He's the father of everyone in Matthew's genealogy. He also lied about his wife. Twice.Episode 1 of The Guest List — a 22-part walk through the family tree at the start of Matthew's Gospel, one name at a time.Abraham gets called the father of faith, but Genesis refuses to tidy him up. A voice, a promise with no paperwork, and a seventy-five-year-old man walking towards a pronoun. Then Egypt. Then Abimelek. Then a slave woman named Hagar, sent into the desert — who becomes the only person in the Old Testament to give God a name. Then twenty-five years of waiting, a laughing woman, and a three-day walk up a mountain that the text will not shorten for anyone.Three threads run through every episode of this series: grace (who gets let in, and on what terms), power (who has it, and what it costs the people underneath), and providence (the hidden hand that almost never announces itself).⛰️ Next time: Jacob. The promise passes through the hands of a con artist.📖 The series comes out of the book The Family Nobody Would Have Chosen — the long version, name by name: - In print on Amazon: https://shorturl.at/BcFmH - In eBook on Kobo: https://shorturl.at/5VfAL💬 One question to carry out: where in your life are you being asked to trust a promise you can't verify? Tell me in the comments — I read them.Subscribe for a new guest every week.#Bible #BibleStudy #Genesis #Abraham #Matthew1 #BibleTeaching #Christianity #OldTestament #Genealogy #TheGuestList #FaithJourney #ChristianYouTube

In this moving installment, we dive into Chapter 15 of the ongoing narrative, following the profound spiritual and moral evolution of the former demon, Azarothiel. Confronted with the rapidly declining health of Thomas Sterling on the cold streets of London, Azarothiel faces a pivotal choice: rely on his old instincts of coercion and manipulation, or embrace the agonizingly slow, invisible power of gentle influence. Through a single, uncredited act of guiding a stranger toward empathy, a long-dormant warmth is reawakened, fundamentally changing his understanding of human connection.

• The Breaking Point: Thomas Sterling’s battle with a severe chest infection reaches a critical climax on the cold facade of Oxford Street.

• The Trap of Productive Evil: Azarothiel grapples with his old baseline instincts to use fear, guilt, and malice to achieve quick results, finding it a "ludicrously slow" process to wait on human kindness.

• A Lesson in Empathy: Rather than forcing compliance, Azarothiel uses a "scalpel instead of a blunt instrument," momentarily lifting the veil of distraction from a busy executive named Eleanor to reveal a shared mortality.

• The Power of the Gift: Experiencing the profound difference between a transaction and a genuine gift, and the unexpected spiritual nourishment that comes from anonymous service.

"Why wait for the agonizingly sluggish gears of human kindness to turn? ... It would be clean. It would be efficient." — Azarothiel

"He realized that brute force, whether demonic or angelic, was a blunt instrument in a world that required a scalpel."

"For the first time in ten thousand years, he was beginning to understand the difference between a transaction and a gift."

If you liked this episode then let me know by emailing me at [email protected].

Buy Ashes Before the Throne here.

In this gripping chapter, we follow Azerothiel’s unceremonious return to the mortal realm. No longer a towering prince of shadow, he finds himself in the gritty, cold reality of a London alleyway, inhabiting a diminished five-foot form. This episode explores Azerothiel's struggle to adapt to his new, restricted nature as he attempts to "fix what he broke".

Key Highlights:

• The Descent: Azerothiel’s return is far from celestial; he lands in a Soho alleyway, sprawling among bins that smell of sour milk and old rain.

• A New Form: Once a pillar of smoke and shadow, Azerothiel is now barely five feet tall, described as a "wispy, tattered silhouette of gray ash". He no longer feels the "hollow" vacuum in his chest, replaced instead by a quiet, heavy stillness.

• The Mission: Tasked with fixing his past mistakes, Azerothiel’s first challenge is Thomas, a homeless man huddling in a refrigerator box, on the verge of succumbing to the cold.

• Learning the Rules: Azerothiel discovers that being "good" is remarkably difficult under his new restrictions. His attempt to start a fire for Thomas results only in a freezing gust of wind that worsens the man's situation.

• Small Acts of Service: In a moment of restraint, Azerothiel chooses not to cause chaos for a stressed businessman named Julian. Instead, he uses a tiny nudge of will to prevent Julian from dropping his phone, marking his shift from a "wolf" to a protector.

• The Battle of the Alleyway: When two muggers threaten the unconscious Thomas, Azerothiel, unable to use his old powers of dread, orchestrates a chaotic "pigeon attack." By projecting a vision of a celestial hawk to local pigeons, he triggers a frenzy that drives the muggers away.

• A New Perspective: The chapter concludes with Azerothiel sitting in the soot beside Thomas. For the first time in ten thousand years, he doesn't feel like a parasite, but rather exactly where he is supposed to be.

If you enjoyed this episode then email me at [email protected].

Buy Ashes Before the Throne on Amazon here.

This is a bonus episode where chapters 11 - 13 have been combined into a single episode.

If you are enjoying the chapters then let me know by emailing [email protected].

Buy Ashes Before the Throne on Amazon here.

In this moving episode of Ashes Before the Throne, we follow Grace Sterling as she grapples with the terrifying aftermath of an encounter in a Soho alleyway. As a medical professional, she attempts to categorise her experience through the lens of psychology, only to find her neatly constructed world shattered by the reality of the supernatural. Her journey leads her to a quiet Anglican church, where a confrontational yet compassionate conversation with Father Mark facilitates a radical spiritual awakening.

• The Struggle with Rationalization: Grace’s initial attempt to diagnose her experience as an “acute stress disorder” and her struggle to reconcile her clinical knowledge with the raw, spiritual reality she witnessed.

• The "Ice Queen" Defense: Father Mark’s deep insight into Grace’s life, revealing how she used her medical career and even her religion as a "titanium shield" to keep God at a distance and avoid the pain of her past.

• A Shattered Fortress: The emotional moment when Grace’s "internal geometry" of concrete and logic finally shatters, allowing her to release years of suppressed grief for her mother, Sarah, and her father’s struggles.

• The Presence of the Holy Spirit: Grace’s first genuine encounter with the presence of God, described not as a metaphor or an emotional spike, but as an "ancient living power" that transforms her entire being.

• A New Perspective on Darkness: How Grace’s transformation changes her view of the world—where shadows are no longer threats but "places where the light hadn't arrived yet".

"You want a God of mathematics because a God of mathematics doesn’t require you to forgive the man who broke your world." — Father Mark

"I’m exhausted from being perfect." — Grace Sterling

"Go back into the dark, Grace. But this time, don’t go as a judge. Go as a witness." — Father Mark

If you enjoyed this episode then email me at [email protected].

Buy Ashes Before the Throne on Amazon here.

The episode titled "Chapter 12 of Ashes Before the Throne" follows Azerothiel’s unexpected release and subsequent transition from the abyss to the celestial realm.

• The Ascent: Following the destructive shockwave from Grace’s shout, Azerothiel is launched from the dark, soot-filled alleyways of Soho, through London's spiritual smog, and into the atmosphere.

• Release from the Abyss: During his ascent, Azerothiel notices that his Aramaic chains have disintegrated into dust, signaling a catastrophic breach in the abyss's control over him.

• The Pursuit: Malphas, now in a monstrous obsidian feathered form, along with a pack of tracker demons, pursues Azerothiel through the strata of the air.

• The Great Gulf: Azerothiel reaches the absolute vacuum separating the earth from the borders of light and chooses to throw himself into the nothingness rather than face recapture.

• The Sea of Glass: Instead of being unmade, Azerothiel lands on the cool, crystalline Sea of Glass in the celestial realm.

• The Seraph's Judgment: Azerothiel is met by Serai, a 40-foot tall Seraph of roaring white flame, who expresses bureaucratic annoyance at his unprecedented repentance.

• The Sentence: Serai demotes Azerothiel to a "weak, invisible, and thoroughly irrelevant ghost" and sends him back to London to "fix what he broke," specifically referring to Thomas.

If you enjoyed this episode then email me at [email protected].

Buy the book on Amazon here.

Chapter 11 of Lance Peppler's Ashes Before the Throne.

If you like this email then let me know by emailing [email protected].

You can buy Ashes Before the Throne on Amazon here.

This is a combination of chapters 7 - 10 of Ashes Before the Throne.

If you would like to buy the book - Ashes Before the Throne - then click this link.

Email me with your thoughts at [email protected].

In this chapter, we meet Grace Sterling, a high-achieving surgeon and the daughter of Thomas Sterling. On the surface, Grace is the picture of professional perfection and moral uprightness. However, as we peel back the layers of her clinical efficiency, we discover a woman who has used duty, medicine, and a rigid form of religion to build a titanium shield around her heart. This episode explores the "Physics of the Dark" and what happens when a life built on rules meets a reality that requires a messy, dangerous kind of love.

• The Ritual of Penance: The episode begins with Grace’s scrubbing routine at the hospital. She uses harsh, antibacterial soap that smells of "industrial-grade penance," counting every second to ensure that every microscopic bit of London's grime—and perhaps her father’s legacy—is eradicated.

  
  

• A Calculated Sacrifice: Every Tuesday, Grace performs what she considers her "greatest sacrifice" by buying a hot chicken baguette and coffee for her father. Crucially, she does this not out of affection, but because she has calculated the exact calories needed to prevent his hypothermia.

  
  

• The Three-Foot Distance: Grace prides herself on doing "ugly work" from a safe distance. She has transformed her religion into a set of blueprints and rules, allowing her to serve a broken man without ever having to be broken herself.

  
  

• The Fortress of Logic: We see how Grace uses her medical degree to quantify human suffering so she doesn’t have to feel the "heat" of it. She prefers a "God of Mathematics" because such a God doesn't require the one thing she cannot give: forgiveness.

  
  

• The Danger of Duty: Grace is a "perfect" follower, but her love is a "version of love" that hasn't yet collided with the true "physics of the dark".

  
  

• Professionalism as a Mask: For Grace, being "professional" is a way to respect her father's "autonomy" while actually avoiding the emotional pain of his descent.

  
  

• The Titanium Shield: Religion can be used as a way to keep God at a distance rather than inviting Him in.

Buy Ashes Before the Throne here.

Email me at [email protected]

In this episode, we witness the dual fall of a man and his shadow. We follow Thomas Sterling at the height of his legal career as he makes a choice that will cost him everything, and we fast-forward to see the devastating physical and spiritual consequences of that choice years later. This is a story of how pride builds a throne that eventually becomes a prison.

• The Corporate Fortress: Thomas Sterling sits as Senior Partner at a table carved from wood older than London itself. He wears his tailored suit like a "suit of dark armour," designed to repel any hint of human weakness.

  
  

• The Death Warrant: Thomas reviews confidential memos proving that a toxic leak at the Apex chemical plant was a certainty. He holds the evidence that could save a town, but chooses instead to bury it to secure his own payout.

  
  

• A Bored Demon: In a chilling twist, the demon Azerothiel—who once "dominated" Thomas—is now lounging in a leather chair, looking profoundly bored. Thomas no longer needs a demonic nudge to choose evil; his own pride is sufficient to drive the pen.

  
  

• The Fall from Grace: The Kensington townhouse and Savile Row suits are gone. The "Legal Terminator" has been replaced by a ghost of a man living under a railway arch near Waterloo Station.

  
  

• The Waterloo Arch: The setting is now a soot-stained Victorian tunnel smelling of damp brick and diesel fumes. Thomas sits on a sodden sleeping bag, physically broken and looking eighty years old at fifty.

  
  

• A Rhythmic Reminder: Every few minutes, a commuter train rumbles overhead, a "bone-shaking reminder" that the world is moving on while Thomas has become the "sediment it left behind".

  
  

• The Architecture of Domination: As the Son later notes, the world built by the proud is one of "glass towers" where men hide behind mahogany and pretend to be gods.

  
  

• The Law of Reciprocity: Thomas spent his career finding loopholes in vaults; now he finds himself trapped in a vault of his own making—a freezing railway arch.

  
  

• The Parasitic Nature of Evil: We see that as Thomas "taps out" and stops active sinning in favor of mere decay, his demonic shadow, Azerothiel, begins to wither because there is no more "spicy sugar" of pride to feed on.

  
  

  Buy Ashes Before the Throne here.

  
  

  Email me at [email protected]