There really aren’t that many in Scripture, seven I think, but the question came up, “Why did God make so many holidays? Why did He even care about something like that?” In Leviticus, God calls the days memorials, and when referring to one of them, God said it was “so that each new generation will know.” Those special days were not only a reminder of who God is and what He did for the Jews of that time but also a way of teaching their children and grandchildren who God is.

So what does this have to do with Halloween? You may already know that Halloween’s original name was All Hallows Even (or Eve). It was shortened to Hallowe’en and then to Halloween. And just like Christmas Eve is the night before Christmas and New Year’s Eve is the night before New Year’s Day, All Hallows Eve was the night before All Hallows Day. All Hallows Day most likely can trace its roots back to a day set aside to honor Christian martyrs. By the 700s, the festival had evolved to include all saints and was consistently celebrated on November 1.

Well, all you need to do is walk the aisles of Target or look out your front window at the neighborhood decorations to know that the holiday has “evolved” a lot more since then. And while all that can be an issue to be dealt with by Christians, my point is that the holiday itself was originally an attempt to honor those who had given their lives for God’s glory. Some Christian traditions, on each day of the year, celebrate a different man or woman who lived their lives for God. As long as the people are not worshipped, this can be a great way to recognize God’s work in the life of His people and celebrate it. Just like the ancient Jews were told to observe special days to remind them of God’s goodness and use them as tools to teach their children, we can use our holidays now in the same way.

As I mentioned earlier, God called the weekly Sabbath day one of these holy, special days. We not only need a few special days each year, we need weekly (and daily!) reminders because we so quickly become anxious and forget the love and power of our God. Holidays can help us remember what God has done in the past, what He is doing in our lives and world now, and because He does not change, what He will do in the future. So use every chance you get to remind yourselves, your kids, your grandkids, and those around you who God is and what He has done in your life. Even Halloween.

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The post The Feast of Tabernacles and Halloween | Teaching God Through Holidays appeared first on Hope 100.7.

There are so many facets to this consideration that they certainly cannot be covered in a blog post, but yesterday I heard some things from Jeff Myers, the president of Summit Ministries, that I found helpful and wanted to share two of them with someone else who might be struggling to find a reason to vote.

Voting With Principles in Mind

The first is that there are principles, policies, and personalities. The founders of our country tried to form the nation based on principles we could all agree on, such as our rights do not come from the government but from God. From those principles, they made policies, and then the people elected the personalities to carry out those policies. But the personalities will always be in conflict, and what we have currently done is to put the personalities above the principles. We don’t like the person, so we won’t approve of anything they say or do. We have forgotten the principles that can unite us and are the unchanging basis of our laws and our very existence.

Good government, chosen on those principles, allows more people to be blessed and be a blessing. So the first takeaway is to vote on the basis of principles rather than the person.

Why Voting Matters Even When the Candidates Aren’t Perfect

The second idea is that the times will always be evil. The apostle Paul called his day evil (Ephesians 5:16), and they are certainly not good now. The evil doesn’t change. What changes is how we live in the time God placed us. With our vote, we aren’t to choose between the lesser of two evils but use our choice to lessen evil. Who will encourage standing up for the defenseless? Encourage policies that set people free, not seek to control? Insist on taking responsibility instead of taking away responsibility?

Mr. Myers related that in ancient Rome baby girls were not valued and would often be abandoned on the street to die. Christians would walk the streets, pick up these baby girls, and take them home to raise as their own because they believed all life was valuable. When the boy babies grew up, where were all the marriageable girls? They were in church. Many men converted to Christianity, some legitimately and some probably not, in order to marry the women. But either way, it enabled Christianity to spread throughout the Roman empire and through it, the gospel. Those Christians were not trying to change the world, but by their simple actions, they did.

Our single vote may not change the course of our nation overnight, but consistently taking a stand for good, for principles and not so much the people, allowing the government to make more room and space for good for more people, can and eventually will make a difference.

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The post Is Your Refrigerator Running? Why We Should Vote appeared first on Hope 100.7.