The Gospel According to Harry Potter

That's the title of a book I read some time ago. It refers to "glimmers of the gospel" in the books. I've been a fan of Harry Potter for years but went slightly off it when I became a Christian, but since got back into them, and this book was a great help. It was written before the final three Harry Potter books were written, so I suppose you just need to figure those ones out for yourself. :)

Song lyrics are actually what makes me think the most. And today I actually made a connection between "When I survey the wondrous cross" and Harry Potter. This is an old hymn I know quite well by now, it's a favourite in our church. But ironically the line I connected with Harry Potter comes from the new version, Wonderful Cross: "bids me come and die and find that I may truly live".

I connect this part with the ending, or almost, of book 7, Deathly Hallows, Harry realises he must surrender himself to defeat Voldemort, but since there was a part of Voldemort's soul in him, all that happened was that the Horcrux in him was destroyed, thereby granting him life.

So, our salvation is summed up in that song lyric. Just like Harry, we know we must die, i.e. surrender ourselves to God, and because He loves us so much, we are then saved from hell by His grace and we may live!

P.S. Back to the previous post... sadly the baby has not survived. Hard to understand why, but I know God has His reasons.

Give this Christmas away

The title of one of the songs which I heard yesterday that has really made me want to make a difference this Christmas. This is the first, which came from the Big Idea (Veggie Tales) website. In my music collection it was followed by "Hands of Love" by Michael Harcus.

Putting these two together it had lyrics like "If there's love in your heart, don't let it stay there", "what about the people out in the cold, the starving and the hungry, by no fault of their own". There is a Christian company called Blytheswood, and through them we fill shoeboxes of Christmas presents for the poor. I haven't yet done anything for them this year, but these songs have encouraged me to do something, however big or small.

I also want to ask prayer for one of the families whose blogs I follow. The Stansels had sextuplets prematurely, and now only 3 are left. One is possibly going into kidney failure and they may have to say goodbye to this one too. I have seen this happen on another family blog, but with lots of prayer, that baby survived! Please lift them up in prayer and stop by their blog to give them some words of encouragement.