Tomorrow is Sunday – Sunday night is also All Hallows Eve or, as the world knows this Christian festival, Halloween. Tomorrow – will you be sending your children out saying “trick or treat” (a direct reference to demons and disembodied spirits who do nasty tricks to you if you do not treat them to some goodies) or will you be doing something to help them to understand that believers must not participate with festivals of demons and devils. Will you be showing them that there are certain things we should not do as believers just because “everyone else is doing them?” Will you celebrate the evening (if you do at all) as a Christian or a pagan? Those are really the two options.

Along with the Christian festival of October 31st – All Hallows Eve – we also celebrate All Saints Day on November 1st with a similar though slightly different theme – which I won’t go into because it is not helpful to the topic of this blog.

The original October 31st – November 1st celebration was a Christian festival marking the faithfulness and witness of those who were believers in the past and “kept the faith” in spite of persecution and trials. This biblically is known as the “cloud of witnesses” (Hebrews 12:1) and we own the continuation of the faith to these departed saints who proclaimed, witnessed, and shared the Gospel throughout the centuries regardless of the cost.

This “cloud of witnesses” is in Heaven and according to the direct teachings of Jesus recorded in the pages of Scripture there is a great gulf fixed between them and us and we cannot communicate with them. Communicating with the dead – Christian or non-Christian, saint or sinner – is strictly forbidden by the teachings of the Bible. If you are a believer in the “Cloud of Witnesses” doctrine currently making the rounds of Charismatic and Spirit-filled circles where you are taught that the dead – like King David – can appear and talk with you – please know that the teaching is heretical and will take you away from the heart of God and into severe and deadly doctrinal error. It matters not that some very well-known Christian leaders are teaching this heresy; heresy is heresy.

If you belong to the Roman Catholic, Anglican (Church of England), or any Orthodox branches of the “Christian” Church you pray to dead saints. In my mind there is no difference between praying to dead saints like Jude and Mary then talking to the dead like King David and Saul the apostle (The Cloud of Witnesses heresy). If they are dead and you are talking (praying) to them you are biblically in error. On this special evening you hold Mass and pray for the souls of the departed along with praying to the dead departed. Wrong, wrong, wrong! Not biblical. Very religious! Very ridiculous! Especially ridiculous if you profess to be a believer as you should know better. Duh! Trying reading your Bible and not simply believing what religious leaders teach you.

So, October 31 – All Hallows Eve (Halloween) and November 1st (All Saints Day) is when we are thankful to God for those who have run the race, fought the good fight of faith, and earnestly contended for the Gospel in their generation. A prayer of thanksgiving to Jesus for their witness would be appropriate.

“To put on the mind of Christ, you have to lose your mind. But in losing your mind, you come to your senses.” Leonard Sweet

How true. The Bible states we can have the mind of Christ and should ask God for wisdom and not simply function on human wisdom or worldly wisdom. Easier said than done if first we have to lose our mind. You know – deprogram the way we think and live so that the Word of the Lord can reprogram (the Bible calls it being ‘transformed’ – Romans 12:1-2) according to the Bible.

Now this is very basic but very important. The Bible states in Proverbs that “as a man thinks, so he becomes.” In other words, if you want to change your behavior, change the way you think. Change starts on the inside. That, of course, is why New Year’s resolutions most times don’t work. They are simply goals set on paper and not a different way of thinking. As a recovered alcoholic – delivered 31 years ago by the Holy Spirit’s power – I had to change my “stinkin’ thinking” before I could be free of my alcolholic tendencies and thus my drinking. Otherwise I might be rid of the alcohol by sheer will power but I would still have all the “isms” … manipulation, the need to control, anger, striving to please, needing approval, and wrong attitudes….

So, taking on the mind of Christ is very, very important. And, as a believer in Jesus this means you first have to lose your mind. If you truly follow the wisdom of God, as found in the life and teachings of Jesus, others might even accuse you of being out of your mind. Same thing. This person will live not as a sub-culture of the “normal” culture but as a counter-culture to regular society. The values and morals by which they live with actually not fit into or be compatible with the culture (thus a sub-culture within the norm) but will actually oppose the values and beliefs of the dominate culture of the day (read the book of Acts).

I like what Phillips Brooks – the “Pulpit Prince” of many decades ago said, “A man who lives right, and is right, has more power in his silence than another has by his words. Character is like bells which ring out sweet music and which, when touched, accidentially even, resound with sweet music.” This same is true for anyone who has lost their mind and gained the mind of Christ.

So, the call of God in Christ is to lose your mind and be willing to be different than and stand out from those who do not believe in the Lordship of Jesus and the wisdom of God as found between the covers of your Bible. If someone were to look at you and not see any difference between the way you live life and the way others live life – go back to the top of this blog and begin again…

The news last night as I drove home late in the evening from a church where I was ministering was rather startling and yet somewhat funny and serious at the same time. It is well into the night as I am driving – it is raining hard and there is a wind blowing. However, because I am tired I look for a talk show or a news station on satellite radio so that I will stay alert on my drive home. I look for some host on a show who is controversial and with whom I can disagree. An announcer that makes me angry. This way I stay wide awake and alert as I interact and yell at the person talking.

One of the first items up was “Italian seaside town planning miniskirt ban.”

Here is the news item straight from BBC News / Europe’s website the next morning…

Mayor Luigi Bobbio said the regulations would help “restore urban decorum and facilitate better civil co-existence”.
Offenders would face fines of between 25 ($35) and 500 euros ($696).
‘Right decision’
“Nothing too revealing” is the new policy Mayor Bobbio wants to enforce, says the BBC’s Duncan Kennedy in Rome.
That means a tough new dress code which would effectively outlaw everything from miniskirts to low-cut jeans when people walk around Castellammare di Stabia, our correspondent adds.
Mr Bobbio, from the centre-right People of Freedom party, says he wants to target people who are “rowdy, unruly or simply badly behaved”.
There will also be a ban on sunbathing, playing football in public places, and blasphemy, if the proposals are approved at a council meeting on Monday.
“I think it’s the right decision,” a local parish priest, Don Paulo Cecere, told the Cronache di Napoli newspaper. “It’s also a way of combating the rise in sexual harassment.”
Castellammare di Stabia is latest city to make use of the extra powers handed down by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s government to mayors, in the effort to fight crime and confront anti social behaviour.
In other places they have banned sandcastles, kissing in cars, feeding stray cats, wooden clogs and the use of lawn mowers at weekends.

Instantly I have a number of thoughts – this is good and exactly why I listen – because when thinking and reacting I stay wide awake and thus arrive home safely – although I admit it gets a little heated in the car as I interact with the news items and talk back to the news announcer … and the speed of the vehicle as a result often picks up substantially. My thoughts…

1> This man – the major – will probably not get elected for another term as he is trying to impose his standards upon people; standards that may not be shared by those who behavior will have to be modified or they will face stiff fines.

2> How short is “short?” How mini is “mini?” Who determines this and who will enforcce the new laws if and when passed? Define “very skimpy clothes.”

3> What about on the beaches – it is a seaside town – no “sunbathing” in public places? Folks, this is southern Europe … you know, nude beaches and on family beaches the bathing suits leave much to be desired as many do not cover much of anything. And now we will have a ban on sunbathing?

4> What is wrong with “playing football (soccer)” in public places – unless they are concerned that people play football in skimpy bathing attire.

5> How can you lump building sandcastles, feeding stray cats and cutting your grass on weekends in with beach attire and banning mini-skirts?

6> Thank God it is not the Church trying to impose it morality or behavioral expectations upon non-Church people … at least, on the surface it isn’t.

7> How do you police and fine “blasphemy” and what is the current definition of this word in their society? A cultural definition or a church definition?

8> Surely we have better things to do with our time, effort, and money.

This, of course, let me to wonder how much influence the Church is really having on this decision to tighten up the apparent lose moral standards of this town. And, if the Church is involved directly or indirectly, who has given the Church the right to dictate how people are going to live, dress, and behalf. I am reminded of a comment by a North American pastor who said, “You can’t expect them to live like Christians until they are Christians.”

Today is the day that the new laws will be passed by the town council acording to CBSNEWS web site… it will be fun to watch what happens and how these new laws are going to be enforced and upheld. More as it becomes available.