A mutual friend directed me to this pastor's Facebook page where there was a brief discussion about their "fall festival". This pastor is always arguing with me on things (I'm surprised he didn't get in on my previous halloween thread!), but I'm not sure if he is just trying to present the other side for a balanced debate or if he just likes to argue! It can be frustrating, I'll be honest! I just don't like debating, though you could never tell by the threads on FB! ;)
So here is the thread on this pastor's page:
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(status message:)
Fall Festival tonight! 6 - 8 PM! Free food and games!!
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Okay, now my question for him would be, if you're serious about it not being related to halloween, why not have it in November???
I'm seriously not trying to ruffle any feathers here, and I know God is working on everyone in different areas at different levels, I just want to get people to think about this. I just think it is ridiculous the amount of time and money that Christians -- CHRISTIANS -- spend on halloween! Through these discussions in the last couple of weeks, I have heard so many excuses to justify celebrating halloween, and I admit, some of them sound good. They SOUND good. But I don't remember one single excuse (maybe one, but I can't think of any right now) being to reach the lost by getting the non-Christian families off the streets and into a Christian atmosphere. Seriously! I thought everyone would use that excuse, but I don't remember one!
I left this on my comment on the previous post about this subject, but I will put it here too. Now this was coming from the assumption that people use the "ministry" excuse.....
The ends do not justify the means. Moses still got water out of the rock for the people of Israel, but he disobeyed in how he went about it and had to suffer the consequences.
I think this example (from God.....I could never come up with something so awesome on my own!) is the perfect analogy for this. Moses was delivering water to the Israelites and was told to do it a certain way. We were told to deliver the gospel, the good news of Jesus, the LIVING WATER, to the world! We are told to "go into all the world". We were NOT told to bring the world in to us (the church)!!! That is dangerous and we were told to be separate and not be like the world! So in reaching the world, we need to be careful in how we go about it.
I don't care if you disagree with me for whatever reason, look to see what the Bible says. You cannot disagree with God's word if you are a Christian. Church! Take a stand for what is right and stop compromising with the world!
I like this post. We've not done Halloween since we both became Christians. In our opinion, it just doesn't fit!
ReplyDeleteWe don't trick-or-treat, our children don't dress up.
What's funny is that some people can understand and even accept it. We take our children to the local library on Fridays for story hour during the public school year. Last year they told all the children there the week before Halloween to dress up in their costumes the next week (Halloween). We skipped that week. :) When we went the following Friday, the librarian said, "We missed you last week." Then quieter just to me, "You don't do Halloween, do you?" I just smiled and shook my head. She had figured it out on her own and it didn't matter to her. Since we skipped last week, I'm sure they know why. We plan to attend this week and I wonder if they'll say anything again. Probably not, she knows us pretty well.
I've wondered if Christians anywhere think about gathering somewhere on Halloween, not to have their own "safe" version of Halloween; calling it whatever they want, but instead to pray for the lost, to pray for the children out there trick-or-treating. Or just determine that as a family they will do that, without having to meet with others. I confess, I didn't think of that in time. We spent the day running errands and going to the zoo (in the rain) and we came home and just went to bed early. But maybe next year.
Sorry for the long comment, I just wanted to share. :)
As a result of all the discussions on Facebook last week, I was really impressed to pray more that day for all the halloween goings on. We ended up not praying nearly as much as I intended, but we did have a sweet prayer time together as a family, and we intend to make that a yearly custom. I'm with you....why do we have to "celebrate" that day? Why not have a special prayer service to combat all the evil advances on that day? :(
ReplyDeleteOr something else Christians could do that day in addition to prayer, is we could all get together and have someone who has experience in the occult and has since become a Christian come and educate others on the reality and the seriousness of the goings on of the day! That would really wake people up!
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