Want to laugh? Check out this new take on Star Wars.

I was seated in my theater seat with popcorn in one hand, sprite in the other, ready to watch Star Wars, Episode III when the previews of other movies started. One began, I was sure it was for Lemony Snickets, but was pleasantly surprised to see a little girl walk through a wardrobe. Yes, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe is set to be released by Disney at Christmas.

I don’t know the direction Disney will take this but if it is half as exciting as the Radio Dramas of this series as broadcast through Focus on the Family I am sure I will be excited for another Narnia release.

****POSSIBLE SPOILER****

Were you standing in line at 12:01a.m. on May 19 to see the first showing of Star Wars III ? Not me. I had an opportunity from a computer systems vendor to see if free at 10am, so I got some sleep.

I am not an avid Star Wars fan but I can’t stand to not have all answers. Our pastor has a sermon outline with blanks to fill in during each service. I hate it when he skips a blank. I have to fill in all the blanks or I feel like I missed something. So, since I had seen all other Star Wars episodes I had to see this one to find out how and why Aniken became Darth Vadar (sorry if I ruined the ending for you, haha).

I was intrigued by some lines I heard in the movie. In talking about becoming a Darth, the counselor tells a story about one who could give life to the dead. However he, himself dies. “He could give life to save others others but he could not save himself”. Sound familiar? Check out Mark 15:31 where Christ is mocked while on the cross. (Remember, though, Christ defeated death, death did not defeat him).

Another comment was the order to begin mass destruction of the Republic. The order number is “66″. There are 66 books in the Bible and in the 66th book, the book of Revelation we see the final battle where the anti-Christ, in the name of peace, begins an all out battle to destroy all who oppose Him.

Having been promised that his wife would be spared death if he pledged himself to the dark side, he is told it was his own fault when he did as commanded and she was not spared. Isn’t that like Satan? It is your fault things didn’t work as I promised they would, not mine.

My husband and I agreed we disliked one line when in the battle to convince Anika to turn back to good, he is told “the Dark Side believes in absolutes” which made us both shudder because so often, people use that to say why they won’t believe in Christ, He says “I AM THE WAY” the only way to be with God in Heaven for eternity. But when we discussed this I also realized that all the comments which I could attribute to scripture were spoken by the Dark Side.

The Dark Side loses the battle in the saga and Satan loses in Revelation.

I am not a theologian and certainly cannot look deep into a movie and see all the underlying themes, analogies, etc., but these items did jump out at me.

On another note: an exciting new movie is coming out this Christmas; the C.S. Lewis movie The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. I have not read the books (shame on me) but I have listened to the radio drama of all the Narnia books including this one through Focus On The Family.

The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. Romans 13:12

Visit this week’s Christian Carnival and delve out of the darkness into the Light which is Jesus Christ.

I am not a big fan of “Everybody Loves Raymond” but I do watch some episodes. I was reminded of one episode recently. Raymond goes to the basement with his mother and there are stacks of unopened gifts that had been given to them over the years. There was a microwave, an electric knife, a DVD player and many more.

I was helping a friend pack to move and in a closet we found a pile of gifts that had been partially unwrapped and stuck on a shelf. “I remember giving those gifts to my son” she said, “it was that Christmas he had broken up with his girlfriend, he must not have taken them with him when he left.” There was a camera, a watch, cologne and other items still in their original box and many even had wrapping paper attached.

God has given us a gift. The gift of salvation. I went to dictionary.com and found a definition for gift as “Something that is bestowed voluntarily and without compensation”; then I found 2 definitions for salvation: (1) Preservation or deliverance from destruction, difficulty, or evil. (2) Deliverance from the power or penalty of sin; redemption.

God sent his son, Jesus Christ to die a horrendous death as payment for our sin that we may live eternally in heaven with Him. This is gift is given freely, we have only to accept it; but like my friend’s son and Raymond’s mother we often pull the wrapper back, glance inside, then place it out of sight and forget about it.

This gift is very precious and is to be treasured. I like the way Jude 1:3 is expressed in “The Message” Dear friends, I’ve dropped everything to write you about this life of salvation that we have in common. I have to write insisting–begging!-that you fight with everything you have in you for this faith entrusted to us as a gift to guard and cherish.

I have on a display shelf in my home a doll that was given to me by my grandmother when I was a young child. I cherish this gift, I treaure it, and I display it for all who enter my home to see. My gift of salvation is something a I cherish and treasure and hope to display to all who see me.

How about your gift from God? Have you received it yet? And if so, is it still wrapped and on a shelf in a closet? If so, isn’t it time you accepted the gift completely as given and put it to use in your life? God loves you and wants you to know Him.

Explore Ephesians 6 through this week’s Christian Carnival.

You are well aware I am a teddy bear fan. But I pay the utilities by working as a Network Administrator for medium sized company. I take care of all the PC and server issues, actually, if it has a power button on it, I get the call when there is a problem.

So I was excited to find this PC Teddy Bear. I have secretly sent the link to my hubbybear and asked for one for Christmas.

If you are a computer geek, you have probably already heard about Stationery Is Bad. There are some cute short video clips about trouble at the office. Click on the “download movies” tab.

Even if you are not a computer geek, you will enjoy this.

This week’s Christian Carnival is hosted by Kentucky Packrat and he has packed up a whole lot of comments this week on faith, theology, family, culture and more.

Grab your teddy bear and share some time checking out this week’s carnival.