Funkχ (CW: Kamen Rider Fourze, 7/48)

Good afternoon everyone, I want to start off by giving God the glory. Lord Jesus thank you for another day, thank you for your goodness and mercy. Your will be done not ours in each and every moment of our lives. So this is quite new for me, I’ve never really made a post like this before but I want to be open with you guys about some things. Some of you have been discussing and making clips about our reaction to the latest black clover episode. This video clip in question is cut up and missing some context but nevertheless some of you are calling us hypocrites, cursing us and much more. I want to say first off, that what I’m about to say is not in no way to judge or belittle anyone. This is all coming from the heart and what I’ve personally been increasingly convicted by. Ok where do I start, I’m sure a lot of you have recently seen a change in me starting about a year or 2 ago. Recently I’ve been taking my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ a lot more seriously. Idk when it actually fully started or when I started to question some things about our world, maybe it was during that whole pandemic year. I started to question a lot and trying to understand things. I always believed in the Lord Jesus Christ but that was in name only. Now I know that I didn’t truly believe and still today I don’t love Him as much as I should. But I want to keep trying. I went down a path of simulation theory, UFOs, aliens you name it. I was looking for all these answers and the truth was always staring me right in my face. The Lord Jesus Christ. I came to understand that He loved me. He loved me more than anything, that he sacrificed himself on the cross. He got brutally murdered for a wretched man like me. I started weeping, I wept so much that day and still do to this day. I want to say that I was born into a Catholic family and I to disregarded many things as a young man. My beautiful wife Mel would take the kids to a Baptist church every Sunday and I would not attend, but ever since that day I started going and being there, being present. I started to learn, to read, to try not to be ignorant. In continuing this new journey in my faith I researched a lot about history and there are things I learned that I will not discuss here. But to my Christian brothers and sisters, knowledge and information has never been more available than today, read the word, educate yourself and continue to follow the Lord. Ok what does this have to do with black clover? I want to start off by saying I don’t believe there is anything wrong with watching media / fictional media. Fiction does not sway my faith personally but we would be fools to think that it doesn’t warp the minds of many. It definitely warped my mind for years. I personally love watching anime, I think there are great things to learn from certain stories that inspire great virtues in hope, faith and charity. Asta as the main character of black clover was always one of my favorites. In my ignorance of the world and who currently rules this world, I didn’t see a lot of things wrong back then but today really bother me. I don’t mind watching fiction that uses demons or devils as enemies ect. I have no issue with seeing some things that I personally would never think of doing. But there are things when I do watch I feel convicted about. When I feel convicted I want to be honest with you all and tell you where I’m at. I’m not here to judge anyone. Everyone especially Christians vary in their convictions. There’s a lot of things I can go on about that specifically convicts me but I won’t do it today. A lot of shows today are very secular and even shows that have great characters or is about a high school basketball team trying to win a winter cup has an older lady being naked around children and kissing them on the lips. I didn’t sign up for that but it was there. With black clover specifically I have no issues with as a whole but Asta making a contract with a literal devil and uniting with it as the main protagonist convicts me while watching. You guys watching us reacting to something brings a different element to this as well. How can I be ok with this? Would my fellow Christians approve of me rooting for this, would the Lord approve of me rooting for this? It’s one thing to root for a character in the show fighting devils. It’s another to root for a character that is also a devil. I understand others don’t see it that way but I cannot go on saying “Let’s go Asta” or be excited about this when I truly am not. Yuno on the other hand I’m still excited to root for. At the end of the day black clover is fiction for me and that’s where it stays but I will not be ignorant to the fact that in media they warp peoples minds on what truth is. And that is the Lord Jesus Christ. Before I close this out I want to address a few other things: 1. I am a hypocrite and I am trying to work on those things to hopefully stand before the Lord 1 day by His grace. 2. We dropped fire force because of similar convictions that were stronger than that of black clover currently. Shinra and his mother were depicted as demons and the devil, when in the story itself related to him as Christ and the holy mother. That I could not continue to watch. 3. In invincible we cut out the part when Eve announced to Mark she aborted her baby. This is something that is very dear to my wife and I’s heart. Abortion is wrong and I will never support it. 4. In our intro I am depicted as Asta which some of you have brought up. That intro was made a long time ago and that shows you how much I actually liked Asta as a character and still do but I can’t root for him like before in our reaction. That intro will be going away. All in all none of this is worth losing Christ over. I’m still on this journey and one day the lord might lead me elsewhere. I wanted to be honest with all of you, I’m not perfect I make mistakes, I’m a hypocrite ect. But I’m trying and going to continue to try because the Lord Jesus is The Way, The Truth and The Life. I want to follow Him even if it means I can lose my life. That’s what it means to be Christian, dying to your flesh, picking up your cross. “Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.” God Bless you all.