All Hallow Evening

Top of the morning to ya!

    It's been quite a while since I've posted... We've had to move a couple of times in the past week and are finally settled in. Praise God! 

    I've been having a lot of interesting conversations with family, friends, and strangers that have stirred a lot of meditation in God's Word. As an American, I've had several people here approach me about Halloween and whether or not I celebrate it. 

Never have. Never will. 

  But, now that we are older, we do enjoy handing out treats to the children who come and my dad has quite a bit of fun making the little trick-or-treaters laugh. As our good friends describe him, he is a friend to "the little people". 

   Christians have conflicting opinions on whether or not handing out treats is condoning the holiday. I do believe that God did not call us to hide. We cannot impact the world by cutting off all interactions. A smile and even a scripture in a candy wrapper can plant a seed. 

  On the same note, however, we cannot influence the world if we are not grounded in the Word of God and fully embracing His calling. I did not understand when I was little girl how just "going for the candy" with my friends was still celebrating. Now, I fully understand and embrace what the Bible has to say on the subject.

  Morgan recently showed me two ironic posts on Facebook. Both were quite unexpected considering their authors. One gal, an old acquaintance, had a provocative status and photo of her drunken Halloween. It was quite shocking considering that she claims to be a believer, was home-educated, and comes from what would be considered a conservative family. Just below her status on the homepage was another status about Halloween from an unbelieving acquaintance. This gal shared her observation of how progressively demonic this "holiday" is (there is nothing HOLY about the day) and how more girls who celebrate it see it as another opportunity to be promiscuous in their choice of costumes. 

  Interesting. The person who claims to be the believer looks just like the world and the unbeliever is the one evaluating how Halloween revolves around demonic practices.

  Several South Africans - secular and professing Christians, alike - have said to me: you Americans celebrate witchcraft because it is not a reality to your culture. It is a thrill. We South Africans see witchcraft played out on a regular basis and have a healthy understanding of its darkness. 

  

  I have to admit, Folks... I was surprised at how many more of my Christian friends were involved in Halloween this year. Why the compromise? There's nothing "innocent" about 6+ year olds showing up in vampire costumes with fake fangs that drip a red liquid. In fact, the history of Halloween isn't "innocent" in the least. The Celts and Scots, who brought it to America, celebrated the darker time of the year - Samhain - and the festival was led by the Celtic Druids. (Druids were an exclusive cult that practiced witchcraft and were highly respected by Celts because of their demonic powers.) 

   In short: Halloween (read the link for Ken Ham's excellent expansion of the history) is a celebration of the dead. 

  Why are we as Christians flirting with darkness? I love what one pastor said to a Satanist: God does not make deals with the devil. We, as Christians, are called to advance, celebrate, and proclaim the message of life. Not death. We have been made ALIVE in Christ. Brought out of the dominion of darkness and out of our dead state. 

   The Gospel does not leave room for compromise. When Jesus chose His disciples, He called the most unlikely individuals together under one banner. The World's culture had no say. A great example of strong biblical culture was the Acts 4 church. This body of believers from various stations in life shared a common goal that superseded any material or earthly goals: the advancement of God's Kingdom. Many were added to them as a result.

   Light and darkness cannot abide together in harmony. There is no middle ground. Jesus said in Matthew 10:34,

"Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword."

   That sword is the truth of God's Word. It separates the sheep from the goats. I love what GK Chesterton said:

"Tolerance is the virtue of a man without convictions."

   Our pastor preached an excellent sermon on Kingdom culture, today. I loved his analogy of the military. He went in as a "cool" youth who had trendy hair, clothes, speech, and way of walking. When he joined the military, he had to take on the strict military culture. His "cool" culture was thrown to the curb and no longer applied or would be accepted under military regiment. This should very much so be the case with Christian culture. Romans 6:6-10 says,

"...knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus."

   Does that not cover it all? Right there: we are no longer to live according to the flesh - in sin - and we do not celebrate death but LIFE. When we as believers live like the world our actions say that what Christ did on the cross just wasn't good enough. Lord, forgive us! As my mentor admonished me, I charge my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ: take very personally what Jesus did on the cross for you. Do not allow others to blaspheme our God.

    I heard it said that when you insult Islam you insult the muslim. Why is this not so with the believer? We serve the One and Only righteous God. The "lion-like lamb and lamb-like lion", as John Piper once put it in his book Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ. 

  It is not appropriate for us, as Christians, to ride the fence. So many scriptures warn us to be on our guard, to be aware, and not allow our senses to be dulled by the norms of this world. We are but sojourners on earth. We cannot compromise. There is a battle cry and victory is the Lord's. Let us move in that victory. 

"But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil." {Hebrews 5:14}

"Well... That's all I have to say about that."