Every year about this time, the store shelves turn orange and black as the hoard of Halloween decorations envelop whole sections of the store and in some cases the entire store.
Halloween is the second largest grossing holiday in America with over $6 billion in sales of costumes and candy. Every October 31st, kids and adults dress up in costumes and roam the streets in search of candy. It is also one of the biggest nights of the year for crime related insurance claims spiking 24 percent on this one day alone.
Christians attempt to down play this holiday but it continues to grow and has now started being celebrated globally. So where did it come from? What about that crazy pumpkin?
The pumpkin comes from a centuries old Irish myth about a guy named Stingy Jack. Apparently, he made Satan so mad that he would not allow him into Hell. He obviously wasn’t welcome in to Heaven either so he was left to wander the Earth with only a hollowed out turnip that he placed a light inside. This myth is celebrated every Halloween by recreating the hollowed out turnip with a Jack O’Lantern.
The holiday itself comes from a first century Celt harvest holiday where they believed that on October 31, the ghosts of the dead would rise to possess the living and wreak havoc on their crops. In order to protect themselves and the crops they wore animal heads and animal skins to confuse and scare away the ghosts. If the masks and animal heads were scary enough, the evil spirits would think they were spirits too and leave them alone. Sweets were used to appease the spirits and hope they would do no harm.
Today, I don’t think Buzz Lightyear and Wonder Woman are going to scare any evil spirits away. A snickers bar as good as it is not going to appease Satan and his minions. The fact is, the evil spirits probably invented Halloween and have been pushing it for over 2,000 years. They have been trying to bring down mankind since the beginning.
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Ephesians 6
Jesus faced Satan in the wilderness and it is his example we should use to scare him away. Three times Satan tempted Jesus to get him to turn away God and three times Jesus used the Bible to ward him off.
If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”
4 But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.
After 40 days and 40 days without food, bread would have sounded real good to Jesus and Satan knew this. What better way to tempt him than with food.
Satan hates the worship of God. Satan hates the symbol of the cross and its meaning of salvation. Satan hates the word of God. Having your own battle with evil? Read the Psalms out loud and see how long the temptation and discouragement remains with you. I can say with confidence it will not be long for peace and comfort to envelope you and protect you from the father the devil.
You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. John 8
In 1 John
For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.
Be faithful, be born of God and speak the truth. This is how you battle Satan and this is how you will defeat him and live victoriously.
A scary mask won’t do it nor a Kit Kat bar but “The Lord Rebuke you Satan” will.
And that is the Whole Truth
And remember God always answers His kneemail.
