A Christian Romance

Chapter 26 - Odd service

Talk about an odd service, that was one of those! It was cringeworthy from the moment it started, as David was leading. He had that excessive enthusiasm that anyone could tell was forced. However, he had a way to make it sound spiritual. He smiled excitedly and moved around the stage fully energized. He was so good with lying that even his soul believed the lies.

Many Christians and people worldwide who knew David Larking from his appearances liked him; they regarded and esteemed him as a great and influential church leader, and that prevented them from seeing that he truly was a great entertainer, charismatic actor, skilled and cunning business manager, intelligent and eloquent speaker, and very manipulative. In his lifetime of success, Debora had been one of the first people to defy him upfront. She was menacing, with her confidence and finger-pointing - as David put it, as an argument to defend his ego. For her destruction, he also had a plan, but she wasn't his priority as she was laying low.

Obviously, Debora was the only person who could jeopardize his entire plan, at least that was how David thought. As the worship team walked up the stage, he kept all the attention on her and the guy in the yellow plaid buttoned shirt. The latter walked up to the stage when the whole band - including Debora - was ready and set to start playing. He waved his arm up in the air signaling that he had something to say. David offered some resistance, but not enough to prevent the man from walking to Adam, who was standing with the guitar hanging from his neck and a look of disbelief on his face.

Without a single warning, the mysterious man grabbed Adam's microphone and started the following speech:

"Could I have your attention, please?" He seemed very nervous while addressing the crowd. "Pastor?" He looked at David, who seemed a bit disconcerted. "I know this sounds insane, to come to your church and interrupt your beautiful service like this, but god sent me here." He made eye contact with the audience, especially those who had given him a nod of approval. "Do you still believe that God speaks these days?" He put his hand up, to encourage others to raise theirs if they shared the same belief. Most of the people raised their hands, some because they truly believed, others just because they didn't want to be counted out - let's say, merely for pride. That is one of the best tactics to test if an audience is with you. "I'm glad, Pastor, that this church still believes that God speaks even in these days!" He still tried to keep his excitement down, because he was great with acting, and he took immense pleasure in his make-believe act. "Well, I was sent here to speak to your worship leader, Adam Larking!" He looked at Adam and put his hand on his shoulder.

Joel was one of those who had raised the hand to make evidence of his belief in the fact that God still spoke, even in those days. However, the same spirit of confusion that he had felt earlier when greeting that man, hadn't disappeared. So he was alert and tried to make eye contact with Debora many times, but she was intrigued by the interaction of that same mysterious man with Adam. She didn't feel like something good would come out of that man's mouth. Suddenly, she decides to look at Joel, checking whether he had something to say about that. They did make eye contact and tried some sort of discreet non-verbal communication through lip reading and brows raising, but nothing; the message just didn't go through.

"God gave me a dream about you." The man continued.

Adam did not react, other than looking at the floor. He was so ashamed to be pointed out like that. He didn't even believe in God anymore, but he was sure that if that force and power truly existed and spoke, it would point out his unbelief.

"In that dream, God revealed that you had your days counted." The man was talking of another god, not the mighty One, God of the Universe, Creator of the Heavens and the Earth and everything in it.

Adam felt a shiver run down his spine when he heard that. He'd always valued religion over science, but at that moment, he didn't know what to believe anymore. If you grow in a spiritual environment, where people give their testimony on how they heard from God and how things developed from there, and all the confirmations, it is only natural to harbor some sort of confidence and hopes that their testimony is truthful, even though, the Bible firmly states that we all should test the spirits and the prophecies. He, however, didn't remember any of that.

"But God gave me a promise that you will be healed," Because the man saw no reaction in Adam, he added: "Next week!" He hoped that there would be some reaction from the audience as well, but the atmosphere was too tense.

'Next week'? What was that line? David hadn't spoken about any deadline in that false prophecy. He didn't know if his family doctor could work out a new diagnosis that quickly, he was busy preparing some deadly medicine for Richard - who was in prison! The pastor had to control himself from spanking that hired actor. How embarrassing! Fortunately, the actor didn't add another surprise to the act, and said to the microphone:

"Let's just worship together!" Saying that, the man left the stage and also tried to leave the church earlier, but he couldn't, there was a fellow - that was Joel - with his eye stuck on him.