Righteousness

There's no better way to write this. Awesome post by Clarence Cheong http://bright-studio.blogspot.com/2011/01/misconception-101.html

Remembering You

Steven Curtis Chapman sang the theme song for Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. The song is titled 'Remembering You' -- Precisely to remember the goodness of the Lord.

It's easy to praise God when everything is well in life, to bless the Lord when we are happy; but we may not even remember the Lord when we go through difficulties and tough times in life, let alone giving Him praise and worship Him. Yes, it's pretty much a cliché to say this, but really, how many of us have truly made it a practice to rejoice always and give thanks to the Lord through circumstances? If we haven't, then all the more we should be reminding ourselves to remember the Lord, rejoice in Him, give thanks and praise Him.

Verse 1: "I found You in the most unlikely way But really it was You who found me And I found myself in the gifts that You gave You gave me so much and I I wish You could stay but I'll, I'll wait for the day..." Do you remember His grace for your life?

In the chorus it sings: "And I'll watch as the cold winter melts into spring, I'll be remembering You Oh, and I'll smell the flowers and hear the birds sing, I'll be remembering You." Have you seen God in the beauty of nature? Do you remember that it was Him who created all things before the dawn of time? Above all, He created you...

Verse 2: "From the first moment when I heard Your name Something in my heart came alive You showed me love and no words could explain A love with the power to Open the door To a world I was made for..." Our salvation is precious. It's that moment when you made the best decision from your heart to receive Jesus' love, and it's with this love that you enter the World -- not this world, but His Kingdom, where you are made for.

And in the bridge: "The dark night, the hard fight The long climb up the hill knowing the cost The brave death, the last breathe The silence whispering all hope was lost The thunder, the wonder A power that brings the dead back to life." This sings of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Though it was thought that all hope was lost, yet by His resurrection, hope was restored.

Enjoy the song. Remember the Lord's goodness and rich blessings on our lives. Remember Him.

Narnia: The Silver Chair (1)

I've just finished reading the 6th book, Narnia: The Silver Chair. Love it! There are many defining moments in the book -- the most of all the books, I feel. Right from the start, there is just the message of God's nature and Spirit there. I shall comment on all the defining moments separately. So here's one:

At the climax of the story, Eustace, Jill and Puddleglum rescue Prince Rilian from the Lady of the Green Kirtle's spells. But just as they planned to escape from the Underland, the Lady returns and tries to bewitch them all into forgetting who they are and where they are from. It was quite a long struggle, until Puddleglum stamps out the enchantress's magical fire with his bare feet and breaks her spell.

Then he said to the enraged enchantress:

"One word, Ma'am," he said, coming back from the fire; limping, because of the pain. "One word. All you've been saying is quite right, I shouldn't wonder. I'm a chap who always liked to know the worst and then put the best face I can on it. So I won't deny any of what you said. But there's one thing more to be said, even so. Suppose we have only dreamed, or made up, all those things - trees and grass and sun and moon and stars and Aslan himself. Suppose we have. Then all I can say is that, in that case, the made-up things seem a good deal more important than the real ones. Suppose this black pit of a kingdom of yours is the only world. Well, it strikes me as a pretty poor one. And that's a funny thing, when you come to think of it. We're just babies making up a game, if you're right. But four babies playing a game can make a playworld which licks your real world hollow. That's why I'm going to stand by the play-world. I'm on Aslan's side even if there isn't any Aslan to lead it. I'm going to live as like a Narnian as I can even if there isn't any Narnia. So, thanking you kindly for our supper, if these two gentlemen and the young lady are ready, we're leaving your court at once and setting out in the dark to spend our lives looking for Overland. Not that our lives will be very long, I should think; but that's a small loss if the world's as dull a place as you say."

Satan does the same today in our lives. He lies that this world is no more than it is, that there isn't anything higher than this world, there isn't a spiritual world. He doesn't want people to believe in God, even better if you believe in false gods. He even deceives Christians so that we pursue things of this world and hold on to them so tightly that we forget about God.

But truly, Puddleglum has strike a point: if there isn't anything higher that we ought to pursue, if heaven is just a made-up idea, if there is no God -- then it's just a small loss that we pursue all these 'imaginations' with our lives, since this world is not going to become any better than it is now.

Someone once said that by probability, it is true that either heaven is real, or it isn't. The fact remains that we will only find out the answer when we die. If we believe that heaven is real, but it turns out that it isn't, then it would be but a small loss, because whether or not you have believed, the outcome is the same, no one goes to heaven.

However, if we don't believe heaven is real, but the final truth reveals that it is, then we would be the more foolish one because we have been pursuing what is unreal for a whole life, when we could have done otherwise. And the unbelief will watch in regret and despair as the believers enter heaven while they are left out.

This world will fail and it will not last. Verse to Remember:

Col 3:2 Set your mind on things above, not on things on
the earth.

Narnia: The Horse and His Boy

I love reading. It's a leisure that gives me room to escape from the hectic and busyness of the day into a world that requires only imaginations.

Imagination is what The Chronicles of Narnia demands if you were to have a good reading time. That's not difficult, but it also requires your heart to be open, because this supposedly suited-for-children series is not what it seems. May a times it has touched my heart deeply.

The 3rd of the Chronicles, titled "The Horse and His Boy" is one of my favourite, besides the most well-known "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe".

There's this part in the story that I want to write down here. At this point of the story, the boy Shasta has been through a lot of adventures and long journey to get to Archenland. He finally managed to fulfil part of his mission of informing King Lune of Archenland of the incoming attack from Rabadash the Calormene. However, after meeting up with the king, Shasta becomes lost in a fog and separated from the King's procession. After continuing blindly for some way, he senses that he has been joined in the darkness by a mysterious presence. Though terrified by knowledge that a being that was walking beside him, he started to engage in conversation with it. Shasta confides what he sees as his many misfortunes in his life and this journey, including being chased by lions on two separate occasions, and concluding with "If nothing else, it was bad luck to meet so many lions." His companion then proclaims himself as the single lion that Shasta has encountered in his travels:

"I was the lion who forced you to join with Aravis. I was the cat who comforted you among the tombs. I was the lion who drove the jackals from you while you slept. I was the lion who gave the Horses the new strength of fear for the last mile so that you should reach King Lune in time. And I was the lion you do not remember who pushed the boat in which you lay, a child near death, so that it came to shore where a man sat, wakeful at night, to receive you."

[Shasta] "Then it was you who wounded Aravis?"

"It was I."

"But what for?"

"Child," said the Voice, "I am telling you your story, not hers. I tell you no one any story but his own."

"Who are you?" asked Shasta.

"Myself," said the Voice, very deep and low so that the earth shook: and again, "Myself", loud and clear and gay, and then the third time, "Myself", whispered so softly you could hardly hear it, and yet it seemed to come from all around you as if the leaves rustled with it.

Shasta was no longer afraid that the Voice belonged to something that would eat him, not that it was the voice of a ghost. But a new and different sort of trembling came over him. Yet he felt glad too.

The mist was turning from black to grey and from grey to white. This must have begun to happen some time ago, but while he had been talking to the Thing he had not been noticing anything else. Now, the whiteness around him became a shining whiteness; his eyes began to blink. He knew the night was over at last. He could see the mane and ears and head of his horse quite easily now. A golden light fell on them from the left. He thought it was the sun.

He turned and saw, pacing beside him, taller than the horse, a Lion. The horse did not seem to be afraid of it or else could not see it. It was from the Lion that the light came. No one ever saw anything more terrible or beautiful.

But after one glance at the Lion's face he slipped out of the saddle and fell at his feet. He couldn't say anything but then he didn't want to say anything, and he knew he needn't say anything.

There's nothing and no words that are accurate enough to describe that feeling of being in awe when I read this chapter. I could almost identify with Shasta when he slipped off his horse and bowed down at Aslan. It's that deep feeling inside when you're in the presence of God, knowing that He holds you dearly to Himself, knowing that your life was and is in His sovereign hands, and so will your future be. It's that feeling of having your mind blanked out but your heart is doing all the thinking, thinking of His awesomeness and the beauty of His love...