Ever since my first year in full-time ministry, I've appreciated Pastor Jack Hayford's take on autumn holidays and special days. Here is his article called Redeeming Hallowe'en . . .
Introduction
The Church is to be the incarnation of Jesus in the world
(Ephesians 1:22-23). The church is to be Redemptive, Light and Life. We have
biblical grounds for a redemptive mission, and a biblical call as disciples.
There are hosts of Christians who don’t know that Hallowe’en was originally a
holy occasion, not the horrendous event its become.
How are we, who were formerly in the dark, to now walk in
the light?
We are to demonstrate the fruits of the Spirit (v. 9). The
traits of the fruit of the Spirit always have a beauty and a dignity to them,
and they never have a feisty, in-your-face spit-back attitude. The way you walk
as children of light is to avoid the anger that goes on in the name of supposed
righteousness so many times in the Body of Christ. And it deserves regularly to
be confronted. It come many times out of being wounded, and when we’re wounded,
we’re tempted to strike back. We are to discern what is “acceptable to the
Lord” (v. 10).
Let something about the light in you make clear how
meaningless the dark is (v. 11). To expose the fruitlessness of darkness isn’t
to recite a litany of dead deeds (v. 12). So many times you’ll find people
“exposing the darkness” by talking about all the things that are corrupt and
rotten in the world. This is not to discount that they may be, but the fact is,
we’re already pretty aware of that, and the Bible says you don’t need to build
a rebuttal against the darkness. People in the dark know things are coming
unglued. What we need to do is shine as light.
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