WHEN SCI-FI 

BECOMES REALITY

    One of the best known and loved pioneers of contemporary Christian music from the late 60's and into the 70's was Larry Norman. He produced 100 albums up until his untimely death from coronary heart disease at the age of 60 in 2008.

Some of his best known albums are: "Upon This Rock," "Only Visiting This Planet." and "In Another Land."

Larry Norman was saved at the age of five and started singing at the age of nine. He took the Gospel to the streets of San Francisco during the Jesus Revolution in the late 60's-70's, and many of his songs had raw unsanitised lyrics that offended many traditional religious Christians, but spoke to the young contemporary youth where they were at. One example of this is to be found in the song: "Why Don't You Look Into Jesus?"

Sipping whiskey from a paper cup

You drown your sorrows till you can't stand up

Take a look at what you've done to yourself

Why don't you put the bottle back on the shelf

Yellow fingers from your cigarettes

Your hands are shaking while your body sweats

Why don't you look into Jesus, He's got the answer.

You got gonorrhea on Valentine's Day

You're still looking for the perfect lay

You think rock and roll will set you free

Oh, you'll be dead before you're thirty-three

Shooting junk till you're half insane

Broken needle in your purple vein

Why don't you look into Jesus, He's got the answer

Work all night, sleep all day

You take your money, throw it all away

You say you're going to be a superstar

But you've never hung around enough to find out who

you really are

Think back to when you were a child

Your soul was free, your heart ran wild

Each day was different, and life was a thrill

You knew tomorrow would be better still

Things have changed, you're much older now

If you're unhappy, and you don't know how

Why don't you look into Jesus, He's got the answer.

Oh yes, He does, I know He does because He gave it to me,

He showed it to me, He is, He knows, He is, you got,

He is the answer.

The Jesus Revolution or the Jesus Movement saw multiplied tens of thousands of young people in America, Canada, Britain, Australia and New Zealand - particularly, embracing the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Word of God, the Bible - bringing salvation from sin, healings and deliverance from demonic oppression, many turning from the hippie and counter-culture drug-fuelled lifestyles, which in the end offered no solutions to their quest for truth and enlightenment.

Jesus, as they so wonderfully found to be true, personally, was Who He said He was and is: The Way, The Truth and The Life. (John 14:6) These multitudes of young people discovered that their commitment to Jesus was not just another esoteric high, but this was reality. This was what they had been desperately searching for to find true purpose in life, and true peace and joy. John Lennon wrote and sang the song "Give Peace A Chance," but sadly his inspiration for the song fell short of the reality that true and lasting world peace will only come through the rule and reign of the Prince of Peace, the Lord Jesus Christ.

I well remember the exciting days in the early 70's, when as a young Christian myself in fellowship at a Pentecostal church on the Gold Coast, that at one time, a group of, from memory, around seven young men from the surfing scene, were wonderfully saved at the same time and brought a fresh dimension of fervent desire in the church to grow in their knowledge of the Lord, and to see their friends and families also come to the saving knowledge of Jesus. Long-haired, barefoot, tee-shirts and shorts, they began to come. There was no room for stuffy religiosity. They had come to know that Jesus is the REAL DEAL.  For most of them, there was no turning back! One of my best friends in the church at the time was a young man named Tom Rawls. Tom had, I think, been in the drug scene in his late teens. He was wonderfully "born again" as the Bible states in John's Gospel, chapter 3. He was delivered from demonic oppression as well, and he was on a quest to really know and love Jesus, and to make Him known to as many as he could share his new found love, peace and joy with. He was totally committed to fanning into flame his enthusiastic evangelistic fervor to reach the lost for Jesus. Tom, after several years, headed off to Bible College in Katoomba, in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales for three years. From there, he went to Melbourne for a time to gain further ministry experience at a thriving church. Following that time, he pioneered a church in Alice Springs, spent some years as a missionary pastor in Bangkok, Thailand, and eventually with his English wife, pioneered what is now a thriving Pentecostal church in Norwich, East Anglia in the UK. 

    Tom's desire to share the Good News of Jesus and the Gospel put me to shame at times. I well remember several times, when driving up or down the Gold Coast Highway with Tom as a passenger when we would pass a hitchhiker on the side of the road. Tom would yell: "Stop the car. We could witness to this guy." I am a little ashamed to say that, at those times, I think I just kept driving.

I have not really begun to address the title theme of this blog. Keep watching this space. More to come soon!