Post by Charity on Oct 15, 2005 9:29:17 GMT -5
From The Teaching Home who are a Blessing to so many of us. 
What To Do About Halloween
Each year as stores and homes begin to decorate for Halloween, we can either ignore the holiday or respond to it in a way that will edify our families and others while honoring the Lord.
Historically, Halloween was a pagan, occultic worship day. Even today we see that the primary focus of Halloween is the occult, the devil, evil, death, fear, and horror.
By not celebrating this holiday as the unbelieving world does, we are acknowledging that as Christians we are different from the world and are obeying God's Word: "Have nothing to do with the evil deeds of darkness, but rather expose them" (Ephesians 5:11).
Use To Teach Truth
The first truth to teach is the pagan, occult, and satanic origin and present practices of Halloween. Tampering with the demonic and occult is serious business.
www.annieshomepage.com/halloweenhistory.html
www.annieshomepage.com/halloween2.html
logosresourcepages.org/halloween.html
christiananswers.net/q-eden/halloween.html
Use a few of your family's daily devotional times to do a Bible study. Look up and discuss all the Scriptures you can find related to the occult. Use a Bible dictionary, your Bible's chain reference, and/or a topical Bible.
Be sure to balance your study of Satan and evil with the glorious attributes of God, His power, and Christ's victory over Satan by His death and resurrection.
A word of warning: when we expose Satan and his works and reveal God's Words to our family, the enemy of our souls will target us for attack. We must put on "the whole armor of God," for this spiritual battle is real.
"For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places" (Eph. 6:12).
Passages to Study
These are a few topics and passages to get you started.
Light and Darkness: Eph. 5:1-17
Witchcraft: Deut. 18:9-14; Lev. 20:27; I Sam. 28:3-25
Satan: John 8:44; I John 5:19; Luke 22:31; I Pet. 5:8
Fear: Matt. 10:28; Ps. 118:6; 27
Hell: Luke 16:19-31; Rev. 19:20; 21:8.
God's Love: John 3:16; I John 3:1; Rom. 8:31-39
God's Power: Rom. 16:20; I Cor. 15:51-58; Luke 8:26-39
God's Protection: Ps. 23; John 10:27-30; Ps. 91
God's Presence: Ps. 145:18; Matt. 28:20; James 4:7-8
Spiritual Warfare: Eph. 6:10-18; II Cor. 10:3-5
You may want to select some verses that promise God's love and protection to memorize and be used to comfort and reassure your children when they are afraid.
Alternatives
Many families respond to the evils of Halloween with alternatives such as a harvest festival at their church.
Some families celebrate Reformation Day on Oct. 31. An excellent resource for that celebration is:
A Night of Reformation. This 170-page notebook contains a short play about Martin Luther plus instructions and illustrations for games, carnival booths, crafts, food, music, costumes, decorations, and art and writing projects.
www.doorposts.net/Reformation.htm
Do anticipate questions that your children may be asked about the holiday and help them prepare an answer that would honor our Lord.
Halloween Tracts
Many families use Halloween for an outreach ministry of tract evangelism (see article below).
* You can turn your light on and welcome trick-or-treaters with candy and a gospel tract.
* One family goes out on the sidewalks and offers candy and tracts to those who pass by.
* Or you could wrap up plates of home-made cookies with tracts enclosed and take them around to your neighbors.
To prepare for your ministry:
* Select appropriate tracts.
* Teach your children the courtesies of distributing tracts and the importance of being a good testimony while doing so.
* Pray for the fruitfulness of the seed, God's Word, you will be sowing in the lives of people receiving the tracts.
The Lord can help your family to turn Halloween into an opportunity to teach your children Biblical truth, disciple them in literature evangelism, and experience a fruitful time of ministry together.
Read more here:
www.teachinghome.com/newsletters/vol_2-no_16.cfm
What To Do About Halloween
Each year as stores and homes begin to decorate for Halloween, we can either ignore the holiday or respond to it in a way that will edify our families and others while honoring the Lord.
Historically, Halloween was a pagan, occultic worship day. Even today we see that the primary focus of Halloween is the occult, the devil, evil, death, fear, and horror.
By not celebrating this holiday as the unbelieving world does, we are acknowledging that as Christians we are different from the world and are obeying God's Word: "Have nothing to do with the evil deeds of darkness, but rather expose them" (Ephesians 5:11).
Use To Teach Truth
The first truth to teach is the pagan, occult, and satanic origin and present practices of Halloween. Tampering with the demonic and occult is serious business.
www.annieshomepage.com/halloweenhistory.html
www.annieshomepage.com/halloween2.html
logosresourcepages.org/halloween.html
christiananswers.net/q-eden/halloween.html
Use a few of your family's daily devotional times to do a Bible study. Look up and discuss all the Scriptures you can find related to the occult. Use a Bible dictionary, your Bible's chain reference, and/or a topical Bible.
Be sure to balance your study of Satan and evil with the glorious attributes of God, His power, and Christ's victory over Satan by His death and resurrection.
A word of warning: when we expose Satan and his works and reveal God's Words to our family, the enemy of our souls will target us for attack. We must put on "the whole armor of God," for this spiritual battle is real.
"For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places" (Eph. 6:12).
Passages to Study
These are a few topics and passages to get you started.
Light and Darkness: Eph. 5:1-17
Witchcraft: Deut. 18:9-14; Lev. 20:27; I Sam. 28:3-25
Satan: John 8:44; I John 5:19; Luke 22:31; I Pet. 5:8
Fear: Matt. 10:28; Ps. 118:6; 27
Hell: Luke 16:19-31; Rev. 19:20; 21:8.
God's Love: John 3:16; I John 3:1; Rom. 8:31-39
God's Power: Rom. 16:20; I Cor. 15:51-58; Luke 8:26-39
God's Protection: Ps. 23; John 10:27-30; Ps. 91
God's Presence: Ps. 145:18; Matt. 28:20; James 4:7-8
Spiritual Warfare: Eph. 6:10-18; II Cor. 10:3-5
You may want to select some verses that promise God's love and protection to memorize and be used to comfort and reassure your children when they are afraid.
Alternatives
Many families respond to the evils of Halloween with alternatives such as a harvest festival at their church.
Some families celebrate Reformation Day on Oct. 31. An excellent resource for that celebration is:
A Night of Reformation. This 170-page notebook contains a short play about Martin Luther plus instructions and illustrations for games, carnival booths, crafts, food, music, costumes, decorations, and art and writing projects.
www.doorposts.net/Reformation.htm
Do anticipate questions that your children may be asked about the holiday and help them prepare an answer that would honor our Lord.
Halloween Tracts
Many families use Halloween for an outreach ministry of tract evangelism (see article below).
* You can turn your light on and welcome trick-or-treaters with candy and a gospel tract.
* One family goes out on the sidewalks and offers candy and tracts to those who pass by.
* Or you could wrap up plates of home-made cookies with tracts enclosed and take them around to your neighbors.
To prepare for your ministry:
* Select appropriate tracts.
* Teach your children the courtesies of distributing tracts and the importance of being a good testimony while doing so.
* Pray for the fruitfulness of the seed, God's Word, you will be sowing in the lives of people receiving the tracts.
The Lord can help your family to turn Halloween into an opportunity to teach your children Biblical truth, disciple them in literature evangelism, and experience a fruitful time of ministry together.
Read more here:
www.teachinghome.com/newsletters/vol_2-no_16.cfm
