The preacher’s son had a major encounter with God while in a foreign nation and came home to his dad’s church a change – totally transformed – man. He wanted to be baptized as a believer and publically declare his new found faith in Christ after many years away from the Lord and living in very difficult and trying circumstances. The family is thrilled to say the least; the dad, who is the pastor of the local church, will do the baptism. The relatives are gathering for a big family celebration afterwards – food, fun, and fellowship well into the evening. Everything else was cancelled; let the celebration of God’s goodness and the return of the prodigal begin.

Sound like a rewrite of the story of the prodigal son from the Gospel accounts of the life of Jesus. Could be – but it is not. It is the true account of what is happening today in the town I am ministering in while in Ohio for a few days of meetings. And, it will be the focus of the whole day. Instead of heading to the apostolic roundtable this afternoon for the fellowship evening being held there I will remain here in this rural town in Ohio celebrating with my host’s family. Their son has returned to the Lord! We leave in the wee hours of Monday morning for the two days of meetings of this edition of the apostolic roundtable being held in Toledo, Ohio. We will only miss the fellowship night at the Roundtable and still be there in time for all the discussions and decision making.

I am excited to be at River of Life Community Church this morning. I have never been to Butler, Ohio before and so this is my first time in this local church. However, over the years of traveling and ministering in different churches, and thus with different believers, I know I will be welcomed, accepted, seen as a part of the body, and a member of the family. God has a big family around the world and no matter where I go, what the worship is like, or what language is spoken I know I am with family and accepted as a fellow traveler in the faith. Today will be no exception.

I arrived last night after many hours of travel and thus many hours of reading. And, after enjoying a brief time of fellowship with my host family in whose home I am staying – an early night to bed as I was up at 4:00a to be at the airport for 5:00a and morning coffee with members of my family. The trip will be busy and every minute will be invested in Kingdom discussions… Our topics (with written presentations sent to us well ahead of time) include:
1> Church Discipline (2 major papers – 30+ pages)
2> Philosophy of Governance (1 presentation paper)
3> The Gospel of the Kingdom (1 presentation paper)

I would appreciate your prayers for both the morning service today; the travel from here to Toledo early Monday morning; the two day roundtable discussions and the 7 men involved; and the drive back to the airport in Columbus, Ohio late Tuesday afternoon and the two flights home on Tuesday evening.

A HISTORY OF HALLOWEEN –

The Celtic festival of Samhain is probably the source of the present-day Halloween celebration. The Celts new year began on November first. A festival that began the previous evening honored Samhain, the Celtic lord of death. The celebration marked the beginning of the season of cold, darkness, and decay. It naturally became associated with human death. The Celts believed that Samhain allowed the souls of the dead to return to their earthly homes for this evening. On the evening of the festival, the Druids, who were the priests and teachers of the Celts, ordered the people to put out their fires. The Druids built a huge new year’s bonfire of oak branches, which they considered sacred. They burned animals, crops, and human beings as sacrifices. Then each family relit its fire from the new year’s fire. During the celebration, people sometimes wore costumes made of animal heads and skins. They told fortunes about the coming year by examining the remains of the animals that had been sacrificed.

All Saints Day: Many of the customs of the Celts survived even after the people became Christians. During the 800’s, the church established All Saints’ Day on November first. They made the old pagan customs part of this Christian holy day.

The Catholic Church later began to honor the dead on November second. This day became known as All Soul’s Day. The Catholics believed that you could pray the dead out of purgatory.

Additional Celebrations:

The Jack-o-Lantern originated with an Irishman named Jack who loved to play pranks on the Devil. Legend is that he was made to wander the world carrying a lantern to show him the way, going to neither heaven nor hell. Hollowed out pumpkins with candles lighted inside were supposed to scare evil spirits away.

The Irish initiated “Trick-or-treating” when farmers would go from house to house to collect food for the village.

Costumes went from children dressing up like martyrs in celebration of All Saints Day to the modern day costumes of witches, etc…

SOURCE: Encyclopedia Britanica and others.

Parents – be aware that this is not some innocent evening that will have absolutely no effect spiritually on your children. Not true. It was and is a night dedicated to the devil and Christians should protect their children and not allow them to be a part of the on-going celebrations in any way – at school, at church or at home.