Halloween and all that nonsense! :)

Halloween...there seems to be quite the tiff over this very interesting, seemingly quite controversial day that we as Americans celebrate.  Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, a tremendous pet peeve of mine is people saying things with such authority and then the masses listening with no thought of their own.

I hear, "trick or treating is bad."
Is it??  Why??
 
I ponder..... I mean I understand that there are people who treat Halloween as their day to do evil things...but we don't.  My kids aren't dressing up like goblins or witches; and honestly going to the neighbor's house and having a smile and a "God bless you" as the door closes doesn't seem so bad.  Is participating in this evil day by dressing up like a princess such a bad thing?  Is it any different than putting up a Christmas tree, when the tree was once used for pagan rituals but we as believers now use it for something entirely different.

I mean..I guess I truly just don't know.

You just have to wonder....

Why is going to a CLEARLY inappropriate movie and supporting actors that will spend it on frivolous godlessness ok?

Or why is it ok that we spend our "sabbath" fixed on football games and every other means of escape rather than on our faces before God?

Why is it ok when we laugh at unholiness, judge our brothers and sisters, and indulge ourselves in materialism,  But somehow we choose the day of Halloween to pick apart....

My only question is...why?

Why we do we pick out one day and say that we will be "set apart" one day and live completely conformed to this world every other day.  Maybe Halloween is bad...maybe it's just what you make of it...I dunno...  and maybe I'm just reading way too much into all of it...haha  :)

I still don't know exactly what the Lord thinks about it and I continue to ask Him in all things what HIS heart is on any matter and not letting our religousness get in the way.

"All things are permissible, but not everything is profitable."  Does that give leave for unrestrained sin?  As Paul says, "MAY IT NEVER BE!"

What Paul is saying, I think, is this... that when we are so intimate with our Jesus; when we so live out of a place of intimacy and meditation of His word then we are free.  Free to watch movies, go to football games, and--God forbid!--even trick-or-treat.  BUT, with that being said..something unprecedented will happen when God captures your heart.  You will no longer want what your flesh desires.  The things of this world will no longer satisfy.  You will be as a starving child who was given a delightful steak plate....would you ever even consider going back to the mush that was once your daily intake?  How absurd to even question.

Lord knows I'm the first one to sit and veg out with a magazine and pay no attention to the One who so desires my attention; but how I long for a new and transformed heart.
Go back to the heart...that's what the Lord continues to show us.  Where is our heart at?  Consumed with idolatry OR the passionate love for our Savior?   These things are to never flow out of a religious spirit but rather from an intimate relationship with our Creator.

So where does that leave me on the issue of Halloween??  I decided to take the kids out...and by the end it was clear.  It wasn't terrible...it didn't seem evil, for us anyway....BUT it just wasn't necessary.  WHY go out and expose the kids to some scary costumes,though they really weren't any scarier than the creepy scenes off the The Litter Mermaid? Plus.. I mean that's just  A LOT of candy! haha 

In conclusion, I think we may veto trick-or-treating for a while..maybe forever...maybe not...but not because I think it's so terribly evil...maybe for some families it is for them..and please stand by your convictions on that!  But for us...it's just kinda neutral...just another day that we can choose to either press into the Lord or go our own way.

Oh Jesus, we just want more and more of you!  Let your heart consume every thing we do. So it's no longer us living, but you through us!  We don't want to be religious puppets, but rather, intimate lovers of you that can't help but love what you love and hate what you hate.  We want you...and only you!!!!