Genesis 1:1-2 “In The Beginning” from The Smart Guide To The Bible The first two verses of Genesis tell us so much that we couldn’t know otherwise, yet God knows that we are only humans, His highest creation, created in His image, but we can never figure Him out. Join me as we look together at the first two verses of the Bible from the Smart Guide to the Bible. –Ray
Genesis 1:1-2 “In The Beginning” from The Smart Guide To The Bible
4 What Caspian Did There, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader – The Chronicles of Narnia – by C.S. Lewis. Read aloud by Ray Mossholder
Ray’s teaching and entertaining readings of books like “The Chronicles of Narnia” are now available to be viewed and heard all over the world on YouTube. Ray says about these readings, “I love kids of every age and reading Christian novels to anyone who enjoys them makes them far more enjoyable to me.” Ray’s final words about all he’s lived through is: “I know that my Redeemer lives.” – See more at: http://reachmorenow.com
Clive Staples Lewis (29 November 1898 — 22 November 1963), commonly called C. S. Lewis and known to his friends and family as “Jack”, was a novelist, poet, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian, and Christian apologist born in Belfast, Ireland. He held academic positions at both Oxford University (Magdalen College), 1925–1954, and Cambridge University (Magdalene College), 1954–1963. He is best known both for his fictional work, especially The Screwtape Letters, The Chronicles of Narnia, and The Space Trilogy, and for his non-fiction Christian apologetics, such as Mere Christianity, Miracles, and The Problem of Pain.
Lewis and fellow novelist J. R. R. Tolkien were close friends. Both authors served on the English faculty at Oxford University, and both were active in the informal Oxford literary group known as the “Inklings”. According to his memoir Surprised by Joy, Lewis had been baptized in the Church of Ireland (part of the Anglican Communion) at birth, but fell away from his faith during his adolescence. Owing to the influence of Tolkien and other friends, at the age of 32 Lewis returned to the Anglican Communion, becoming “a very ordinary layman of the Church of England”.[1] His faith had a profound effect on his work, and his wartime radio broadcasts on the subject of Christianity brought him wide acclaim.
In 1956, he married the American writer Joy Davidman, 17 years his junior, who died four years later of cancer at the age of 45. Lewis died three years after his wife, from renal failure, one week before his 65th birthday. Media coverage of his death was minimal; he died on 22 November 1963—the same day that U.S. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, and the same day another famous author, Aldous Huxley, died. In 2013, on the 50th anniversary of his death, Lewis will be honoured with a memorial in Poets’ Corner, Westminster Abbey.
Lewis’s works have been translated into more than 30 languages and have sold millions of copies. The books that make up The Chronicles of Narnia have sold the most and have been popularized on stage, TV, radio, and cinema.
The Chronicles of Narnia Is Back! – The Magician’s Nephew – the whole book!!! When one chapter ends the next will begin!
This week on the C.S. Lewis website – www.cslewis.com – you can find a real Christmas present for yourself or someone you love. And look at all the books C.S. Lewis wrote.
The Chronicles of Narnia Is Back! – The Magician’s Nephew Chapter 1 – The Wrong Door
If one could run without getting tired, I don’t think one would often want to do anything else. But there might be special reasons for stopping, and it was a special reason which made Eustace presently shout: “I say! Look what we’re coming to!” And well he might. For now they saw before them Cauldron Pool and beyond the Pool the high unclimbable cliffs, thousands of tons of water every second, flashing like diamonds in some places and dark, glassy green in others, the Great Waterfall, and already the thunder of it was in their ears.
If one could run without getting tired, I don’t think one would often want to do anything else. But there might be special reasons for stopping, and it was a special reason which made Eustace presently shout: “I say! Look what we’re coming to!” And well he might. For now they saw before them Cauldron Pool and beyond the Pool the high unclimbable cliffs, thousands of tons of water every second, flashing like diamonds in some places and dark, glassy green in others, the Great Waterfall, and already the thunder of it was in their ears.
“Know, O warlike kings,” said Emeth, “and you, O ladies whose beauty illuminates the universe, that I am Emeth, the seventh son of Harpa Tarkaan of the city of Tehishbaan, Westward beyond the desert. I came lately into Narnia with nine and twenty others under the command of Rishda Tarkaan. Now when I first heard that we should march upon Narnia I rejoiced; for I had heard many things of your Land and desired greatly to meet you in battle. But when I found that we were to go in disguised as merchants (which is a shameful dress for a warrior and a son of a Tarkaan) and to work my lies and trickery, then my joy departed from me. And most of all when I found we must wait upon a Monkey, and when it began to be said that Tash and Aslan were one, then the world became dark in my eyes. For always since I was a boy I have served Tash and my great desire was to know more of him, if it might be, to look upon his face. But the name of Aslan was hateful to me.
They all stood beside Aslan, on his right side, and looked through the open doorway. The bonfire had gone out. On the earth all was blackness: in fact you could not have told you were looking into a wood if you had not seen where the dark shapes of the trees ended and the stars began. But when Aslan had roared yet again, out on their left they saw another black shape. That is, they saw another patch where there were no stars: and the patch rose up higher and higher and became the shape of a man, the hugest of all giants. They all knew Narnia well enough to work out where he must be standing. He must be on the high moorlands beyond the River Shribble. Then Jill and Eustace remembered how once long ago, in the deep caves beneath those moors, they had seen a great giant asleep and been told that his name was Father Time, and that he would wake on the day the world ended.
They all stood beside Aslan, on his right side, and looked through the open doorway. The bonfire had gone out. On the earth all was blackness: in fact you could not have told you were looking into a wood if you had not seen where the dark shapes of the trees ended and the stars began. But when Aslan had roared yet again, out on their left they saw another black shape. That is, they saw another patch where there were no stars: and the patch rose up higher and higher and became the shape of a man, the hugest of all giants. They all knew Narnia well enough to work out where he must be standing. He must be on the high moorlands beyond the River Shribble. Then Jill and Eustace remembered how once long ago, in the deep caves beneath those moors, they had seen a great giant asleep and been told that his name was Father Time, and that he would wake on the day the world ended.
Tirian had thought – or he would have thought if he had time to think at all – that they were inside a little thatched stable, about 12 feet long and 6 feet wide. In reality they stood on grass, the deep blue sky was overhead, and the air which blew gently on their faces was that of a day in early summer. Not far away from them rose a grove of trees, thickly believed, but under every leaf their peeped out the gold or faint yellow or purple or glowing red of fruits such as no one has seen in our world. The fruit made Tirian feel that it must be autumn but there was something in the feel of the air that told him it could not be later than June. They all moved toward the trees.
Jill ought to have been back at the white rock already, but she had quite forgotten that part of her orders in the excitement of watching the fight. Now she remembered. She turned at once and ran to it, and arrived there barely a second before the others. It thus happened that all of them, for a moment, had their backs to the enemy. They all wheeled round the moment they had reached it. A terrible sight met their eyes.
Quick as lightning, Rishda Taarken leapt back out of the reach of the Kings sword. He was no coward, and would’ve fought single-handed against Tirian and the Dwarf if need were. But he could not take on the Eagle and the Unicorn as well. He knew how Eagles can fly into your face and packager eyes and blind you with their wings.
Jill felt something tickling her ear. It was Jewel the Unicorn, whispering to her with the wide whisper of a horse’s mouth. As soon as she heard what he was saying she nodded and tiptoed back to where Puzzle was standing. Quickly and quietly she cut the last cords that bound the lion-skin to him. It wouldn’t do for him to be caught with that on, after what the Ape had said! She would like to have hidden the skin somewhere very far away, but it was too heavy. The best she could do was kick it in among the thickest bushes. Then she made signs to Puzzle to follow her and they both joined the others. The Ape was speaking again.
For a long time they could not speak nor even shed a tear. Then the Unicorn stamped the ground with his hoof, and shook his mane, and spoke. “Sire,” he said, “there is now no need of counsel. We see that the Ape’s plans were laid deeper than we dreamed of.”
The two Calormene soldiers at the head of the column, seeing what they took for a Tarkaan or great lord with two armed pages, came to a halt and raised their spears in salute. “Oh my Master,” said one of them, “we lead these manikins to Calormene to work in the mines of The Tisroc, may-he-live-forever.” “By the great god Tash, they are very obedient,” said Tirian. Then suddenly he turned to the Dwarfs themselves. About one in six of them carried a torch and by that flickering light he could see their bearded faces all looking at him with grim and dogged expressions. “Has The Tisroc fought a great battle, Dwarfs, and conquered your land?” he asked, “that thus you go patiently to die in the salt-pits of Pugrahan?”
About four hours later Tirian flung himself into one of the monks to snatch a little sleep. The two children were already snoring: he had made them go to bed before he did because they would have to be up most of the night and he knew of their age they couldn’t do without sleep. Also, he had tired them out. First, he had given Jill some practice in archery and found that, though not up to Narnian standards, she was really not too bad. Indeed she had succeeded in shooting a rabbit ( not a Talking rabbit, of course: there are lots of the ordinary kind about in Western Narnia” and it was already skinned, cleaned, and hanging up. He had found that both the children knew all about this chilly and smelly job: they had learned that kind of thing on a great journey through Giant–Land in the days of Prince Rilian.”
