Last night, the middle school group at New Life Church went out from 6-7pm during beggars night and handed out Gospel of John booklets door to door along with a rice Krispie treat. Neat idea huh? Anyway we handed out maybe only 30, but that is 30 people with the Gospel in their hand that may not have before.
In my group, I had my wife and kids (Jack a pirate, Layla a princess and Ben a bear), 4 boys and another adult. We coached them on what to say (Hi, we're from New Life Church and we want to give you a treat, have a great night.) Simple enough. We did not take any candy from the homes, but my kids did. haha.
Anyway after we did that, we had a fire outside and roasted hotdogs and marshmallows. Yummy. We had only about 1/4 of the normal amount of kids we normally do which was disappointing, but we all know how important candy is. :(
We then played a few games and talked about what God thinks of witchcraft and other things associated with Halloween. The students who were there interacted about ouji boards and horoscopes and mediums and how there is a distinct push on TV and in Magazines to market this kind of thing to young people and make it look very cool. We discussed the best thing about all this stuff and that is that God is immeasureably greater and stronger in all aspects of life than anything the enemy may throw at us.
Anyway, We got home that night and put the kids to bed and I layed down with my son Jack for a few minutes. His first question to me in bed was,
"Dad, what did Jesus do on Halloween?"
I said, "What do you mean?"
"Well," he said, "He died on Easter and was born on Christmas. What did he do on Halloween?"
That is a pretty insightful question from a 5 year old and it was a very, shall we say a little bit convicting question to me after I had spent a good part of the day studying the origins and symbolism of Halloween.
Anyway, I told him that honestly Halloween is about scary stuff and some bad stuff and there is nothing that has to do with God. He perked up with a very confused look on his face because he thought that a holiday celebrated something about God. We went through some other major holidays and what God had to do with them; Thanksgiving--God providing for us
4th of July--God giving us Freedom
I told him that even though it is a Holiday that has nothing to do with God, we were trying to spread God's love and His Word to others tonight by handing out the Bibles and giving treats instead of taking them. We also got to know some of the people surrounding the church and give them some exposure to Christian people.
It was a great conversation to have with him.
I don't want to get into the rights and wrongs of Halloween because the discussion could go on for hours, but I will say that I was reminded that even 5 year olds can understand why we do what we do and I have to be aware as a parent of all that I do. I do know that we are to let our light shine before men as Christians and maybe shutting off all the lights in our homes in order to avoid our neighbors that we probably should know better because we think they are celebrating the devil on a day that God has made for salvation might not be the best way to let our light shine. I have marinaded on the Halloween thing quite a bit and I don't think that total avoidance or total indulgence are the best routes to take. I don't have the perfect alternative at all, but we are set apart for God's glory and any way we can make God more famous on this day and any other day is the best choice. We each have to figure out the best way in our own context. Maybe it is handing out Bibles, having a pre-beggars night bbq for your block, handing out candy with tracts, carving a cross in the pumpkin instead of the scary face or any amount of other things. But please let's get away from the avoidance mentality and figure out how we can ACTIVELY glorify God and make Him famous not make our OWN homes famous for being the lights-out Christians on the block. But also, let's not do what everyone else does just because everyone else does. How can we do it better?
May we seek out knowledge and understanding and wisdom from God in all areas of our lives...even our celebrations.
On another note, in my studies I found a great verse relating to mediums and those that talk to the dead.
Ecclesiastes 9:5,6,10 talk about how the dead have no functions on the earth anymore and contribute nothing to our world in the grave. Look them up and read them and be ever more careful of those shows that have people that claim they can talk to the dead.
