Below are my thoughts. Each of us MUST wrestle with what the Holy Spirit is saying to us about what we celebrate and join ourselves to. And this is where I have landed. Each one of us must act on our convictions.
My convictions are that I am in a covenant relationship with God. A Marriage. And I think to myself, would my wife like it if I were to flirt with someone other than her? And if it would not sit well with my wife then why would I flirt with Halloween, evil spirits and the celebration of the power of death. Would my Jesus who I am intimately connected with and committed to be ok with my flirting with others?
The seed / origins of Halloween is demonic. These demonic spirits are the "others" I am referring to...and what we celebrate we open ourselves up to. So if our lives are being effected by impatience, depression, anxiety, fear, stress, anger, frustration, worry...then somewhere we have opened ourselves up to the demonic. Because those are the fruits of the flesh and the Kingdom of Satan. The Fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, faith and self-control.
All we have to do is look at the fruit of what is driving our lives and it will show us which Kingdom we may be truly celebrating. With that said:
- I DON'T want ANYTHING but my covenant relationship with Jesus and to celebrate Him alone.
- I DON'T want to compartmentalize and add mixture in my life. Satan does not want to truly remove Jesus from our lives, he just wants to add other things as well and dilute God's power in us along with His connection with us.
- I DON'T flirt with celebrating the power of evil spirits and death.
- I DON'T want my life which is to be a living testimony of that covenant relationship end up confusing those around me...I want the world to see I am sold out God and to ONLY those things that lift Him up.
- I am convinced we are called to stand out. To be different. To give our lives wholly and completely to whatever gives honor and praise to the one and only true God. Jesus Christ.
Psalm 101:3 says, "I will not set anything before my eyes that is worthless."
Celebrating the power of death is not what I personally aim to do. I don't even want to feel like I am encroaching on that. To me it is worthless. Nothing good will come from me celebrating the power of the demonic or death itself. Unless it is the power that came AND STILL COMES from the death and RESURRECTION of Jesus.
Evil defined by Ravi Zacharias is this: The violation of purpose. I was not designed to give honor or glory to anything other than my Creator, to celebrate life in Him. So that's what I'm convicted to stick to.
And I am EXCITED 1 Corinthians 15:55 says, "Death where is your victory? Death where is your sting?" Death your not even worth my time.
Joel
