Category: Old Testament

I Don’t See Jesus – A case against Halloween

Featured ~ Sowmya Gali

4 You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. 5 They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them. 6 We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. –

1 John 4: 4-6

Ever since I moved to United States, the one holiday I couldn’t understand was Halloween. What is it about this holiday that both adults and kids alike, all dressed up in costumes – some beautiful but mostly horrid, enjoy spooking their neighbors? I dug through the origins of this holiday and much to my surprise, it had a mixture of pagan and Christian origins.

Back in the Middle age, when saints were highly esteemed, the Catholic and Orthodox churches honored their saints of the past on a day called All Hallows Day. The Celtics gathered their flocks and harvest and secured them for the coming winter. They believed that the ghosts of the dead came out during the evening before the All Hallows Day to enter anyone to destroy or cause trouble. So in order to confuse the ghosts, people dressed up as ghosts and wandered the roads and by lanes of their villages. Since then that evening was called All Hallows eve, which then evolved into Halloween.

Forgive me, if my words seem offensive to those who celebrate this holiday. However, I must state my case in order to justify my hesitancy in celebrating this holiday. Every holiday I celebrate, I look for the reason behind the celebration. All that matters to me is: do I find Jesus in this celebration? Take Christmas for instance, we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world. During Easter, we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, giving us a hope. When I celebrate a birthday, I am grateful to my Lord for keeping me alive and healthy for another year and so on.

When I celebrate, I only want to see Jesus as my heart fills with gratitude for what He has done. However, when I look at those ghoulish faces, I don’t see Jesus. Looking at houses decked up as haunted houses, kids and adults dressed up to scare those ghosts or evil spirits away, I feel that they got it all wrong. We know from the Bible that Satan roams the earth back and forth, seeking whom he may devour. That means that the Satan doesn’t choose one evening in the entire year to devour someone. He is always on the prowl. One name in heaven and earth that causes the devil and his cohorts to fear and run away is the name of Jesus. All authority is given to man to drive out the evil spirits in the name of Jesus. So how come we don’t use that name?

In conclusion, I reiterate two case points not to celebrate Halloween. Primarily, I don’t see Jesus behind the celebration and secondly, all I need is the name of Jesus to drive evil away from me and my house. These two reasons suffice.

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Pursuing Perfection

Featured ~ Sowmya Gali

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will. Roman 12: 2 (NIV)

Cooking is my thinking place: a place where I have time to collect my thoughts, draw inspiration while perfecting my cooking skills. Cooking has enabled me to multitask. Over the years, I have perfected some dishes that have a special connection. Every chance I get, I have attempted to perfect a dish that needs a bit of tweaking, an addition of a new ingredient, reducing some spices, adding ingredients in a particular order or cooking for a set amount of time, because that dish holds a special place in my heart. I wasn’t satisfied until I’ve achieved the taste that has been embedded in my brain. The ones that I’ve perfected are now done with precision that I don’t even have to think hard on. They are easy to prepare and every time they come out perfect. How do I know that it is perfect? Well, my family approves with a big thumbs up and a mouthful!

This got me to thinking about my walk with Jesus. I’ve been a believer for quite some time. I believe that I’ve made some progress in my faith. I’ve tried, tested and tasted how faithful my Savior is. There were several times, when all I could say or do was a big thumbs up when God answered prayer or provided in a supernatural way. He is perfect in all His ways!

On the other hand, there are times when I feel I am not going anywhere: standstill and sometimes dismayed. I feel so imperfect. With the Holy Spirit’s prompting, I reevaluate my approach in my walk with the Lord. I return to my thinking place and analyze the reasons of my stagnation. I notice that I’ve returned to some of my old worldly ways of doing things or thinking. I’ve been influenced by the world around me so much that I’ve failed to differentiate between truth and fallacy. For certain the amount of time I should have spent at Jesus’ feet on bended knee has been reduced to naught.

At this juncture, I am ready for some tweaking in my spiritual life. As the Holy Spirit leads me, I add some new ingredients in my prayer life like praying more, reading the Bible more and listening to good Christian music. I reduce some ingredients that are influencing my walk by not paying much attention to worldly influences. I’ve reset my time by spending longer time reading the Word from the Bible and not reading other literature. Such corrections have reestablished my faith.

In our walk with Christ, such reevaluations are necessary. When we feel stagnated, our prayers not being answered and our fasting without results should drive us to succumb to the tweaking of the Holy Spirit. God always answers prayers for He is faithful and perfect in all of His ways! We are the ones who fail to test and approve His good, pleasing and perfect will. He is willing to transform us only when we surrender to His correction. Only then can we see the results of His perfection. Let us persevere in reevaluating our spiritual walk with our Lord so we won’t be conformed to the influences of this world but be transformed by renewing our minds. Only then we will able to give big thumbs up to God’s perfect will!

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