by Phenomenon
Corey couldn’t take his eyes off of the crowd. The way his dad controlled the ruckus with confidence and power, the way that he was fearless in front of the people and they respected him was so intoxicating. He wanted to do something great with people’s attention. He wanted to encourage people on this scale to pray. God would be so proud of him if he could do it like his dad did. He knew that he’d previously said that he didn’t want to be a preacher but maybe he’d jump the gun. After the prayer, Kenisha took the stage first and gave her speech.
“Hello My name is Kenisha Chorus. I’m a lesbian woman. I’m in a God ordained monogamous relationship where we’ve taken our vows of marriage and God loves me too!” The crowd cheered loudly for Kenisha and sat attentively listening to what she had to say so she continued. “This is not about conversion or condemnation. This is about me and my wife and my family having the opportunity to introduce all of you to the God that we serve. He’s a loving God. A fair God. A just God. And all He wants is a healthy relationship with us. It is not the world’s responsibility to change you. But by inviting God into our lives, confessing and surrendering to him through His son Jesus Christ; if there need be any change that should be made, understand that He is more than enough God to do it all by himself. He doesn’t need a preacher, a pastor, a congregation. He doesn’t need the permission of your neighbors and family and friends. All He needs is for us to invite Him in. He is God all by Himself. I feel good knowing that He doesn’t bless me according to what other people think I deserve. Jeremiah chapter 1 verse 5 Says Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations. That means God knew you before you became who you are. He made you different. His purpose for you is so that you can touch the person next to you on the job, on the street, in the bed, at the club, and on the block to say God loves you too. In spite of it all, God loves me too. He loved me when I was down and out. He loved me when I was fat. He loved me when I was giving myself to men because I felt that they deserved my body because they gave me attention. God loved me when I fell in love with a woman. God loves me too. He loves us no less than anybody else. He said that the very hairs on our head are numbered. That’s how much we all matter to Him. You! You, and even you! Not one of us will make it into heaven according to our own righteousness but through the righteousness of the Holy Lamb that died for our sins on Calvary. You know, the bible is the best book ever wrote. If there was a New York Times best seller list in the days of Christ, the bible would’ve been on it. It has suspense. Drama. Pain. Victory. Fullfillment. Lessons. Comedy. Ending in our salvation that will eventually come to pass. The reason that we need our own relationship with God is so that He can feed directly into our spirit what He wants us to know. Because when we depend on others to tell us what God wants from us, they always add in what they think. And usually it ends up in us conforming to what society feels is acceptable and feeling less than who God made us to be. But once we get that umbilical cord connection with God. Where He feeds us directly without the 3rd party vendor misconstruing what He wants us to know, then we begin to walk in victory. I used to be a cynical person. Nobody but God changed that. I used to be a gluttonous person. Nobody but God changed that. I used to be a very envious jealous person, and He changed that too. Your growth is in Him. Not in the mouths of hypocrites so cry out to your father and realize for some of you, for the first time in your life, know that God loves you too!”
Kenisha ended her speech and made her way back to her seat. There were shouts of, “Hallelujah” coupled with the cries for acceptance and love that leaped from the crowd. There were hysterical people that desperately needed more. They fell to their knees and prayed crying out to God to love them. This was just the beginning.
Next, Taurus approached the podium.
“Good morning. My name is Taurus Chorus and I am the wife of Kenisha Chorus who just made that amazing speech that I don’t know how to follow.”
Taurus laughed along with the crowd. She took a deep breath and went forward.
“I have many spiritual gifts. A lot of which straight people in the church and out of the church would never believe. They wouldn’t believe that God uses me because I’m not like them. See, I acknowledge my imperfections just like some of you do. That quality makes us humble. And when you’re humble, God can use you because you come to Him with an open heart saying tell me what you want. That means you’ve given God something to work with. You ever had to do a job and you didn’t have the right tools to work with?”
The crowd yelled out “Yeah” as if it were a common pet peeve.
“Well that’s how God feels when you get to the point where you feel like you’re so righteous without Him. He can’t use you because you’re too busy using yourself. That’s a jab for all of those churches and church folks that won’t let us worship in peace.”
The crowd cheered loudly as many of them reminisced on their own terrible church experiences. “For so long I just wished that I could be normal like everyone else. I wished that I could be straight and love a man and have some kids and join a church and not hear voices and not see spirits and have such bad memories but I realized something while I was trying to wish away my destiny as my father so eloquently put it earlier.” Taurus turned to look at Fillmore. “I realized that normal people are failures!” The crowd exploded with laughter and cheering and it took a few seconds to calm them down so that Taurs could continue. “Normal people are failures! Because God said I set you apart for my holy purpose. So if you’re living a normal life then you’re not living up to your purpose. No! No! No! In order to live up to Gods holy purpose you gotta be different, bold, loud, courageous, fearless, tenacious, and weird. It takes nothing to fit in. But it takes an untamed lion to stand out! And the weak ones bind together to attack the strong. You wonder why the world doesn’t want you to know that God loves you, because the moment that you know that God loves you, you’ll begin to act like it! Are you acting like God loves you in your everyday life? Do you wake up with intent to be absolutely great that day? Because when God loves you, he bends things to work in your favor so you can walk in victory without even knowing who you’re up in battle against. Do you live like that? Do you claim what you want in life? The power of life and death is in the tongue so if folks can get you to speak against yourself then they’ve won most of the battle. That’s why my wife picked the title of the festival the way that she did. I’d like to take credit for it but you know she won’t let me.” Taurus laughed. “Instead of saying God loves you too; she decided that it’s easy for us to encourage somebody else but what about us? So right now tell yourself that God loves me too. Say it right now!” The crowd began to chant “God loves me too! God loves me too! God loves me too!” As Taurus raised her hands to quiet the crowd once again she closed with authority. “So God, who created the heavens and earth and people and animals and wrote the existence of everything from everlasting to everlasting, I mean he’s so important! And he loves ME and he loves YOU. So now that we all know that, don’t you think that you should love you too? Are you loving yourself? Love yourself enough to leave that person that doesn’t treat you right. Love yourself enough to go after your dreams because you deserve it. Love yourself enough to respect your body enough to not give it to everybody who flashes you a smile. You don’t need their dang-on validation of how awesome you are. GOD loves you! What is their love in comparison to GOD’s love? After knowing that God loves you, you ain’t got to deal with Charles!” The crowd burst into laughter. “And you don’t have to deal with Tonya, or Melissa, or Derrick, or Michael, or Brad, or Shatoya. Who is Shatoya to God! Nobodyyyyyyyyyy!” Taurus sang the word nobody in such a high pitched voice that made Fillmore laugh out loud behind her. He even stood and gave her a fist pound before she returned to speaking. “What I’m trying to say is that everything that you need is already in front of you and inside of you. You have the ability to ask God to come into your lives and at that moment yo
u will be made whole. The work will never be complete. You’ll always be a work in progress but the way to see some progress internally and externally is to take that step, take that step to say God I’m here for you. I surrender to you. If I can just please you, then the world no longer matters. This will provide that peace that you’ve been searching for in the morning mirror. God called Jesus the King of kings. Let me ask you people, who are the other kings? That’s right you are. You are! I am! He is! She is! And understand that there was no gender to kingship when God spoke of it so baby girl you are a king too! You are royalty in God’s eyes. Accept that and it will change your life! Now at this time I want to introduce my baby brother to do the all call. Are you ready to accept your Kingship?! Are you ready to accept the God that boldly shows the world that He loves you! Are you ready to accept His love Chicagoooooooooooo?!!!!”
The crowd praised God and shouted to the clouds screaming “Yes! Yes! We’re ready! Take us God! Take us!”
Corey sat solid in his seat. Fillmore looked at him and said, “You can do it son. Just lead them into the prayer of salvation. I know you know it. You can do it boy! Go on!”
Corey slowly made his way up to the podium with reluctance. The crowd cheered for him as soon as he made it there. Their encouragement gave him comfort. He turned to look back at his family. They were all smiling and cheering him on. His sisters, and his new mom and dad were completely everything that he’d always wanted. Corey turned around to speak.
“Hey everybody, my name is Reginald Corey Fillmore the third.” (Reginald Corey Fillmore III) Immediately everyone behind him gasped with shock at the compliment. Fillmore jumped from his seat, and yelled. “We’re making that official baby! Yes sir! You heard it!” Fillmore ran up behind Corey and slapped him on his back with praise. Ginger, Taurus, and Kenisha were so outdone by how the two of them behaved with each other. They were like frat boys but father and son. It was a great declaration to the world that Corey would soon be changing his name. After the father and son theatrics, Corey continued. “First I want you all to know that the reason that you are about to take this amazing step is because you want God but more importantly God wants YOU! I know what it’s like to not be wanted. I’m young, like 21 years old and I’ve spent more than half of my life not being wanted by people. And now I know what it’s like to be wanted by someone and after this feeling I can never go back. That’s what being with God is like. It’s finally being wanted and never wanting to go back. I want that feeling for you all. I want you to feel how great this feels. So what, your boyfriend doesn’t want you. You’re mama don’t want you. Your daddy don’t want you. Your ex doesn’t want you. Well so what, they suck anyway. God wants you! When was the last time your ex built a universe? Don’t worry. I’ll wait.” The crowd laughed as Corey looked at his watch awaiting an answer. Then he finally yelled. “Never! Your ex, your mom, your dad, and whoever else rejected you has never built a universe, created a woman from a rib, made some oceans and threw some sharks in it. They’ve done none of that. But guess who has?! God has, and He will never reject you. He will never turn your love away. Do not listen to those people who lie to you. God will always want you. You know that girl that keeps taking that guy back after he messes up on TV and you’re watching it like why does he keep doing this to himself!? That’s God! He just keeps taking us back. So we don’t want to abuse Him do we? We want to treat His love right! So listen in order to treat his love right we have to give him some reciprocity. We gotta sign our name in the Book of Life. We have to ask him into our lives. And there’s only one way to the Father and that’s through the Son. So let’s get ready to change our lives forever. Look at your neighbor and tell them after this, you’ll never be the same!” The crowd did just that.
“Repeat after me please. Father, we are sorry.
We repent for our sins.
We understand that we fall short of your glory. So you sent your son Jesus,
the most righteous lamb,
As a holy sacrifice
And he died for our sins
On Mount Calvary.
Three days later
He rose again
And now sits on the right hand of the father Interceding on our behalf
With this confession
I give myself away to you
I ask that you enter my heart
Enter my home
Enter my life
And have your way.
I thank you for this victory
And I do declare
That from this point on
No one can take away
The fact that
I
Am
Saved!”
The crowd erupted with a thunderous roar of praise and celebration. There was running and shouting and crying. People had become free. The angles sang in heaven and the very earth underneath them moved. Not only had the people in the park said the prayer and those that overheard on the streets said the prayer, there was a live television broadcast that showed on different channels and in an online webcast broadcasted by E3Radio.org. In addition, there were 25 phone agents that were on the phone saying the prayer of salvation with callers that called in to turn their lives over to God and become saved. There were ambassadors all over the park waiting for new people to come in and ask them if they were ready to pray the prayer of salvation. The needy souls drastically outnumbered the ambassadors so the newly saved people began helping others by leading them in the prayer of salvation which was posted on large banners throughout the park. Children were walking up to adults and asking them if they’d introduced themselves to God. There was no bucket passed around for donations at the festival although people did begin to line up outside the field house to drop money into the empty trash cans in an effort to encourage the organizers to do the festival again the following year.
After the family left the stage the gospel singers took the stage and lead the crowd in an upbeat musical worship. They were followed by praise ballet dancers, the additional speakers including Minister Knight and closed out with two comediennes. One of which was the infamous Sampson the Comedienne from Washington DC. They were both hilarious. Afterwards the crowd hung around and frequented the vendors buying trinkets, gifts and delicious foods. The people would not stop bringing money to the field house. Eventually, two of the phone operators had to abandon the phones to collect money in oversized garbage bags.
There were still people coming after the family had finished their speeches. Once enough security was available to escort the family, they all went for a tour of the set up in the park. They shook hands and gave hugs. They all took turns responding to prayer request praying with the people in the grass, under trees, in the streets, and from their cars as they stopped on their way out to ask for prayer. They purchased things and enjoyed the festival which was the result of all of their hard work. Corey was even solicited to come and speak at a few churches. Kenisha became the designated card taker. She would write the request on the back of the requestor’s card and put it in her purse to call them back and learn more about their request. There were people that wanted to pay Fillmore to come and speak as well as every other member of the family including Ginger. Even investors wanted to know if they were interested in starting a church in Chicago since Fillmore’s church was set in Niagara Falls. Kenisha also took the investors business card and informed him that they’d get back to him. That moment wasn’t for detailed business. That moment of strolling through the park was family time.
After they returned home later that evening they watched the news together. There was an estimated number of 295,000 people that came to the festival throughout the day. After counting the money in the 37 garbage bags filled with bills and change in addition to the online gift tab on E3Radio’s website where the online broadcast took place as well as through 4 other online broadcasting companies, the God Loves Me Too Festival received a whopping $3.8 million dollars in unsolicited donations. That was $3.8 million dollars that no
one even asked for. Fillmore was also taught a lesson. He had earlier in the year asked God how he would survive if he stopped marketing his church as a tourist attraction. This was God’s response. God had blessed Fillmore more in one day without him asking for a dime than He had at the church from months of Fillmore’s old time finaglings.
Kenisha
That night Kenisha laid in bed with Taurus still wired from the festival. “Can you believe it baby?” Kenisha said while cuddled up next to Taurus in bed. “We don’t even know how many people got saved. We can’t even count them. If it was 295,000 people there and then all of those people who watched on TV and watched online, we wouldn’t even be able to count the number of souls that God won today! This is so awesome! I’m so pumped!”
Taurus smiled at Kenisha’s excitement. She had to admit to herself that she was excited too. Seeing everyone together really did solidify their new family. This was what they were called to do. It was a rough start and it was troublesome to get there but where they were was exactly what God had planned. Together, as they lay in bed nestled in each other’s arms, they both had reconciled with their calling. They understood the trials and heartaches that proceeded that moment of joy was simply preparation for their future battles. They were the carpenters of the spirit world. Taurus was the head and Kenisha was the handle. They were God’s hammer that He’d use them time after time to bind together the people in the Body of Christ, and yes God Loved Them Too!