Halloween and the Christian
Is Halloween really the Christian’s worst nightmare of holidays? Does the devil work overtime, snatching the hearts and minds of our children on that night? Can Christians, in good conscience, participate in Halloween activities? Because we had a decorative flag with a jack-o-lantern on our house I was told by a fellow pastor that I was “celebrating Satan’s holiday”. Was I?
To be sure Halloween celebrations have changed since I was a child. We would wear cheap plastic masks and walk around the neighborhood gathering candy. It was just as simple as that. We had no deep concerns or doctrinal questions. In fact, at one church out in the country where homes were further apart than in the city our church organized a hayride to take us little “trick-or-treaters” from house to house. As I recall I was dressed as Frankenstein and one of my brothers was Dracula. We had a couple of girls dressed as witches. It was a memorable time for me, and I can’t see that I was in great danger of apostasy.
Fast forward to today and you will find that the costumes are more varied and can be very scary in some instances. Adults take great pride in decorating their yards with skeletons, tombstones, dinosaurs, and ghosts among other things. Is that just one more sign of the coming apocalypse? Does it show our nation’s distance from God?
Honestly, I don’t fret over Halloween and how people participate in it. I trust Christian parents to raise their children in the fear and admonition of the Lord; to take them to church and model the Christian lifestyle at home. I trust them to know their children’s personalities and to make informed decisions on their participation in the events of Halloween: don’t go trick-or-treating at all or dress as cartoon characters or other non-scary things or put on a mask and go boo! Here’s the reason I feel that way.
That isn’t how Satan works. Satan is a liar and the father of lies. He is the great deceiver. He doesn’t win the hearts and mind of people by showing his true self. He appears as an “angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14). He comes to us as an attractive choice or false joy. If the devil were to come to us as a malevolent creature jumping out of a closet to kill us or as green-faced witch swooping down on us from above, the church altars would be filled with people begging God’s protection and giving themselves to the Lord in droves. In some ways I wish Halloween was an accurate picture of Satan so our children (as well as ourselves) would be very frightened of him and his work.
Let me describe a true moment of horror on TV: A famous television news person leans toward a 5-year-old boy who has long haired and is wearing a dress and says, “you are a very pretty girl”. That is scary. That is Satan at work. Want another one? A judge in England ruled against a man whose defense in the case was that he couldn’t participate in a certain action because of his religious beliefs. The judge stated that “the Bible is not compatible with human dignity”. That, Christian, is frightening.
Say good things about your Savior and His Church on the Bluff.
Bro. Tony
COTB Staff Appreciation
On behalf of our staff here at Church on the Bluff, I want to say thank you to our church family for the gracious “Pastor and Staff Appreciation Day”. We appreciate the recognition and the words of love and encouragement. You can tell a lot about a church by the length of time that a staff serves and we are unique in that respect. Cornelius Yelding has been our custodian (I call him our Minister of Clean) here for 45 years. Kaye Davis has served as our pianist for 42 years and Duane Terpo has been Minister of Music for 18 years. Sharron Atkinson has ministered as our Ministry Assistant for 13 years. Angie and I have been fortunate to have served for 13 years, and Cindy Adams has been our organist/keyboardist for 5 years.
Your acceptance and support of us is amazing and allows us to minister with a freedom that is refreshing and, I believe, beneficial to the church family. It allows us to utilize the individual gifts that the Lord has given us even as we mesh those gifts together in our service. I know I speak for all of us when I say that we look forward to what God is going to do through Church on the Bluff in the time ahead of us.
And speaking of what lies ahead of us, this is our busiest time of the year both as a church family and as individual families. The fall season is beautiful and brings relief from the scorching heat thus allowing a lot of outdoor activities. Thanksgiving isn’t that far away and (dare I say it?) Christmas will be here before you know it. Pray for every church activity and prepare your hearts for these times of the year when we have one of the best opportunities to speak publicly about our Savior. This is also a time for personal reflection. Don’t let all the activities take you away from a close communion with God. Let every season, every holiday, remind you that we serve a great and gracious God.
And, as we look forward, I’ll close with this mysterious and cryptic question: “Who’s your One?”
Say good things about your Savior and His Church on the Bluff.
Bro. Tony
God Uses Your Circumstances
Many people can identify with what I’m about to say. When I got married, I was making minimum wage. Angie and I moved into a low-end apartment in a not so good part of town. There was no telephone and no air conditioning. We had a 6 year old car (also with no air conditioning). We didn’t have food stamps, or any governmental help and we were well below the poverty level for 1971. We were happy but in all honesty we were poor. It was a struggle. I liked most of the people I worked with, we had family and friends nearby, so even in lean times I suppose life was good.
I look back now and can see that God had His hand on us in a certain way. Not because I was obedient. In fact, I was in a very rebellious relationship with Him. But now I understand that He was preparing things so that when I did become obedient, my path, though still a struggle from time to time, led me to where I am.
When I decided to follow His call into the ministry the 14 years of effort, I put into my job allowed me to keep working full time at night as I went back to college. With the generosity and support of Christian co-workers the two years of 18-hour days were tough, but doable.
I thank God I know what it is like to do with less. I appreciate the people He continually put in my path to affect my life. I can look back and see how God used the circumstances around me to help mold me into the person I am today.
You see, even though I gave up on God, He never gave up on me. He will not give up on you, either. Whatever you may be going through, God can and will use it. Even in tough times, financially or physically, or spiritually, God can impart knowledge and wisdom that will make you better able to minister to others.
Go ahead, be mad with God over your circumstances, He is still there and still working. I know because I was there. Feel sorry for yourself because you don’t have all the things you want. God has a better plan that will follow. I know because I was there. It’s ok to have some doubts about what God is doing…just begin walking in His footsteps and your faith will be strengthened. I know because I was there.
And If I hadn’t been in those places and circumstances I wouldn’t be who I am today. So, trust God, don’t give up on Him, and as always….
Say good things about your Savior and His Church on the Bluff.
Bro. Tony
Only Jesus Can Change Evil
Psychology Today defines insanity as “mental illness of such a severe nature that a person cannot distinguish fantasy from reality, cannot conduct her/his affairs due to psychosis, or is subject to uncontrollable impulsive behavior”. That is a horrible condition for a person to live with. It is truly a sad situation. There is hope, of course. With therapy and medication, a host of mental illnesses can be managed, and people can lead productive lives. As a society we are becoming more aware of such problems and for the most part see them and feel compassion and understanding.
Some mental illnesses can lead to wicked and destructive actions, no doubt. But the law rightfully says that sane people can and will do horrible things. In fact, I’ve read that an “insanity defense” rarely succeeds in cases of violence and mayhem. Courts rule that the person who committed the particular act was sane.
So why would a sane person murder, rob, rape, and commit other acts of violence? I believe that courts of law, by stating that sane people can do horrible things, have endorsed the concept of EVIL. When used as an adjective the word evil describes a person who does bad things. But many dictionaries define the word evil as a noun that is “a cosmic evil force” and “something that brings sorrow, distress, and calamity”. I do not understand how anyone, looking at the world today, can say that a cosmic evil doesn’t exist.
Unlike a mental illness, evil can’t be controlled or cured by any medicine. No doctor can prescribe a pill designed to treat evil. There is only one thing that can eradicate evil and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. Because evil is a “force” of unexplainable origin, power, or cause only an equal force of supernatural power can conquer it: Jesus is that power. I know people personally who will tell you that they were once evil, but Jesus changed their very nature. I’ve heard people describe how He changed their heart from one of evil to a heart of love. There are countless criminals who will gladly share that the only reason they were able to shed a heart of intense anger and hate and escape a life of continued evil is that Jesus saved them and made them a new person.
Laws cannot change evil, but Jesus can. Continue to lift Him up as the sole Savior of a fallen people and, as always….
Say good things about your Savior and His Church on the Bluff.
Bro. Tony
Absolute Truth
A famous actor recently said that after his latest role in a TV series he was going to quit acting and “bring truth to the world”. He wouldn’t elaborate on just what he meant by bringing truth to the world, but my hope is that he meant he was going to begin spreading the Gospel. Let me say emphatically that if that truth isn’t Jesus, it’s not the truth.
Some would say that truth is relative, therefore what is true for you may not be true for me. They are wrong. That isn’t truth at all. Truth doesn’t change. Our opinion of truth may be different, but the truth remains the same. The dictionary says that truth is considered to be absolute, if it is valid in and also beyond all times and places. Therefore, a universal truth is considered logically to transcend the state of the physical universe, whose order is derived from such truths.
Did you catch that last sentence? Order of the universe is derived from absolute truth. That doesn’t mean that just the placement of the planets and stars is determined by absolute truth, it means that the order of everything in the universe is determined by absolute truth: Flowers and trees, the animal kingdom, and yes…human existence. Without absolute truth there would be chaos.
Many would say that relative truth is proved by certain examples. For instance, some say pepperoni pizza is good and some say pepperoni pizza is bad. Therefore, each has his own truth. Wrong. Each has his own opinion of the truth that pepperoni pizza tastes like pepperoni pizza. You may like it, or you may not like it but that doesn’t change the way it tastes. Good and bad are adjectives…simply describing your opinion of the taste.
Am I tall or short? That depends on whether I’m in a room full of kindergarteners or on a basketball court with NBA players. So, is my height a relative truth? Absolutely not. My height remains at 6’3” no matter what your opinion is. That’s the absolute truth.
There is right and wrong that is absolute. There is good and bad that is absolute. Do you want to know those absolute truths? Look to the word of God as it plainly says that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8 NIV). That sounds a lot like the definition of absolute truth, doesn’t it? Therefore, Jesus is the answer to every question, and He is the solution to every problem too.
Say good things about your Savior and His Church on the Bluff.
Bro. Tony
Chick-Fil-A and Real Discrimination
Chick-Fil-A has taken a lot of heat in the last couple of years because the founder believes that marriage should be between a man and a woman and contributes to a couple of Christian organizations that hold to the same belief. They’ve been called haters and homophobes as well as a “bastion of bigotry”. Politicians have criticized them for their support of Christian groups to the point of mayors proclaiming that they didn’t want Chick-Fil-A in their city. Even college campuses deny them access and try to banish the locations that were on campuses already.
Despite the fact, that no one has ever said Chick-Fil-A has discriminated against them in hiring practices because they were in the LGBTQ+ community or denied service or mistreated them because of their lifestyle choices, they are accused again and again of discrimination. All because the founder believes the Bible. That just blows my mind. Never did I ever dream that our culture would react that way to kind and generous people of the Christian faith.
A young lady (evidently gay) even posted a picture of herself standing in front of a Chick-Fil-A holding a chicken sandwich and drink she purchased there and smiling broadly. Her message said: “They don’t know they took gay money”. She, as well as so many of that generation, have no clue what real discrimination is. If she went back inside and told them she was gay they would gladly sell her another chicken sandwich…and it would be ‘their pleasure’.
Real discrimination is refusing to let someone open a business in your city because they are Christians or running them off campus because you disagree with their beliefs. Real discrimination is mocking people and publicly calling them names. It is amazingly ironic that they do exactly what they accuse others of doing.
As Christians I think we can take a page form Chick-Fil-A’s handbook about responding to those who so violently disagree with our faith: Love everyone, serve all people, and keep on keeping on with our love of and obedience to the Lord.
Say good things about your Savior and His Church on the Bluff.
Bro. Tony
Christian Work Ethic
We just celebrated Labor Day, a day set aside to recognize the contribution of the American worker. The workforce in the U.S. is one of the things that makes this nation what it is. America was built on the backs of hard workers. In fact, they practiced what became known as the “Christian work ethic”. You see, the Bible does teach a certain way to work.
First, in 2 Timothy 3:10 God says we are to work for what we get. There were people kind of slacking off, allowing the church to monetarily take care of them. They had no physical reason for not working and He said to tell them that if they didn’t work, they wouldn’t eat. Laziness or deception has no place in the workplace for Christians.
Secondly, there is the admonition to work hard and give it your best effort no matter the circumstances. In Colossians 3:23 He tells us to work in our secular work as if we are working for the Lord. Give 100% to please God…even if you don’t like the work or the boss. An honest day’s work is not about the job or the boss, it’s about the worker. Give it your best, regardless.
You can see why there is a strong tie between the building of our nation and the Christian work ethic. Sadly, as we see the marginalization of the Bible as a guide to what is right and wrong, we see a generation of people who believe they deserve to be taken care of in some way. They seem to believe that the “government” owes them something because of their “rights” as Americans.
As Christians we are to be exceedingly generous in taking care of people in dire need. We are to especially look out for widows and orphans. But there is absolutely nothing wrong with Christians believing that folks that are able-bodied should work for what they get and give 100% in their labor. It’s the Christian thing to do.
Say good things about your Savior and His Church on The Bluff!
Bro. Tony
New Alabama Law and Marriage Certificates
Have I signed my last Marriage Certificate? Quite possibly. The new Alabama law doesn’t require a marriage certificate, ceremony, or even a marriage officiant…such as a preacher or justice of the peace. People simply download a marriage form, fill it out, have it notarized, and turn it in to the county Probate Office to be recorded. Boom! You are married.
Something is just wrong with that picture. I know that in the last decade the “institution of marriage” has taken quite a beating. Some of the reasons to get married in the first place have been erased: Living together, having children, making a meaningful commitment. But right now, this law is a sad commentary on the importance of family in this culture.
I understand that one of the reasons given for this new law is so that probate judges who disagree with same-sex marriages wouldn’t have to sign (approve) the marriage certificate. But that could have been accomplished with numerous other types of laws that would have kept the solemnity and sacredness of marriage alive. Now, unfortunately, it is nothing more that a simple civil contract. That’s it. No counseling, no promises, no vows…and no “I do’s”. Just “sign here”.
Of course, wedding ceremonies can, and for Christians especially, will be performed in churches and wedding venues across the country. But in the eyes of a so called “progressive” culture of permissiveness, marriage has taken a huge step backwards. Marriage is a serious and sacred institution. We should be making it harder to get married, not easier! The importance, meaning, and sanctity of the purpose of the marital union should be stressed, not erased.
Do you realize that someone can decide at 8:00 to “get married” and be married by noon? The divorce courts are going to get busier, I’m sure. I wonder if the law makes a way to get divorced online, too? Easy come, easy go.
Say good things about your Savior and His Church on the Bluff
Bro. Tony
Repent and Turn to God
A few weeks ago, I mentioned from the pulpit that a person was asking online for the locations of local churches who welcomed LGBTQ, had good music, and an “uplifting” service. Let me state emphatically that such a person would certainly be welcomed here at Church on the Bluff! I want everyone to know that we would not turn anyone away from our services or fellowship. We welcome adulterers, thieves, drunkard, liars, idolaters, those who are greedy, sexually immoral, and causers of division. We would welcome you, hug you, even invite you to breakfast. But the message you will hear is this: “Repent and turn to God”!
I’m sorry if that isn’t as uplifting as you want. But it is Biblical. Read the sermons Jesus and the apostles. Read the directives for the churches by Peter, Paul, John, and the others. They didn’t preach repentance from sin because they hated anyone. No…it was because they actually loved everyone and wanted them to experience a closeness with their creator that wasn’t possible with sin in their lives. They knew of the destruction of families, the misery of a life lived apart from God, and the lack of joy and satisfaction away from God’s will and purpose. And thus, they believed with all their heart and soul that turning away from sin would grant everyone a peace that passes the understanding of mortal man.
So yes, all sinners are welcome. Jesus said “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”(Matthew 11:28-29 NIV). That is our cry also. But….we will not affirm sin. Jesus also said to those whom he loved “But unless you repent, you too will all perish.” (Luke 13:5 NIV).
So…welcome sinners! Come and feel the freedom of repentance.
Say good things about your Savior and His Church on the Bluff.
Bro. Tony
Spirit of Revival
I hope you are sensing a renewed spirit in the church. It seems like every Sunday the fellowship, the Bible study, and the singing are truly Spirit-filled. That feeds two different needs. First, some have had a tough week and need to be around fellow Christians for support and to feel the Spirit encouraging them and ministering to them. Others come after having a great week of closeness with God and wanting to share their enthusiasm in fellowship and praise.
Both are just what our community needs: Christians experiencing time of personal revival. When you come to church and draw nearer to the Lord you go into a “world” that needs what you have. There are people that are hurting, people who are angry, people who are confused….people that are searching for peace and satisfaction in their lives. I believe we don’t realize how much a joyful, encouraging, Christ-centered person affects people on a daily basis. Whether at the workplace, the home, at times of recreation, in the grocery store, or a restaurant….people need to see the light of Christ shining through us. Sometimes a big smile and a “have a blessed day” can transfer the peace of Christ to someone, if only for a moment.
You see, “going to church” is not totally about us. There is a great big world out there that needs contact with Spirit-filled Christians; Christians who are sensitive to the Spirit in their lives. Many times, we encounter people who seem to want to make our day worse. We think, sometimes, that the devil puts people like that in our day just to rob us of joy. Did you ever stop to think that God puts us in peoples lives to make their day better?
We are God’s instruments of peace and compassion. We are put into the world to affect the world, not the other way around. So, yes, go to church every Sunday. Recharge if that’s what you need. Praise and worship the risen Savior and soak up that spirit of revival. Express your love and joy. Then take all that enthusiasm and love for Christ out into a world and let the Lord place you in the right place at the right time to touch a weary soul. Let the Spirit guide you to situations where He wants to work through you. Somewhere out there is a tired waiter, an ill cashier, an angry co-worker, or a burdened family member that the Lord wants you to minister to.
Say good things about your Savior and His Church on the Bluff.
Bro. Tony