Halloween?

As you noticed, the title has a question mark after it. The question is, “Should Christians Celebrate Halloween?” This subject has been a burden on my heart for a while and I feel that God would want me to share what I have learned. So, let’s think about holidays for a moment. Lets start near my birthday in May and think about Memorial Day. What do we celebrate? We celebrate all of those who God gave us that have fought and died for this wonderful country God has given us. What about Independence Day. Well we celebrate and give thanks to God who allowed us to be free from our mother country of England. This freedom was needed because we needed religious freedom. Thank you God. Then there is Thanksgiving. We should all give thanks to God for another day of life and health and for all the things, big and small, He has so freely given to us that we surely do not deserve. Then there is Christmas. It should celebrate the glorious birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Then there is New Years Eve when we get together and thank God for another year and ask him to bless our new year. Oh and then there is the most important holiday of all, Easter. We celebrate the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus so that we can have the salvation that we do not deserve but cannot earn on our own. Now let’s look at Halloween. It is a religious holiday. Really. It is just not a Christian holiday. It celebrates Satan. Everything about it points to Satan. Costumes? Oh yeah. To scare away evil spirits ancient Celtic people dressed up in animal skins and danced around a bonfire. Others would put out food on this day to appease the evil spirits. Others carved turnips and pumpkins and put a candle in them to keep evil spirits away. The roots of this holiday are almost entirely pagan; from the colors to black cats, to going door to door, it is all pagan. And it is still celebrated by those who worship the Enemy of this world today. So where is Jesus in all of this? I can’t see him. As Christians we are called to walk in the Light of Jesus. You can’t mix the light and the dark. The Bible says, "And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them." (Eph. 5:11)
"The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light." (Rom. 13:12)
I’ll admit that, as a kid, I whole heartedly celebrated Halloween. I love candy and dressing up. Even as an adult and as a Christian adult, I still celebrated it. But then I learned about the true origins of it. Satan is very sly, cunning even. He masquerades as an angel of light and he loves to see Christians celebrating Halloween, his holiday. Most Christians, “see no harm in it.” I didn’t either, until I learned the truth about it. How can I tell people of the love of Jesus and expect them to see me as a messenger of God’s word and then celebrate a Satanic holiday like Halloween. I can’t; not even one part of it. Why, because when I do, I totally lose my testimony. I can no longer expect people to see me as set apart from the world when I am doing as Satan desires. There are 364 other days for the kids to dress up. Halloween isn’t one of those. I don’t even put out fall decorations until after Halloween because I don’t want anyone to think it might be Halloween decorations. We don’t wear jack-o-lanterns or spiders or heaven forbid, witches on our clothes. We don’t even wear orange during October for the same reason. We are to be set apart.
Even my church celebrates Halloween. Oh, they call it Fall festival, or Trunk-or- treat, but it is the same. And while I know their intentions are good, the testimony of all those involved and the church itself is lost that night. There is not a child or adult that attends that will not go back to school or work and say they went to a Halloween thing at church. (It also doesn’t matter if your child was dressed as Jesus himself, it will still happen. The church is full of people who don’t know Christ and it is also filled with people who are backslidden Christians. Those folks will bring their children dressed as Satan or some other follower of him.) If you dress up and pass out candy or attend a “festival” you are celebrating just as the followers of Satan do. The church celebrates a satanic holiday. (My family doesn’t attend or donate to the event) We will have the “festival” on Friday and celebrate Satan and then go out on Sunday afternoon and tell people they need Jesus. Turn from sin and self and turn to Jesus. Oh, how did you like the satanic celebration Friday night? I just don’t get it. One friend asked me what I thought about her letting her kids dress up at home and just go to a relative’s and get candy. (She was sincerely searching for the truth and I love her for that) And I told her that her children do not live in a bubble and they will come in contact with the world. When the world asks what they do on Halloween, her children will tell them and their testimony will be gone. Our testimony is so hard to build, but so easy to lose. We must protect it at all times. So I urge you to research the origins of this holiday. Find the truth for yourself. Use the internet or if you need a book to explain it to your children I suggest a book called “Mommy, why don’t we celebrate Halloween.” It tells the origins and why Christians shouldn’t celebrate on a kid’s level. (However, it is a good read for an adult to) Ultimately it is your choice. God never makes us do right. That is up to us. He gave us fee will. My hope is to simply help Christians see the harm in this holiday. Here are some more verses you might meditate on:

Deut 18:10 Don't you dare sacrifice your son or daughter in the fire. Don't practice divination, sorcery, fortune telling, witchery,
Deut 18:11 casting spells, holding séances, or channeling with the dead."

"1Cor 10:21 And you can't have it both ways, banqueting with the Master one day and slumming with demons the next.
1Cor 10:22 Besides, the Master won't put up with it. He wants us--all or nothing. Do you think you can get off with anything less?"

" 2Kings 21:5 And he built shrines to the cosmic powers and placed them in both courtyards of The Temple of GOD.
2Kings 21:6 He burned his own son in a sacrificial offering. He practiced black magic and fortune telling. He held séances and consulted spirits from the underworld. Much evil--in GOD's judgment, a career in evil. And GOD was angry."

Cocoa Beach NASA

Our Vacation 2008

Earlier this month my family went to rainy Florida. I know it is the Sunshine state, but it wasn't while we were there. It rained every day. We got one pretty good day with only a couple of hours of light rain. We had fun. On the way down we stopped quite often to stretch our legs and let the kids play. We spent the night in Panama City. The next morning we spent a couple of hours on Mexico beach. It is only about 30 minutes up the road and it is beautiful. The sand was white and fine. There were very few people there. The beach had lots of shells and cute little baby birds. Tyler loved chasing the birds. I wan't to go back there real soon.

The next day we went to Sea World. It was beautiful and sunny for a while, then the bottom dropped out. It rained until the park closed. We were sooooo unprepared: no umbrella, no raincoats, no anything. We were drowned rats. The kids didn't mind because they had been playing in the water for an hour and were already soaked. Mom and Dad weren't as happy. Our shoes didn't dry out until after we were home 3 days later. The second day at SeaWorld was awesome. We started the day feeding Sting Rays. I fell in love!!!! They are soooo sweet. The just suck the fish out of your had. It is like getting a kiss. Then you could pet them. They are so soft. They swam around this tank and would come up to the side and flap their "wings" at you and stick their heads out as to say, "feed me, please."
The dolphins were just as awesome. We got to feed them also and pet them. Sweet. Then there is the Shamu show. What an emotional experience. The people who work with them are truly amazing! Shamu is HUGE! We have been studying ocean creatures for months and this trip was the icing on the cake. We have even decided to do a lapbook on whales for our science project at our homeschool group.

The last day we were there we went to Cocoa Beach. It was very cloudy. In fact you could watch the rain coming down the beach, but we stayed until it go to us. Then we went to the Kennedy Space Center. The beach was not as nice as the Gulf side of Florida. The sand isn't as pretty and there were no shells. The waves were wild that day due to the upcoming storm. The kids enjoyed splashing in them. Once a huge wave took them by suprise and down they went. Bobbi came up with seashells an sand in her cast. The both thought it was the coolest ride yet. I think they would have stayed even in the rain. The KSC was nice, but we were just way too tired to enjoy it. We took a bus tour and saw the Space Shuttle on the launching pad. However, it was raining so much we could barely see it. The next day we drove 13 hours straight to get home. We were all exhausted. Tyler ended us sleeping in a precarius way. Check out the slide show to see how I found him just an hour before we made it home. We can't wait until next year. We are going to go to the beach and just veg out for a few day. Check out the slide shows. They are in reverse order b/c I am still new to this blogging thing, but I am learning.

A New Cast, Finally!!!

Today Bobbi FINALLY got a new cast. She has worn the first one (this time) for 2 days shy of 6 weeks. PU!!

Today we went back to Campbell Clinic to see Dr. Sawyer. He is just the nicest doctor. His nurse is named Kim and we love her to.

First, they cut the cast off. That machine is very loud, but safe.

Crack the cast open and then cut the cotton inside to remove it.

I haven't seen that little arm in almost 6 weeks! It is a bit smaller and stinkier than the other. Her hand was covered with dead, scaley skin. We got most of that off.

Can you see the bow in her arm has a slight bow in it. Dr. Sawyer said it had about a 5 degree bow in it, but that kids will straighten out about a half to one inch per month. So, in about 6 months, she will have no more bow.

After seeing the doctor, we went to get a new short arm waterproof cast. Yeah!!!! First Bobbi gets a "sock" put over her arm with a thumb hole in it. Then it is wrapped in cotton. Next a layer of white cast material goes on

Then, on goes the the color, pink of course.

Twisting around the thumb. Maybe now we can play the piano again. We go back in two weeks and hopefully we will come home with a brace.