Halloween as a time for joy that light has overtaken the dark

Halloween is one of those touchy subjects for Christians. And especially in Australia, since it's never been a particularly wide spread event, people treat it with a kind of fear.

But I think if we give Halloween too much credit as 'evil', then we are saying that evil has some power over us.

Yes, the spiritual darkness is real, and revelling in it is dangerous and destructive. But are we saying that kids dressing up in crazy costumes and eating lollies is a stepping stone to devil worship? I think we need to give ourselves some credit.

After all, at Christmas and Easter many of us embrace or at least accept the traditions of Santa and the Easter Bunny, with equally if not more pagan roots, without fearing our children are a step away from goddess worship or practicing magic.

How about another way to look at it - by dressing up, by poking fun, we are laughing in the face of the evil and death we know Jesus has already over come. We make fun of the darkness that has no hold on us because we know the light has come.

Maybe, just maybe, Halloween could fill us with joy? It's an idea...




I'm not trying to start a celebrate Halloween campaign, but watching this video just made me think - why should we fear it?

Self preservation

Self preservation - a lot of our lives are devoted to it.

We build up careers to keep ourselves in plenty of money; we pursue things that will leave some mark on the world so that even when we are gone we preserve our memory; we protect our things, our space, our time jealously as if one lapse will have the world taking advantage of us.

All in all we spend a lot more time making sure we are alright, than we do making sure others are.

We'll help others, sure. But only if it doesn't take away too much of our lives. Only if it doesn't involve too much self-sacrifice.

I'll invite you round for dinner, ok, on a night I approve and hospitably feed you a nice meal - but don't get crazy on me and just drop round... and don't even think about being homeless and asking me for money while I'm trying to go about my day spending it on myself.

The problems and quarrels and animosity we hold towards others are largely directed at those who threaten our sense of self, our way of life, our attempts to preserve what we see as ours - from wars with another country to the person who ate the last biscuit we were saving for ourselves.

In this case, as is often the case, Jesus has a view that goes against the popular opinion. The world will tell you, look after yourself first. Hold on to what's yours, or someone else will take it. Build up a life for yourself, store up for yourself.

Jesus says:

If you try to hold on to your life, it will slip through your fingers; if you let go of your life, you’ll keep it.

Luke 17:33

And Jesus says that because he knows the time is near. He knows its urgent and we need to be alert.

There's no time to hang on to those things you can't take with you, because while you're turning around to gather your precious 'things', you've missed it. You've spent so much effort trying to protect who you think you should be, or who the world expects you to be, that you've missed who God really created you to be.

Try to save your own life - reach for that life preserver you created yourself - and you'll end up being destroyed along with it.

Focus on God, lay down your life, forget about your own self preservation, and it's your eternal life that will be saved.

What are you keeping close at hand to grab whenever you feel the need to protect yourself? Money? Pride? Anger? Excuses? Status? Appearance?

Lay these things down and realise the baggage-free freedom that comes from relying only on Christ.

No box is big enough

A thought occurred to me last night, as I lay in bed talking to God. I felt that God was close to me, that I could talk to him one on one, with his full attention. Then I imagined everyone else in the world. The billions of people who could also be talking to God at the same time, with this same full attention.

Just think about that for a moment. A being who can be everywhere at once, and not be diminished at all. Who can talk to you intimately like a loving Father while also doing this for billions of others, but never being diminished or distracted or too busy.

It's hard to wrap your mind around. If we are talking to one person while trying to listen to another conversation, we can barely take in any of it.

And while there is so much in that about God as Father and how loving he is, and how we can have such an intimate relationship with him...none of that is unimportant or trivial. But the thing that occurred to me last night was, how can I possible ever think I've got God figured out?

We can know more and more of Him, but we are barely scratching the surface.

Yet we continue to try and fit God into a neat box so we can manage Him. And if he does something that makes Him not fit into that box any more, we just recalculate and decide that we just need a bigger box.

But no box will ever be big enough. He is outside of the time and space, beyond anything our earthly minds can comprehend.

If I can't even understand how it's possible that He is even talking to me, then how can I suppose I know and can fit into neat boxes who he is and what he will do?

And yet, by His spirit to ours, He gives us glimpses of things greater than natural life. He does make it possible for us to know Him. Bit by bit, the more we spend time with Him, the more He can reveal His glory, the more we have life by the spirit, and the natural things no longer bind us. We begin to live and know more than is naturally possible, by His spirit.

If we are only willing to accept and know God as much as we can understand Him or define Him, we are missing out on so, so, so much.

How small is our God if we allow Him to be only what we can comprehend? If we allow Him to act in only ways we could have thought of for ourselves?

Don't just look for a bigger box to contain Him, trust that if you stop trying to work Him out, He will supernaturally make himself known to you.

You might think it will be scary or confusing if you let go of the box and allow Him to live in you - in us, His house, His church - in whatever way He wants. But in God you will find so much love and so much grace - you will find so much divine peace that it completely passes all understanding!

Did God really say...?

Those four little words, introduced in Eden, have been plaguing our thoughts ever since.

Any time we feel God asking something challenging of us, we hear "Did God really say..." - and I'll bet I'm not the only one tempted to listen.

Or I'll say Yes, but only a 95% yes. The other 5% I've kept back, just incase I think of a way to get out of it in time.

But when confront with the temptation to justify, argue and reason our way out of obedience - sometimes we just have to say YES

And mean it.

Not, "Sure, God, I'll do that" *

*...but you don't really mean it, right?

Really completely surrendering to God's will, whatever it is, can be hard. It is hard to silence the voices and arguments and justifications as to why that can't really be God's will, why there must be a way around it, why we're not sure if we really heard Him, so we won't really commit.

The danger of "Did God really say..."

Think of Abraham. When God asked him to sacrifice his long-awaited son, Abraham must have had reservations. The understatement of the Bible makes it seem like Abraham just got up and did it without much delay. But I can't imagine the man who negotiated with God about Sodom and Gomorrah not having any second thoughts or hesitations, about his own son!

He would have been tempted to justify to himself, to reason it away. God gave me this son, promised him to me, surely he wouldn't want to take him away? I'm sure he would have come up with some pretty compelling reasons as to why sacrificing his own son was not really what God wanted.

Abraham would have been sorely tempted by "Did God really say...?"

And yet he went. He said Yes, and he meant it. No matter how much he would have hoped there was another way, he was willing to obey anyway. To the full extent. If God hadn't stayed his hand, Abraham would have carried through with it.

Chances are, what God is asking us to do hasn't come close to the level of sacrificing our only child any time recently. And yet we are still tempted by "Did God really say...?"

We are tempted to withhold our complete submission, our complete trust, our complete Yes.

It is not a sin to want or ask for a different way. Jesus himself asked for it. But don't let that turn into disobedience. We have to really be willing to give it all, even if we think it's going to cost us dearly.

And we can do it with confidence. Because we know God is just, loving and compassionate. He will always do what is right, good and fair. Even if it hurts in the short term, it will have eternal benefits in the long run. We can trust Him with that - we have to trust Him with that, because to our limited sight, we can't see the big picture like He does. We don't often know what the full outcome of our obedience or disobedience will be.

There have been times when I have been terribly afraid to do something that I knew God had been asking me to do. Sometimes I have justified my way out of it. Given in to "Did God really say..." and missed out. But other times - though I certainly argued first - I have said Yes, without keeping anything back. I'm scared, but I'll do whatever you ask.

Sometimes God has gotten me out of it, at the last minute, like Abraham. Sometimes I've had to go through with it, but have found the outcome of that obedience has results that far outweigh the fear and discomfort of actually following through.

So we say Yes, fully. We take that step of faith and let God help us with the doubts and fears.

Because in the end, everything works together for good. You don't know what God will do.

For Abraham, God spared Isaac. Jesus still had to take our sin on the cross - but aren't we glad he meant it when he said "Not my will, but yours" even in the face of "Did God really say..."

"6 Ways to Kick Fear and Anxiety in the Teeth"

"Borrowed" from Sammy A

This is not my list, but I always figure why reinvent the wheel when someone else has written something that already sums up what I would say myself.

" Posted this on twitter yesterday and it seemed to resonate with some folks so I thought I'd share it on Facebook. Not sure who this is for but here goes. 

Every time I speak, I feel inadequate/nervous or prideful so I wrote these 6 things down in my phone so I can read, remember and meditate on them right before I go on stage: 

1) Be humble: Remember that this is SO much bigger than u. It's not your story. You're not the star of the show. Jesus is.

2) Be faithful: Remember that small is always big in God's story. Do the best that you can with what God has given you. Swing for the fences

3) Have Faith: Remember that God is always working whether u see it or not. He can do more than u can imagine. Play & let him keep the score

4) You're called: Remember that the God of the universe is FOR YOU. He's in your corner. He's in you. He gifted & called you to do this.

5) Take Delight: Remember to have fun. Don't take yourself too seriously. Enjoy God by enjoying what he gifted u to do. It's ok to have fun

6) Holy Spirit: Remember that nothing you do or say matters without him. Only the Spirit of God can change hearts. Good news: He wants to.

There u go folks. 6 things I read from my phone before I speak. Steal it, rip it, make it better. Use it when voices of doubt/fear creep up.

Question: which one did you need to hear or have the hardest time remembering? "


For me, it's every single one! I have always struggled with fear when it comes to doing anything that might put me in the spotlight. I would stay home from school to try and avoid having to give a speech. If I even answered a question and everyone turned to look at me, I'd go red. 

And now, I'm much more comfortable with the distance created by a computer screen, that talking face to face. But I feel God calling me to speak up... and it's a little terrifying.

But I've got to remember - it's not about me. I'm not trying to bring glory to myself, but to God. And God doesn't get tongue tied.

I can't be half hearted, just so I've got something to blame failure on. Go big and take the risk.

What looks small to me in the natural, can mean big things for the Kingdom of God.

God is for me. He's not setting me up for humiliation. (So any humiliation I feel is another issue I need to take to God.)

It is fun. It is a joyful thing to be used by God, to rely on Him fully. 

The Holy Spirit does the work, creates the change and draws people. Not me. 

I can relax!

Continue to work out your salvation

Becoming a Christian doesn't automatically mean you 'get it'.

Sometimes you might have an instant revelation of the gospel. But, even with an initial revelation, most of us will be working on 'getting it' for years.

**Actually ALL of us will be working on understanding what it's all truly about for our whole lives because what we are trying to understand is the nature of God and the reality of his kingdom, and we won't know that fully until Jesus returns.**

But when I'm talking about just the basic message of Jesus and what it means to be a Christian, I think a large proportion of Christians aren't totally sure what this actually means. We're certainly not living like we do.

How many of us have evidence of a life transformed?

Even those of us - or especially those of us - who have been Christians our whole lives have been so bogged down in the details that we've missed the point. And we wonder why no matter how hard we work at it, our lives don't actually seem that different to people who aren't Christians.

Some of us are like Simon (Acts 8) - we become a Christian, we see the power that comes with it, and we want it. So then we proceed to go about any means we can of acquiring it. We'll try to buy our way into it, we'll try to do good things to earn it, we'll try to find the formula for being the best Christian. We'll try and work for it.

Simon didn't really get it. He believed in Jesus, he was baptised, but he continued to go about his Christian life with the same mindset he had before. His heart was not right.

When I was younger and I read "continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling" (Philippians 2:12), I didn't get it. I read that small snippet out of context and I thought that maybe it meant my salvation was a personal thing. That it was some deal I brokered with God, that I could pick and choose my salvation, come up with something that worked for me. 

"I'll donate money to the poor once a year, read my Bible on Sundays, and then I can still go out drinking on Friday nights? How does that sound? Ok, ok, I'll even throw in a nightly prayer...."

It sounds ridiculous to put it that way, but who can say they haven't thought this way in some form.

"If I do this, it will make up for not doing that...."

But we're not getting it.

Read the rest of that verse - "for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose."

It is God in us who works. 

This means several things:

- We can't pick and choose - God is doing the work, and he is not going to pick and choose parts of himself. He comes as a complete deal.

- It's not about our 'works'. Again, it's God who works in us. 

- It's not about our personal 'bargain' with God. It's about transformation, aligning us to God's purpose. And it's about community, not what's in it for us.

The Voice Bible notes say about the whole of Philippians 2:
"Paul describes a community where every person considers the needs of others first and does nothing from selfishness; it pulls together rather than pulls apart, and it is a body that knows its purpose and lets nothing interfere with it. It is an extended spiritual family where others line up to become part of this sacred assembly and to make it their home because they feel encouragement and know they are truly loved. So Paul urges the Philippians to strive for this radical unity and fulfill his joy by having the mind of Jesus who humbled Himself, became a servant, and suffered the death of the cross. Jesus becomes the example of humility and service, leading to the kind of unity Paul imagines."

If you're not seeing this 'radical unity' in your life, if you don't feel like your serving anyone but yourself, if you aren't seeing transformation in your life - then maybe you haven't 'got it' yet.

Don't worry, you're far from alone.

But if you want change in your life - even if you just want to want change but you're afraid of it right now - get on your knees before God. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, and God will work in you for his good purpose!

Don't fool yourself; You're not fooling God

You may have everyone else convinced, by your presence at church on Sunday, even by your closed eyes and raised hands.

But God's not fooled.

We know that God looks not at outward appearances, but at our heart, but somehow we still think if we fake it well enough, if we put up a convincing enough facade, that even God will be fooled into believing that we are 'good Christians'.

But God's not fooled.

No matter how Christian your life looks on the outside, if your heart isn't changed, you are missing out.

And that's the point - God is not scouring the earth for 'fakers' reading to take them down. He is searching, like a shepherd for his lost sheep, to bring you home. He knows that you are missing out on the real fulness, peace and joy to be found by knowing Him. You're missing it because you're too busy pretending you already have it.

Christian is not a synonym for perfect. If anything, it's a synonym for broken and in need of saviour.

Don't hide behind a facade of how you think a Christian is supposed to look, or behind a fear of really letting your guard down in case your life has to change.

If you are attending Church on Sunday to make you feel better about keeping your life exactly as it is the rest of the week, let me assure you - you are missing out! And God isn't fooled by it. He knows where your heart is. 

And he wants it - your heart. All of it. Not just the bit labelled 'Sunday morning'.

Your life will change, but it will be far better than anything you can imagine.

I promise you.

Don't coast through your life until you can 'get to heaven' The Kingdom of God is here now!

Don't be afraid of it. Perfect love casts out fear, and God is that perfect love.

We don't just have bigger weapons

Sometimes I think we look out our authority in Jesus like we just have the bigger weapon. Like the demons have little guns, but we have a bigger one.

Or in the words of Crocodile Dundee we say
"You call that a knife?" and think we've pulled out our big Jesus sized knife to the enemies switch blade.

But I don't think that's good enough. That still leaves room for someone to have a bigger weapon. Even if we had a bazooka to their water pistol, it leaves room for someone to come along with a tank.

Or someone to use the weapon better than us. We might have the giant knife, but we're still afraid they slip in there and get us in the ribs.

In Mark 3:11 it says Whenever the evil spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.”

They fell down before him and cried out. They recognised him instantly. They didn't wait for him to say anything to them, to pull the God card. They saw him and recognised him as the son of God. As the ultimate authority under which they have no power. None. It doesn't matter what weapons they thought they had, what they thought they could get away with, as soon as they saw Jesus they knew they had already lost.

And you know what, Jesus is in us. We now have the authority too. And that's not just a bigger weapon than the enemy, that's the absolute assurance that God has already won and the devil has no power. And he knows it.

He just doesn't want you to.

Afraid that you ARE good enough

A lot of people recognise being afraid of failure, afraid of people thinking they are no good, or of feeling within yourself that you are not good enough to be successful.

Sometimes, however, I believe this is an excuse. I believe this because I was one I was using for years.

Even when I felt like I had dealt with any self-esteem issues I had - which many people do, when they are a teenagers and then carried over into adult life - I still felt afraid. I thought it was because I didn't feel good enough to be successful. I thought  it was because I was afraid of what people would think of me if they saw me fail.

But that actually wasn't the real issue. I was actually afraid that I was good enough. It seems silly. Why would you be afraid of succeeding. And because it seems silly, that's why I never considered it.
It wasn't until my husband pointed out to me one day "I think you're afraid of being good enough, because then people will expect it from you and you will have to live up to it."

Stepping out of the boat

On what is meant to be Sugar Free Friday, it should perhaps be called Fearless Friday today.

Sometimes, despite all the confirmation and evidence and assurance, it is still difficult to step out of the boat and walk towards Jesus.

In Matthew 14, Jesus was right there - he was walking on the water. Though it's normally something that is impossible, he was doing it right in front of them. So when Jesus invited him, Peter also stepped out, and began to walk on the water. That is, until he noticed the wind. Until he looked to the situation instead of to Jesus. Then he remembered that walking on water is impossible, and you are more likely to drown in the wind and the waves.

Except that he had been walking on the water. And that Jesus was still there, on the water. And that anything is possible with God. But even with Jesus physically in front of him, Peter doubted.

Fear Not, He Has Called You By Name

Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
   I have called you by name; you are mine.
 When you pass through the waters,
   I will be with you;...
When you walk through the fire,
   you will not be burned;


Isaiah 43:1-2


(Or if you like the singing version,

You will not (NO WAY!) be drowned
You will not (NO WAY!) be burned!)



Suddenly a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!” He replied, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm. Matthew 8:24-26

Why are you afraid?