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Tomorrow is Halloween. I
have noticed a flurry of radio programs using the anti-Halloween
theme as a format, and Christians are easily sucked up into extended
conversations about all the things we should and shouldn't be
doing on the day. It doesn't take much depth to get a topic like that going. People have a particular fascination with the related topics, and seem to think that if they can persuade someone to alter their behavior, the persuaded one has been saved or at least separated from evil. Listen: if a believer is in tune with the Lord, being filled with and controlled by the Holy Spirit, he will be sensitive to the things that are from hell and the things that are from heaven. If he is faithful in the Word of God and is in fellowship with the Lord in private and in public with His Body, the Christian is directed away from things that offend God in such a way that he does not have to question. We call this transformation. When someone tries to convince another to alter behavior based on information that they have, it usually exposes the weakness of the one who is trying so hard to live out the other's life through persuasion. One of my favorite missionary couples is an extremely conservative couple I have known for a very long time. They are in their late sixty's and as a matter of fact, went to the same Bible School my parents went to about a million years ago. They have been serving the Lord in South America for forty years, and each year, the Mrs. has two little candle ghosts she puts out to decorate during the week before Halloween. She is not ignorant, nor do the little candles draw in the demons. She is in no way aligning herself with the forces of evil, and anyway, it is none of my business. Can I possibly think I know more than she? She who has been through the fiery trial for many more years than I? She who has led hundreds more to the Lord than I? She who is quite experienced with defying and resisting the forces of darkness? I don't like Halloween, and I don't have any white ghost candles. But convincing someone to do what I think they should do only weakens us both. If there is an explicit verse in God's Word, and I am exhorting in the Holy Spirit, God may woo someone to Himself. But most of the stuff I hear on the above theme is not edifying, and should be left up to the Holy Spirit. If I actually convince my neighbor he should not put a pumpkin on his porch, I have saved him from nothing, he is protected from nothing, and he will never have any discernment. He will only run with the herd and will possibly be crippled in his learning to walk with the Lord. If my neighbor's porch will honor the Lord without the pumpkin, the Lord is able to open his eyes to show him things I can only describe. Those who have a private prayer life are loving servants who know that eyes are opened only when the needy see Jesus. |
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