TBF 135 The Stan Lee Special

You may have heard this week that the legendary Stan lee passed away, at the ripe old age of 95.
Characters he created have influenced people the world over and we talk about how much that influence was on us and how much influence we’re having on others
We hope those are questions you’re asking of yourself too.

TBF 126 It’s not by force to talk!

Welcome to another episode of the Furnace. Today was an especially fun one for two main reasons.
The first was because there was no Robert, that’s self explanatory, but more importantly it was because we were joined today by an amazing artist and one of our very first listeners, The amazing Inktrovert!

We are Poems

This is not a drill!

Entirely random thought, but I just realised I’ve never had to use that phrase before in real life!!

Anyway, I’ve got a companion post for The Big X photo gallery I recently posted in the works but whilst that’s on the conveyor belt I wanted to share a video with you from an event  I literally just got back from.

I had the pleasure of ministering at The Grace Convention which was organised by Emmanuel Danso Ministries, it was a great event and Emmanuel really shared some powerful thoughts on the Bible, and religion, and the true meaning of Grace, and I’m sure everyone in attendance was blessed. I know I was!!

Beached…

Beached on our shores, worth noting; willingly
He hung like a portrait of where we were meant to be
He hung, more desiring of us than of living,
beaten and bruised but by no measure broken!
So Dear were we, Death was the cost of loving His bride
and to love us He’d been saving up His whole life

My wardrobe (Well Dressed Walking Dead)

The worn out heels of my shoes would tell stories,
Stand up comedies full of tragic moments, soliloquies describing torment,
they’d lament.
Their laces like strings on a violin,
are shivering, describing the pains of being tied up in far too many ways, on far too many days,
They tremble like the vibrating voice boxes of treble singers harmonizing dirges claiming they’ve walked far too many miles,
turned far too many smiles,
seen far too many a tear,
And I fear, they might be correct,
My trousers would shamefully keep their lips zipped up,
held up by a belt that came off way too easily,
they’d drop like a footballer looking for an easy penalty,
all at the slightest hint of a girls shaking knees.
All the while with pocket seams,
Bursting with low self esteem.
My shirt, my breastplate for these times, I’m a New Roman,
It covers a heart boldly, yet is still a liar,
I learnt much earlier
the best lies are closest to the truth
So though it seems I’m pulsing with power
I’m actually fumbling with fear,
Here, slightly to the left of my sternum,
I’ve fallen far too many times to believe,
That the butterflies in my stomach could help break my fall,
Love’s too heavy a burden and what’s more
I’m just too sore, and the wound is in a really hard to reach place.
My face is hidden behind a transparent mask,
It wears a smile, drawn in chocolate,
I’m fully aware of the effects of endorphins,
And what that all means is that cadbury sponsors my grin,,
Hence it’s temporary nature
The sparkle in my eye, is a tear far too shy,
To come out in the open,
It’s been bullied by the brain from whence it came
To never betray the lie being told
That I’m coping
The problem with the well dressed walking dead,
Is that we’re dead inside,
and when you’re looking live
It’s easy to look as though you are alive
As did I
Till I found Christ

Warm Bodies (Well Dressed Walking Dead)

Warm Bodies

This won’t be a fan made commentary on the movie of the same title. I thought it was an OK movie at best. I did like the plot; and not because of the unlikely love story between a zombie and a pretty girl, but because of the portrayal of the power of love and the nature of a Zombie.

Now, I’m not about to over spiritualise being a zombie but I do find it quite interesting, this concept of the walking dead.

We never really vilify Zombies. It’s not really their fault that all they seem to want to do is bury their teeth in you and treat your guts like spaghetti. Somehow, we accept that it’s just their nature. In warm bodies, the main character seemed to be at the very least “conflicted” about it. But he wasn’t convicted of it being wrong till he met the girl.
And somehow falling in love with her and the rest of his zombie friends witnessing their love, turned them human again. blah blah blah, sob sob. OK

What I find interesting here is that it very much reminds me of the nature of humanity.

In Ephesians 2:1 the bible describes human beings, as being dead in our sin. Verse 3 goes on to describe us as following solely after the desires of our flesh.

All prejudices aside, if looked through objective eyes, I think it would be easy for one to conclude that the bible is talking about some kind of zombie.

Naturally, human beings are just going to do what pleases their bodies.

The difficulty arises from trying to convince someone that the desires of the flesh will only lead to their destruction (Gal 5:19-21). The popular question becomes, what’s wrong with having a bit of fun? Truth is, I won’t argue with that concept; there isn’t really anything wrong with a bit of fun, except for what the results of “fun” can be?

In truth, what we really want to do, as inspired by our lusts and flesh, and this may vary for every individual in some way, is to have sex, drink our problems away, or work them out in the gym, beat up anyone who we really don’t like, eat chocolate, sleep all day and party all night, or study till we know everything etc.
Now let me be the first to say that this is extremely sweeping and general and is no way a representation of everything I consider to be sin, in fact all those things aren’t conventionally called sin and are things that I, in fact, like to do, or will look forward to doing in the right context. However, in exceedingly simplistic terms, what we want to do, whenever we want to do it, would be done to some extent, to our own, or another’s detriment.

So we’d break hearts, and raise our cholesterol, or strain relationships because we are in the gym, or at work, or in a book when we don’t need to be etc. These things that seemingly are harmless to others most of the time are seemingly fine if WE think they are ok, but when looked at from the outside can be devastating, eventually.

And that’s one of the problems we have, if it’s ok for me and I’m not hurting anyone else then that’s fine right.
Thing is, we are all connected in one way or the other and whatever you do to yourself will inevitably affect someone else.

But that’s not even the point of this post.

What’s most important is realising that we owe our existence to God, not to a cosmic accident that occurred however long ago (we can talk about the age of the universe in another post), but if we truly believe that initially there was nothing, and then it exploded; then it’s fine to do whatever we think is right. The only problem is we Christians should know better and this is what we should be talking about.

I think this post is for those of us that like bible bashing non-believers with scripture after scripture condemning them of their sin and talking about hell. Not that those aren’t relevant but if we’ve not established the existence of God and His love then their rejection of whatever we say remains inevitable. Plus it’s not up to us anyway, to convict anyone of their sin, that’s the Holy Spirit’s job (John 16:8).

As far as I know, and I might be wrong, in the old days when they would preach repent! Repent! it was to people who already had knowledge of God from their culture. To the Jews who are still God’s own people.

The thing is, now, the world already has an idea of God and Christ that is painted by family guy and the davinci code and isn’t at all helped by the church in the most part.
We’ve become unloving and judgemental and don’t really reflect Christ in as much as we seem to be becoming Pharisees in our own right.

I’m not trying to insult anyone or claim that I am any better but I think the world is only doing what the world sees right and in the same way I can’t blame a zombie for doing just that, I can’t blame them.
What I can do is show them, and tell them about A True Love, The Person who is LOVE, Jesus Christ. Whose Love can give them freedom from the desires of their flesh and help them live the life they were meant to live when they were designed by God.

A fork successful at being a spoon is still a failure. That simply isn’t what it was created for!!!

The beauty of it all is that the Power of God unto salvation is held in the message itself, not in the one delivering it, not in his shoes, or apparel but in the very words describing that Christ died for the sins of man that they would be freed and have justified means to reconnect with their Creator (Romans 1:16, give the whole chapter a read, it is beautiful!).

I pray that more people get to know this, and get to see the love by which we should be distinguished as Christians (John 13:35), and by which the world should see us as Christ-like (Acts 11:26).

Only Love can make a zombie whole.

*Runs away, as you must from zombies!!!*

Take care and stay blessed.
Peter

Signing out

4 I’s

Inconsistency Inevitably Invalidates Intensity

5 P’s

“Proper Preparation Prevents Poor Performance”

The Predator,

Kai Greene