Friday, November 18, 2005

Good Morning! 

 

Rest of the books came in on Wednesday, so we should be good to go on Sunday.

 

Note that my dad came home yesterday and is doing well.

 

Today's Overview:  Chapter 3 -- Edmund and the Wardrobe 

 

Our third unit in the book moves to the second chapter of the book.

 

When Lucy returns, she finds that her three brothers and sisters (Peter, Susan and Edmund) have been just a few feet away the whole time.  Lucy tried to tell them about Narnia, but they just make fun of her, even as she sticks to her story.  Later, Lucy and Edmund go back to the room with the wardrobe, and they go back to Narnia.  Edmund can't find Lucy, but runs into someone who turns out to be the White Witch - queen of Narnia.

 

Our lesson for this section hits on the way that Edmund treated Lucy when she first came back from discovering the wardrobe and Narnia. Our study describes him as mean-spirited, selfish and unkind to Lucy.  Not giving away anything in the story, but I think that Edmund's attitude is what makes him vulernable to the White Witch further in the story.

 

I think that the takeaway from this unit is the idea how we show love and kindness to others when they have something to share with us.  Lucy experienced something fantastic, and she wanted to share it with her brothers and sister.  They dismissed her story completely, even after she stuck with it.  I think that there are times were people around us -- friends and family -- have emotions or stories or questions that they want to share with someone else, to help them understand their own feelings or help them make decisions.  But they may be reluctant to do so because it could open them up to the kind of ridicule that Edmund heaped on Lucy.  One of the the things that we can offer to family and friends as Christians is a sense that they can talk to us, that we love them enough for them to trust us with their story, their questions or their emotions.

 

Today's Scriptures

 

The scriptures today focus on brotherly love.

 

John 13:34-35; 1 Peter 3:8;  1 Corinthians 13

 

Today's prayer request:      Our leaders

 

Need to remember our political leaders at the local, state, and national level.  So many things going on -- Iraq, Supreme Court nominee, Hurricane Katrina -- we need to remember them and ask God to give them wisdom and strength as they make decisions and provide leadership for our communities.

 

Today's class member prayer: 

 

Brandon Herring

 

Have a great day.

 

Jay

Thursday, November 17, 2005

Good Morning! 

 

Even colder this morning! 

 

I fixed the link on our web site to the Narnia story notes, so it should work correctly this morning.

 

Go to leapclass.blogspot.com, or use this link below:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lion%2C_the_Witch_and_the_Wardrobe

 

Today's Overview:  Chapter 2 -- What Lucy Found There

 

Our second unit in the book is still in the first chapter of the story.

 

Lucy finds a lamp post in Narnia, and very shortly a faun named Mr. Tumnus appears.  (A faun is a creature that has the torso of a man and the horns, ears, tail and legs of a goat).  They go back to his cave, and tells Lucy some things about Narnia, and then he plays his flute, which causes Lucy to fall asleep.  Once she awakens, Mr. Tumnus confesses that he works for the White Witch, and that his flute playing was intended to give him time to turn Lucy into the White Witch.  But he decides not to that, and instead helps Lucy back to the lamp post so that she can go back to the wardrobe and then home.

 

The thought that our study pulls from this part of the story is based on Mr. Tumnus's change of heart.  Mr. Tumnus was going to do something (turn Lucy over to the White Witch), but in his heart he realized that it was not the right thing to do, and he had time to stop that and do the right thing.

 

So the thought for today, to me, is that it is never too late to do the right thing.  Doing the wrong thing hung heavy on Mr. Tumnus, to the point he was in tears when Lucy woke up from his spell.  Mr. Tumnus had the strength and courage to listen to his heart, and change his course of action.  I like to think that this is an example of how God's grace works in our lives -- not only identifying for us when we are on the wrong path, but giving us the strength and courage to change.

 

Today's Scriptures

 

The scriptures today all focus on forgiveness and repentance.

 

Joel 2:12-13; Psalm 51; 1 John 1:9

 

Today's prayer request:      The family and friends of Matthew Frazier

 

Matthew was a student of Megan's up until last year, when his mom had to transfer to Atlanta for work.  He had a rare genetic disorder, and he died yesterday.  He was 14.  We need to remember all of his friends and family as they deal with this loss, particularly his mother Gwen.

 

Today's class member prayer: 

 

Danny Walker

 

Have a great day.

 

Jay

Wednesday, November 16, 2005 - Let's Get Started edition

Good Morning! 

 

Nice cold morning to wake up to.

 

If you didn't hear it yesterday, NPR did a story about bringing Narnia to the screen.  Here is the link to the story if you would like to hear it:

 

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5013120

 

The way our study guide is structured is that there is short bit of commentary on roughly each chapter of the book.  So I thought I would do a chapter a day for this study.  You can simply do the study, or, if you have the time, do the study and the book one chapter a day.  As we have been doing, we'll just do Monday through Friday. If you get behind, it shouldn't be hard to catch up.  If you don't want to read the story, but want to keep up with plot, the link from yesterday is your connection with the "cliff notes" version of the story.  You can go to our website at leapclass.blogspot.com to find a link to the chapter by chapter story summary.

 

Today's Overview:

 

Chapter one of the study starts with Lucy discovering the magical wardrobe and discovering the secret of the back of wardrobe.  She is drawn into snowy woods, and further drawn in by a light from lamp post.

 

We need to note as we get into to this that our study is taking the approach of finding Biblical parallels in every chapter and element of the book.  C. S. Lewis, when he wrote this book, especially this one, as the first one in the series, didn't originally set out to make it a "Christian" story, but it just evolved into that.  So some of the connections that our study makes to the Bible are some that C.S. Lewis probably didn't specifically have in mind.

 

But the study today uses this first chapter to make a couple of points, particularly one that we should think on today.  The idea of secret things that revealed to someone through exploration and curiosity is one that has parallels with our own Christian experience.  The Bible -- Old and New Testament alike - are filled with verses about uncovering the mysteries of God and his purpose for our lives.  I would hope that, after a year or so of study as a class, that you have discovered some things about God through your own personal exploration.

 

Today's Scriptures

 

Three scriptures today on this topic:

 

1 Corinthians 2:7-13; Romans 11-33:36; Colossians 2:2-3

 

Today's prayer request:      My dad

 

My dad, Jerry Waters, had to go to hospital last night with a recurrence of the heart issues that he has been having.  They are having a hard time regulating his heart rate, and yesterday's episode could have included another heart attack. Just need prayers that the doctors are going to be able to get his heart rate under control some how.

 

Today's class member prayer: 

 

Jodi Findlay

 

Have a great day.

 

Jay

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

Good Morning! 

 

Sorry I didn't send anything out yesterday -- I was under the weather.

 

Starting today on our Narnia study.  We had three study guides that I was able to find after scouring the book stores -- the rest were backordered and should be here by Wednesday.  As you might imagine, there has been quite a run on Narnia related studies, etc.

 

Based on our discussions this past Sunday, we thought that we would try to arrange a class trip to see the movie after church on Sunday, December 11.  That is opening weekend of the movie.

 

This is going to be a short study, and I think the idea here is that this is a chance for us to study a story that is another telling of the Christian story.  C.S. Lewis (or Jack, as his friends called him), was one of the greatest contemporary Christian writers and essayists.  He more or less stumbled into the idea of writing a children's novel, which turned into several novels.  Even less planned was the Christian nature of the story, which just initially worked into his story on its' own, to hear Lewis describe it.

 

I think what we will get out of this is a new perspective on the Christian story; a new way to see how our faith life might live out in our own lives, and an appreciation of how to see the story of Christ in other stories from other writers.

 

Overview:

 

I know that some folks have read the book, some haven't, and some read it sometime ago.  So I thought we would start today with just a brief overview of the story.

 

The movie is based on the book "The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe"., which is the first of seven books that Lewis wrote in what became known as the Chronicles of Narnia.  During the Second World War, when children from London were being evacuated to the country, four youngsters were billeted at Jack's home, the Kilns. Surprised to find how few imaginative stories his young guests seemed to know, he decided to write one for them and scribbled down the opening sentences of a story about four children -- then named Ann, Martin, Rose and Peter -- who were sent away from London because of the air raids, and went to stay with a very old professor who lived by himself in the country.

That's all he wrote at the time, but, several years later, he returned to the story. The children (now named Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy) found their way into another world -- a land he would eventually call Narnia.  He published The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe in 1950, and published the last of the seven books in 1956.

 

The following link to a Wikipedia entry will take you to a kind of Cliff Notes version of the book, which will give you either a refresher course on the book's plot or a quick first overview.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lion%2C_the_Witch_and_the_Wardrobe

 

The official website of the film is at www.narnia.com.

 

Today's prayer request:      Christie and Andrew Peebles

 

Christie told us on Sunday that she and Andrew were pregnant again, about eight weeks+.  She said that the ultrasound looks good.   We need to pray that they have a problem-free pregnancy.

 

Today's class member prayer: 

 

Lynn Rocksvold

 

Have a great day.

 

Jay