Some people might say, what does it matter, one day in the year when children are allowed to dress up, have fun and eat for too many sweets. With the exception of increased dental cavities surely none. But are we in danger of trivialising the enemy and his works. Are we creating a caricature of the devil and kidding ourselves that he has no power. If we are then we should be worried because it is then when he will have his greatest power, when we assume he has none.
I'll admit it though, this year I did attend a Halloween party, I carved a pumpkin and took part in a slightly "spooky" evening. But This is not an issue if we are aware of the enemy, as long as we do not trivialise him. The best thing to do is to use a situation like this to your advantage. For example Saturday night I had a wonderful chance to evangelise to a group of young adults who have no faith. In a setting of a student house which had been decorated to be "spooky", surrounded by people dressed as devils and other pagan costumes and where copious amounts of alcohol were being consumed I was able to freely talk about my faith and my Saviour.
Being in a setting where these people felt comfortable, where they did not feel threatened by my words we were able to have a constructive and in depth conversation about the Church and Jesus. Because no one felt uncomfortable there was no feelings of being under attack or forced upon and this led to some interesting discussions. I wont claim that anyone "saw the light" or was saved by my input on Saturday, but I have no doubt that they saw a side of Christianity that was new to them. No miraculous conversions were made but all parties involved in the conversation expressed that they had a much better view and understanding of the Church as a result.
Like I said earlier on Halloween itself is not an issue, lack of knowledge and understanding is. Ignorance is something we should confront head on and try to do something about always. But remember God's power too, the enemy may be strong, but he is nothing compared to our God! The power of our Father can be used to turn things back on the enemy if we are aware of Him. As long as we remember that we are God's people and in all things we honour Him then we can not go wrong. Just do not forget that the enemy will strike when we ignore his power or let our guards down.
I just want to leave you with a daily verse from a website I read regularly, the verse posted for Halloween. Please check it out here, daily verses with a short though.
You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that-and shudder.
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