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Monday, October 31, 2016

Talk about scary!!

So its Halloween eve tonight and all the pumpkins are being placed. The costumes are being fitted and the candy dishes filled. Parents are arguing whose year it is to take the kids out and in a matter of hours, night will fall and the streets will be filled with little goblins, witches, animals and creepy creatures beyond your imagination. Door bells will begin ringing in a cascade of tones as kids of every age and costume eagerly await to grab a handful of tooth decay.
Now it may sound a bit like I am talking about our presidential debates or even the upcoming election but I am really actually talking about all hallows eve.
This is a time of year when the super spiritual and the casual Christian combat for the right to have their children dress up. For some churches they will have an "alternative" party where the kids can come dressed up and get candy and play games and not be part of that secular evil holiday. Others will tell their congregations to refute this pagan holiday and keep their lights off. If some child is bold enough to ring your door bell knowing the rules of trick or treating that is surely God's sign to lecture them about the perils of hell. That'll scare em for sure!!
But the reality is, "if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it is a duck"
Trick or treating, costume wearing, candy eating, pumpkin carving, apple bobbing, horror show watching are not necessarily evil in and of themselves. Not convinced? Think about the traditions regarding Christmas. How much of the manger scene we see in peoples yards are unbiblical? When we read the Christmas story how often do we get a picture other than what is taught? What about going out picking a tree, cutting it down, or buying it from a parking lot and dragging it into your house to decorate it, which was a pagan practice according to Jeremiah that some Christians say is instruction to not have a tree. Or what about that angel you are putting on the top of your tree? You know the beautiful, curly blonde haired, blue eyed female angel that is never mentioned in scripture.
My point is not to promote or condemn Halloween or Christmas for that matter, as it is far more significant than any man-made holiday. By the way Christmas on Dec. 25th is man made as well. For the Christian, every day is Christmas and Easter all wrapped up in one. For us to ignore the issue of the heart is to sin greatly. Pursue every day, not just the holiday as a day of opportunity to draw people to Christ and find reconciliation. Who knows our attitude may very well be the draw or rejection an individual will feel in discovering God. Of course this is not a free for all permission to join into sinful behavior or indulgences by which you know are sinful, rather an opportunity to minister to many more than ever before. So set your boundaries now, do not cross them. So which will it be for you? Set inside with the lights off, or will you use every opportunity to minister that God brings your way?
Till next time.
P.M.