Conflicted

Right off the top I want to express my humble thanks for the prayers, support, kindness, caring and love shown to me by my blogger friends. God has truly enriched my life by bringing us together in word and spirit and I am grateful for ya'll. As corny as it may sound, I really could feel your prayers, caring and love.....and Bomba, you said it...I WAS LIFTED UP! Ya'll have a gift for making people feel loved and important, and I know that comes from the deep love and understanding of our Lord, Jesus Christ, and out of a personal relationship with him, our Father. "In all my prayers for all of you, I always prayer with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." Philippians 1: 4-6

A quick report.....the knot in my stomach on the right side is nothing at all to be concerned about and the tenderness on the left side has a term but again is nothing to give a moment's thought to. The doctor will be calling today and now we have a plan....I will be going to a headache specialist and try to connect all the dots to get some relief and knowledge about what is going on up there (some say there is not alot and I tend to agree at times with that assumption!). The doctor was one of the kindness doctors I have come across (God really picked him for me), thorogh, caring, and sensitive. There are still some test results to come in, but there is no indication that they should be anything but great news! Share with me, in the joy of having brothers and sisters who are so full of Christ's love that, in a moments notice, they can be whipped into an army of God out of love and concern for someone they have never ever met!


So, let's talk about the subject of being conflicted. I want to present several sides of this issue and I hope you will respond with more ideas, thoughts, scripture.....it is, to alot of wonderful God loving people, a very gray area. What area is that? I am speaking of Halloween.....Jan wrote a blog about it yesterday and I agree with her position...yet Mandy made a comment on Jan's blog and I agree with her point of view also. So, in the interest of understanding the decisions made by our christian brothers and sisters let's look at several sides of this.

Halloween has a pagan, wicked, evil origin. There is no debate on that. There are alot of devote, righteous christians who believe that participating in the dressing up, the giving of candy, having parties on this evening are participating in the "devil's work". They feel that if they did this they are participating in celebrating something that directly goes against scripture and God's law. I have no disagreement with this....there are so many scriptures that tell us not to be a part of Satan's work and witchcraft is definetly that. There are many christians who sincerely believe that the best way to combat this pagan holiday is to turn off their porch lights, spend some quality time with their children and pray for the light of Christ to eliminate the evil of what others are doing as they, for most people, innocently participate in the rituals of Halloween. They are trying to righteously show their children that there are stands to make in this life and that, fun or not, they have to stand up for good over evil. They strongly believe in the battle on earth between the dark and light sides and they do want not to open any windows into the side of evil. In the here, I have been there and done that! It is a valid stance.

Then we have the sincere christians who gather together on Halloween, in the church gym or activities building for fun, games, hotdogs and a prayer service. Usually, because they know that children love to dress in costume (one of the two biggest pulls of Halloween) they allow that with some distinct guidlines, no devils, witches or evil costumes. Some call it a fall festival or call it family night....it doesn't matter what you call it, the intent is to make a conscious decision to give that night over to the glory of God! Most of the ones I have attended have been filled with family fun, praise and worship singing and a sermon on the family level. The belief is that in banding together they are pleasing God, witnessing to others, and facing Satan toe to toe, reminding the serpent himself, that our God reigns every night but especially Halloween night. In the here, I have been there and done that! It is a valid stance.

Another thought, in the christian realm of thinking about Halloween, is the way Mandy approached it this year. If you read her comment, their family welcomed trick or treaters but witnessed to them. By her comment, I concluded that her first witness was to her neighbors....as a christian family they were trying to dispel the apperance of being judgemental. I applaude them on this, me being the one that has talked about letting the Holy Spirit lead you to share your christianity with people who the Holy Spirit has softened and made ready to hear the truth. So, they welcomed the trick or treaters but still upheld their christian beliefs by using this night to personally evangelize those who came to their door. They handed out "Adventures in Odyssey" cd's along with the candy! I have known people who have done this very thing...not "Odyssey" cd's, but candy printed with "Jesus loves You", What Would Jesus Do?" bracelets, christian activity books, pencils with scritpures written on them....something that would be used to get the message of "truth and light" across. The thought is that we are to go out into the world and proclaim the gospel and what better night when the masses are coming to you. And I am sure, in Mandy's case and the others that have chosen this route, that many a prayer went along with the candy and witnessing tool. In the here, haven't done that one, but surely support it.....it makes a lot of sense to me.

I have gone back and forth my entire adult life about this subject. It became, to me, not the worst holiday of the year because of it being a Satanic holiday in origin but because of the wrestling we would have to do every year as it approached. No matter which way we went we felt under some comdemnation that we were less of a christian because of the approach we took. And the funny thing is we tried it all....no matter what we did, we received the scorn from other brothers and sisters who felt another way. You could say it shouldn't matter what others think we are here to please God.....the only problem with that is we have never been able, on this subject, to figure out what is right in God's eyes! We have never gotten a peace about how this holiday should be righteously celebrated, or like alot of faithful christians, if it should be celebrated at all. What I do know is that alot of people who I admire, who are people that love and seek out the will of God, and who live each day working to become closer to their Saviour, are also conflicted about what to do with Halloween. So I am going to use the month of October, from now on in the after, to share about the ways I have tried to find peace about Halloween. Also, I am going to lend my support and love to my christian brothers and sisters as they struggle with being conflicted about this holiday. Maybe, just like there is more than one way to skin a cat, there might just be more ways than just one right way is to spend the evening of October 31st. After all it boils down to the condition of our hearts....and I want my heart to be full of love for the sincerity of my brothers and sisters in Christ.

"The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and wonderful results." James 5:16