Pity Junk Age's Corner!

In this chapter we read of the conspiracy of Abimelech and how he killed 70 of his step brothers to become King over Shechem and Beth-millo.

This evil was repaid in the end where "God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of Shechem; and the men of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech, in order that the that the violence done to the 70 sons of Jerubbaal might come, and their blood might laid on Abimelech their brother, who killed them, and on the men of Shechem, who strengthen his hands to kill his brothers."

From here we see that God sees that judgement will be serve. It is not for us to seek revenge whatever the wrongdoing, but for God to judge. For who are we to judge others?

When, I will end here for you all to ponder more on it. Do comment on your thoughts. Anyway, I would have to hit the books now... The workload never seems to decrease, but with God's help, I will push on! Yosh! :)

Here are some more ideas... Going to hit the books now... More notes to read and projects to finish... May the Lord continue to watch over us all! Yosh! :)

The fundamentals of love
Think back to the day when you first laid eyes on her.
You found yourself charmed by the way she talks, the way she dresses herself to show off her best features and the way she embraces life with her laughter.
It seemed as if a mysterious "chemistry effect" has suddenly developed to draw you closer to her.
You two then began to meet regularly, and you discover more things that you admire about her. Her clever ideas, her healthy values and the way she stands up for you when others doubt you.
You find yourself thinking of her not just as a normal friend, but a very good friend. It is often during this period that a boy and a gal will start thinking of bringing their friendship to another level.
Afterall, the kind of wonderful experience you have between each other can only become even better if it develops into a romantic relationship.
In other words, the feeling is really unique - no one else seems able to replace her in your heart. So both of you agree to go steady and work even harder on the relationship. You "graduate" to become a couple, and are the envy of the sea of singles.

When You Forget The Fundamentals
However, at some point in your relationship, you forgot how it all began.
You start to take your partner for granted.
Why can't she laugh in a more ladylike manner? Why doesn't she dress herself more trendily? Why must she assert her views and point out your silly mistakes?

Is she really the one for you?

To be fair to yourself and to her, take some time to reflect on your "love memory".

The "love memory' contains all the reasons that you fell in love with her right from Day One.
It contains rarely accessed snippets of how your life has changed since meeting and loving her.
Pre-steady days, did you heap compliments on her for the brave way she spoke her mind on bullies and snobs? You probably did. Did you like her unusual fashion sense that makes her stand out from the crowd? Right-o. So why are you criticising or finding fault with her now that she is your girlfriend?

Because you have forgotten the fundamentals of love, like so many of us.
You have forgotten the reasons you admired her during the friendship phase.
Instead, once you went steady, you put your "love memory" in cold storage.
As her boyfriend, you take up a new set of demands and expectations about her.
These new ideas are not necessarily better; they could put your relationship at risk.

The Secret Of Strong Relationships
A healthy relationship, like learning to walk properly, follows a step-by-step development.
You can't possibly become part of a couple if you aren't friends in the first place. Ok, I know some of us break the rule and plunge straight whirlwind courtship, but how many of those couples can go the distance?
Couplehood works well when there is something you like about her (and vice versa), and I'm not referring to merely the physical aspects.
So whenever your relationship hits a rocky path, don't give up without checking on your "love memory".
Rediscover the reasons why you fell in love with her, and watch your relationship flourish with a newfound vigour.
The SPACES between our FINGERS were created so that another person's fingers could FILL THEM IN.

Harlow, still very busy with work, but determined to go through this tough phase of my life... In the meantime, here is something for you people! Yosh! :)

Maybe God wants us to meet a few wrong people before meeting the right one so that when we finally meet the right person, we will know how to be grateful for that gift.

When the door of happiness closes, another opens, but often times we look so long at the closed door that we don't see the one which has been opened for us.

The best kind of friend is the kind you can sit on a porch and swing with, never say a word, and then walk away feeling like it was the best conversation you've ever had.

It's true that we don't know what we've got until we lose it, but it's also true that we don't know what we've been missing until it arrives.

Giving someone all your love is never an assurance that they'll love you back! Don't expect love in return; just wait for it to grow in their heart but if it doesn't, be content it grew in yours. It takes only a minute to get a crush on someone, an hour to like someone, and a day to love someone, but it takes a lifetime to forget someone.

Don't go for looks; they can deceive. Don't go for wealth; even that fades away. Go for someone who makes you smile because it takes only a smile to make a dark day seem bright. Find the one that makes your heart smile .

There are moments in life when you miss someone so much that you just want to pick them from your dreams and hug them for real!

Dream what you want to dream; go where you want to go; be what you want to be, because you have only one life and one chance to do all the things you want to do.

May you have enough happiness to make you sweet, enough trials to make you strong, enough sorrow to keep you human, enough hope to make you happy.

Always put yourself in others' shoes. If you feel that it hurts you, it probably hurts the other person, too.

The happiest of people don't necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the most of everything that comes along their way.

Happiness lives for those who cry, those who hurt, those who have searched, and those who have tried, for only they can appreciate the importance of people who have touched their lives. Love begins with a smile, grows with a kiss and ends with a tear. The brightest future will always be based on a forgotten past, you can't go on well in life until you let go of your past failures and heartaches.

When you were born, you were crying and everyone around you was smiling. Live your life so that when you die, you're the one who is smiling and everyone around you is crying.

Harlow, been real busy nowadays with the work piling up... Do hope that I would be able to resume blogging soon. In the meantime, I wish all my good friends a Happy Chinese New Year (Since within the 15 days!) also do take care everyone.

Here is something for you people to read, got it off the email send by my Godsister. :) Take care and God bless! :)

Why Won’t The Pain Go Away?
By Selwyn Hughes

The wonderful novelist Walker Percy has one of his characters, a psychiatrist, say:

I seldom give anxious people drugs. If you do, they may feel better for a while, but they never find out what the anxiety is trying to tell them. I much prefer to help them get to what is causing the ache than to dampen it down with medication.

We said in the previous chapter that although human beings belong to the earth, there is a hunger in them which earth cannot satisfy. This need or hunger is hard to define (and sometimes embarrassing to confess), but it seems to throb within us even when we have experienced some of the world’s finest things — success, fame, wealth, sensual pleasures and so on. This need, which can perhaps best be described as a need for meaning (or joy), is not like our biological or even our psychological needs; it is a spiritual one and for that reason cannot be frilly satisfied by anything terrestrial.

The way in which many people (perhaps most) go about dealing with this relentless ache that throbs deep inside us is interesting. They simply pretend it isn’t there. I am not, as I said earlier, a disciple of Freud and I find some of his ideas unacceptable, but he made a valid point when he said that much human behaviour is influenced by the effort to maximise pleasure and minimise pain. His theory helps to explain why it is that we crave the pleasurable things of life — they help alleviate the pain of not having our central hunger satisfied.

Simone Weil echoes this same point when (using the metaphor of hunger rather than thirst) she says:

The danger is not lest the soul should doubt whether there is any bread, but lest by a lie, it should persuade itself that it is not hungry. It can only persuade itself of this by lying, for the reality of its hunger is not a belief, but a certainty.

It is often easier to deny the ache for meaning and joy that lies at the core of our souls than to admit to it. Once we admit to ~it we allow the unquenched longings to come fully into awareness and the result is pain. This pain is similar in many ways to the discomfort we feel when an intense physical thirst goes unquenched. It requires great courage to be willing to feel and experience emotional and spiritual pain, for underlying it is a sense of deep disappointment; disappointment that up until now nothing or no one has been able to meet the deep longings of our soul.

We say to ourselves, albeit unconsciously, ‘If I allow my longings to come frilly into awareness, how can I be sure they will be satisfied? They have not been fully satisfied up until now How can I be sure that there is someone or something out there that can deal effectively with the deep ache of my soul?’ This uncertainty — the fear of disappointment —causes many to deaden their longings. ‘Not wanting, not desiring,’ says a friend of mine, ‘is humanity’s main means of survival.’

The realisation that there is something deep within our beings which up until now has not been fully and effectively met is probably one of the most powerful existential moments of our whole existence. In facing that realisation, and allowing ourselves to feel the emotion such a realisation produces, we experience something we would rather avoid. But, to put it bluntly, avoidance does not work.

What I call avoidance the psychologists describe in a much more dynamic way. The term they use is denial. A psychologist friend of mine claims that while denial has a positive role of helping to keep out of consciousness things that tend to disturb us or threaten us, when it comes to the issue of the relentless ache for meaning or joy, then denial is counter-productive. I asked him why, and this was his reply:

‘Denial pushes the ache underground where it produces an intolerable desire for other forms of satisfaction. It is much better to face reality, confront the disappointment and allow the ache to surface.’

When it hurts too much to feel, the tendency is not to feel. Avoidance (or denial) pushes out of awareness the ache we ought to feel. Why ought? Because the more keenly we feel the ache and the disappointment associated with it — the disappointment that up until now nothing or no one has been able to satisfy — the more likely we are to turn to the source which can fully satisfy. Facing and feeling the pain that our deep yearnings produce in us is part of growing as a person; growing in our understanding of ourselves, of others and of our Creator. Any attempt to deaden the pain enables us to go through life without pain — but at what cost?

Two things happened to me a few years ago that brought a good deal of pain into my life. First, after a happy marriage lasting thirty-five years, my wife fell prey to cancer and died. A few weeks later, after a sudden heart attack, my father died also. My doctor asked me if I would like some sedatives to help cope with the pain, but I refused; not because I am particularly brave or courageous, but because I have learned that an unwillingness to face and feel negative emotions will inevitably result in an inability to feel fully the positive ones.

There have been many writers who have drawn our attention to the fact that the more we insulate ourselves against pain, the more we insulate ourselves against joy. ‘The same nerve endings by which we experience pain,’ says one author, ‘are the ones by which we experience pleasure.’ Our nerve endings, he claimed, were originally designed for experiencing good feelings, but like everything in creation they also have the capacity for feeling the opposite. ‘That is why rape is such a horrible thing; it is a violation of what in the right situation can be a beautiful thing.’ We can only experience the fullness of our positive emotions when we open ourselves also to the negative ones. We can become so good at not feeling pain that we learn not to feel anything — excitement, love, hope, joy, awe. We become emotionally desensitised.

I have met many people during the course of my counselling experience who appear to live out the whole of their lives within a narrow emotional spectrum. They have very few moments when they feel elated, but then they have very few moments when they feel deeply sad. Life is lived on a dull, flat emotional plane with no peaks and no troughs; no experience of fulfilment, but no experience of devastation either. ‘These are the people~ someone has said, ‘who live lives of quiet desperation:

Confronting the issues of the soul is painful, sometimes extremely painful, but in the facing of them lies the route to pure happiness and joy. I don’t mean masochism — a perversion in which a person experiences pleasure while experiencing pain. What I am talking about here is as different from that as chalk is from cheese.

Why is it necessary to face and feel the pain that is in our soul? I can think of at least two reasons. First, pain is a messenger that tells us something is wrong. As Benjamin Franklin put it: ‘Those things that hurt, instruct.’ A leading reason for people to think about seeking help from either a doctor or a therapist is depression. What many people don’t realise is that depression (depression not chemically based, that is) is a normal and basically healthy phenomenon.

M. Scott Peck, in his book The Road Less Travelled under the chapter heading ‘The Healthiness of Depression’, makes the point that many people get bogged down in life to such a degree that the patterns and strategies they adopt to hold themselves together, and which don’t really work, need to be broken up. He says that the process of ‘giving up’ begins as soon as the depressed person decides to ask for help. The act of deciding to seek counselling attention in itself represents a giving up of the self-image: ‘I’m not OK and I need assistance to understand why I’m not OK and how to become OK.’

It’s not easy in today’s culture (especially for males) to admit, ‘I’m not 0K because it is frequently equated with ‘I’m weak, inadequate and unmasculine.’ But since it is important to grow, facing the issues of the soul is inevitable. Thus, says Scott Peck:

Depression is a normal and basically healthy phenomenon. It becomes abnormal or unhealthy only when something interferes with the giving up process, with the result that the depression is prolonged

Depression is a messenger from the unconscious that says, ‘something is wrong with the way you are living. Find it, give it up and you will be well again.’

A second reason why it is necessary to face and feel the pain of the soul is that attempts to avoid pain lead to a diminishment of ourselves as people. No normal person enjoys pain, but when we learn the art of detachment so well that we can experience disturbing and difficult situations and not be emotionally affected by them, we are diminished. A part of our soul goes. When I try to avoid pain by closing my mind to the message it is bringing me, and rush around, go on a spending spree, turn up the volume on the radio, take a holiday, I become less of a person; less alive.

There are some I know who protect themselves from disappointment by deciding that they don’t want to be happy; that happiness is simply a mirage, an illusion. This too diminishes the soul. Take it from me, to be a person in this world means that you will feel pain, and to hide from that pain is an avoidance technique that leads to impoverishment of being.

The tendency to avoid the pain that arises within us is the primary basis for mental illness, according to M. Scott Peck:

Since most of us have this tendency to a greater or lesser degree, most of us are mentally ill to a greater or lesser degree, lacking complete mental health. Some of us will go to quite extraordinary lengths to avoid our problems and the suffering they cause.

In the succinctly elegant words of Carl Jung:

Neurosis is always a substitute for legitimate suffering. But the substitute itself becomes ultimately the more painful than the legitimate suffering it was designed to avoid.

To experience true pain, to touch it and feel it and understand its message, is what life is all about. To quote C. S. Lewis again:

God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains; it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.

I have often put the following question to people in the counselling room: ‘What do you do with the relentless spiritual ache that is inside you? How do you handle this deep-down hunger?’ Tony, one of my counsellees, gave me this answer: ‘I stuff it down as deep inside me as I can. If I let myself want what I know my heart desperately longs for, it hurts. So I try to make it as numb as I can in the hope that it will not go on troubling me.’

Tony, of course, is not alone in following this strategy to deal with the pain of his unmet spiritual hunger. Millions of others do it also. Not wanting, not longing, as I said earlier, is one of the main means of survival for many. The sad reality, however, is that it does help to maintain a certain equilibrium. But at what cost? The more successful this strategy becomes, the more we deaden our hearts to the Creator who alone can provide us with what we really long for.

When I explained something of this to Tony, he countered: ‘Are you saying that the pain I feel, which in my more honest and stronger moments I allow to surface, is good?’ I replied: ‘It’s not good to feel pain, but the message the pain is giving you is good. The pain is there because you are not feeling at home with God yet. And he uses that ache to inform us that not only are we far from home, but that he has come looking for us. For the soul to be alive is to feel pain, and to hide from pain is to make yourself less alive. Hiding from pain helps us avoid the lesson that pain is bringing us. No one ever tells us that there are dangerous side-effects to the habit of turning to painkilling medications and one of them is our diminished ability to feel anything.’

Years ago when I was doing a training course in counselling I was told that I would not be an effective counsellor unless I was willing to face my own personal pain, whatever that pain might be. ‘You will not be in a position to help others: I was told, ‘unless you are willing to face and feel the things that are going on inside you: One tutor went further and said: ‘Never move away from the pain until you have found out what it is telling you.’ I have found that to be good advice. Too often, as we have seen, if we discover something painful or uncomfortable in ourselves, either we pretend it doesn’t hurt, or we throw ourselves into some activity, take a pill, go on a shopping spree, in an effort to make it go away. We treat the symptom but overlook the cause.

The pain that arises within us due to our disappointment at so far finding nothing that can ease the ache that is at the core of our being is telling us several things. It is telling us that our deep longings for happiness cannot be satisfied by things, by people, by places. We can derive some pleasure from all these sources, but they are powerless to quench the central ache that is resident in our souls. It is also telling us that we cannot find it in ourselves. However disappointing that sounds, it is at least direct and honest. Human effort alone is unequal to the task of fulfilling our inner beings. Physical fitness does not produce it. Striving to climb up the ladder of success does not do it. Left to ourselves we are chasing a dream.

It is a fallacy to believe that we have it within our own power to make ourselves happy. This is a popular approach with many of today’s authors and psychotherapists. ‘The secret of happiness lies within you,’ say these modern-day dispensers of their nostrum for humanity’s ills. But that is patently untrue, when we have seen that happiness remains so elusive. The secret of happiness (real happiness, that is) is not inside us; it comes from outside us.

Psychotherapy can help us face the fact that we live in a world of upset plans, disappointing relationships and unrealistic expectations, and it can teach us how to adjust to this world and be less frustrated by it. What it can’t do, however, is whisper to us of a world we have never seen or tasted. It can teach us to be normal in the sense that the world sees normality, but we must look elsewhere for the help we need to be a whole person.

What is the conclusion of all this? If we believe that in order for life to be good we have to avoid pain, the danger is that we will become so good at not feeling pain that we will learn not to feel anything — not joy, not love, not anything. Not even awe. We will have mastered the art of detachment to such a degree that nothing will be able to reach us emotionally.

One of the most fascinating radio programmes ever to have been aired was Dr Anthony Clare’s riveting series entitled The Psychiatrist’s Chair on Radio 4. One of the people he interviewed on his programme was the well-known ‘agony aunt’ Claire Rayner. In the midst of the interview she broke down uncontrollably when Dr Clare gently pressed her on the subject of her unhappy childhood. Claire Rayner had already expressed to Dr Clare that she did not wish to talk about her childhood memories, preferring as she put it ‘to leave them at the bottom of the pond’.

Critics of that particular programme raised such questions as: ‘Why, when Claire Rayner had already expressed her disinclination to talk about her childhood, did Dr Clare not leave well alone and move on to something else?’ and ‘Why, when she broke down and wept, did he not respect her pain and change direction?’

Dr Clare defends himself by saying that he believed deep down in her heart Claire Rayner wanted to talk about those things. He says it was not the first time she had been interviewed by him and on the previous occasion she had also used the image of ‘mud at the bottom of the pool’, but kept him at bay so that the interview ended without him being any the wiser. Of that first interview he says: ‘I sensed that behind her jolly bonhomie and breathless reassurance lay darkness and pain.”9 When he invited her for the second time he believed that she knew he would once again ask her similar questions and that if she did not really want to talk about what distressed her she would not have accepted the invitation.

When pressed further on why he would seek to probe into her childhood and help her get in touch with those deep hurts and wounds that were beneath the surface, he says:

I did feel and still do that, given Claire Rayner’s occupation, which is to purvey advice, reassurance, solace, sympathy and support to the thousands who seek it from her, it was important to discover whether she really was the composed, controlled superwoman she occasionally personified. Is the childhood mud related to the adult caring, I ask? I could have asked whether in examining other people’s miseries, she repeatedly confronts and exorcises her own (italics mine).

This last statement of Anthony Clare’s is crucial because if we are unwilling to face our pain, then it can reverberate inside us, and without our realising it may influence every action, every decision and every relationship. Many people take the view that it is pointless to ‘dig up the past’ and certainly in my own counselling encounters I do not make a point of this unless I feel the pain needs to be confronted because of its impact upon the present.

By the way, Claire Rayner’s idea that talking about unhappy childhood experiences is comparable to the self-indulgent stirrings of a muddy pool is not uncommon among those who are engaged in the task of helping people with their problems. They say: ‘There’s not much point in digging up the past if you can’t do anything about it.’ These people are usually tough and matter-of-fact in their approach to people and give the impression that getting up and doing something about one’s problems is far superior to talking about them. But rushing about and doing things can often be a substitute for quietly sitting down and taking a look at what is going on inside and what particular inner distress is motivating one’s actions.

Because self-understanding and self-awareness mean a certain amount of discomfort and pain, most of us are apt to resist facing honestly the issues that go on in our soul. Of all those who go to a psychiatrist or psychotherapist, very few are initially looking on a conscious level for challenge or education in self-awareness. Most are simply looking for relief. When they realise they are going to be challenged as well as supported, many withdraw or are tempted to withdraw Teaching them that real relief will only come through facing reality is a delicate, often lengthy and frequently unsuccessful task. This is why you will often hear a psychiatrist or counsellor saying to someone on the counselling team that even after a year the patient has not yet entered into therapy.

It is easy to say we ought to be honest, but not so easy to do it. The business of being really honest in all things is usually more difficult and painful than we realise. Any psychotherapist will tell you that the most difficult people to help are those who are convinced that the cause of their difficulty lies in external situations — the home, the office, other people and so on. It is never in them. They will ask the psychotherapist to affirm them in this appraisal and will often resist the suggestion that something going on in them is causing the unhappiness.

Of course it is not easy to be thoroughly open and honest. I am intrigued by the fact that many of the plays of men like William Inge, Tennesee Williams, Arthur Miller, Eugene O’Neil and so on show this difficulty with agonising unpleasantness. Usually the opening of one of these plays shows the common scenes of life. Then little by little, as ordinary people confront each other, painful tensions and conflicts come to light.

The agony in modern drama is invariably provided by the character’s gradual self-realisation which develops as his or her illusions are destroyed. Self-awareness means agony, and we are all prone to resist such scrupulous honesty. We are like the little boy who cries because he has a splinter in his foot, but is too afraid for his father to remove it.

It is a mistake to overlook the fact that honesty can be challenging, but it is equally wrong to assume that being honest is a miserable and terrifying experience. On the contrary, when the issues that go on in the soul are faced, really faced, then real healing begins. Reality is hardly ever as bad as the fear of it.

The Scriptures encourage us to live our lives openly before God and others, avoiding self-deception and illusion. We cannot hide from God, so why do we even try?

Psalm 139 is a classic statement of our inability to hide from our Creator.

O Lord, you have searched me and you know me .. you perceive my thoughts from afar . . . you are familiar with all my ways . . . where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? (vv 1-3, 7)

What may seem terrifying to the psalmist as he admits and reflects on God’s concern for his life, becomes a blanket of security which calls forth his concluding petition:

Search me, 0 God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting (vv 23-24).

The soul can never function as it was designed to function unless there is complete honesty. But self-honesty does not come painlessly. Those who study the function of behaviour tell us that the reason we lie to others or ourselves is to avoid the pain that honesty might cause us. President Nixon’s lying about Watergate was no more sophisticated or different in kind than that of a four-year-old boy who lies to his mother about how the lamp fell off the table. Both are an attempt to circumnavigate legitimate suffering. The healing of the soul is of such a major issue that we must not let anything stand in its way. There must be no evasions, subterfuges, or prevarications. Honesty really is the best policy.

I urge you to fight with every fibre of your being the temptation to avoid facing the demands that rise up from within your inner being. Be alert to the tendency we all have to deny reality. Being open to challenge is disturbing, but life, real life, cannot be found without experiencing some upheavals in the soul.

Well, I just finish reading 3 Chapters of Judges recounting the delivering of Israel from the hands of the Midianites and the Amalekites.

"Then the sons of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and the Lord gave them into the hands of Midian seven years." Judges 6:1. Here we see that the Israelites falling again away from God and God punished them but delivering them into the hand of the Midianites and the Amalekites who oppressed the Israelites greatly. So great was the oppression that Israel was brought down very low. For the Midianites and the Amalekites, would destroy the produce of the Earth as far as Gaza and leave no sustenance in Israel as well as no sheep, ox, or donkey.

However, God was merciful, for when the Israelites cried out to God on account of the Midian, God raised up Gideon to deliver them.Gideon then raised an army of 22,000 against the Midianites and the Amalekites. However, God decrease the number from 22,000 to 10,000 and finally to 300. The reason was given in Judges 7:2, "And the Lord said to Gideon, "The people who are with you are too many for Me to give Midian into their hands, lest Israel become boastful, saying, 'My own poer has delivered me.'"

With 300 men, Gideon finally destroyed an army of 135,000 men and slain the kings of Midian, Zebah and Zalmunna, with no recorded losses on the side of the Israelites. With that there was 40 years of peace. However, the saddest part was right at the end of Chapter 8, "Then it came about, as soon as Gideon was dead, that the sons of Israel again played harlot with the Baals, and made Baal-berith their god." This was brought about as Gideon had many wives, thus Gideon had 70 sons who were his direct descendants and his concubine who was in Shechem also bore him a son.

I would end with this that before we condemn the Israelites for being unable to appreciate what God has done for them, are we not the same? Let us not be so and push on forward, however great and difficult the circumstance, remaining true to God and his commandments.

"For this reason I say to you, do not be anxious for your life, as to what you shall eat, or what you shall drink; nor for your body, as to what you shall put on.

Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds in the air, that they do not sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?

And which of you by being anxious can add a single cubit to his life's span?

And why are you anxious about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory did not clothe himself like one of these. But if God so arrays the grass of the fields, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furance, will He not much more do so for you, O men of little faith?

Do not be anxious then, saying, ' What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'With what shall we clothe ourselves?'

For all these things the Gentiles eagerly seek; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness; and all these things shalll be added to you.

Therefore do not be anxious for tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Matthew 6:25-34.

Here is something that comforted me, may this passage comfort the rest of you as well. :)

Faramir: "You wish now that our places had been exchanged, that I had died and Boromir had lived."

Denethor: "Yes, I wish that."

Faramir: "Since you are robbed of Boromir, I will do what I can in his stead. If I should return, think better of me, father."

Denethor: "That depends on the manner of your return."

This excerpt is taken from the "Lord of the Rings - Return of the King" movie.

'...He deserves death.' said Frodo.

"Deserve it! I daresay he does. Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judegement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends...' said Gandalf.

Another interesting thought provided by Gandalf when Frodo said that Gollum deserved to die... Ponder on this, my friends! Yosh!

Read another chapter of Judges, Chapter 5 in fact! I am very inspired by the last verse. "Thus let all Thine enemies perish, O Lord; But let those who love Him be like the rising of the sun in its might." Judges 6:31b.

Indeed, if God is with us, who can be against us. Let us all stand together as all of us face our own trials and tribulations. May we stand firm, never swaying to the left or the right. But to follow God, always seeking Him first before all things else, so that all these things will be added to us. May we continue to seek His will and do what we should do.

My friends, let us all be like the rising of the sun in its might! Continue to be persistance and never fall to temptation. May His word be a guide to our footsteps daily! Yosh! :"P

An excerpt from "The Lord of the Rings" by J. R. R. Tokien.

'I wish it need not have happened in my time,' said Frodo.

'So do I,' said Gandalf, 'and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us...'

My friends, do ponder on this... Yosh!

Here in Chapter 4 of Judges, we read about the first female judge, Deborah, the wife of Lappidoth, that God has raised to deliver Israelites again after they did evil in the sight of God after the death of the previous judge Ehud.

An interesting thing was that Deborah send and summoned Barak, but his hesitancy to lead armies apart from Deborah's presence resulted in the dimunution of his glory from the victory. But nevertheless, he is listed among the heros of faith, Heb 11:32. His faith consisted of his obedience to God's commands through Deborah, Judges 4:6, 10 and 14.

Hence subsequently, their arch enemy, Sisera was killed by another female, Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite. She drove a tent peg into Sisera's temple, killing him...

Well, for those that have the time, here is a neat article with regards to the End Times... Do enjoy reading through it! Yosh!

"Road Map" to Armageddon by Dave Hunt

The "Quartet" of Bush, Putin, UN, and EU is determined, through a division of land, to bring a "just and lasting peace" into the Middle East between Israel and her neighbors. Assuming they are sincere and not just working for their own interests, their mental state must be on a par with those who gave the Nobel Peace Prize to Yasser Arafat, a mass murderer, habitual liar, and the world's leading terrorist, who has done more than anyone to destroy world peace. How thankful the West should be that Al Gore (who repeatedly, as vice president, warmly received Arafat into the White House) is not there now as president!

In fact, Muhammad, whose word cannot be changed, imposed upon every Muslim in every age the duty of exterminating all Jews. Only then can the "Last Day" (the climax of Islam) arrive. That fact makes "peace" between Israel and Muslims impossible-ever. Any apparent "peace" agreements signed by Muslim leaders are not worth the ink in their signatures! In the ten years prior to the signing of the Oslo Accords, 211 Israelis were killed by terrorists; in the ten years since, about 1,200 have been killed and 5,000 wounded.

No Arab/Muslim political or religious leader can contradict Islam's founding prophet. Thus to continue to pursue a negotiated "peace" in the Middle East is the height of folly! Yet Western political and religious leaders continue to hold out that vain hope and to force concessions upon Israel that pave the road to her destruction!

Modern Israel occupies a relatively small piece of land. Arabs possess 700 times as much, with vast amounts of oil and minerals. Why are they determined to possess tiny Israel too? Islam says it belongs to them! A sovereign Jewish state proves that Muhammad was a false prophet, and that Allah is not God. Muslims must destroy Israel!

Both the Bible and Qur'an agree that 4,000 years ago God gave the Promised Land to Abraham and his Israeli descendants. Yet, the Arabs claim ownership through Ishmael, Abraham's first son. But God declared that not Ishmael, but Isaac, who would be born to Sarah, was the son and heir He had promised (Gen 17:15-21). Like his father, Isaac also had two sons, Esau and Jacob; and again the Lord rejected the firstborn and gave the inheritance to the second-so the inheritance flows from Abraham to Isaac and on to Jacob, whose name God changed to Israel. Twelve times Yahweh calls Himself "the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob," declaring, "this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial to all generations" (Ex 3:15). More than 200 times, from Exodus 5:1 to Luke 1:68, Yahweh is called "the God of Israel."

Muslims claim that the Bible was corrupted by later revisions. However, the Bible's thousands of manuscripts, historical and prophetic accuracy, and the intricate integration of themes from Genesis to Revelation (none of which the Qur'an can boast!) reduce such a claim to nonsense. Furthermore, the Qur'an itself supports what the Bible says concerning Israel's claim to the Promised Land: "We made a covenant of old with the Children of Israel" (Surah 5:70); "We brought the children of Israel across the [Red] sea, and Pharaoh with his hosts pursued them..." (10:91). "...[B]ut we drowned him and those with him all together. And we said unto the Children of Israel...dwell in the land [and] hereafter...we shall bring you...out of various nations" (17:103, 104); "[W]e delivered the children of Israel... from Pharaoh....We chose them, purposely, above all creatures" (44:30-32); "favored them above all peoples" (45:16); "Remember Allah's favor to you...He...gave you what he gave no other of his creatures. O my people, go into the Holy Land which Allah hath ordained for you" (95:20, 21); etc.

The territory God gave to Abram (later renamed Abraham by God) and to his descendants was not "Palestine," but Canaan: "Into the land of Canaan they came" (Gen 12:5, 6). There were no "Palestinians" from whom those who take that name today claim to be descended: "the Canaanite and Perizzite dwelled then in the land" (13:7).

Abram remained there the rest of his life: "...Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan" (13:12). God told him, "For all the land...to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever" (13:15); "...all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession" (Gen 17:8).

Abram settled in Hebron in Canaan and "built there an altar to the LORD [Yahweh]" (13:18)-not to Allah. Ten years later, Ishmael (the product of Abraham's and Sarah's unbelief) was born to him through Sarah's maid, Hagar. Fourteen years later, when Abraham was 100 years old and Sarah 90, Isaac was born in Hebron to Abraham by his wife Sarah, exactly as God had promised. Thirty-seven years later, at the age of 127, Sarah died. Abraham was still living in Hebron, having been there more than 70 years. To bury Sarah, he bought the cave of Machpelah from Ephron the Hittite (23:1-20).

Thirty-eight years later, at the age of 175, Abraham died. Isaac and Ishmael buried him in Machpelah next to Sarah. Isaac lived in Hebron 110 more years. Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob, and Leah were also buried in the cave of Machpelah. Abraham had entered Canaan 400 years after the flood and 300 years after the Tower of Babel. It was sparsely settled, the land was his for the taking, and he, Isaac, Jacob, and their families, lived there more than 300 years before temporarily moving to Egypt to escape a famine. There, for 400 years they were slaves, just as God had said, until the Canaanites became so wicked that He was forced to destroy them. God used Israel for that task, giving them Canaan as an everlasting heritage (Gen 15:13-16), as He had promised.

God referred to Isaac as Abraham's "only son" (Gen 22:2). Thus Ishmael was not buried in Machpelah, but where he had settled far away, having "died in the presence of all his brethren" (Gen 25:17, 18). No Arab or Muslim was ever buried in Machpelah.

Arabs can't claim a pure descent from Ishmael. Ishmaelites intermarried with Midianites (Jgs 8:5,12,22,24), Edomites (Gn 28:9), and Hittites (26:34; 36:1-4). In contrast, during 400 years as slaves in Egypt, the Israelites became an identifiable ethnic people who were led en masse into Canaan. We know who they are today.

Denying Israel's God-given heritage, Yitzak Rabin, who had secretly promised Clinton he would give up the Golan, declared, "The Bible is not a geography book." Shortly thereafter, he was assassinated, preventing him from giving to Syria the most strategically vital part of Israel.

It was not Arabs but Hebrews who settled in ancient Hebron and all of Canaan, creating Israel, whose kings ruled from Jerusalem over an empire stretching from the Sinai to the Euphrates. Around 600 B.C. they were conquered by the Babylonians and scattered to many nations.

Chased out of their land under God's judgment in the Babylonian dispersion, and later twice by the Romans, numbers of Jews always returned. This despised people continued living in Israel under the oppressive heel of various occupying foreign invaders for another 2,500 years. On May 14, 1948, Israel declared itself an independent nation once again. The Jews once again possessed their own land, as God had promised-but only that small fraction of it that had been allotted by the UN partition on November 29, 1947.

In contrast, the Arabs never lived in Canaan, but settled in the Arabian Peninsula. Not until the seventh century A.D., through the Islamic invasions, did Arabs come in any significant numbers into the land of Israel, which, in A.D. 135, the Romans had angrily renamed Syria-Palestina, after Israel's chief enemy, the Philistines.

The so-called Palestinians of today are Arabs whose ancestors came from Arabia. They are a Semitic people, with no relationship either to the Canaanites or the Philistines, who were not Semites. It is a blatant lie that today's "Palestinians" (who at the same time claim descent from Ishmael) are descended from the original inhabitants of the land of Canaan, which God promised to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and their heirs.

David was first crowned king in Hebron and ruled there seven years before moving his throne to Jerusalem. This ancient city has no significance to Arabs/Muslims. Yet they have built a mosque at Machpelah, have forbidden access to Jews, and, at various times in history, have massacred Jews living there. Today Muslims are attempting to force out the few remaining Jews. They claim all of "Palestine" and state that Israelis are occupying land that belongs to them! And this fraud is the foundation for a so-called road map to peace! President Bush, as a Christian, ought to tremble at God's solemn warning that He will destroy all who divide His land (Joel 3:2). Yes, His land: "the land shall not be sold [or traded] for ever: for the land is mine" (Lev 25:23)! Quartet, take heed: you are defying the God of Israel and will not escape unpunished! Those who make "peace" by taking land from Israel, which God gave her, will be destroyed: "[A]ll that burden themselves with it [Jerusalem] shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it" (Zec 12:3).

On September 13, 1993, under the triumphant gaze of a smiling President Clinton, Arafat signed, with Yitzak Rabin, the Oslo Accords on the White House lawn. The ink was scarcely dry when Arafat began publicly apologizing in Arabic to Muslims around the world. In fear for his life (remember Anwar Sadat's murder by fellow Muslims for making "peace" with Israel), Arafat pleaded that he was only following the example of Muhammad and the Islamic law he established. In A.D. 628, Muhammad led a few of his followers (recent converts to the new religion of Islam) from Medina back to Mecca, hoping to join thousands of pagan Arabs in the hajj. This annual pilgrimage to the Ka'aba (Islam, incredibly, claims it was built by Abraham and Ishmael!), with its elaborate ceremonies, had been practiced by pagan Arab tribes for centuries before Muhammad was born. He was turned back by the Meccans, but both parties signed a 10-year ceasefire known as the Treaty of Hubaybiya, as part of which Muhammad relinquished his claim to being "the prophet of Allah."

This treaty allowed Muhammad the next year (A.D. 629) to lead a group of Muslims in the hajj. They joined thousands of "infidel" Arabs in the same pagan ceremonies that their ancestors had practiced for centuries (See TBC Q&A July '03 for the rituals).

In 630, Muhammad broke the ceasefire on a pretext and took over Mecca. At first, he allowed pagan Arabs to continue in the hajj, mingling with the new Muslims in the ancient rituals. Then he gave the pagans four months in which to convert to Islam or be killed. Thereafter, no non-Muslims were allowed into Mecca, as is true today.

So it is with Ramadan, which President Bush (like previous U.S. presidents) and other western leaders naively honor as a "holy Muslim holiday." Beginning with the first sighting of the new moon in the ninth month of the Muslim lunar calendar, Ramadan was celebrated by pagan Arabs in honor of Allah, the moon god, for centuries before Islam. To the hajj and Ramadan, Muhammad added the horror of jihad and commanded Muslims to take over the world. That belief has cost millions of innocent lives and drives terrorism today.

Those promoting the Road Map to Peace are following a history of good intentions on the part of Israel and the West, which invariably have been betrayed by the Arabs/Muslims and have steadily made Israel's position more untenable. American presidents, one after another, have cajoled Israel into compromise after compromise with Arab/Muslim leaders that could only have been uproarious jokes as far as the latter were concerned. Always, the good intentions of Israel and the West have led only to their further humiliation.

Pursuing their impossible peace initiatives, world leaders defy the God of Israel and of the Bible. As the "heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing [and] the kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed" (Ps 2:1-2), those with "ears to hear" (Dt 29:4; Ezk 12:2; Mt 11:15; 13:9, etc.) detect the terrifying sound of laughter: "He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision" (Ps 2:4).

We are in the late stages of the awesome fulfillment of Bible prophecy, behind which lies the omnipotent hand of God himself: "I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem..." (Zec 12:2, 3). That remarkable prophesy is being fulfilled today. Never before in history have all those surrounding Israel been united to destroy her. This significant development in history and Bible prophecy has come about through the rise of Islam.

Bush wants a "democratic, viable" Palestinian state living in peace with Israel, but no democracy exists, or can exist, in a Muslim society. Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East. Bush is trying to create democracy in Afghanistan and Iraq. If that could happen, it would shake the entire Muslim world. Islam cannot survive in freedom. No wonder there is such fanatical opposition from Muslims worldwide, even for the capture of that sadistic mass torturer and murderer, Saddam Hussein. Muslims hold 80 percent of the world's political prisoners.

America's precipitous withdrawal from Lebanon 20 years ago, fleeing from known Syrian/Iranian-sponsored terrorists instead of pursuing them, encouraged the terrorism rampant today worldwide. Can Bush really, with terrorist partners, stand up against the evil of terrorism? When will he admit that it is endemic to Islam? Will the strategic (politically correct?) time ever come for telling the truth? It remains to be seen whether the U.S.can eliminate terrorism, when our State Department secretly opposes Israel and favors Arabs.

The Bible foretells a false peace, by which Antichrist will "destroy many" (Dan 8:24,25). Tragically, Israel will be deceived, tear down the security wall now being built, and drop its guard, opening the door to "the time of Jacob's trouble" (Jer 30:7) and Armageddon (Ezk 38:11,12,14,16). Two-thirds of all Jews worldwide will be killed (Zec 13:8,9). Those who survive will believe in Christ and be saved when He rescues them and they recognize the crucified, resurrected Lord as their Messiah and God (Zec 12:10; Mt 24:13; Rom 11:25,26).

Chapter 3 talks about the how the Israelites did evil in the sight of God and served other gods... The idolatry then leads to servitude as Israel was subdued by the other nations that God had left behind to test Israel. Until there came a time when they cried out to God, did God then raise a deliverer for the sons of Israel.

The first judge who delivered Israel from Cushan-risha-thaim, King of Mesopotamia, was Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother. The second judge was Ehud who delievered Israel from Eglon, King of Moab. He first killed Eglon, then leading the armies of Israel, he kill 10,000 Moabites. The third was Shamgar, who saved Israel by killing 600 Philistines with an oxgaod.

God knows our trials and tribulation, we need only to remain true to Him and not grumble against Him. God's ear is not heavy that He cannot hear, nor is Gos's hand shorten that He cannot saved. All we need to do is to be humble and admit our faults, God will definitely deliver us, He said He would! So be strong and of good courage! Push on, people! Yosh!

Here is the 2nd Chapter of Judges, we see the death of Joshua and Israel started to worship the Baals instead of God... Here we see the importance of leadership. "And the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who survived Joshua, who had seen all the great work of the Lord which He had done for Israel." Judges 2:7. When Joshua and the elders are around, Israel was faithful, but once Joshua died, things took a turn for the worse...

"And all the generation also were gathered to their fathers; and there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord, nor yet the work which He had done for Israel. Then the sons of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served the Baals," Judges 2:10-11. Here, we see the falling away of Israel...

Then came the judgement of God. "So the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and He said, "Because this nation has trangressed My covenant which I commanded their fathers, and has not listen to My voice, I also will no longer drive out before them any of the nations which Joshua left when he died, in order to test Israel by them, whether they will keep the way of the Lord to walk in it as their fathers did, or not." Judges 2:20 - 22.

Well, know this my friends, if we choose to stray away from God, God will not be with us. We will then fail in all our undertakings... Let us always walk closely with God and cast our dependence upon Him. Seeking God first, so that all the other things will be added to us... :"P

Here is something that I have received from my email, hope you all would like it, even though, it is not exactly 1 of January now, but the truths still apply! Yosh!

"Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them."
Isaiah 42:9

Many exciting and challenging things took place last year, but last year is now over. It will never come again. Lift your eyes, and allow Jesus to show you the new year. It is full of possibilities. It is waiting for you. The Lord has prepared good works for you. There are tasks you are to accomplish, people you are to meet, relationships you are to establish and situations in which you are to serve in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Get ready! Commit yourself to the new year. In Christ you will bear much fruit this year. He is the purpose of your life. In Him you will succeed. Without Him you can do nothing. The new year is like the land of Canaan. You need courage, faith, initiative and obedience to enter in. And once in the land there will be opposition, giants and hostile armies that will try to hinder you from receiving your inheritance, God’s blessing through Jesus Christ. But you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you.

Today is the day of salvation. Today is the day of delight. God has placed a desire in your heart, a longing to see His kingdom come during the new year. You must express this desire to the Lord. Speak out what you have in your heart, what you long to see. Do not let the past cast dark shadows over the new year. Do not let yesterday’s mistakes convince you that it is not worthwhile to carry on, to follow Jesus and to believe that He has wonderful plans for your life. Your enemy, the devil, is a liar and he wants to rob you of your boldness. Put all your mistakes, failures, lapses and sins under the blood of Jesus. Confess and leave them with Jesus. He will lift you up again. His grace is all you need. He loves you, and He knows your circumstances. Look to Him!

What will happen during this new year? We do not know, but the year is in the hands of God. So place your life in His hands, too. He cares for you. He will not reject you. On the contrary, He wants to use you more than ever. You are a Christian in a new millennium. What a privilege, what grace, what possibilities. Allow Jesus to be Lord in every area of your life. Allow the Holy Spirit to test every area of your life, every motivation, every disappointment, and you will see how He will help you. A new adventure is beginning, and there is no limit to the greatness of God’s plans for you. He wants to give you both a future and a hope.

Look up! Stand up! Go for it! Follow Jesus! Expect all the good things that God has for you. A new year, like an unwritten page, is waiting to be written by you in cooperation with the Holy Spirit.

- Ulf Ekman

Now we are moving on to the book of Judges. Firstly, an introduction on the book of Judges. The book of Judges is fragmentary and it is not chronological. Many scholars believe that some of the events were concurrent. The nation of Israel was in disarray; they need help from God. The book of Judges portrays some of the darkest pages in the history of the sons of Israel. In fact, it was their Dark Ages.

There were regular cycles of falling away, salvation, restoration and falling away again. Over and over they forgot who the true God was. Each tribe of Israel was mostly isolated from the other tribes. They lost their sense of national unity under God. At this point I would like ourselves to ponder if our lives has become similar to the lives of the Israelites, where we are have cycles of falling away from God, followed by God intervention and restoration to the fellowship of believers and then falling away again. I hope this is not so.

This is seen especially with reference of going to church, I have seen many who have simply give up going to church. Remember that going to church is not for other people, but going to church is come to terms with God face to face and worship him, listening to His word. Many a times we have been stumbled by fellow Christians and we decided not to go to church anymore, let this never to be the case. No matter what, God understands the situation and he will repay to those that has indeed done evil. We have to watch our actions and not be a judge to others. Let us not be fragmented, instead be united in the course of the Great Commission, to bring our love ones to Christ.

The first Chapter of Judges basically details the capture of a few cities of Israel by the tribe of Judah and Caleb. This is illustrated from verse 1 to 26. From verse 27 to 36, details how certain places were not conquered by the other tribes, such as Manasseh, Ephraim, Zebulun, Asher, Naphtali and Dan. Thus Canaanites lived among the Israelites which will sprout the troubles that would come on later...

Finally, I have finish the book of Deuteronomy, I would now proceed onto the book of Judges. Before proceeding further, this is a short summary of the current status! :"P

Current Progress of the Bible...

Old Testament

Genesis
Exodus
Leviticus
Numbers
Deuteronomy
Joshua
Ruth
Song of Solomon

New Testament

Philippians

I have included an insight of the Lord of the Rings, which is shown below! :"P

INTRODUCTION

Finding God in the Lord of the Rings - Introduction

By Kurt Bruner


On a drizzly day in October 1999 I realized a life dream: to visit a little pub in a remote corner of Oxford called The Eagle and Child. I didn't want a drink. What I wanted was a photograph of me sitting where two of my literary heroes had routinely gathered half a century earlier.

In London for a Focus on the Family Radio Theatre record­ing session, I carved out a day and headed to Oxford in order to locate the pub. I expected it to be more obvious. (In the United States-there would be an entire tourist attraction built around it.) By the looks of the place, you'd never know that it had been frequented by such famous writers as C. S. Lewis and I. R. R. Tolkien. I found no sign marking the table they had graced while critiquing one another's work. Appar­ently, it was no big deal to the present management-which was more interested in whether or not I was buying a drink. But it was quite a big deal to me. I was standing in the very pub where the writing group called The Inklings had met during the days when such classics as The Chronicles of Narnia and The Lord of the Rings were taking form! Some people visit Graceland to celebrate the memory of Elvis. I went to Oxford to celebrate two Christian men whose writ­ings have impacted the faith and imaginations of millions.

J. R. R. Tolkien, who helped C. S. Lewis on his journey to Christian faith, wrote The Lord of the Rings, the epic fantasy that became the most popular book of the twentieth century. It sold more than fifty million copies and inspired the film trilogy from New Line Cinema. People of all faiths have enjoyed the adventures of Frodo, Sam, Gandalf, and others on a quest
to save the Shire from impending doom-and with good reason. The craft and creativity behind this won­derful fantasy rank it among the greatest literary works of all time. But many Tolkien fans may not realize that it was a strong Christian faith that inspired and informed the writer's imagination. In fact, many hard-line believers have been hesi­tant to embrace a creative work that includes mythic figures, magic rings, and supernatural themes. This is unfortunate because the transcendent
truths of Christianity bubble up throughout this story, baptizing our imaginations with reali­ties better experienced than studied. Like the works of C. S. Lewis, Tolkien's myth and fantasy can open the heart's back door when the front door is locked. As he explained, "I believe that legends and myths are largely made of 'truth,' and indeed present aspects of it that can only be received in this mode."' The result has been that millions, many of whom reject formal religion, have encountered realities that flourish in the unexplored regions of Christian belief.

FICTIONAL REALITIES

The Lord of the Rings adventure takes place in the fantastic world of Middle-earth, a land given birth and form in J. R. R. Tolkien's imagination. It is an ancient world thriving with men, elves, dwarves, and hobbits who live in relative har­mony while enjoying the blessings of peace and prosperity. Like us, they know the joys and duties of life in any era: hard work, growing children, curious neighbors, and festive celebrations.

The hobbits and other inhabitants of Middle-earth have a rich heritage of songs, ballads, legends, and folklore that infuse otherwise mundane lives with meaning. Some of the songs tell the tale of an evil ruler named Sauron and his dark tower in the ancient land of Mordor. But there are more happy legends of noble warriors and the council of the wise who freed the
world from darkness to establish a land of peace and goodness. Whether the stories are history or myth is little contemplated among the hobbits as they go about their busy routines. More recent stories have taken center stage and become bigger-than-life, such as how Bilbo Baggins obtained long life and great wealth. The friendly, simple hobbit had been part of a risk-filled adventure many years earlier, including the time he found a magic ring dur­ing his famous encounter with the despicable Gollum.

His full story is told in another classic, The Hobhit. One of the most charming aspects of Tolkien's mythic realm is that,
though clearly fictional, it has the feel of a time and region that were once real, possibly long forgotten parts of our own ancient history. This is no accident. Its creator went to great lengths to shape a fantasy world that consis­tently reflects those realities that frame the story in which men of all ages have lived. As a Christian, Tolkien under­stood that our
lives are part of a grand drama that both tran­scends and explains our experiences.

The drama's narrative infuses meaning into scenes and events that would otherwise seem arbitrary and meaningless. Tolkien saw the adventure of our lives, like the adventure of his hobbits, as part of a story that began "once upon a time" and is moving toward its eventual "ever after."

Tolkien's elves, dwarves, hobbits, and other mythic per­sonalities become real as we identify with their fears and failures, sorrows and successes. Their story is our story: a compelling picture of the epic drama playing out on the stage of time and eternity. So many aspects of Tolkien's world mirror the fabric of our own.

For example, the characters recognize that they are part of a story being told.

"What a tale we have been in, Mr. Frodo, haven't we?" reflects Sam after surviving one of many dangerous encoun­ters.

Throughout their adventure Frodo and Sam openly discuss the fact that they are in a story, recognizing that the scenes of life are not random or purposeless, but key events in the great drama in which we play a part. Their outlook reflects the Christian understanding of providence, that we are all part of a story being written by the creator of all that is.

Middle-earth is in its third age, so it is a world with his­tory.

Throughout the book, characters recite poems and songs that tell the tales of ancient past, acknowledging that there is a story behind their story. Careful to pass the stories from one generation to the next, they recognize that what has been gives meaning and context for what is.

Tolkien's fantasy world, like our real world, is one in which good seeks to protect and preserve while evil seeks to dominate and destroy. His characters know that behind the increasingly dark cloud of oppression lurks one who seeks vengeance for past humiliation. In several chilling scenes, the evil Sauron is described as displaying many diabolical char­acteristics that seem to reflect those of the biblical Satan.

The Lord of the Rings is a tale of redemption in which the main characters overcome cowardly self-preservation to model heroic self-sacrifice. Their bravery mirrors the greatest heroic rescue of all time, when Christ "humbled himself and became obedient to death-even death on a cross!" (Philippians 2:8).

These and other themes of Tolkien's fictional story reflect what we know to be the ultimate true story. In Tolkien's words, "The Gospels contain a fairy-story, or a story of a larger kind which embraces all the essence of fairy-stories. They contain many marvels, particularly artistic, beautiful, and moving: 'mythical' in their perfect, self-contained signifi­cance... But this story has entered History and the primary world.. . - This story is supreme; and it is true. Art has been verified. God is the Lord, of angels, and of men-and of elves." It is this understanding of reality that makes The Lord of the Rings one of the greatest fantasies of all time.

We wrote this book to help fans of The Lord of the Rings discover how the rich fabric of Tolkien's fantasy world enhances a Christian understanding of our real world. Each reflection begins with a scene or theme of the adventure that points to a truth or insight for our lives today. We are assuming that the reader is familiar with the entire trilogy, as the concepts explored are intended to enrich the experience of the full story, not replace it.

We do not claim to know the mind of J. R. R. Tolkien beyond what he chose to share with us through letters and other writings. It is unlikely that he had these or any other reflections in mind as he penned his epic. In fact, I would be surprised if he gave any thought at all to how the themes of his story might instruct twenty-first-century readers. The Lord of the
Rings is not, as some have suggested, a covert alle­gory of the gospel. Tolkien clearly denied that idea. We must not turn this wonderful adventure into something it was never intended to be. I agree with Clyde Kilby, who said that "no real lover of Tolkien's fiction would want it turned into sermons, no matter how cleverly preached." Tolkien was telling a story, not proclaiming a message. His Christian worldview pushed itself up of its own accord.

It is not our goal to declare Tolkien's intentions, but rather to explore the inference of his imagination, an imagi­nation that could not help but reflect Christian themes. It's in this context that Tolkien described his fantasy as a fundamentally religious work growing out of his own faith journey. As with any artistic effort, what Tolkien believed was part of him, and that belief became part of what he created.

With that disclaimer, I invite you to reflect upon the Christian themes found throughout The Lord of the Rings. May the fantasy Tolkien created inspire us with the truths he believed.