Halloween, or...

HALLOWEEN
All Saints Day
Daniel 7:18
"But the saints of the Most High will receive the kingdom and possess it forever—yes, for ever and ever."

You may recognize this as Halloween, the contraction of "Hallow’s even." All Saint’s Day started as a solemn celebration, instituted to honor all the saints known and unknown.

Early Christians were accustomed to solemnize the anniversary of a martyr’s death. Frequently, groups of martyrs suffered on the same day. This led to a combined remembrance for them.

Originally celebrated May 13th, 373, A.D., this ritual, is also known as All Hallow’s Day or Hallowmas.

Pope Gregory III changed the celebration to be held on November 1st.

Besides breaking from the Holy Church of Rome, Martin Luther posted his 95 theses which is the basis for many denominations of Christianity today. Honoring this on October 31st conveniently combines commemorating All Saint’s Day with his posting of the theses.

Reformation Sunday is celebrated in many denominations the last Sunday of October.

This timing blends easily with Samhain, the Celtic pagan holiday that literally means summer’s end. This occasion was marked with thanksgiving, sacrifices, divination and prayers. The harvest was gathered in to protect it against wintry blasts. This ushers in the dark, cold half of the year.

In the first century, Rome conquered Ireland. This action melded holidays that combined pagan and Christian festivals. Christianity blended into the mix of festivals, each with their own brand of honoring the dead. All Soul’s Day, established by Saint Odilo of Cluny on Nov 2nd, remembers the souls awaiting release from purgatory.

Instead of ghouls, goblins, and witches, think of Halloween in its authentic Christian intent. Untold number of people were martyred for their faith in Jesus Christ. This is the day for us to remember and honor their death. The first one was Jesus, Himself. Maybe you can honor these martyred saints by dressing up as angels, warriors, or monks or nuns.

Take Home Nugget

The passage in Daniel is not a joke. We, who embrace Jesus Christ as our King, the Son of Father God, are included in the number of saints. We will live with Him in Heaven forever and ever. We will serve our King, in various capacities, some as rulers. This kingdom will never end. Each person has free will, and it’s never too early to chose sides. Won’t you choose Jesus and paradise?

Celebrations still hold true from times past.

Only the most significant are meant to last.

Instead of dressing up as ghouls,

Choose Saintly dress riding on mules.

J. D. Griffith

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Don't Waste Grace

DON'T WASTE GRACE
2 Corinthians 6:1-10
Vv.1-2: “As God’s fellow workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain. For He says, ‘In the time of My favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.’”

Do you ever feel like quitting? Get away from everything, including God’s commands—just for a day? If so, you’re in good company. Jonah ran away—as far as he could so that he wouldn’t hear the Lord. Did his ocean experience in a fish’s belly save him from obeying the Lord? Check out a kid’s Bible study in Jonah. It’s a short 4 chapters of pure adventure.

As followers of Jesus, we are urged not to receive God’s grace in vain. What does the opening Scripture mean? It means that God gives us His grace—every single day—sufficient for our needs. So instead of rejecting God’s grace, we’re to grab hold of it and endure through troubles, hardships, and distress (2Corinthians 6:4-10).

We’re to stand erect: alert, unswerving, rejoicing. Following Jesus is seen in the details of our lives. God gives us power—the very strength we need to find victory in our daily trials. Today is the day of the Lord’s favor. Today is the day of salvation.

This power provides the endurance we need to work hard each day. We are to exhibit purity, understanding, patience, and kindness. Troubles, hardships, and distress are to be responded to in truth from God’s Word. God’s strength is our strength that we can use as weapons of righteousness every day.

People notice our daily behavior, and recognize that we’re not faking because we remain steady from one day into another. We may be frustrated, but not beaten, angry but not withholding affection, sorrowful, but rejoicing deep inside our hearts.

We can do this by keeping our eyes on the big picture. We have assurance that our Father is in control of everything.

God won’t prevent hardships, but He will walk with us through them ensuring our victory.

Take Home Nugget

What does it mean to squander God’s grace?

Here are some illustrations: when kids are mocking a kid who’s disabled, you laugh with them. When your neighbor leaves her test paper open, you sneak a peek. You snatch the last of the cookies and then feign ignorance when confronted. These seem small. They don’t seem important.

But God is watching, and His grace is stretching around all our missteps. If we push the edge of His grace too far—one day His patience could end—the rubber band could snap. We’d rather be in His grace than in His judgment.

Dear Lord forgive me when I do wrong.Only Your strength will make me strong.

J. D. Griffith

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GOOD

GOOD
Genesis 37-50
Romans 8:28: “And we know that in all things God work together for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.”

What does it really mean when you hear that God works everything together for good? Does that mean He can correct our mistakes? Does it mean that we can goof up and everything will be OK? Does it mean that we can be bad, and it won’t matter?

We learned previously that our sovereign Lord can redeem our sin and weave our past into good for our future. But when we take advantage of that grace, we cheapen Jesus’ death on the cross. Giving into temptation just because you know God won’t let things turn out badly, is taking advantage of His grace. How pathetic if we dare to do this! He won’t let us get away with sin, which has consequences, and demands payment.

Consider Joseph. Read it for yourselves—in Genesis 37:12-36, Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery. After decades of time went by, these same brothers wept at his feet for their sin against him (Genesis 50:20). Verse 20 says Joseph knew his brothers meant him evil, but "God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result."

That, in a nutshell, is what Romans 8:28 means. But Romans 8:28 has a stipulation: "We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, and are called according to His purpose."

This gives us promise and security. We can accept the past, and let it go—even when knowing that we made bad choices. Nothing in our past is outside what God can handle. We can walk confidently in the present. It’s a waste of time to play the "what if" game. Learn from the past, but let it go.

Our job is to love our Lord with all our heart, soul (Deuteronomy 30:10). God wants us to walk in the present because that’s where His grace flows. We look forward to our futures, and God controls that, too. Walking in the Spirit means we can live life to the fullest—unafraid of making mistakes—confident for what is unseen.

Take Home Nugget

Praise God that He can and will work things out in your future for godly good. No one can do anything bad to you without God's knowing. Nothing you do is beyond God’s grace and redemption.

Walk in the Spirit by faith so that you see God’s hand in the most awful circumstances. He is not limited in any way. Praise to our Lord; thanks be to God!

How blessed I am

That my Father works

Hard to bring forth good

When I am in a jamb.

J. D. Griffith

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Who Ya Gonna Call?

WHO YA GONNA CALL?
Sovereign Lord
Isaiah14:24-27
V. 26: “This is the plan determined for the whole world; this is the hand stretched out over all the nations.”

"Who ya gonna call?" That was a famous question in the Ghostbusters movie in the 1980’s. The question is relevant today. When troubles surround you, when people are angry with you, when sin is tempting you, when you feel trapped, who are you going to call for help?

There is one answer for all these questions. We are a prayer away from having the most help—EVER—at our fingertips. Our sovereign God stands alone, there is none but Him (Isaiah 44:6). He’s the ultimate teammate, coach, counselor, Father. How comforting to have Him with us rather than against us (Psalm 27:1)?

He is supreme over sin and all its consequences. He doesn’t cause sin to happen, but He does allow temptation to enter our lives. He gave us free will, so it’s up to us to choose how to respond. The best thing is, He retains all control, and weaves the consequences of our actions for His purposes, and our good (Romans 8:28).

God didn’t create us to be robots. There is no glory for Him when we dutifully obey. He wants us to be over comers. That means we persevere through life’s challenges. We don’t change course, branching off into sinful ways. We trust Him to supply our needs. We obey His commands. He promises to lead us to victory.

Sometimes God allows our sin to run its course, other times He stops our action cold. We are a stubborn people—but even when He disciplines our wrong—we’re lead back to Him. Back to repentance when we sin—into welcome arms. Hebrews 12:6 says that we’re to be happy with our Father’s discipline. That means He loves us enough to correct us.

The wisest choice is to fully obey God’s commands. We won’t have to run a weary race down an ill-chosen path, or knock ourselves out slamming into brick walls. It delights our Father to see us sidestep or overcome the minefields of the world.

Take Home Nugget

We would not like it if we were robots. When we make wise choices, our free will glorifies our Father. But making bad choices can bind us to sin, then we’re not free (Galatians 5:1). Don’t let free will tempt you into disobedience. When we make mistakes, our sovereign Lord has power over our past, present and future. We can live confidently that nothing is beyond the reach of our Father’s grace. Now that’s security!

I don’t like to be corrected

Or find troubles that I must face.

But when push comes to shove,

I love feeling secure in His grace.

J. D. Griffith

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REPENTANCE

Matthew 3:1-8
Mark 1:15: “The time has come” He said. “The kingdom of God is near. Repent amd belive the good news!”

The Lord’s Prayer has a phrase, "Forgive us our debts" (or trespasses). We all know that we sin, and are separated from God because only He is Holy. Jesus died to take all our sins with Him in death so that we could be forgiven. Many children don’t truly get what a tremendous gift this is.

Mark tells us in the Bible that the kingdom of God is at hand. We’re to repent and believe the gospel. Repenting is a rational decision that we make when we follow Jesus. This is necessary for God the Father to forgive us daily. It does not have to be an emotional wailing of our failings. (Although sometimes it can be emotional. Crying out for forgiveness after doing something wrong doesn’t have to go on indefinitely—God forgives instantly.)

Many people agree that repenting is the right thing to do, but often don’t understand that this also means they are not to repeat the sin. Some are so nonchalant to what it means to repent that they think they can repeat the same sin again, over and over. "I’ll repent and be forgiven, so what’s the big deal?" they’ll say.

The big deal is that true repentance is not like a "Get out of jail free card." When someone repeatedly continues in the sin, that is a conscious decision. And that sin is intentional. The original Greek word for repentance is metanoeo. This compound word comes from the word nous meaning "mind" and meta, which means "change." To repent means to literally change your mind.

Some believers repent by confessing their sin, then wallow in their guilt as a type of penance.

This is not Biblical, nor does it honor Jesus’ death on the cross to forgive our sins. Repentance is a willful decision to change one’s mind on the sin, and agree that God’s way is right. This dramatic turnaround is not emotional. It is deliberate. And this glorifies our Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Take Home Nugget

The next time you witness someone in the act of repenting, and that person seems to look sorrowful or remorseful, don’t believe it’s a true repentance. Take a second glance at that person’s life. You should see a difference in that person’s action, attitude or habits. Instead of trusting emotions or lies, trust evidence of a changed life.While we’re checking other’s changed lives, let’s make sure our lives change after repenting of our own sins.

God’s children are His work in progress. No matter who are friends and acquaintances, there’s no place where we can escape God’s watching eyes.

J. D. Griffith

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Made for Praise

PRAISE

Psalm 108:3, 113:3
Psalm 100:1-2: “Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come before Him with joyful songs”

As we learned previously, we are a chosen people (1Peter 2:9). We are set apart to shine our light for all to see. God has a plan for us—a plan for our lives. We instinctively live who we are and do what we do because we are His creation. What a good feeling that He made us to like doing what comes naturally. Following His plan for our lives won’t be anything we wouldn’t do by our own choice, anyway. God made it simple, easy for us to live how He wired us to be.

He also wired us to give Him praise. This seems rather odd, doesn’t it? But notice the birds chirping and listen to their songs. They are doing naturally what they’re wired to do. They don’t know any other way to be. Sometimes we enjoy hearing their song, sometimes we’re aggravated about having been awaken from a sound sleep. But we cannot blame them. It’s in their nature to praise their creator.

Giving our Father praise is something else that He’s made easy for us to do. Because life can be hard, we struggle with circumstances, disappointments or pain. Our minds are frequently steeped in our troubles. But God provided a way to stop our worries: if only we’d pay attention to Him. His Word commands us to pray. This command isn’t to feed God’s immense ego; it’s for our benefit. Praying to God and lifting Him up in praise unifies a divided heart, and ends our worrying.

When we begin praising God, start with thanking Him by remembering His blessings in times past. I do this first thing, before getting out of bed. It’s a great way to start my day. My focus is on Him rather than my troubles. By listing all the things He’s been faithful to in answering your prayers, you can exceed counting the fingers of both hands. And while you’re at it, say a prayer for His lifting the current burden from your shoulders. Ask for His help to find a solution, fix the problem, or heal your pain. Soon, you’re smiling and He’s glorified. He’s made life easy for us once again. Now our days are off to a supernatural start.

Kids love to play, yell, and tussle. This gives our Father in Heaven pleasure; He is praised by our simple delight of playing together.

Take Home Nugget

Praising the Lord is one of the principle themes in Scripture. It’s to be joyful, throughout the day, in the presence of others. It’s simple mutual admiration between the Creator and His beloved creation. And everyone’s blessed.

J. D. Griffith

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Haste Really does make Waste

HASTE
Genesis 25:29-34
1 Timothy 1:5: “The goal of this command [not to teach false doctrines] is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.”

When does the devil have the best opportunity to successfully tempt a person to sin? When do our consciences have the hardest job resisting forbidden attractions? Even when choosing between options, kids are vulnerable (VUL-ner-a-ble, meaning exposed, open) to the devil’s tricks.

Consider how Esau sold his birthright for a bowl of stew. The birthright was a BIG DEAL 5,000 years ago. Holding the birthright gave that person the biggest share of the father’s inheritance. It made him the head of the family, with all power and authority. Esau bargained it away because he was hungry.

Jacob must have laughed to himself. SURE, you can have a bowl of my soup in exchange for your birthright! Imagine Jacob’s delight. He must have thought, I would have given him a bowl of soup regardless; he’s my brother. Did you ever hear someone say they laughed all the way to the bank? That’s Jacob. What did you think when you heard this story from the Bible?

Because Easu was hungry, he gave away his future for a bowl of soup. How did he even consider making this deal with his brother? Before we do anything this foolish, here is a way to avoid falling into the trap. This as easy as: "stop, look, and listen" before crossing a street.

The acronym HALT stands for Hunger, Anger, Lonely, Tired. When you are too any of one of these things, your judgment is impaired. This leads you to make hasty, bad choices. Your conscience is hungry, angry, lonely, and tired too. In this state, it can’t help you made wise decisions.

We are too weak when we allow ourselves to get to any extreme in any of these conditions. This opens the door for Satan to tempt us into making unwise judgments—based solely on what we need at the moment. He strikes when we are at our physical or emotional limit. This is what it means to have our backs against the wall—nowhere to go.

Our defense is to recognize when this is happening, and HALT Satan in his tracks. Eat, sleep, cool down, find someone to hug. This is the believer’s best way to protect the conscience and refrain from temptation that is too attractive to resist. Short-term answers are not solutions.

Keep in mind that Satan’s plans carry a high price in the long run.

Take Home Nugget

Sometimes it helps to think before making a decision. Such as: Will I be pleased tomorrow with what I’m choosing today? And HALT the devil in his tracks.

Before leaping into a fault, demand the devil to H.A.L.T.!

J. D. Griffith

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