Glorifying Death

As All Hallow's Eve (the Eve of the Holy Ones) approaches, I am always anxious to get past it to November 1, to All Saints Day. The celebration of Jesus' victory over death and evil has, instead, become, even among Christians, the very celebration of death.  For decades people have intimated to me that not to celebrate Hallloween was to deprive my children of a deserved delight. Yes, it is fun for children to dress up and receive candy. Of course it is. And we tried to schedule some fun events, as many churches have, to allow them to do so without glorifying evil.  We told them the true meaning of All Hallow's Eve..and that we didn't have to be afraid of death or evil because of what Yeshua has done for us.  But at what true expense to them are we spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to decorate our homes with symbols of evil and death and relegating this time of the year to harmless fun?  Innocent animals and children are tortured and ritually killed on this night.  Ask any policeman about the reality behind this 'fun, harmless' time of the year. What many people don't realize is that there are very real practices of Satanism and Black and 'White' witchcraft occurring throughout each year, but especially at this highest of 'holy' times in their 'faith'.  According to their beliefs, the more innocent the victim, the better.

   We need to open our eyes to the realities of which many have been unaware.  In some ways, I wish mine hadn't been, and yet I know one can't change reality by ignoring it.  We had a baptism of fire, so to speak, years ago when thrust into a situation where a young woman staying with us woke us with a request for an ice pick so she could stick it into her head.  Initially we thought it was from drug-induced schizophrenia, but we later discovered that she carried a vial of blood in her purse from a Black Sabbath experience.  One doesn't forget things like this.  She only became completely free from all this when a team of people trained in deliverance prayed for her in two successive,  lengthy sessions.  If you remember the time Yeshua delivered the possessed man of the tombs who was being controlled by a 'Legion' of evil....this turned out to be her experience, also.
   At the time, we were clueless and truly didn't know how to help her. Our prayers calmed her but didn't free her. We were so grateful that God led her into a 'random' church one day, in her
desperation, where this team was visiting from another state.    She was freed, received her college degree, and became a counselor.  This after being told that she was so brain damaged that she would have to be permanently institutionalized.  Only God could set her free, and not without much deep investment.
   I know that, once again, I will raise the ire of many defensive parents and grandparents.  However, to not speak the truth in love about this is to be complicit in it. When the kids were living at home, we used to carve a cross into a pumpkin and place a candle inside to make it a Christ-o-Lantern and place it in a window. Let's shine the Light of Christ and defy the darkness.