At the Tipton Hotel, Zack, Cody, Bailey, Woody, London, and Maddie were all sitting around the lobby.

"Alright everyone, I expect you all to be on your best behavior this weekend." Moseby said, coming up to them.

"Why?" Zack asked.

"I shouldn't need to give you a reason," Moseby said, "but it just so happens that a Christian conference will be happening here this weekend, hosted by the prestigious evangelist, Paul Roberts."

"Oh, are they gonna go around telling everyone they're going to Hell?" Woody asked.

"I'm told they're having Bible conferences with some Christian students in the area." Moseby said, "They won't be condemning anyone. Though if you get me angry, you'll be in your own personal Hell, I guarantee it!"

"Let's get out of here!" Zack said.

"Y'know Zack, that may be one of the first good ideas you've had," Cody said, "Bailey and I are going to the movies."

"Ooo, what are you gonna see?" Zack asked, in mock excitement, "The Germ that Infected Manhattan?"

"It just so happens we're seeing Jurassic Wars 3: The Dark Age." Cody said.

"Have fun guys!" Woody called, "Zack and I will just be hangin' out, chillin', reading comics, playing video games, doing what any guys our age with no girlfriends would do."

"I think that's about to change for one of us," Zack said, as he eyed a tall blonde girl at the registration desk. "Hey there, sweet thang!"

"Hi," she replied, "I'm Madison!"

"I'm Zack!" he said, "Wanna go see a movie?"

"Sorry," she said, "I'm here for the Christian conference, Revolution."

"Well, when God looked down on you and me, He saw that it was good," Zack said with a laugh.

"Sorry, I'm going to be late, and I need to find my room," she said.

"I can take you there!" Zack said, "Maybe give you a personal tour?"

"Perhaps some other time," she responded, "Later!"

"Woah man!" Zack said, coming over to Woody, "Did you see those bodacious babes? We have got to get into that conference!"

"What are you talking about?" Woody asked, "You never go to church, and you never read the Bible! You thought Noah's wife's name was Joan!"

"Can I help it if they both like Arks?" Zack said.

"C'mon Maddie, let's go shopping!" London said.

"You want to take me shopping?" Maddie asked.

"Of course," London said, "We haven't seen each other in years, plus your wardrobe's gotten pretty out-of-date by now."

"I just bought this yesterday" Maddie said. "But who cares? Let's go!"

As they were leaving, a familiar face walked in in the form of a short African-American boy.

"Marcus!" London exclaimed,

"Good to see you, London!" he said, giving her a hug, "And who's your attractive friend?"

"Her 'attractive friend' can speak for herself!" Maddie said, "My name is Maddie Fitzpatrick. I used to work at the candy counter here at the Tipton, but now Mr. Moseby has me in charge of check-in."

"Nice to meet you, Maddie." Marcus said, as he kissed her hand.

"Marcus!" Zack exclaimed, as he and Woody came up to him, "What are you doing here, man?"

"I'm on tour," Marcus said, "I'm part of a Gospel group now and I figured I stay here and catch up with old friends! I've performed with Kirk Franklin, Mandisa, Tobymac, but it's all for the Lord!"

"Hey, buddy," Zack said, placing his arm around him, "let's catch up! I've got the new Super Smash Bros Game upstairs!"

"I'm in!" Marcus said.

After Zack, Woody, and Marcus departed via elevator, Arwin Haukhauser, the hotel handyman came over to Mr. Moseby.

"Hey Mr. Moseby!" he said.

"Arwin!" Mr. Moseby said, "Have you made sure everything is in proper working order?"

"Oh, yes sir!" Arwin said. "Everything is functioning perfectly! The air conditioning is fixed and our new fully-automated vacuum cleaners are running smoothly."

"Why do I get the feeling some big technological disaster is about to happen?" Moseby asked with a hint of panic in voice.

"No need to fear, Sir." Arwin said, "You see, I just press this button on my remote control and the vacuum starts to work, see?"

A vacuum cleaner was automatically vacuuming the carpet in the lobby.

"I can even make it go backwards!" Arwin said. "Wanna see?"

"Please don't!" Moseby said, cringing.

"Uh-oh, the remote is jammed!" Arwin cried, "Run-away vacuum! Run-away vacuum!"

CRASH!

"Well, at least we're ensured!" Moseby said.

Esteban Julio Ricardo Montoya de la Rosa Ramierez walked through the door with his new wife, Francesca Consuela Maria Gonzalez de Masso Garcia Lucia Greenburg Ramon Gomez. He saw the chaos that was ensuing with Arwin's automated vacuum cleaner.

"This is a disaster!" he cried.

Muriel, the retired maid came in after him.

"I'm not cleaning that up!" she said.

"Muriel, Esteban, good to see you!" Moseby said.

"Hola Señor Moseby!" Esteban said, "Glad to help you now as assistant manager!"

"And I'm retired!" Muriel said. "If I'm lucky, I'll even get a date with William Shatner! I've got bingo in five minutes! Beam me up, Scotty!"

Later on, up in Zack & Cody's suite, Zack, Marcus, and Woody were playing video games.

"Later kids!" Zack's mom, Carey Martin said, heading to the door, "I have to go sing again tonight! Don't forget to feed yourselves!"

"Later mom!" Zack said hypnotically as he stared at the screen intensely focused.

"Woah!" Zack exclaimed, "Beat the new high score!"

"Dang it!" Woody whined, "Lost another life!"

All of a sudden they heard a knock at the door.

"Come in!" Zack said in monotone without even bothering to check who it was or even turn his head.

Bob walked in.

"Hey Zack!" he called.

"Hey Bob," Zack said, continuing to stare at the screen.

"Well, game over!" Marcus said, "Looks like you win again, Zack!"

"Wow!" Bob exclaimed, "Can I play?"

"Bob!" Zack said, "Nice to see you again, buddy! These are my friends from the ship, Marcus and that's Woody."

"Hey Bob!" Woody said, awkwardly waving to him.

"So guys, what've you been up to?" Bob asked.

"Nothing much," Zack said, "Chillin', gamin'. How 'bout you? Are you still with ol' Babs?"

"No," Bob said, "That ship has sailed. We broke up a month ago."

"Aw, that's too bad, man," Zack said.

"On the bright side, you can hang with us!" Woody said, "We all have no chance of getting girlfriends."

"What Woody means is Marcus is trying to help us woo Christian girls," Zack said.

"Hey, I never agreed to that!" Marcus said. "No Christian girl is gonna want to date you if you don't share her beliefs!"

"That's why you're here!" Zack said, "Just think of it as a theology crash-course."

"It doesn't matter how much you know about the Bible if it hasn't affected your heart." Marcus said.

"Well, I'm willing to keep an open mind, er, heart." Zack said, "Hey, Bob, have you ever read the Bible?"

"Zack, you know I'm dyslexic!" Bob said, "But I have been to Sunday school when I was growing up, and I have read a few books."

"Have you felt God move in your life?" Marcus asked.

"Well, to be honest, I've felt a change in my life recently. Ever since I broke up with Barbara, I've been praying more and I feel closer to God than ever before and I feel He's leading me down a new path." Bob said.

"Which is?" Zack asked.

"Well, as strange as it sounds, I kinda feel like God's calling me to the ministry field." Bob said.

"Wait, does that mean you'll be going to Africa?" Zack asked, "Say hi to my ex Maya for me if you visit Chad. And no, Chad's a country, not a surfer dude."

"No, Zack," Bob said, "I don't think I'll be going to Africa any time soon. I think God wants me to work here in America."

"Hey, you better go down to that conference, brother!" Marcus said.

"As a matter of fact, that's why I'm here!" Bob said, "Better go back down now, or else I'm gonna miss Bible study. See you guys later!"

"See ya!" Zack said, as Bob left. As soon as he was gone, Zack turned to Marcus, "Ok, Marcus, I'm ready. Let's go down to that conference!"

"You sure you're not only in it to pick up chicks?" Marcus asked.

"I mean, that's part of it," Zack said, "but I'm willing to check out the faith too."

"What about you, Woody?" Marcus asked.

"Any chance to do something besides lounging about and crying because my relationship with Addison didn't work out sounds good to me." Woody said. "I'm down."

"OK," Marcus said, "let's go get our worship on!"

Meanwhile, Cody and Bailey were just coming back from the movies.

"Wow, Bailey," Cody said, "That was a great movie! I loved when the Tyrannosaurus ate Dark Vaser's Doom Crystal!"

"Woah, spoiler alert!" Woody said, as he walked past them.

"Sorry," Cody said, "Woody, where you off too? The all-you-can-eat buffet for the fifth time today?"

"Hurtful!" Woody cried, "Actually, Zack, Marcus, and I are going to the Christian conference event."

"Well, that's unexpected," Cody said, "Especially from Zack."

"I think I wanna go," Bailey said, "I know you don't really believe, Cody, but I was raised in church. We went to a little church down the road every Sunday. Of course, we had to walk through cornfields to get to it though. They couldn't afford a parking lot."

"Ok, Bailey," Cody said, "Fine. It's not really my thing, though. I'll be waiting for you when you get back."

As they walked into the hall where the conference was being held, they were greeted by the sounds of music, which was mostly guitar and singing. Zack and Woody felt uncomfortable, while Bailey and Marcus reconnected with their faith during worship. After the worship time, the prestigious evangelist, Paul Roberts came out on stage. He was dressed in a black button-down shirt and blue jeans. He had long blonde hair and a beard.

"The Lord is worthy to be praised, is He not?" Roberts asked the students.

"Amen!" most everyone around Zack and Woody replied.

"Now, first I want to tell y'all about a time from my childhood." he said. "I was raised in an abusive home. My father drank a lot. I felt so worthless. On my eighteenth birthday, I attempted suicide but God had other plans. Just when I was about to pull the trigger, to bring about what I thought was a permanent end to pain, Jesus reached down into my life and grabbed hold of me. He said, 'Paul, I made you, and I love you! I have plans for your life. Will you trust Me?' I didn't know how to respond at first; I thought I was going crazy. The God who I had rejected and turned my back on for so many years was shining a light in my darkness and calling out to me in the midst of my despair. Jesus Christ rescued me and gave me a brand new life. Since then, I've committed my life to serving Him and I want to see people find freedom in His Name."

Woody didn't know what to make of this. Sure he was at odds with his stepdad, Steve, but his situation was nothing like Paul's. Why did he need to turn to Christ? He was living a good life, the suite life. Zack's parents were divorced and he bickered with Cody a lot, but he came from a pretty good home. He was livin' it up at the Tipton.

"Some of you here may be shocked at my story," Paul said, "You say, 'Pastor Paul, my family life is good, I'm living a good life. I never experienced the darkness you're talking about. Why do I need Jesus? What do I need freedom from?' You need freedom from sin. Everyone here, whether you know it or not, is in some form of bondage. You may think you have a good life now, but you will never truly enjoy your life until you surrender it to Him. Jesus promises abundant life. In John 10:10 Jesus says, 'The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.' Do you need abundant life today?"

"Amen!" Marcus joined in with the students.

"Some of ways some of you may be in bondage is in your relationships." Paul said.

Oh great! Here we go! Zack thought, Preacher man's about to give relationship advice! I bet he's never even been with a girl!

"If you're a Christian here today, and you're in a relationship with someone who doesn't share your passion for Jesus, this is what the Bible calls, 'being unequally yoked.' Second Corinthians chapter six, verse fourteen says, 'Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?' If you're in a relationship with someone who doesn't believe, you need to end it. Yes, it will be difficult, yes, I'm not saying you shouldn't love and care about them, but if they don't love the same God you love, then what's the point? They need to love Jesus before they can love you." Paul said.

This made Bailey squirm in her seat. She loved Cody, she wanted to spend the rest of her life with him, but after renewing her faith in Christ, she could feel this was not the kind of relationship God wanted for her. Cody needed Jesus, and she knew she couldn't make him a believer, no matter how much she tried. She quietly snuck out before Paul finished speaking.

Later, Cody was in the hotel science lab, experimenting with Arwin.

"Thanks for letting me come down and test-run some of your inventions, Arwin!" Cody said.

"No problem, Cody!" Arwin said, "Ever since Mr. Moseby's foot got caught in that vacuum cleaner and he said for me to get a consultant or he'd fire me, I figured why not? Especially after you helped disable the SS Tipton's rogue computer system, CAILEY."

Suddenly, a knock came at the door.

"Come in!" Arwin called.

"Bailey?" Cody asked in surprised, "You're back early, aren't you? How'd you know I'd be here?"

"I knew I'd find you here." Bailey said. "You always did like work on experiments when you got bored. Anyway, I came because I needed to talk to you. Can we have a moment alone, please, Arwin?"

"Sure," Arwin said, as he quietly left the room.

"So, what's the matter?" Cody asked.

"Cody, at this conference the preacher was talking about a Bible passage about being unequally yoked with unbelievers. I wasn't too strong in my faith before, but this conference has rekindled the fire I once had for Christ. I'm sorry, but I think it's best for the both of us if I ended our relationship. I love you, but I can't be with someone who doesn't know the God I love. Good bye." Bailey said tearfully. She ran out the door as a confused Cody started calling for her.

"Fine!" Cody shouted, "I don't need you! And I don't need God!"

TO BE CONTINUED…