at the club with beelzebub

We wandered into one of those after hours clubs one night. It was an old converted warehouse in the old warehouse district in East Downtown Houston.

These after hours clubs are for people who just ain’t ready to call it a night- still feeling the beat, still ready to hangout and party. They can’t serve alcohol, but they can charge the intoxicated masses $10 a head for the privilege to come in and dance and pay $5 for a glass of water.

Our group stumbled through the first room which was the dance floor. The place was very dark- in every way. We worked our way through that freak show to the next room, in search of a seat. The bar was back there, and couches along the walls. There was a dude in just his boxer shorts standing at the bar. Several couples were engaged in dirty dancing or simulated sex acts. Weird people shuffled to and fro.

I enjoyed people watching as much as anything else during those club days. Alcohol-fueled stunts, drunken drama- our fellow clubbers were entertainingly crazy. But these people- these people were freaking me out man.

One of my cohorts shouted to me where did I think the bathroom was? I peered around in the darkness. “It must be in the other room” I shouted back- “I need to find it too!” So off we voyaged, looking for the loo.

When we entered the other room, the dance floor, we stood and looked around before I finally spotted it in the back of the room. As we headed that way, we both stopped at the same time upon spotting a dude a few feet in front of us, with his back to us. My friend was 6’5″- and this fellow was every bit of that and probably three or four more. Tall. In a tall trench coat.

As we had momentarily paused at the sight, two people strolled past us and right towards him. Then one of them appeared to partially walk right through the tall guy.

In the old movie Ghost with Patrick Swayze, his character encounters another ghost on the subway. When the ghost sees ghost Patrick Swayze, he gets very angry that Patrick Swayze can see him and yells at him to “get off my train!” before throwing him through the train wall.

This tall dude turned around and glared right at us, and I just somehow sensed it was because we could see him. He looked like a cross between that Beast character on the old Beauty and the Beast television show and the Jason Momoa Aquaman. Seriously.

As we stood there stunned, he sort of leaned towards us, growled disapprovingly, and then turned and walked through the wall. I shockingly looked at my friend, he just smiled and nodded his confirmation.

We made our way to the bathroom- and I did push open the door and look inside first. After we entered, I exclaimed “the devil is in this place!” Again, my friend just smiled and nodded yes. He saw it, and he did not wish to discuss it further. And we never did.

Beelzebub was in the club.

Once when I was a teenager, I was laying in bed before going to sleep, eyes closed, listening to my headphones. All of a sudden, I knew there was something very wicked standing in my doorway. I was so scared, I didn’t dare open my eyes to look at it. I just layed there paralyzed, eyes squeezed shut. Even though I couldn’t look, I could feel it. Something very evil, that hated me very much. After a few moments of terror which seemed to last forever, it seemed as if it was gone. I finally, reluctantly opened my eyes and was relieved nothing was there.

I have heard numerous people relate a similar experience. I think most people have a similar encounter sometimes. We are in a spiritual battle, and the enemies get close, from time to time. I’ve heard various stories from people through the years about the diverse brushes with evil they have had.

I have been (insert proper adjective here) enough to have had a couple of encounters myself. I am going to share these this week- (along with a couple or repeats in case  someone may have missed one.)

I share these- not just to entertain- but to bear witness that there is very real evil out there, and it is dangerous and it is real. They want to destroy you because they hate you. They hate you because you are a child of God.

I always try to figure out the reason for something, the message, the meaning. To be honest, I’ve never figured out what the purpose was for my bedroom visitor. Trying to scare me, flexing some demon muscle, I don’t know.

But, the Beast in the club? The message I took was: if you go looking for the devil, you just might find him.