Take off the mask … Celebrate Life is a little booklet I created in 1990 when my first two children were young – 18 months and 3.
Hallowe’en Should Christians Be A Part?
Like so many pagan festivals that were conveniently adapted for Christian usage, Hallowe’en is today accepted as Christian in origin and practice. But the darkness that permeated the minds of those within the Roman Church at that time resulted in the taking of that which was consecrated to Satan and the pagan gods of nature, and offering them to God. We have numerous Scriptures that tell us such a practice is an abomination to God, punishable by death. That’s how much God detests such practices, regardless of whom one says they honor.
Proverbs 9:1-2 – Carving the Weekly Pillars
As I considered these two women, Ma Ingalls and my own mother, I saw that they had created a pattern for accomplishing their work and then resting. In their own way, they had “carved out their seven pillars.” Although both of these women rested on Sunday and not the seventh-day Sabbath as commanded, it was an illustration for me to begin to “carve out my own seven pillars.”
Day of Atonement – Yom Kippur
Another offering on the Day of Atonement involved two goats. After casting lots, one goat was sacrificed to God and its blood sprinkled on the Altar cleansing it from all of Israel’s sins. The other goat, called the scapegoat, had a different destiny. The priest would lay his hands on the head of the goat as he confessed the sins of Israel. This goat would not be sacrificed, but set free in the wilderness to take the sins of Israel far away. The sacrificed goat’s blood made atonement for their national sins; the scapegoat took their sins far away into the wilderness where it died.