It was now midwinter in Iowa. Despite feeling like the frozen heartland was a prison as a teenager, I was now forty years of age and had been residing there for four months of my own free will. And I had never been happier in my life. It was all because of the instant family I had miraculously acquired by opening a letter one day.

            It had all turned out better than I had expected, but it hadn’t been without some challenges. First of all I needed to gain trust. Not only because I was a virtual stranger to my twenty two year old son, but also because of my rather crazy past as a wild rock star.

            Then two weeks before Christmas, Ariel’s second husband, who had been seriously injured in a scuffle with her first husband, died suddenly after suffering a stroke. Since Ariel had been the most skeptical of me upon my arrival, and since we had been lovers as teenagers, the death of her husband made me extra uncomfortable.

            Not long after meeting my son, we began jamming together. In other words we were creating music. He was a fantastic singer, and his wife was a superb drummer. When Arlo arrived, he took up the bass with us. Over the days and weeks, we evolved into a pretty tight little band and practiced three or four times a week.

            In the beginning of these sessions, Ariel was present every time. It was as if she was a mother hen making sure that I wasn’t a wolf. I can’t blame her. If ever a band’s record needed a parental advisory label it was ‘The Sons of Molech’. Even while a member of the band, I often distanced myself from the content, sighting that I wrote the music and Izzy wrote the lyrics.

            After the death of Ariel’s husband, she only joined us a half a dozen times when we practiced. On this day, in mid-February, she arrived with our five year old granddaughter. I tried not to notice how well Ariel filled out the black leggings she wore. Her dark hair with sprinkles of salt was pulled back in a ponytail. She rarely wore makeup, but this day a little mascara framed her large lovely brown eyes.

            In one hand Crystal carried the little guitar I had bought her. I typically gave her a five to ten minute guitar lesson before our band practiced. She was surprisingly good. Could musical talent be genetic? I knew little of such things.

            In Crystal’s other hand, she held a card. She shyly smiled as she shoved it toward me, using the name she called me, which I absolutely loved. “Here, Poppop.”

            “Thank you, Crissy,” I said cheerly as I opened it. It had a cartoonish picture of two kittens holding hands. Inside it asked, ‘Will you be my Valentine?’

            “I’d be delighted to be your Valentine, Sweetheart,” I told her as I spread my arms, She leapt into me for a hug.

            I glanced up at Ariel and she smiled happily at us. When we broke from our hug, Ariel handed another card to Crystal, took her guitar from her and said, “Go give this to Uncle Arlo.”

            I felt my toes curl. Not only at being one on one with Ariel, but I was fearful of how Arlo would handle a Valentine card. He was really into what he called primitive Godliness. Not only the Bible and the Bible only, which was great, but he also became a student of history, which was also great. Yet in my opinion, he took it too far, often preaching about the pagan origins of most of our holidays.

            But I couldn’t help chuckling when Arlo’s face lit up in exaggerated glee. Then he picked Crystal up and spun her around three or four times as she squealed with delight.

            Ariel pulled up a chair, sat, and strummed Crystal’s guitar a few times. “How about you give me a guitar lesson?”

            “Seriously?” I asked with an arched eyebrow.

            “Sure, why not,” she replied with a shrug.

            “You never wanted any guitar lessons twenty years ago.”

            “I didn’t need any,” she said with a coy smile. “You paid attention to me back then without me asking.”

            Words got stuck in my throat. Was she flirting with me? It had only been two months since her husband passed away. Was there a timetable for grief and its extent? I suppose everybody was different.

            “Eli, will do me a favor?”

            “Sure, but let’s get a bigger guitar.”

             “I’m not talking about that,” she said with a little giggle. Then she became serious. “Will you please stop avoiding me, and tiptoeing around me.”

            “Am I?”

            “Ya think.”

            “Apparently not,” I said with a smile.

            Once again she giggled, but then became serious. “Before we, ya know,  made a baby, you were one of the best friends I ever had. Ever since our senior year, I’d look up at the stars at night and recall how wonderful it was sitting next to you gazing at the twinkling heavens and talking the night away. Now, to have you so close, and only to be avoided. It, well, hurts.”

            “I’m sorry, Ariel. I truly am. The truth is, I have been avoiding you. But its only because I hurt you all those years ago. I felt like my presence here only made things worse for you. I even thought about going back to California for a while right after Doug passed away. But selfishly, I have been enjoying getting to know Ethan and his family, and couldn’t get myself to go.”

            “Well I’m glad you didn’t go. I admit, I was skeptical when you first arrived back in October. But your presence has been a blessing to us all. Watching you bond with Ethan and Crystal has warmed my heart, and I never would have believed it possible.”

            “Really, why’s that?”

            “You have to ask? Sweet Eli Alderson became sinister Eli Endor. That whole ‘Sons of Molech’ thing was as if you left me and married a prostitute.”

            “I’ve come to realize over the last couple years how wrong my thinking and rationalizing was. But you have to believe me when I say I didn’t take the whole satanism thing seriously. I looked at our band like a traveling horror show, and I was an actor playing a part. Like Alice Cooper. You know he’s a Christian. And as far as I know, he still tours with his traveling horror show. As for me, ‘The Sons of Molech’ are done forever.”

            “It helps that half the band is dead,” she said.

            “Even if they weren’t, Arlo quit, and I was following on his heels. Now, writing Christian songs with Ethan… It feels redemptive. Like making amends for promoting that which was dark and evil.”

            “Where do you see this all going?” Ariel asked with an eager expression.

            I shrugged. “We’ve got enough songs to record a CD. Then who knows? Play some shows, go on tour.”

            The door to the church auditorium opened. Ariel and I both looked and watched Penny walk in. She hadn’t been to one of our band’s rehearsals in months. I noticed Arlo slink in the opposite direction. I wasn’t the only one tiptoeing around one of the Grobstick sisters. Although they both had different last names now.

            “What’s up with Arlo and Penny?” I asked.

            Ariel looked at Arlo. “What do you mean?”

            “She came in and he went to the other side of the room.”

            “So?” she replied with a shrug.

            “Oh, I don’t know. When he first arrived here in Iowa, not long after I did, they seemed awfully chummy. Then all of a sudden they don’t seem to want anything to do with each other.”

            “I do know he’s been seeing Penny’s assistant, Abby.”

            “Oh, I think they are just friends. He goes to church with her. They’re both into that Biblical Sabbath thing. He says the Bible and the Bible only, something like primitive Godliness.”

            “Primitive Godliness,” she snorted. “If Abby’s into something like that, maybe she should stop having one night stands while she’s engaged.”

            “What, you don’t believe she could repent and be forgiven?”

            “No, I do,” she said with a bit of a whine. “I didn’t mean to sound judgmental. It does seem like something weird is going on with the three of them, though. I know Penny had a thing for Arlo, but it seems he has more in common with Abby. Yet the two women have to work together.”

            “So what did Penny tell you?”

            “Nothing. She doesn’t talk to me about her love life. But I know my sister, and I observe… Speaking about the Sabbath situation, I wish you’d tell Arlo to stop brainwashing Ethan. Now he’s talking about going to that Seventh Day church.”

            “Brainwashing?” I chuckled. “They’ve just been studying together. I’ve even joined them.”

            “I guess Arlo is a fairly new Christian. I suppose he doesn’t understand the Sabbath was changed to Sunday in honor of the resurrection.”

            “He and I have discussed that. He says baptism is what honors the resurrection. He says Sunday keeping became a prominent tradition in the fourth century when Constantine made Christianity a legal religion. When that happened a bunch of the pagan traditions entered the church. One of them, the worship of the sun God, on the venerable day of the sun, was Sunday which became instituted.”

            “Look at you, Mr. Bible scholar,” she joked, yet I detected an air of annoyance.

            “He said the Bible says God doesn’t change (Malachi 3:6). God wrote the Ten Commandments with his own finger, and the Sabbath is right in the middle (Exodus 20:8-11).”

            “But we’re not under the law, we’re under grace.”

            “Do we then make void the law through faith. Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law. That is Romans 3:31.”

            “You’re freaking me out, Eli,” she with a smile. “I guess you’ve convinced me that you’re not a satanist.”

            “Hey, Ethan is not here yet, and it seems Crissy is more interested in playing drums right now. Are you really interested in a guitar lesson?”

            “Sure, why not?”

            “I’ve got an acoustic guitar out in my truck.”

            My Shelby Mustang was in storage for the winter, so I was just about to unlock the pickup truck I had acquired when Ariel came up behind me. She had a look of wonder on face as her eyes danced with excitement. “Eli?”

            “Yeah?”

            “Before we go back in, will you hold me like you used to, and we’ll look at the stars for a minute.”

            “Sure,” I replied with an easy smile. She turned and backed into me, and I wrapped my arms around her, so we were spooning. She turned her gaze toward the sky with a sentimental look on her face. I inhaled her scent, and was considering kissing her cheek, when we heard a murmur of voices. It was Penny and Arlo, over by her pickup truck. They didn’t see us. Ariel suddenly lost interest in the night sky.

            Penny retrieved something from her truck. It was an envelope, and she handed it to Arlo. “So you say she quit her job and is leaving town?”

            “I guess so… I’m sorry,” Penny consoled.

            “It’s no big deal, we were just friends. I did hope we could be more, but I just couldn’t…”

            “Couldn’t what?”

            “Get you out of my head,” he blurted.

            “Oh Arlo,” she said. Then she went to tiptoes and kissed his lips. Then she hugged him and pressed the side of her face onto his chest as they held each other. With her cheek pressed into Arlo’s chest, she spotted Ariel and me watching them. She quickly shoved away from Arlo. As soon as she did this, Ariel abruptly stepped out of my backward embrace. Then we all just looked at each other for a long speechless moment.

HEAVY METAL MIRACLES – CHAPTER 4

Posted on by Johnathan Embers

HEAVY METAL MIRACLES

CHAPTER 4

ARLO ALDO

HE WHO DOES NOT TAKE UP HIS CROSS AND FOLLOW AFTER ME IS NOT WORTHY OF ME. HE WHO FINDS HIS LIFE WILL LOSE IT, AND HE WHO LOSES HIS LIFE FOR MY SAKE WILL FIND IT (Matthew 10:38, 39)

            “Arlo, I need you to pray for me,” Eli’s voice said into my ear, via the telephone.

            First I felt an adrenaline rush, fearing something was wrong with my dear friend and former bandmate. Then I felt hopeful. Over the course of two years I had tried to witness my faith to Eli. I was certain he dealt with the same nightmares and demonic harassment I had since leaving our satanic rock band, ‘The Sons of Molech.’ Anyway, this was the first time he had actually asked me to pray.

            “What’s going on, Eli? Are you okay?”

            “I am doing great. So far anyway.”

            “Hang on, I’ll come right over.”

            “Ah, I don’t think that’s possible.”

            “Why?”

            “I’m about two thousand miles away.”

            “What? Where?”

            “Iowa.”

            “Iowa! What are you doing in Iowa?”

            I had grown up in Iowa. It’s where Eli and I first met when we were seniors in high school. He only lived there a little more than a year. I had never known him to purposely return there, other than a handful of times when our band was on tour. But to him it was just another stop on the schedule. He had lived with his dad and stepmother during his seventeenth year of life. But he didn’t get along all that well with his dad and talked to him only once a year at the most.

            “Is your dad okay?” I inquired.

            “Huh? Oh… I don’t know. I haven’t seen him.”

            “What do mean you haven’t seen him? What on earth are you doing in Iowa then?”

            “You’re not gonna believe it.”

            “I already don’t.”

            He laughed, and I felt relieved. Whatever he wanted prayers for must not be too terrible.

            “Do you remember Ariel Grobstick?”

            “How could I forget her?” I replied as an image of her in gym class wearing short gym shorts popped into my head. Then I shook it off. I had been a happily married Christian and had made a covenant with my eyes not to lust after other women. (Job 31:1).

            But now my yearlong marriage was over. My former wife, the person who was instrumental in pulling me out of the occult and into Christ’s loving and forgiving arms, had left me because I had gone too deep into the Bible. That coupled with the handsome man who convinced her I was a fanatic. For they married just days after our divorce was finalized.

            But although single, I was only a few weeks from forty years of age. So it seemed inappropriate for my mind’s eye to focus on a seventeen year old girl sitting cross legged in gym class wearing  short shorts. Even if she was currently my age, I hadn’t seen her since we were teenagers.

            Ariel came from a religious home and although she was a knockout, who looked like she could be on the show ‘Charlie’s Angels,’ she didn’t date much due to parental restrictions. But I seem to recall another vision of her standing by her locker, hugging textbooks as her long dark hair flowed over her shoulders. She was gazing dreamily into the eyes of Eli, his own dark hair flowing over his shoulders.

            “Well, it seems I knocked her up right before you and I went west seeking fame and fortune.”

            My mind was grappling with this. Knocked her up? Slang for impregnation. “Are you saying Ariel birthed a child of yours?”

            “And raised.”

            “So you have a twenty something son or daughter?”

            “Yes, a twenty two year old son and a granddaughter that’s four or five… What was that clatter?”

            “Sorry, I dropped the phone…. So have you met them yet?”

            “Not yet. I just met with Ariel and her sister.”

            “I don’t remember Ariel having a sister.”

            “A little Tomboy named Penny.”

            “Penny… Penny. That doesn’t ring a bell.”

            “You know that smart mouthed chick you threw into the lake that time?”

            “That was Ariel’s sister! She was a cute little gal.”

            “She still is, and a doctor of veterinarian medicine to boot.”

            “Now that you mention it, I should have seen the resemblance… So that’s what you want prayers for? This brand new fatherhood situation.”

            “Yes indeed. I don’t know how much a 22 year-old is gonna want to know a father he never met.”

            “I’ll be glad to keep you in prayer. How long are you staying out there?”

            “If we hit it off, probably a couple weeks.”

            “Maybe I should come out for a couple weeks. I haven’t been home for quite a while.”

            “Should you do that when the school year isn’t over for Brenda?” he asked, knowing my now ex-wife was an elementary school teacher.

            “We haven’t talked for a while, have we?”

            “It’s been at least a few months. I guess because we don’t work together anymore,” he laughed.

            “Brenda divorced me.”

            “What! Why? What’d you do?”

            I chuckled with no humor. “I developed a closer walk with God through a deeper study of the Holy Bible.”

            There was a pause, and I wondered if I was doing the right thing confiding my relationship woes with him. I believed Eli was still wrestling with spiritual darkness, and I didn’t want what happened with Brenda and me to be a stumbling block.

            “I’m afraid I don’t understand, Al,” Eli said. Everyone in the inner circle of our band called me Al. Al being short for my last name. “Let me get this straight. You became a more hardcore Bible believer, and Brenda left you for that?” Eli used a profane word before he continued. “You met her while she was protesting one of our concerts, waving a sign that says ‘Jesus saves.’ To my limited understanding, it doesn’t get any more hardcore than that.”

            “Well, she also had a little help from a guy she used to teach with. She remarried him before the ink was dry on our divorce settlement. But that’s beside the point. We still would have had an issue with one Biblical doctrine in particular.”

            “Oh yeah, what was that?”

            “I discovered this ministry called ‘Amazing Facts.’ They proclaimed the Biblical Sabbath was Saturday rather than Sunday. I started discussing my findings with not only other church members, but her pastor as well. The man who married us. He actually got mad and asked me to stop attending if I was going to rebel.”

            (Amazing Facts has a web site called Sabbath truth that explains the Bible Sabbath.)

            “Let me get this straight. You were kicked out of a church for discussing the Bible.”

            “To be fair, I wasn’t kicked out. I was asked not to come if I was gonna cause trouble.”

            “Once again, discussing the Bible, in church, is causing trouble?”

            “Not conceding that he was right, and I was wrong, despite little scriptural evidence on his part. The more Bible texts I shared, the angrier he got.”

            I heard Eli snort in disgust. “That’s why I steer clear of religion malarky.”

            I instantly felt like I made a mistake. “Look, we may have disagreed, but that pastor is good man. In my zeal I may have gone about it in the wrong way. Maybe he’ll take a look at what I showed him. He does lead his congregation well in doing the basic Christian virtues. Helping the homeless, initiating clothing and food drives…”

            “Protesting rock concerts,” Eli interjected.

            “Hey, it turned my life around.”

            “Yeah, it got you married for two minutes and then broke your heart.”

            “Well, even the Bible warns that life isn’t gonna be easy.”

            “Yeah, so what’s the point?”

            Once again I felt like a bad witness for Christ. “Look, I’ve gotta close on the sale of my house, and get stuff in storage until I find another place. But I’m coming out there as soon as I can. We’ll talk more then about what’s been happening with me. It sounds like I need to catch up on you as well. Big time!”

            “I’d go say ‘hi’ to your parents,” Eli said. “But you know they blame your bandmates for leading their sweet innocent baby boy into depravity.”

            “Well, they have someone new to blame now in Brenda.”

            Four days later, high up in the sky on my way to Iowa, I felt happy and hopeful on multiple fronts. For one, I hadn’t been to my hometown in quite some time, and I longed to see my family. Then there was Eli, my brother from another mother. When I had hung up with him the other night, my eyes welled with tears of frustration. I felt like my witness did more harm than good. But then my phone rang ten minutes later. It was Eli with a quick word that changed my mood.

            “Hey, what’s up, E?”

            “Just wanted to say thanks for praying for me. I’m pretty nervous about meeting my son tomorrow… That sounds weird to say.”

            “Sounds weird to hear,” I replied. Then after a slight pause, I said something I should have said after our previous, more lengthy conversation only ten minutes earlier. “I love you, brother.”

            “Love you too, man, can’t wait to see you.”

            “Same here.”

            This time, my eyes welled with happy tears. I was going home. Little did I know then, after traveling the world multiple times, I was going to find the love of my life where I grew up!

HEAVY METAL MIRACLES – CHAPTER 3

Posted on by Johnathan Embers

HEAVY METAL MIRACLES

CHAPTER 3

PENNY

THEREFORE SUBMIT TO GOD. RESIST THE DEVIL AND HE WILL FLEE FROM YOU. DRAW NEAR TO GOD AND HE WILL DRAW NEAR TO YOU (James 4:7,8)

            My sister looked stunned as she stared at Eli. I’m sure I looked stunned as I stared at my sister.

            “Elijah?” Ariel had said with a baffled tone in her voice. “Eli Alderson?” Then she spoke a little more heatedly. “Or should I call you Eli Endor?”

            Eli didn’t speak, but he looked at me as if for direction. I felt my jaw clench in irritation that he looked more amused than concerned. “I can explain,” I tried.

            “Can you?” my normally even keeled sister said with a low angry voice. She folded her arms abruptly and I noticed her hand trembling. What had I done!

            “You see… I…. Well, you know… It’s like this.”

            “Oh, okay, I understand now,” my sister said sarcastically. Sarcasm from my meek, sweet, lovely sister was something you rarely saw. Her next words included something I never heard from her lips before. Profanity. “Just what in the (blank, blank) are you doing here, Eli?”

            As people began to look over their shoulders, the amusement left Eli’s face. But he was still amazingly calm. He even reminded me of an old time movie star as he stood.  With a charm that at the time I cynically wondered if it came from the devil,  he said, “Please Ariel, I mean to cause no trouble. If my presence here bothers you this much, I will start heading west as soon as I eat my supper.”

            Then something amazing happened. Ariel’s angry concerned demeanor transformed right before my eyes. Despite her long salt and pepper hair, and the beginnings of crow’s feet at the corners of her eyes, she morphed into that dreamy teenager that let this goodlooking charmer create my nephew Ethan in her uterus.

            Ariel sat next to me in the booth. Roxy, our waitress, approached with a side salad for me along with a glass of ice water. She also had a side salad for Eli, but his glass of ice was tainted with Coca Cola. Roxy smiled at my sister and asked, “What can I get you Ariel?”

            “Oh… Just a cup of tea, Roxy.” Then she looked at Eli with a neutral expression. “I’m sorry I overreacted, but what in fact are you doing here?”

            “Like he said, he’ll go back home,” I piped up. “I think that would be best.”

            Ariel turned a cool gaze onto me. “Obviously he is here because of you. So what did you tell him?”

            “I didn’t tell him anything… I wrote to him.”

            “Like I said,” Ariel spoke slowly, as if to a child. I guess I will always be her baby sister. “What did you tell him in the letter you wrote to him?”

            My tongue felt like it was stuck, so this compelled Eli to speak in my behalf. “She told me I had a son and granddaughter. I wanted to see if that was true. But as much as I want to see them, I don’t want in any way to make you uncomfortable or disrupt your life.”

            “How unselfish for a satanist,” my sister replied casually.

            “I’m not satanist, and I never was,” he responded. Then he frowned as is he doubted his own statement.

            “Is that right?” Ariel asked. “So what was all that music you created all about? The pentagrams, goat heads, and demons on your album covers? The sex, violence, and paganism you promoted?”

            “I wrote melodies and riffs. Izzy wrote the lyrics and created the image.”

            “Melodies?” Ariel said with a sarcastic snort. “So, you just wrote guitar parts? You didn’t wear gothic makeup and point like this as you played a guitar solo with one hand?”

            Ariel did what I believe was known as a satanic salute as she pointed with her index finger and pinky. It was an odd sight to see on my deeply religious sister.

            “I was playing a role,” Eli defended. “Eli Endor was like a character in a play. My legal name is still Alderson.”

            “You played a role alright. During a time of desperation in my life, my son found out you were his sperm donor. Then he tried to emulate that so called character you played.”

            Eli’s face froze, and he actually looked horror stricken for a moment. “Ariel, I’m truly sorry. Not only for your son, but for the role I played with God knows how many impressionable souls.”

            “God? Souls?” Ariel asked, not mockingly but with an inquisitively arched eyebrow.

            “I’ve thought a lot about my past life over the last year or two.”

            “You mean you’re regretful?”

            “Yeah,” he shrugged.

            “So your mouth said ‘yes,’ but your shrug said ‘no.’”

            Eli chuckled. “Let me put it this way. I’m regretful for the use of dark spiritual imagery. But on the other hand, I enjoyed not having a nine to five job.”

            “And also making a truck a load of money,” I piped up.

            Eli glanced at me for a second and then turned a thoughtful gaze back to Ariel. Just like as a kid, I felt jealousy over the way Elijah Alderson looked so adoringly at my sister rather than me. Nothing had changed. My pretty, feminine sister pulled her long braided ponytail over her shoulder, and her delicate hands with manicured fingernails began to gently stroke it.

            I looked at my hands with my nails cut short  to better minister to animals. Then I ran one of them through my short brown hair with blonde highlights. The short pixie style was due to convenience. My sister’s subtle makeup enhanced her pretty features. Would it do the same for me? Her eyes, which looked identical to mine, looked all the more adorable due to the long mascara enhanced lashes.

            Even the way we were dressed. Her tight turtleneck revealed an alluring, ample chest. My loose flannel covered my smaller, but perky chest. Her tight black leggings revealed the fact that she stayed fit. My jeans were worn and ripped, but wasn’t that hip? Even our footwear. My dirty, well-worn cowboy boots, compared with her cute pink running shoes. Forgive me, but I was a little jealous.

            “What did you mean by your son trying to emulate me?” Eli asked.

            “He took up the guitar, and grew his hair long,” Ariel replied. “Thankfully his sweet, mostly wholesome girlfriend steered him away from the occult garbage.”

            “Is he good?” Eli asked.

            “Yes, he’s a fine young man. He has made some mistakes, sure, but he’s a truly good guy.”

            “I meant is he good at guitar?” Eli asked.

            I couldn’t help my guffaw. Both of them looked at me, and Eli seemed to know the reason for my outburst. “I already assumed a son of Ariel’s was a good man. But my guitars have always been the love of my life.”

            “So your regrets,” Ariel asked cautiously. “Does that mean that you’re not in the band anymore?”

            “I don’t know how closely you followed ‘The Sons of Molech.’ But we are no longer a band. Two are dead, and Arlo Aldo became a devout Christian. You remember Arlo?”

            “How could I forget?” she asked with a slight edge to her voice. “He’s the one that talked you into going west to start a band, right after I gave in to, you know.”

            “Gave in to what?” Eli asked, and I marveled that he couldn’t read between the lines.

            “You know,” Ariel repeated, but this time she blushed. “The thing that created Ethan.”

            “Ariel,” he said breathlessly. “It was a two way street. I tried to resist you.”

            “I know,” she acknowledged, then redirecting the subject. “So Arlo became a Christian.”

            “He did. And he takes it seriously.”

            “And you?” Ariel asked with an arched eyebrow.

            “I don’t know what I am.”

            “Do you know Jesus?” Ariel asked.

            I felt my toes curl. Although I considered myself a Christian at the time, I wasn’t nearly as devout as my sister. I was considered the bold one of us two. Yet it was she that would talk to total strangers about Jesus. But it’s hard to talk to people about faith when your own walk has been crooked.

            Although Ariel had relationship problems, it was I who had a relationship infidelity. For I was the catalyst that ended a marriage, as well as a career. Although I confessed my sin and repented, it left me forever tainted.

            “I’ve never met Jesus,” Eli said cynically. Then with utter seriousness he added, “But I have met the devil.”

            “How did that work out for you?” I piped in.

            Eli smirked. “He’s a roaring lion, seeking to devour. But he sometimes gives you the world first to lure you into the lion’s den.”

            “Jesus is the only way out,” Ariel smiled warmly, taking his hand. He returned his own warm smile, and it caused the green eyed monster to pinch my cheek.

            Why did I feel this way? Eli was just a schoolgirl crush for me, and he fooled around with my sister, not me. Plus, as tainted as I still felt for committing adultery, Eli had probably been with hundreds of women, done tons of drugs, and no matter the degree of his intentions, he had made some sort of pact with the devil that clearly affected him. Did Arlo Aldo truly get victory in Christ after his own involvement with a prominent satanic band?

            “I believe you when you say that,” Eli replied to my sister. “Arlo’s been beating me over the head with a Bible. He has repeatedly told me Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Also that He stands at the door and knocks, and I just need to let Him in.”

            “Why haven’t you?” Ariel asked.

            “A side of me wants to. I guess the door’s stuck.”

            “Keep reading the Word and praying, and the door will get greased.”

            Eli gave her hand an extra squeeze, and Ariel put her other hand on top of their already joined hands. I thought about pulling them apart. I thought about reminding her that she’s married, although my sister would never cheat despite the fact that her and her husband’s intimate life was permanently altered due to his paralysis.

            “So Ethan came out of his rebellious faze?” Eli asked.

            “Not before he got his girlfriend pregnant when he was only seventeen.” Then she leaned in toward him and with a low conspiratorial tone. “Like father like son.”

            Now she was calling Ethan his father!

            “Oh!” my sister jerked excitedly and dug in her purse for a wallet. “I have pictures. Penny, would you be a dear and switch places with Eli?”

            The year was 1999, and there were no smart phones, so Ariel pulled out her oversized wallet and began to show him pictures of his son and granddaughter. Our food arrived and Eli became so absorbed in looking at the offspring he never knew he had, he let it get cold.

            I had somewhat lost my appetite. I didn’t understand why. I slowly nibbled my food as I watched my sister and her former hedonistic boyfriend huddle together in shared delight.

            “Man, he’s a goodlooking guy,” Eli enthused.

            I couldn’t help snorting. “That’s pretty narcistic since he clearly resembles you.”

            They both looked at me. Eli gave a quick casual glance, and then turned back to the pictures. Ariel frowned and shook her head. I was troubled. Somehow Eli had won her over her, and I didn’t know what to think. Should I be happy? Should I raise caution flags? Then what I both feared and longed for happened.

            “Do you want to meet them?” Ariel asked.

            “Sure, if you think you’re ready. If you think Ethan would be ready.”

            “Yes I do, I truly do. But how about tomorrow? I’ll talk to him tonight, so he can have time to get his head around it. I’m sure he’ll want to meet you, but don’t get your hopes up either.”

            “Great!” Eli declared. Then he looked at me with an air of satisfaction.

            What had I done! My night of intemperance with a bottle of wine and a pen had brought a devil worshiper into our midst. For I feared Eli Endor still held Eli Alderson captive.