OF MONSTERS AND MEN

Greetings friends and neighbors...been afraid lately? Who is your boogie man?
What goes bump in the night and sends chills up and down your spine. In the words of Jesus...fear not.

Back in the 50's and 60's...on Friday night...after Sea Hunt (starring Lloyd Bridges as Mike Nelson)....I would await one of my favorite shows...called SHOCK THEATER...aka MYSTIC CIRCLE. They would show various horror movies from the 1940's and 1950's including the likes of Frankenstein, Dracula, The Wolfman, The Mummy, Creature From the Black Lagoon, just to name a few. Usually these were from Universal Studios...and later in the 60's from Hammer Studios or American International.

Friday nights was my night. (1) I could stay up late (2) I could watch T.V.
(3) I could eat junk food (4) I did not have to sleep in my bed. The T.V. room (our den) was mine...as Mom and Dad had friends over, played cards, drink, play music, and dance. I would watch boxing (sometimes Dad would watch that if no friends were over)...brought to you by Gillette razors.


After taking a card table....making a sleeping area underneath (compete with covers, mat, and pillow)...and then draping a blanket over the table exposing only an opening so I could see the T.V....and stocking my place with cokes, candy, and popcorn...I would settle in for a night of scary T.V. The shows in the 50' and 60's was hosted by Dr. Lucifer (aka Ken Branning). Later on in the late 60's and 70's other shows like Creature Feature with Sir Cecil Creape...or Elvira...later on in the 90's Dr. Gangreen. Shock Theater would open up with mysterious music...of a Spanish influence...and have a circular item spinning (what people would try to hyp-mo-tize you with). Dr. Lucifer would appear wearing a full tux...eye patch over his right eye...smoking a cigarette from a holder...and introduce the movie...with comedy bits between the commercials.

As I sat there and watched these shows...I would be scared...and excited at the same time. Usually...good triumphed over evil...and the cause and effect of trying to tamper with nature (God) would end up against the evil.

I always felt safer...in my fort...and especially safer...if My Father (Dad) would be sitting in a chair right next to my fort. Later on...there was a magazine called MONSTERS...and you could get full details of the movies that you were watching on Shock Theater/Mystic Circle. And as a bonus...in the 60's you could buy models of your favorite monsters form Aurora. (They also had Batman, Superman, etc.)

Later...as technology progressed...scarier and scarier shows of monsters were made...but I did not enjoy being as scared as I did as a child. The new genre of monster movies...became to real. The monsters...were more like men versus imagination. You could start to read in the newspaper of men doing monster like things. The movies became reflections of men's hearts...which as the Bible says...was..."continually evil before the Lord." "Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth and that every intent of the THOUGHTS of his heart was only EVIL continually." (Genesis 6:5)

The Shadow...mysterious crime fighter...who can cloud men's minds so that they cannot see him...states..."The weed of crime bears bitter fruit...who know what EVIL lurks in the HEARTS OF MEN...the Shadow knows (evil laugh)."

We as a people have become adept at hiding and suppressing the evil and monsters in our lives...I know that I have. We shake our heads as we see people do things that "we don't do"...and point our fingers at the foibles of people around us...because we have victory in those areas and they don't. We watch T.V. shows about crime...and those innocent victims by human monsters (shows like Criminal Minds, CSI [multiple versions], Law and Order (multiple versions) and many more like them. We consume reality shows that outline in gruesome details the horrors of what man can do to man...all the while shaking our heads
in a reality version of SHOCK THEATER in our world...and breathing under our breathe..."Thank God...I'm not like those MEN MONSTERS."

I guess we feel better about ourselves...if someone is worse than we are. We all NEED A SAVIOUR.

HEART CONDITIONS

"As it is written...there is NONE righteous...no...not...one." (Romans 3:10)

"The HEART is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it? I, the Lord, search the HEART, I test the mind, even to give to each man according to his ways, according to the results of his deeds." (Jeremiah 17:9-10)

"Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit. You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which FILLS THE HEART." (Matthew 12:33-34)

"Are you still lacking in understanding also? Do you not understand that everything that goes into the mouth passes into the stomach, and is eliminated? But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man. For OUT OF THE HEART come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders. These are the things which defile the man; but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile the man." (Matthew 15:16-20)

"Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you and EVIL...UNBELIEVING HEART...that FALLS AWAY from the Living God." (Hebrews 3:1)

"For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks but the became FUTILE IN THEIR SPECULATIONS, and their FOOLISH HEART WAS DARKENED. Professing to be WISE...they became FOOLS, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. Therefore, God GAVE THEM OVER IN THE LUSTS OF THEIR HEARTS to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. For they exchanged the TRUTH OF GOD for a LIE, and worshipped and served the CREATURE rather than the CREATOR, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the NATURAL FUNCTION for what is UNNATURAL...and in the same way also MEN ABANDONED THE NATURAL FUNCTION OF THE WOMEN AND BURNED IN THEIR DESIRE TOWARD ONE ANOTHER...MEN WITH MEN committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error. And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, GOD GAVE THEM OVER TO A DEPRAVED MIND, to do those things which ARE NOT PROPER...being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice,; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; and although they ORDINANCE KNOW THE OF GOD, that those who practice such things...ARE WORTHY OF DEATH...they not only do the same...but also give hearty approval to those who practice them." (Romans 1:18-32)

"Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousings, and things like these, of which I forewarn you (the believer who has been set freed from the bondages), that those who PRACTICE such things will not inherit the kingdom of God."
(Galatians 5:19-21)

NOTE: Realize...that these verses speaks of the nature of the heart of mankind collectively and individually. The problem is...that when we become Christians...we become so cocky...that we are not like those that we read about...and those we see overtly practicing these things...BUT...Galatians makes it clear...that we can be SET FREE...but give the FLESH and OPPORTUNITY...to take us over again and bind us again....the Christians...not the lost.

"For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am NOT PRACTICING what I would like to do...but I am doing the very thing I hate. But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but SIN which dwells in me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the INNER MAN, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am!"
Romans 7:15-24)

QUESTION: "Who will set me FREE from the body of this death?" (Romans 7:24)

ANSWER: "Thanks be to GOD...THROUGH JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD...!" (Romans 7:25)


Whether you are not a Christian...or if you are a Christian walking in the flesh and bound again by the sin that you were set free from...JESUS IS THE ANSWER.

I use to have a sign I hung on my dorm room at Tennessee Temple Bible School. I was made to take it down because it was deemed by the powers that be...to be offensive. The sign said...JESUS HUNG UP...FOR OUR HANG UPS.

Well...Jesus being hung up in my place on a bloody cross to free me from my sins....that I committed pre-Christian...and for the sins that I commit post-Christian...is an offensive...bloody...scandalon...stumbling block.

Just like the monsters that would scare me...and the men monsters that are reflective of the sin in us all...JESUS HUNG UP FOR OUR HANGS UPS...aka SIN.



"For Christ also DIED FOR SINS...once for all, the just for the unjust...so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but MADE ALIVE IN THE SPIRIT." ( I Peter 3:18)

"For He RESCUED us from the DOMAIN OF DARKNESS, and TRANSFERRED us to the Kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have REDEMPTION...the FORGIVENESS OF SINS." (Colossians 11:13,14)

"I have been CRUCIFIED with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I NOW LIVE in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me." (Galatians 1:20)

"Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, KEEP SEEKING THE THINGS ABOVE...where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. SET YOUR MIND on the things above, not on the THINGS THAT ARE ON EARTH. For you have died and your life is HIDDEN WITH CHRIST in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory." (Colossians 3:1-4)

"This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk i the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses from ALL SIN. If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we CONFESS our sins...He is FAITHFUL and RIGHTEOUS to FORGIVE us our sins and to CLEANSE US from ALL UNRIGHTEOUSNESS." (I John 1:5-10)

FINAL THOUGHTS...FINALLY...AND I MEAN FINALLY


Whew...starting out...I did not mean for this to be so long...or even more...so depressing...BUT...we all need a Saviour. Jesus died for ALL... and how we view others who have not accepted Him as their Saviour does not need our condemnation but our reconciliation found in II Corinthians 5:18-21.

"For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this...that one died for all...therefore all died; and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf. Therefore from now on we recognize NO ONE according to the FLESH...even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer. Therefore...if ANY ONE...is IN CHRIST...he is a NEW CREATION/CREATURE...the OLD THINGS passed away...behold...NEW THINGS have come. (II Corinthians 5:17)

Love and No Monster Kisses
Rodney "New Creation" Boyd