Holidays

Question:

Answered on 04/25/06:

Question:

Answered on 04/14/06:

So you’ve got to sit down and you have to talk about, “Let’s agree, because a relationship is built on trust and it’s built on agreements that are made between a husband and a wife.” What you need to do is say, “alright, let’s remember that the most important thing that we do as a couple is that we be in agreement. Because Amos 3:3 says, “how can two walk together unless they’re in agreement?”

And what I do is I encourage people to break down their agreements or break down what they believe into two categories; the essentials and the non-essentials. So you need to make a list of what are the essential things that you really need to have in your life and in your marriage and in your belief system and what are the non-essentials? For example, an essential is in my house, one essential is we’re never going to cheat on each other. Another essential: we’re going to live for God, no matter what. Another essential: we’re going to tithe ten percent of everything that we ever have come to us; it is going to go to God. That’s an essential that my wife and I are in agreement about. So we have a list of essentials.

And then there are non-essentials like do we let our kids watch “Blues Clues?” Do we let our kids watch “That’s’ so Raven” or the Disney channel or something like that. Well, there are some non-essentials there. It is essential that they don’t watch sexual scenes in movies or TV or anything like that. Those are essentials. But then there are non-essentials like is it okay to watch this. Or it is okay for them to eat this kind of food or that kind of food, but it’s not okay for them to drink alcohol. It’s not okay for this; it’s not okay for that. There are essentials and non-essentials.

Sit down with your wife and establish what your essentials are and what her essentials are and then find agreement in the essentials and in the non-essentials, make sure you have liberty and grace towards one another. Talk to her about essentials. If one of your essentials is we don’t want to follow Halloween and celebrate that kind of evil night, then that’s what you have to work through with her. And if she’s not willing to do that, then you guys should sit and get some counseling.

The fact is that Halloween is a celebration of death, it’s a celebration of evil, plus it’s not that good for your kids’ teeth. So you guys should have a talk about that but in the context of the essentials and the non-essentials, not in the context of making that the central issue. The central issue is we need to be in agreement to have a successful marriage.

Question:

Jesus’ Last Supper was the Passover meal, yet Christians and Jews celebrate that event on separate days. Why do we have separate days?

Answered on 04/14/06:

We believe that He already came once and died for our sins. He was the Passover lamb, and now He will come again, not as a lamb but as a lion. He will execute judgment and justice on this earth. If you’re Jewish and look at the comparison between Jesus’ death and the death of the lambs of the Passover in Exodus, then you will see many similarities. It’s an opportunity to decide for yourself whether Jesus is the real Messiah.

Question:

Answered on 04/14/06:

The way to instill anything, whether it be the meaning behind Christmas or the meaning behind Easter or the meaning behind church or anything is by demonstration, number one.

What is Christmas? Christmas is God sending His Son to the earth for us, God giving us the gift of Jesus Christ. Demonstrate to your 2 ½ year old the love that you have towards him. Demonstrate love. The key to all instruction with our children is the demonstration of love and affection, the demonstration of kissing and hugging and warmth and verbal affirmation and verbal communication of the love that we have for our children. That is the most important thing that we could ever give to our children.

You can read to your 2 ½ year old from a kid’s Bible. You can read him the story out of Luke chapter 1 and chapter 2 about Christmas. That’s the way you can explain it to them. But explain it to them clearly through demonstration: give them a gift, let them unwrap something. Babies that age are very cognizant, they’re very clearly aware of the present; they know what’s going on around them. Read them the story from the Living Bible or from a kid’s Bible where it has pictures you can show them. And also, demonstrate it. Show them love and affection, give them gifts so that you can explain to them, “the reason we give gifts is because of God’s love for us. God so loved the world that He gave. And so when we really love somebody, we’re going to give to them. God so loved the world that He gave. Our way of demonstrating our love is to give and to show love and affection we give gifts.” And so, not only when he’s 2 ½, but also when he is 3 ½, 4 ½, and 5 ½, you keep demonstrating love in your household, love in your family, love that you have towards him. And read him the story from a kid’s Bible.

What children need more than anything, more than reindeers and Christmas movies and all of that, they need warmth and affection. They need love from you as their mother or their father whether you’re divorced or whether you’re married or whether you’re a single parent. I’m telling you to give your children affection and love, the greatest thing you can give them. And make them feel that Christmas truly is a demonstration, a manifestation of God’s love, a manifestation of God’s affection for us, a manifestation of God’s desire to know us and to be our friend. Give your kids warmth, give them affection, and give them love. You cannot hug your kids enough. You cannot kiss your kids enough. You cannot look your kids in the eye enough.

Now, if you don’t discipline them on the other side of things, then obviously it’s not going to work. But, you can’t hug them enough. You can’t kiss them enough. You can’t tell them enough verbally how much you love them and how much God loves them. Because how you treat them is how they’re eventually think God treats them. And so, show them affection and love and you’ll never regret it. And that’s what they’ll remember about Christmas anyway. Or that’s what they’ll remember they didn’t have when they grow up. So give it to them as best you can.

Question:

Answered on 04/14/06:

I think a lot of Christian parents and Christian children don’t even acknowledge that. They don’t even realize that giving gifts is to represent and to illustrate God’s gift to us which is Jesus Christ. And we need to utilize taking advantage of what the world understands, like Santa Claus and things like that and use them to point to Jesus. So, I think you can take a positive, healthy approach without getting caught up in the fantasy of Santa Claus. You can focus on how it points to Jesus Christ.

Question:

Answered on 04/12/06:

Why a Christmas tree? Some people are alright with Christmas trees and some people aren’t. The Bible says, “Let every man be convinced in his own mind.” I’m convinced that my Christmas tree is fine in my house as long as my children are the ones decorating it, putting it up and taking it down because I’m long past doing that. But the evergreen tree represents eternal life, living forever.

Yes, there are Pagans and unbelievers that have made religious symbols out of it that aren’t necessarily honoring and glorifying God, but as long as you’re glorifying God in your heart, there’s nothing wrong with giving gifts away. There’s nothing wrong with having a Christmas tree. Make it a fun memory for your children that they’ll always look forward to and that they’ll always be blessed by. We’re celebrating Christmas because we’re celebrating Jesus Christ and God’s gift to us in Jesus Christ.

Question:

Answered on 04/12/06:

My conviction on that is that I don’t let my children do that because it feeds into a celebration of darkness, the celebration of death. Halloween is a hallowed eve of evil. It’s an evil celebration that doesn’t honor God in any way. So I wouldn’t do it.

That doesn’t mean that if you do, that you’re in sin. Obviously, if you do let your children do that, it should be in a controlled situation where you’re there; where you’re with them monitoring every single thing that they do and every single person that they talk to. But even past the safety issues of how it’s not necessarily safe, what’s worse is you feed into your children wanting to do more of that, it feeds into them wanting candy and all of that which is not even that good for your children.

So I think in general, I would stay away from it. But don’t do that because I’m saying it. You search the Word of God yourself and see if that’s something that glorifies God. And I think you have to ask the question, if this glorifies God, let’s do it. If this doesn’t glorify God, let’s not do it.

That’s how you explain it. And you say, “We’re going to have an alternative, we’re going to have something better. We’re going to have a Hallelujah night. We’re going to celebrate and praise and we’re going to eat cake and celebrate and have all sorts of things. Or invite some people over or do something like that.

Yeah, if it’s at church and it’s an alternative to Halloween rather than people dressing up as Batman and all that, I would support that. Again, I love Batman, nothing against it. But it’s feeding into the spirit that we should put on costumes and we should get candy and should go Trick-or-Treating. That just doesn’t encourage children in the things of God and you’ve got to explain that to kids.

Question:

Answered on 04/12/06:

But if you want to give them understanding, here is the definition from the Encyclopedia Britannica, “that the souls of the dead were supposed to revisit the homes on October 31st, the end of the Summer, and the festival acquired sinister significance with ghosts, witches, goblins, black cats, fairies and demons of all kinds said to be roaming about. It was the time to placate the supernatural powers of nature. Halloween was thought to be the most favorable time for divination or witchcraft. It was the only day on which the help of the devil was invoked for such purposes.” That’s based on the Encyclopedia Britannica. The only day on which the help of the devil was invoked for such purposes.

So I think that that should be enough since it’s a day that is celebrated for the dead souls. Halloween was a night dead souls were believed to be everywhere and mischievous evil spirits roamed freely. That’s what Halloween has been built upon.

Now, of course, it’s just become commercialized so that people could make money. Who’s going to go send their kids out to worship demons? Nobody’s going to do that, very few people are going to do that. So, instead it’s sort of trivializing demons and trivializing ghosts and trivializing the devil and making him seem like he’s just a costume that children wear.

And that’s what the devil would love for you to continue to think. That the devil is just a costume to wear on Halloween, when in fact, he’s out to steal, kill and destroy. So it’s the little foxes that spoil the vine it says in Song of Solomon.

So, I highly encourage Christian people to avoid any sort of celebration of Halloween. Sometimes churches have alternative Hallelujah Festivals and things like that. I think that’s okay, but not in the spirit of let’s dress up like things in the form of the world or to be conformed to this world. The Bible says, “Do not be conformed to this world.”

The question needs to be asked, “Can we truly align ourselves innocently with something that is traditionally and currently associated with the occult and be certain that we will never be affected by the occult or never be affected by witchcraft? In other words, in merely participating in Halloween, are we ignorantly skirting the territory of the devil? Historically, isn’t this the very day that evil powers have chosen for themselves as a special day above all others, from the Druids, to the witches to the Satanists? Unfortunately, isn’t it also true that most Christians don’t even know this?

But if the purpose of the Christian life is to glorify God, then is it really possible to glorify God by imitating what occultists do on their special day even though we claim to be innocent about it? I don’t believe that we should do that. Your child, when he goes through the door to door ritual of Trick or Treating is reenacting an ancient superstition that is something that I don’t ever encourage people to be a part of and associate with. The Bible says, “Don’t associate with the evil deeds of darkness, but even so, expose them,” Ephesians chapter 5.