So it was a dream, probably because I've been featuring a lot of Australian singers on this blog lately here and here and my band's singer is also from the Land Down Under. Add that to the fact that it was early morning and I was pretty hungry so not only does the dream make for a cool reminder about the power of music but it also translates into an easy blog post. Here's the back story.
After my conversion a few years ago, I discovered the solid preaching of the late British evangelist, Martin Lloyd-Jones. He was a medical doctor who never attended a single bible class but gave up his lucrative London practice in his twenties to answer God's call to preach in a dirt poor, coal mining town in Wales. Eventually, he ended up taking the pulpit back in the capitol at Westminster, the iconic Puritan sanctuary. His preaching began in earnest on September 1, 1939, the day Hitler invaded Poland, and he was able to reach a countless number of English speaking troops passing through England on their way to the front. I recommend any one of his 1600 plus sermons digitally remastered from tape. Listening to them day and night really strengthened my understanding of Scripture but there is an emotional aspect to this walk of faith that needed to be fleshed out.
Enter Peter Furler and the Newsboys.
I was of course aware of their music beforehand but their songs just seemed to have come alive for me in Dolby Atmos sound. The band's energy and lyrics, planted against the backdrop of my new appreciation of the Word, lifted me to great heights of inspiration and the enthusiasm caught on as is typical for those who have met Jesus and are dying to tell others like the woman at the well in Samaria who left her water pot and rushed into town to spread the news that the Messiah had arrived.
Long story short, we literally became the Newsboys in our rural communities in Michigan's Upper Peninsula and drove around listening to Christian rock full blast, throwing flyers with gospel tracts tied to them onto lawns, leaving them on doorsteps, placing them in the parks and rest stops where visitors from all over the USA would come to enjoy the beauty of Lake Superior and its surroundings in the summer. We must have delivered thousands while stopping to talk and pray with people when we could. Soon thereafter, we had the privilege of seeing the Newsboys when they toured the upper Midwest and the fellowship and joy we experienced as part of that musical evangelistic campaign was what I told Furler about in my dream. But it seems like he was hungrier than I was and only kept asking for more ham and eggs! Now that's humility!
Me and my Jesus posse in Michigan
(this clip is not for profit but educational use only)
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