Trick or Treat?

Halloween is more scary than costumes and jack-o-lanterns. It runs deeper than just dressing up and scouring the neighborhood for candy. Halloween masquerades behind an innocent mask, when in actuality it's saturated in the occult and mysticism.

Now, does that mean we have to fear it? No. Can we use it for God's glory. Yes. I'm reminded of what Joseph said in Genesis 50: "What you meant as evil, God meant as good."

This post is a little longer than most, but in order to be as 'wise as serpents and innocent as doves' we need to understand what's behind Halloween.

The tradition began over 2,000 years ago in Europe with the Celts who worshipped many gods, one being Samhain, the lord of death. One of the Celts' superstitions was that on October 31st - the eve of their new year - Samhain gathered the spirits of those who had died that year and allowed them to return to their homes. Some of the 'spirits' were not friendly and in their fear they believed that the only way they could appease these spirits was by sacrifice. So on October 31st the Celts held bizarre ceremonies that sometimes included both animal and human sacrifices.

Out of this cult worship has continued the traditions of many witches today who celebrate October 31st as the 'Feast of Samhain' - a festival of the dead - when they try to communicate with the dead through many forms of divination.

Now again, does this mean that we fear Halloween? Now come on, those of you who know me know that I'm not an alarmist, nor do I advocate that we should hide from the darkness.

What I would say is that if you are a Christian parent, the dark spiritual forces behind Halloween demand Godly wisdom concerning your priceless children. The Bible tells us that spiritual forces of evil are very real and we are commanded to not become involved with the unfruitful works of darkness (Eph 5:11). And children's ability to discern and resist spiritual darkness is much less developed than yours. It's your responsibility as parents to not allow them to unknowingly open their lives up to darkness.

With that said then, what must we seek to do? If this is true and Halloween is a spiritually dark night, should we turn off our porch lights and hide under our covers?

Each of you must follow your conscience in determining how your family approaches Halloween . . but let me remind you that Jesus said: "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden . . . Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven." (Matt 5:14-16)

Light always shines the brightest in the darkness and rather than turning our backs to the world, I believe that there is another option. We can seize the opportunity to love those around us. Just think, those 'wandering in the darkness' literally come and knock on our doors!

Below are some ways that you can let your light shine during this season. I encourage each of you to prayerfully prepare yourselves, and your children, and then seek how God would have you respond to those around you. Remember, as followers of Christ we have nothing to fear. Jesus Christ has defeated sin and death and in the power of His Spirit we are agents of life and hope!

Halloween Ideas:

- Prayerwalk your neighborhood this week leading up to Halloween. Praying for each home and family, asking God to open their hearts to His Truth and for a special opportunity to love them during this season.

- Have a party for the kids/families in your neighborhood - One of our Creekers - Kandee Richardson and her Life Group are doing that this year at her house. They're hoping to give away 200 hot dogs, candy and party favors for the kids, and hang out with their neighbors all night.

- Reverse Trick-or-Treat - If you're cool with your children wearing fun costumes then you could trick-or-treat in your neighborhood. But instead of asking for candy, give your neighbors a gift - cookies/brownis you made, or something else - and thank them for their generosity.

- Reverse On Mission Trick-or-Treat - I read that since the 1950's UNICEF has encouraged children to collect money for UNICEF door to door while they trick-or-treated. What about your group collecting food for the food bank, or resources for the homeless (Mission 911), or something related to where your group is on mission. (This would have the added benefit of helping your children think of someone else rather than themselves and collecting the most candy!)

- Get the brightest or most colorful light on your block - It will for sure attract neighborhood kids and give you an opportunity to love them. (And if you do this, get good candy, don't get the stinkin' cheap stuff! :)

Hang Around or Hang Ten?

I read this quote this morning by Jim Cymbala:

"How we live is more important than how long we live. What is the sense of living a long life just to hang around and take up space? I would rather live a few meaningful years for Christ than hang on to age eighty-nine and accomplish little."

What do you think?

We've been seeking this week in our 60/60 experiment to stay connected to the Spirit. We are told to "be strong in the Lord and His mighty power" (Eph 6:10) . . . and it is in this willingness to allow God's Spirit to have more and more of us (see Eph 5:18) that crazy, supernatural, meaningful things begin to flow out of our life.

D.L. Moody said this: "A great many of us think because they have been filled once, they are going to be full for all time after; but my friends, we are leaky vessels, and have to be kept right under the fountain all the time in order to keep full . . ."

It keeps coming back to my mind this week, how many of us would be free of anger or envy or apathy that control us if we were continually filled with the Spirit. How many of us wouldn't have the distractions in our lives that keep us living for the Kingdom if we were continually filled with Spirit. How many of us wouldn't battle the porn and food and drug/alcohol addictions we do if we would allow the Spirit to take over. How many of us would quit playing church and become dangerous for the Kingdom of God if we lived in the power of God's Spirit. How many people we would see coming to Christ if we were filled and controlled by the Holy Spirit!

For Everything!

It's good to 'remember' and give God praise . . . for ALL things.

"always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." (Ephes. 5:20)

As I went back through my blog for 2008, here are some personal dreams fulfilled, family victories, Oso Creek victories, and life journey points that I praise God for . . . . . .

- Beatrice Lopez (from Spain) became our fourth daughter as she lived with us through May (How we love her and her parents!)
- For ALL the babies born to Creekers this year! (Wow, you guys are prolific!)
- We graduated 45 folks from our first Financial Peace class at Oso Creek!
- A Lion Fell -- I ran my first Half-Marathon in Austin!
- The Oso Creek Easter Festival made a comeback and you loved a thousand folks from our community!
- That both Laura and Sarah made All-District Soccer Teams! (They also got 2 of the 5 awards that the team voted on)
- For those of you who made trips to Mexico and loved the children and staff at the Pan de vida orphanage
- Our family ran Beach to Bay as a team
- Starbucks opened up one mile from my house :)
- Luke & I ran a 5k together
- Steve Garcia joined the Oso Creek Team as our Worship Pastor! Yes!
- I discoverd the world of cornhole!
- I got to go to DC and hang out with Mark Batterson and some other great leaders at Unplugged
- Twice we 'left the building' on Sunday morning to serve our community
- Many of you gave us a gift for our 9th Anniversary at Oso by sending us on a weekend to an Astros game!
- We took over 30 Creekers to Leadership Summit and it was awesome!
- The opportunity that many of us got to go to Surfside and love folks who were devastated by Hurricane Ike
- For Matt Beveridge's life and the way he entered eternity with courage and grace (and opened the door for so many people to be impacted) . . . and for the way that all of you loved him and his family
- I got to continue to coach Luke's baseball team including our new team the CC Surge
- Jenny McDermott became part of our awesome Oso Creek staff
- That we were able to join with the City and begin being Corpus' Southside Recycling Center
- I got to go with Luke to a college football game in Austin
- The many of you who generously gave yourself way to Operation Christmas Child and Advent Conspiracy
- That Emily is rocking through her sophomore year at Oso Creek!
- Cindy & I celebrated our 22nd wedding anniversary!
- And I praise God for the vision that He has given us to be 'On Mission' in 2009 like never before!

Filled Up or Filling Up?

You'd think I'm gonna talk about gas huh?

Nope, the Holy Spirit. Last Sunday I talked about that one of the fundamentals of following Jesus is relying on the power of the Holy Spirit. Since then I've had some great conversations.

And most of those have revolved around what it means to be filled with the Spirit. Ephesians 5:18 says: "Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit."

First of all the verb used 'be filled' is a continuous active verb. It's a daily, moment by moment filling. We are to be continually filled. (Just like, in the verse, we've gotta drink more to stay drunk . . . but just to be clear, I'm not recommending that!)

Secondly, it's not about quantity . . . but about submission. In other words, you don't get more (quantity) of the Holy Spirit. It's not like John Coffey in The Green Mile where he inhaled all the evil spirits so others could be healed. It's not getting more of the Holy Spirit from the outside, but it's the Holy Spirit getting more of us on the inside.

Yes, I know that in Acts 2 they were (literally) filled as the wind and fire came from heaven. But that was before Jesus had sent the Holy Spirit to fill His followers. Now, each of us receives our full measure of the Holy Spirit as we invite Jesus to forgive our sins and be the King of our lives (See 1 Corinthians 12:1-13 . . . And like they used to say with Brylcreem - 'A Little Dab'll Do Ya!')

There's no better picture that I know of than a story by Robert Munger called My Heart Christ's Home (you can read the entirety of it here). In it Munger compares our lives to a home. And each room in the home represents an area of our life. And it's easy to ask God just to come into certain 'rooms' of our life. But REALLY RELEASING the power of God requires that we invite Him into EVERY area of our life!

That is being filled by the Spirit. A daily, continual yielding each area of our lives to the control of God's Spirit. At times God will show us areas that we are holding back and holding onto and that just represents opportunity to grow in the fruit of the Spirit.

So as a follower of Jesus you ARE filled up. The question is: ARE YOU filling up?