Harry Potter

   I read the Harry Potter series over winter break and fell in love. In fact, I enjoyed so much that I wrote a little theme analysis type thing I will share here. Brace yourselves, it's pretty long! :)

Caroline’s Summary of the Ideas Found in 

Harry Potter

   It’s not up to us to get revenge. We must stay safe through innocence and with no opposition of the same kind, evil in forced to turn on itself because it is never satisfied, it must continue to hurt and destroy in order stay alive. If our hands are clean and our hearts pure then we have created an impenetrable shield of love and sacrifice that evil cannot break because it lacks understanding. The pure of heart do not understand evil but that doesn’t matter because the pure of heart never wage war. In their purity, they are led to sacrifice through love which binds all things together in perfect harmony and because evil is the opposite of both love and harmony it has no choice but to kill itself. The pure hearts cannot kill because only evil knows true death. 

Explanations:

• It’s not up to us to get revenge (if we say that someone is evil then commit a deed equal to that of which we have condemned them for, our deeds are equal and so is the measure of our evil.)

• We must stay safe through innocence and with no opposition of the same kind (This is not to say we should not fight back against evil. It simply means that we should not fight to harm but to save. When we choose to fight evil by inflicting pain and fear then we are fighting evil in the exact same way it is fighting us therefore we are trying to conquer evil with evil. If instead we retaliate by trying to prevent the infliction of pain and fear on others, then we are fighting to save rather than harm and we remain innocent and free of blame.)

• evil is forced to turn on itself because evil is never satisfied, it must continue to hurt and destroy in order to stay alive. (Evil cannot continue to exist without people who are willing to harm others for selfish gain. If we remain innocent and unwilling, evil cannot grow. Because blame and selfishness are found in the foundation of all evil, those who are corrupt will often try to excuse themselves by blaming those around them and evil wages war against itself. They do this because they want to avoid the pain of remorse, not realizing that it is only through that pain that they may feel true joy later on.)

• If our hands are clean and our hearts pure then we have created an impenetrable shield of love and sacrifice that evil cannot break because it lacks understanding. (When we allow evil to enter into us and control how we behave, we become evil’s prisoners. Remorse (as afore mentioned) is the key which unlocks our prison. However, we can skip all of that by not allowing evil to enter into us at all. When our deeds stem from love and sacrifice, we strengthen the shield that protects us from evil but selfish motives that are often part of our nature create kinks in the armor.  They allow passage for evil to slip in, often without us recognizing it for what it is. We must remain close to Jesus in order to recognize and expel evil from ourselves. Without selfish motives, our shields are impenetrable. In war, an army cannot successfully attack against the opposing side if they don’t understand the other sides defense. Because love and sacrifice have no place with fear and destruction, evil doesn’t understand our defense, if it did, it would no longer be evil.)

• The pure of heart do not understand evil but that doesn’t matter because the pure of heart never wage war. (The innocent cannot understand the appeal of hurting others therefore do not understand evil, but because the innocent don’t want to hurt others, they do not wage war against others and their lack of understanding of evil keeps them pure.)

• In their purity, they are led to sacrifice through love which binds all things together in perfect harmony (Just as Jesus, who was completely pure, sacrificed Himself for us due to His love for us, we can do the same for those around us. Love leads us to sacrifice our own interests for that of others and the joy and blessings that come from our sacrifice creates a life much fuller than if we followed our own hearts because to listen only to your heart is selfishness at its finest.)

• and because evil is the opposite of both love and harmony it has no choice but to kill itself. (Evil cannot coincide with love and harmony so it will leave any place in which love and harmony reign. If our shields are working and evil has no where to go it will turn on itself (as is its nature) and destroy itself instead of us defiling ourselves in our attempts to destroy it).

• The pure hearts cannot kill because only evil knows true death. (Those of pure hearts are those who know Jesus and, consequently, are given eternal life after earthly death. In the end, only evil will truly die/be forced into nonexistence. Because the pure of heart don’t know death, we cannot dish it out and remain untouched.) 

I hope you enjoyed my spiritual and thematically connections and will think of them(e) whenever you read these wonderful books!

Library's are pretty awesome and you'll probably be able to check them out any where but if you would like to own this wonderful series click HERE to buy them.

To visit J.K. Rowling's website click HERE.

Follow Me

     I'm just finishing up what is probably the best book I've ever read (excluding the Bible)! It is called Follow Me and is written by David Platt. The book explores what it truly means to follow Jesus and spread His love and word in everything we do. It also explains why it is so important for us to do so. For more information (or to buy the book) click here. The book will look like this: 

I strongly recommend this book and if you like it, you might also enjoy David Platt's other book, Radical. Click here for more info about Radical. Enjoy! :)

Valentines Day

    Valentines Day and love are always connected to each other but in reality, the superficial of pink hearts and teddy bears that line the shelves of Walmart are nothing in comparison to the love that Jesus has for us. 

     The verse above is John 3:16 and perfectly explains the magnitude of the love that God has for us. He sent His only son, Jesus, into torture so that some meaningless, sinful people on earth could be saved. And even more amazing, Jesus willingly went! True love is selfless and sacrificial and that is the love Jesus gives to us. Romans 5:8 say this, "But God showed His own love for us in this, while we were still sinners Christ died for us." Keep His great love and everlasting gift in mind today and for the rest of eternity!

Proverbs 31:30 + The Hunger Games

If you have not yet read all 3 Hunger Games books, please do so before you proceed! :)

   Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.

                          Proverbs 31:30

   Proverbs 31:30 is my memory verse for Bible study this week and although it is a well known one, I don't think people think a whole lot about what it actually means. I think we look at it and think to ourselves that it is a beautiful, simple verse and rings with wisdom and truth and then we move on. At least that is what I've been doing for the past 15 years and 111 days (aka until this morning). This morning I was thinking about how we never question the truth of the verse in words, it is clearly correct, but it is definitely questioned in the actions of our society. Take models for example, they clearly much more good looking than all the rest of us(whether natural or otherwise) so these lucky ducks get jobs where they don't get to pick what they wear and have to pretend to feel emotions they aren't feeling and are constantly being dissected in magazines ect. and worrying about how they look. And what do they gain (in terms of appearance)  from all this trouble? The chance to grow old and gain wrinkles and gray hair just like the rest of us. So, what was the point of that rambling you ask? Simply to make sure you are aware that beauty is indeed fleeting. Now for charm...

   This one is harder because some may like to present the argument that charm is not nearly so superficial but, alas, it is. They dictionary recently taught me that charm is a trait or feature imparting the power of pleasing people through personality or beauty. Now, if you are one of the aforementioned "charm is not superficial people" you may feel that the use of personality proves your point but it does not. You are born with a personality the same way you are born with you face. You may try to tweak it or change it to fit the image of what you or society think it should be but parts of the "real you" will always be peeking through the mask. On the other hand, character is the real deal. Character is what you have the power to change whether for better or worse.

   So, I was thinking of this while I was reading the Hunger Games and decided that a great example of this would be Peeta. Peeta is a charming guy. At school he was one of the cool kids. In his interviews, everyone loved him. During Quarter Quell training it took 2 hours for the other tributes to become his friends. Also, he's fairly attractive. But despite all this, the thing that saved his life was his character. Katniss liked Peeta but in her first games she was perfectly willing to kill him along with his charm and beauty. But when she gets a true glimpse at his character, his goodness, she can't. 

    Anyway, I thought that was a cool demonstration, hope you liked it! :)

God Helps the Helpless (5:1-17)

       I'm going to blog about this story a little differently than usual. Please read the word (John 5:1-17) and below is the story with my commentary mixed in.
       So Jesus is up in Jerusalem and heads to a spring called Bethesda. All around the pool are people who are disabled because everyone believes that if as angel stirs the water (aka the water starts rippling for an unknown reason) the first one into the pool will be healed. Of course, it's no big surprise that Jesus is hanging out around the outcasts seeing as he always heads to the people who need Him most, the helpless. So anyway, He sees this guy who's been lying by the pool for 38 years. For 38 YEARS, in case you didn't catch that the first time. So Jesus sees him and, because He knows he's been there for a long time he asks, "Do you want to be healed?" This may seem like a pretty obvious question seeing as the man is laying by the pool of Bethesda but he has, after all, been laying there for 38 years. Seems like if He really wanted to get well he might try to change his methods a little bit. Seems like even though He may think he wants to get well, the truth for him, and many others, is that we're so used to our bad lives that were scared of change and the responsibility that may come with it. Jesus is just making sure this guy knows what He wants before He gets it. He's prefacing the miracle and putting everyone on the same page. So anyway, this guy doesn't answer JC's yes or no question with a yes or no. Instead he gives an excuse, "Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I'm going, another walks down the steps before me." There is expression that says, "You can name it and blame it or name it and claim it." That would have been very helpful for this guy to hear seeing as he was naming it and blaming it (stating his problem and excusing himself from the fact that he is no where close to fixing it) rather than naming it and claiming it (naming his problem and how he is going to deal with it). Then, now that Jesus has affirmed that this guy does indeed want to be healed, He heals him.
       "Get up, take up you bed, and walk." That is what Jesus tells the man to do. Now, since the bed was not actually a bed but actually a beggars mat for the disabled people, the man doesn't need it anymore but Jesus has him take it with him anyway. The mat is a physical reminder of what Jesus saved him from. It is symbolic of a scar. Scar's remind us of what we were saved from and give us a platform to share our stories with others. I think that Jesus is telling the man to pick up his mat to tell us not to keep our scars, and therefore stories, locked up as a thing of the past because although they might be a thing of the past for us, others are going through similar things and we can be what God uses to help them.
       While we might not be disabled, we often have sick, lame, blind, withered days and those are the ones that Jesus can turn around. All we have to do is be willing to participate in His power!

Belief to Believers (John 4:49-54)

       We're back on the subject of John and I'm going to do a verse by verse again on John 4:49-54. 

• John 4:49: because this man is called "the official" we can assume He is somewhat like Nicodemus (click here for more details). Jesus was his last resort, all the official had left to turn to in order to save his son.
• John 4:50: Jesus didn't hesitate when He claimed that the son would live. Remember, He was fully human at the time so although He was God, it was like He had downgraded His body and power. Being fully human Jesus didn't have the power to heal the sick alone. Instead, His strong and constant connection with God and faith in God allowed Him to confidently assure the official his son would be made well without even seeing the sons condition. The official didn't question Jesus, instead of begging Him to come to His house and touch his son, he believed Jesus whole heartedly.
• John 4:51-53: His son is healed! This is so encouraging to  us because it proves that when we ask Jesus, He can heal anyone, no matter how far away they are! Also, His son started to recover at the exact time Jesus said He would so it was clearly by God's strength and mercy the he was made well. But something even cooler than spiritual healing happened that day, the official and his whole family believed. They were saved by the power of Jesus because Jesus believed in God's strength! That's what we are supposed to do. When we believe in the strength and power of Jesus, we can be a part of bringing salvation to others!

The Creator

     This post will be a little different because I'm not writing about John (I'll pick that up again next week!). Instead I've decided to write about why I know God is real. 
     Whenever my biology teacher explains stuff to us he ends the explanation by saying, "Y'all don't even understand how amazing this is." And he's right, we don't because no one can fully understand how amazing God is. The more I learn about how our bodies function, the intricate details and processes that keep us alive. The more I learn about the way the world works (the natural world), why it's changing and exciting, the more convinced I am that there is no chance it all appeared by chance. It's crazy to me how people continue to come up with ways the world came about and yet, every idea has been scientifically proven wrong except for one, God. Has He ever been scientifically proven, no. But that's kind of the point of faith. 
     We see some scientific evidence pointing towards the need for a creator, the truth of the Bible, Jesus resurrection, ect. but in the end, we need faith. Hebrew 11:1 says, "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." In verse 3 it goes on to say, "By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible." When we trust someone, there is no scientific evidence that they will keep there promise, we have to have faith in them. That is the same way with God. We can't just believe in facts, we need to believe in Him.
     Another thing, even though God is not scientifically proven, He is proven spiritual in the lives and hearts of those who know Him. He is truly amazing and I'm definitely looking forward to the day I get to meet Him face to face! :)

Side note: In web mastery I've been learning about HTML. It's is hard to remember the codes but if you know them it is fairly simple. I think it's really cool how you can make colors and fonts and pictures appear just by typing some words! (though it's nothing in comparison to making the world by speaking some words! :))

How could something like this be made by chance? For more crazy nature (God made) images click here.