"Story of a God-fearing man "

In some city, there was a God-fearing man.

He went to church every week, treasured his family,

worked as hard as he could and his two children are now fully grown.

He had no particular complaint about his life but if he could wish one thing,

he wanted to see God, the one he had always believed.

He was a cleaner.

He was running a small cleaning company.

One day, he was asked to clean a company.

When he went to the client's office with his staff, he learnt that his wish was granted.

Because when he opened the door of the office, God was there.

The door said, "Jehovah Worker Dispatching Agency".

The room was stretched wide and although he was in the building,

he could not see the end of the room. He could also see the celestial light.

And there was God glorifying dignity in the centre of the light.

 "Are you God?"

 "Yes."

God answered.

 "Why did you call for me to come here?"

 "Because I wanted to ask you to clean. Aren't you a cleaner?"

God answered.

The cleaner looked around the room. He could not see it before because of the light

but the floor of the room was admittedly very dirty.

Many documents were scattered about on the floor.

He picked up one of the documents and had a look in the file.

It was a resume of the angel dispatched from this agency of God.

Out of photos attached to those resumes, some looked similar to human-being and others looked obviously extraterrestrial.

Since he was a man of strong faith, he immediately started to clean the office just as God in whom he loved has commanded.

His staff was as devoted to God as he was thus they also started to clean up the room with him.

However, as soon as they started to sort out the documents lying on the floor, they found a very interesting file.

On the front cover of the file was a headshot he was quite familiar with.

He could not help but to pick up the file and ask God,  

 "God, who is this?"

When he handed over to God the file titled "Record of Industrial Dispute and Labor Condition Contract by Jesus Labor Union", God turned his face, which is too holy to be contemplated, to a frown and said,

 "Oh, this? This is my son. I was planning to eventually hand over the business to him. He, of all things, took the side of employees and demanded me to improve the labor condition. I was made to promise a drastic reduction of quota and an exemption of penalties which are imposed to employees who made a mistake."

He has never imagined of listening to God's complaint and he thought that the hardships of running a business never end even in heaven.

His staff and he continued to organize the documents but the contents of the documents that caught their attention were becoming extremely incentive.

 "Human Race Plan-Trial No.1"

 "How to Build a Pyramid: Aimed at children 5 million years and older"

 "How to Distinguish Martian Male and Female"

 "How to Dispose Unnecessary Planets"

 "Detail Report on Nuclear War Planned in the Heaven Standard Time of 33:21"

His hands were shaking more and more and he could not stop it.

He finally saw a file titled "Decisions Made for the Future of the Earth and Human Race" on the front cover. When he could not resist the urge to look into the content, he realized that he could no longer continue this task in a professional manner.

 "God, I am extremely sorry but I am afraid to tell you that we can no longer clean this place.

The documents in here contain full of secrets the human should not know".

He said that to God because he deeply believes in him.

God sighed deeply.

 "Well, all right. I was planning to clean up while the executives are away.

I will let Moses, my servant, to clean this room".

 "I am terribly sorry, God. But I am very happy to be able to come here today.

I had always wanting to see you and I was praying everyday for that. You granted my wish."

God nodded silently and looked toward him and told him that lately cleaners tend not to come even when they were called.

From that aspect alone, he was better than the others.

He was happy to hear that but he could no longer stay there because the image of God was too bright. He thought his staff and he had to leave this place immediately.

However, because he was of strong faith, he wanted to ask one last question before he leaves.

That was a question he had always wondered throughout his life.

 "God, since I could meet you, please allow me to ask you one question.

In your book, it is said that the savior will return and take us to a paradise. Is that true?"

God said with a less-than-enthusiastic tone.

 "Oh, that? Yes, that is true. I have already ordered my son to go on a business trip to earth again next Sunday. He was complaining to work on his day-off. Actually, our company also provides cleaning services. Our workers have already been stationed in earth. If it goes as planned, that planet will be cleaned up by Saturday and will turn into as good as the paradise."

Since he is also a professional cleaner, when he heard that story, he could not help but asking,

"Who are the angles performing the cleaning duties?"

God, however, looked toward him with an expression of extreme disbelief.

And the next moment, he was in red-faced anger and said,

 "You are the ones! If you don't get on with your work, you will be fired! "

By the way, IMARi ToNES is a Christian rock band from Japan.

(C)2008 IMARi ToNES

It was not so a big surprise for me when the belief in Rockn'Roll eventually changed to belief in God.

For me as a teenager, Rock was always my philosophy, belief, and faith.

Since when I wrote my first song, I knew that ideas of songs come from heaven, given by God. It was quite natural and I had no doubt. I wrote more than 100 songs in my highscool days.

When I play music live, I didn't care so much about if people in front of me liked it or not. I always thought I was playing for God of Rockn'Roll, watching me from somewhere above.

But at that time, I didn't know or care about who he is, or what he is called.

At the age of 18, I had some "accident" in my life.

It changed my plan of life so much, but it also showed me a vision of new world, where human and rockn'roll has to go.

No matter how hard I tried to escape, eventually I had no choice and I decided I would devote myself to music, art, and rockn'roll.

I named my music after my wife, who I have been together with since those days.

And I have wandered in a clueless journey for 10 years.

Sometimes I asked myself, why am I doing this?

That's when I knew of people who play their music for their faith, not for their success.

I realized that is what I had been looking for, and what Rockn'Roll is really for.

Instantly I was very interested in Christianity.

Soon I knew, God of Rockn'Roll I always believed in, was nobody but Jesus.

I saw Jesus in new testament, and he was just like the first rockn'roller in the world.

And I realized it was Jesus who gave us freedom, and rockn'roll.

In the vision I was given when I was 18, people's mind is completely free, free from everything.

Rockn'Roll can set people's mind free.

And I believe that's where the Victory is, Victory In Christ is.

I have decided to give my music to God and Jesus.

I hope my music can deliver you the same vision and feeling that God has given me.

In Jesus name I pray.

Takahiro "Tone" Nakamine / IMARi ToNES

The band was originated by Tone's solo recording project and formed as a band in 2004.

It's based in Tokyo & Yokohama, Japan.

The band was named after Japanese ancient porcelain art called Imari.

The band played many gigs in Tokyo and recorded over 100 songs independently.

In 2006, The band recorded 7 songs with Japanese producer Tak Yonemochi(Air Pavilion), who was also famous as a music journalist.

The band also recorded 3 songs with German producer Sascha Paeth (Producer of Angra, Kamelot, Edguy, etc) in 2006. Those songs are not officially released yet.

The band started working on Christian related lyrics and songs in 2007.

The band has just finished making a concept album, which is about relationship between human and god.

Now the band is planning to tour in US.