Yes, there is witchcraft in Harry Potter. If you focus on that then you get the witchcraft=evil conclusion.

I didn't get that simple of a conclusion. Refer to my earlier posts.

Errmmm....as I said before, whether the content of the books themselves is evil is basically, to me, inconsequential.

The modern societal portayal of magic and witchcraft as a good thing is great marketing for it, whether it's intended or not.

Hence the fact that Wicca is growing so fast among teenagers in the USA today.

PS - of course witchcraft has power (esp over people) - that's like saying demons cannot have power over people.

May I ask, what was it about your husband that -

a) attracted you to him initially

and

b) made you decided he was the one you wanted to marry?

Thanks  

Yeah, I agree.

If he is starting to confide in you more than he is sharing with his wife then trouble is starting...

I don't think it's wrong to feel as you do. Acting on the feelings on the other hand...

Lust is a part of growing - don't worry, it's normal. However:

Don't ever underestimate the power of internet porn. If you are mucking around with it there is a very high chance that it is going to have a major affect on your life.

This is a powerful issue today - don't spend the next 10 years of your life growing progressively more enslaved to it before you seek help. If you are finding yourself turning to pornography (and even if you think you can walk away from it anytime) then you need to talk to someone and make yourself accountable to them.

If you find yourself turning to lust (fantasy, wrong looking, etc) increasingly instead of building relationships with girls (because it's difficult, or you've been rejected a few times) - and I mean building friendships, not just dating etc - then this is an area of danger too.
Each time you give up on the difficult area of building relationships, and turn to lust instead, you're setting up a habit that will only ever have negative effects on your life. Taking the easy option each time begins to make the more difficult option even more difficult.

The problem with Lust is that a role that it often plays in our lives is to replace genuine relationship. Lust is more often than not a temptation based in legitimate desire - for love and relationship - but twisted by the devil to tempt us to pursue an object rather than a relationship.

Be aware that one of the greatest ways the devil is undermining the church today is through making people ineffectual by trapping them in things like habitual lust. One of the things that traps us easily is the shame we feel when we fall into lust.

Conversely, one of the greatest things you can do to set yourself free and maintain freedom is to banish shame by confessing to someone you can trust (pastor, older mentor, etc), and forming a mentoring relationship with a person like this. Honesty and accountability does wonders to helping you resist lust - because it counters one of the devil's greatest weapon's in this area - the fear people have of asking for help.

If you find yourself turning to pornography, don't be fooled that you can stop at any time. It draws you in to greater usage over time.

At the same time, don't ever think you're the only one, or that your sin is too shameful to talk to others about. It's not - it's one of the more common sins undermining Christian men all over the world today. Even Kirk Franklin struggled with pornography - at the same time that he was releasing albums like Stomp.

But you cannot afford to take lust lightly - esp with porn so easy to get. If you find yourself starting to take it lightly ask yourself this question:

"How many years of my life am I going to give up to pornography, before I'm going to start feeling truly alive?"

Anyone seen this? Quite a good movie overall.

A great effort for a film-maker's first movie (Zach Branf (sp?) - the lead actor from Scrubs).

Definitely the Live Action movies. Jackson did an amazing job.

Don't forget also that some of the other story material will be filled in in the extended version coming out very soon.

I'm not saying this applies to you bemanisuperstar, but this is just an insight into this topic...

I used to often pine away for a girlfriend, then it occurred to me... was I ready for one? What sort of person did I want as a partner.. and was I the sort of person they would want to be with? I always wanted a spiritually mature partner, but it dawned on me that what #I wanted was at a level above where I was, and since the man is supposed to be the head in a  relationship, I would need to develop into a more mature godly man before I was truly ready to recieve what I was praying for.

Wise words here - this is me to a T.

I'm still single - but I'm much more happy for God to bring the right woman along for me when he is ready now - because I know that I am much more ready than I was in the past.

We should not love the gift more than the giver.

I make sure I go to the movies every now and then to see how bad they are...




Just kidding  

Saw the first three and liked them.

Strange she doesn't like the Narnia Chronicles, given that C.S. Lewis wrote them as allegory of Christian stories.

On the whole Harry Potter thing, here's my take.

I've watched the movies, and think that in and of themselves the content of the movies is not dark, evil, and scary.

The only problems I do have with these movies is not really about these movies in particular.

In our current media culture there has been a growing popularisation of magic and witch-craft as a good and positive thing. You can see this in things like 'Charmed' and 'Harry Potter', as well as things like LOTR, which I personally love.

I don't think there is any danger in Christians watching these things - I think that we have enough discernment.

However, the interesting aspect to me is the degree to which teenage culture and thought is formed by the media. Teenagers nowdays are constantly getting the message that magic and witchcraft is nice, pleasant, and good - if used for good.

In a typical sense - this could be thought of as a 'gateway'. Not many teenagers are going to be attracted to witchcraft through real depictions of goat sacrifices etc, but we can plainly see they're attracted to 'good clean fun' magic.

I saw recently in the news that Wicca is the fastest growing religion amongst teenagers 14-15 years old in the USA.

I work in Marketing & Advertising - if there is one thing I know well it is this: if you publicise something over and over in a positive light - popularity of that item will increase. I've never seen an exception to this.

I read the first one. Main points as I saw it:

1. Thin characters, and not great writing overall.

2. One interpretation of end-times ideas. Interesting and entertaining, but by no means certain.

Cool, sounds like it will be very interesting then.

I don't think people are blaming others if they give in to the temptation.

It's more they're just noting the increased proliferation of temptation.

I live in Auckland, New Zealand



This is about 20 minutes from my house: