Taking It Back: Redeeming Halloween (Pt. 2)
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Loading ...Later, in the 15th century, Luther nailed his 99-thesis on the door of the cathedral in Wittenberg on November 1, signaling a formal beginning to the Protestant Reformation. Mainline Protestant churches celebrate November 1 as Reformation Day, honoring the work of Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, and others.
So for the Protestant church, November 1 marks two significant events: the honoring and remembering of the saints who came before us and the beginning of the Reformation. Yes, Halloween is a very ecclesiastical (church-y) holiday: for the Christian calendar it marks the Eve of All Saints Day, like Christmas Eve signals the evening before Christmas Day. The word, Halloween, itself is quite Christian, perhaps more so that Fall Festival or Harvest Celebration. In its original context, Halloween celebrates the lives of the saint who have gone before us.
In the New Testament, Paul wrote to the church at Colosse “Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day.” (Col. 2.16) The application of their scripture speaks for itself.
all saints day ancient celts calvin celebration christian calendar christmas church despise ecclesiastical eve Evotational germany halloween luther mainline protestant churches moon november 1 protestant reformation reformation day religious festival wittenberg Filed under Evotational | Comment (0)Peace In Action
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Peace is the ability to remain faithful to mission in spite of the surrounding circumstances and unfulfilled commitments.
We all have goals and dreams and desires that are not yet fulfilled. We tend to start toward our mission like a race horse and forget the things that are at hand and not completed. Peace comes when you leave no baggage behind on your latest pursuit. Even when your dream plan is working well, the undone will always haunt and bring panic. Peace will quickly disappear! Learn to be faithful to your current mission to completion. That faithfulness is the pathway of peace.
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Peace is the ability to find calmness in the panic attack.
God is bigger than any person, situation, or circumstance! Never look to the bigness of your need…look to the bigness of your God! Learn to focus your eyes through the eyes of faith. No mob is out of His control. You can handle it! Remember, greater is He than…(you fill in the blanks)!
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Peace is the ability to wait confidently.
It is easy to get fearful of the unknown. God seems to be moving pawns around on His chessboard. We can’t see His chessboard. All we can see is our own little square, if that!
We cannot move. It’s tough being a rook held in place by a bishop. As we sit in our current position, we fear being picked off. There is peace as long as God has His pawns in motion!
calmness chessboard circumstance commitments current position dreams and desires Evotational eyes of faith faithful faithfulness goals and dreams haunt mob panic attack pathway pawns peace race horse rook spite Filed under Evotational | Comment (0)
Taking It Back: Redeeming Halloween (Pt. 1)
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...I want to set the record straight about Halloween.
We, the church, are hesitant, even loathe to use “Halloween” because of the different connotations of the word. In pop culture, immediate images of oafish psychopaths, scantly clad teens running into a bloody chainsaw, demonized little girls with stringy hair and post-pubescent voices, and ghosts from the past talking through the radio. But these ideas are deviations from the true Christian meaning of Halloween. In this three part series, I want to engage the history of this “holy-day” and then propose how we can redeem it.
First, we come to the Romans. They observed “Feralia:” a day in February to honor the dead. Sacrifices were made and prayers offered up on the behalf of the dead. The early church baptized “Feralia” to honor saints of the church, or great people of faith who had died. The date for “All Saints Day” has moved around through the ages, but presently it’s on November 1. Western Christianity, whose epicenter was Rome, had great influence throughout the known world, and naturally, so would it’s holidays.
Meanwhile, the people of Britain were called the Celts. They were people who worshiped nature and its beauty. The Celts, like the Romans and Greeks, had a pantheon of gods, partly as an attempt to explain how the world worked. The Sun God was their source of life, and the Celts adored him as such. They also worshiped Samhain, (pronounce “sow-in,” i.e. “sow” like a female pig) who was god of the dead and, of course, the winter. They believed that on October 31, Samhain would call together all of the dead, and all creatures wandered the Earth that night. The Celts called this the “Vigil of Samhain.” Additionally, October 31 meant the end of the harvest and the beginning of winter.
The Druids, who were the priests of the Celtic people, built huge sacred bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to commemorate the festival and honor the gods. At midnight on the 31st, they stop worshiping the Sun God and started to worship Samhain, the ruler-god for the winter. This marked the start of the Celtic New Year. Celts performed ceremonies and dressing costumes like animals through the night to divine the future of the New Year.
After the Romans conquered the British Isles around the time of Christ, the two holidays of Feralia and Samhain merged together in Roman-Celtic territory. As Christianity spread throughout the Empire and up in Britain, the Church further attempted to replace the Celtic and Roman traditions with a similar, but decidedly, Christian celebration on November 1. Known in Middle English as “Alholowmesse,” All Saints Day celebrated and commemorated saints of the Church who did not have a particular day associated with them. Further, the Church often “baptized” secular or pagan holidays and incorporated those days into its liturgical calendar: Easter and Christmas are additional examples holidays with pagan roots. The day before “All Saints Day” was known as “All Hallows Eve;” hence, Halloween. Around AD 1000, the church made November 2 “All Souls’ Day,” a day to honor the dead. It was celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big bonfires, parades, and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels, and devils.
all saints day bonfires celts dead sacrifices Evotational female pig halloween hesitant loathe oafish october 31 psychopaths romans samhain set the record straight source of life sow stringy hair they believed that true christian Western christianity Filed under Evotational | Comment (0)Shine Forth
(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5) Loading ...Nature is so beautiful. I’m sitting here looking out my window, and was once again amazed at what God made. Unfortunately there is a building sitting right in my line of view that kind of ruins the picture. The man made structure, while a nice looking building, cannot compare.
Makes me think about the parts of my life. Which are God made, and which are man made? After a quick look it is pretty clear - the things of God are glorious, beyond compare. The things of man look shabby by comparison. Even if they are great by man’s standards they pale when standing next to God’s standard. The accomplishment I have achieved on my own may look great for a bit, but oh how glorious are those things that are undeniably purely of God!!
The childhood song about not hiding your light comes to mind - each part of my life that is touched by God becomes a small bit of light. If there is not much in our lives that is of God, there is nothing to shine, nothing to make us different from those around us. But if enough parts are lit up, the whole becomes a blazing beacon that shines forth.
Let the glory of God shine through, reflect off us, and illumine the world around.
Evotational Filed under Evotational | Comment (0)The Fall of Saul
(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5) Loading ...1 Samuel 15 tells a very poignant story.
It starts off with Saul the great King of Israel. Victorious in battle, slaughtering his enemies, he was the champion of God. The anointed. The chosen to lead God’s people.
It ends with a heart-wrenching condemnation of Saul:
v35 Samuel never went to meet with Saul again, but he mourned constantly for him. And the Lord was sorry he had ever made Saul king of Israel.
How did Saul reach this point? How could he fall so far so fast? By doing something most of us do everyday.
My wife and I have been fighting this very thing in our 3 3/4 year old son Connor. There are times we tell Connor to not to do something and he goes ahead and does it anyway. Normal kid, right? But normal for us too. When I ask Connor why he did the thing I told him not to do, his reply is almost always: “But I wanted to …”. There is a direct conflict between his will and mine. He then makes the choice to obey or not.
We make that same choice everyday, probably even every minute. Do we obey God or not? Even in the smallest things that choice is there. It boils down to this: do I value God’s commands higher than my desires? Or is what I want more important to me than what God wants?
Saul fell so fast. Don’t fall with him.
v22-23 What is more pleasing to the Lord:
your burnt offerings and sacrifices or your obedience to his voice?
Listen! Obedience is better than sacrifice,
and submission is better than offering the fat of rams.
Rebellion is as sinful as witchcraft,
and stubbornness as bad as worshiping idols.
So because you have rejected the command of the Lord,
he has rejected you as king.
