Review of movie 'Storm of the Century'

Yesterday, I watched a DVD borrowed from my younger brother's friend. The director is Stephen King who directed this film based on his book.

The story started with a old lady at home enjoying her time watching TV program when suddenly, there was a knock on the door. The visitor is a stranger, completely never heard before in a small town. When the old lady opened the door, the stranger killed her with his tungka. His tungka is not an ordinary one. It has the head of a snake and the head is in silver color. Then came the story where the storm ranged heavily on this town and how this stranger killed the people in this town. He even had the power to plant dreams into people. Whenever he killed someone, he would write on the wall, mirror or any surface, urging the people to give him what he wanted and he would leave them.

Finally, the night came when he revealed what he wanted. He wanted a child to carry on his 'trade'. So the people all gathered in a town hall and voted whether they should believe what this stranger said. Only one man, a constable, stood on his belief that no children should be sacrificed and even gave the consequences of such actions. However, every one did not want to believe in him, not even his wife. Finally, the vote came to decide which child should be given to this stranger. The stranger called all the wives of the children, a total of 8 of them. They were to pick up a stone from a black bag which this stranger had. Only the one parent with the black stone will the child be taken. Well, it seemed that this stranger had already arranged in advance. The constable's child, Ralph, was to be the one to carry on the stranger's target. No matter how the constable objected, the people let this stranger took the child away.

What struck me most in this movie was the last part when all the people were faced with the possibility of losing their child for the sake of the small town. It's like God asking me and everyone out there, that when face with difficult situations, how do we react? God knows what is important to us. So do satan. Most of us will view our family members as the most important thing in our lives. If one day, satan will to use our family members to threaten us to deny our faith in God, will we do that?

Lord, please help me to resist the devil till the end. Even when he threatens me with my family members, may I never be shaken but to stand firm in You. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.

Reviews of Rose Red

Today I have watched the DVD of Stephen King's Rose Red. For those in other countries like USA or Canada, they may have heard of this story.

Rose Red is a haunted house which existed in this world. Haunted because some people claimed that people were missing while in this house or found dead. This is especially when Dr Joyce, a paranormal psychologist found Ellen's diary.

In this story by Stephen King, a paranormal psychologist gathered a group of psychics and psychokinetics to this house called Rose Red to investigate and document whether there was any paranormal activities there. However, strange things started to happen and some of the people in that group died or went missing.

After watching this show, it dawns on me whether there is such a thing as psychic. Some say that they are able to read the minds of those whom they touch; some say that they are able to predict what is going to happen to the people around them. Frankly speaking, I do not believe in this. Rather, I believe that the devil wants us to believe so that he can control our minds the things that prevent us from seeing. For eg, mind readers may tell someone that he/she will meet a good opposite sex partner and they will live a wonderful life if they continue to do something. When such things are said, the receiver will somehow lock this in his/her mind and make it happen without realizing it. This is the same as fortune tellers. They tell you your 'future'; then you lock the 'future' in your mind unconsciously and make it happen. So when it happens, you will say that this fortune teller is very accurate. What we are doing here is exposing ourselves to things that can be quite dangerous. Just like what Stephen King said when he was interviewed for Rose Red. Things can be very unexpected in life and if we are not careful, we will fall into the devil's traps. Besides, another thing I have learnt from this show is that sometimes, we are so pre-occupied in getting what we want, that we lose focus on what is really important to us. Dr Joyce was so pre-occupied in trying to get the results of paranormal activities, that she could not care less of any of her group members' lives. When each one went missing or died, she was only curious on whether the findings were documented in her equipment. When she was confronted by Steven, she justified her actions by saying that there was no such thing as dangerous and that some of them deserved to die. How sad!

May we never end up pursuing our own interests and forsake the lives of our loved ones or any one around us. May God guide us and keep us pure. Help us to have the wisdom to accept things around us and to discern what is from You and what is from the devil. Keep our feet strong and steady in You, Lord so that we can stand up firm on the greatest mountains. We may not receive any reward on earth for doing that, but I know that our reward is already in heaven. Thank you Lord for everything You have done and are doing and going to do in our lives.

Mess!!!!!

The past one week was a really mess week for me! Every thing started not as I thought it to be. Then last Saturday, I was left to handle the work with the elderly alone, without knowing that I was supposed to be the only one doing. That creates a bit of frustration. We have limited volunteers. In fact, on that day itself, there were only six volunteers. To get them to help in teaching the elderly to do art & craft was worse. The volunteers were not told what we were supposed to do, two volunteers were asked to do packing and two volunteers were doing the health checkup for the elderly. So basically, I was left with two other volunteers and we had to do everything in a short time. Then came another shock. My colleague announced that we would be giving some containers when the elderly were singing. Everything was a mess!!!!!! Then when one of the elderly was singing, she talked to another elderly so loudly that this elderly could not continue.

I really hope that I can do it better the coming week and do it according to what I have already planned. If not, it will be another messy time. In fact, some of the elderly were so restless. Everything was so draggy. Lord, please grant me the ability to encourage the elderly and let them do something useful, that they will not be so restless during their time with us.

Thank God that the donation for the elderly items was received with good response. In fact, thank God for Anne for coming up with the idea of moving to the crowds instead of let the crowds come to us. In less than an hour, most of the items were sold, so we left some for the Sunday event. On Sunday itself, though some were reluntant to give and some were thinking that we were 'begging' for money, there were also some who willingly give that little bit. I remember one lady (don't really know whether she is a Filipino or Indonesian) who gave one dollar for an item when all her friends looked away and pretended that they never saw us. May God bless those who willing give and though the amount may not be great, may You continue to bless them greatly.

Really after God's heart?

Today, I went to This Fashion - Special offer store and found out that they were playing worship songs in the shop. I don't know whether to be happy in hearing that or sad. Happy - because more people are beginning to recognize who God really is. Sad - because maybe they are playing this song not knowing what it really means. Much publicity has been given to the recently released Worship album which we can hear in TV commercial. Do people really listen to the lyrics or do they just play the album because it is popular now?

Whatever the motive, I pray that the Holy Spirit will do a marvelous work in all those who listen to this Worship album. May their spiritual eyes be opened and see the real God in their lives.