(This is a previous post with minor changes; used with permission.)
Halloween has become the second highest consumer spending holiday in America, passed up only by Christmas. People buy decorations for the rooms in their home, decorations for the outside of their home, costumes, candy and if they host a halloween party, they have additional expenses.

The treatment of halloween varies among Christians. Many recognize the pagan roots of this holiday and choose not to do anything to celebrate or recognize a day that is dedicated to things that oppose God. Other Christians are unaware of its origins or background and participate in the activities that interest them. Still other Christians are aware of halloween's background, but feel that what is celebrated today is dressing up in fun, festive characters and going trick or treating. They believe the pagan roots no longer bear any significance or hold over their participation.

So, which view is correct? Is it a pagan holiday that Christians should not participate or okay because it has become just a fun day? Yes. The answer is yes.

Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ addressed a similar situation among the Christians in Rome. Some considered one day more holy than another and others were convinced to not eat meat as a sign of holiness. Paul writes that their convictions should be something that is lived out for the Lord and not as a point of judging one another.
Romans 14:6,14
6 Whoever regards one day as special does so to the Lord. Whoever eats meat does so to the Lord, for they give thanks to God; and whoever abstains does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God.
14 I am convinced, being fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for that person it is unclean.

Our family and church chooses to invade the darkness surrounding halloween by handing out candy, bibles and child appropriate gospel tracts to trick-or-treaters.
Whether you turn off the lights on halloween or advance the light - do it all for the Lord!

Hurricane Sandy was the deadliest and most destructive hurricane of 2012 that hit the east coast of the US one year ago. Super storm Sandy was a category 3 hurricane took the lives of 159 people in the US of the 285 deaths along the entire route during the nine days it Hurricane Sandy raged. The storm left visible scars to 650,000 US homes that were damaged. Less visible are the scars to the families who lost loved ones.

The one year anniversary brings a review of the hurricane, what has been done to rebuild and a look at what remains to be rebuilt.

There are events that hit our lives with hurricane force. Terminal illnesses, auto accidents, house fires, divorce, loss of employment and many other devastating events are storms that scar our lives. Damage can be assessed outwardly, but it does not reveal damage to your soul or spirit.

Anniversary of tragic events bring a review of the storm that hit your life, what has been done to rebuild your marriage, your family, your employment or your health. You may evaluate what remains to be repaired or rebuilt. There is still a scar in your soul and spirit that is less visible. How do you repair your soul and spirit?

God can refresh your soul and spirit when you are walking through the darkest moments of your life. If you let Him, God will lead you to a deep calm and peace that will comfort you despite your loss.

Psalms 23
The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
2     He makes me lie down in green pastures,
He leads me beside quiet waters,
3     He refreshes my soul.
He guides me along the right paths
    for His name’s sake.
4 Even though I walk
    through the darkest valley,
I will fear no evil,
    for You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff,
    they comfort me.
5 You prepare a table before me
    in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
    my cup overflows.
6 Surely Your goodness and love will follow me
    all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord
    forever.

Winter Booth shared her story at our church on Sunday. Winter serves at Warroad Community Church where her husband, Gus is pastor.  The online message on 10/27/13 has the audio recording of her story This is a transcript of what she read and shared:

Hi my name is Winter Booth. I am married. I am a stay at home mom of 4 children. In the past 10 years I have worked for the local food pantry, share and care, northwest mentoring program, and currently volunteer weekly at the Pregnancy Center in Roseau. I wanted to share this info at the beginning so as I read my story you will be able to recognize where my heart for these ministries comes from. 

I was raised in a single parent home.  My dad was very absent from my life despite me desperately reaching out to him.  I did manage to see him a couple hours each year.  I was baptized as an infant in the Lutheran church in Warroad and attended sporadically.  My personality has always been pretty black and white, not a lot of room for grey.  I would always say when someone implied that they would see me in Heaven with, ‘you won’t see ME there’. Of course they would argue with me about how I would be there to which I would respond, ‘if you want to live in denial go ahead but I will not’.  I am thankful that God had allowed me to see this one thing accurate in life before I got saved.  There is nothing harder in my mind than convincing someone they need a savior when they think they already have one.  So continuing on at the age 10 I was sexually abused multiple times.  All of my life, I had felt somewhat responsible for what had happened until I had my own 10 year old daughter and was able to see things a bit clearer. 

By the age of 17, I was pregnant with Maddie.  My daughter watched my high school graduation.  I found myself clinically depressed at the age of 18 with multiple other times of depression to follow.  I had mentally closed up shop and it was very evident externally.  At age 18 I was pregnant again.  I was devastated.  My thoughts were as follows: How would I tell my mom?  How would I tell my friends?  How would I financially care for two kids?  The father of this child had no desire to be involved as was true of Maddie’s dad as well.  Who would ever want me and two kids?  I have never felt so alone.  I was away from all of my family in another state and had no local friends.  I couldn’t possibly give the baby up for adoption because I would have to live with the guilt of having a child out there that I wasn’t caring for or providing for.  The thought of an abortion was terrifying as I believed that it was the ultimate sin and murder.  I went to a pregnancy crisis center before I made a decision on what I was going to do.  I think it is so important if you really want to make a difference on the abortion front to start at the local pregnancy crisis center.  Most girls/woman with unplanned pregnancies stop at one of these before making their final decisions.  Ministering to these vulnerable women on the front lines will do far more than parading down the street with a sign or protesting an abortion clinic.  Despite this, I felt self preservation kick in and as I approached the local Planned Parenthood Clinic feeling desperate and scared, I made a decision to have an abortion.  This one act alone has caused more guilt and remorse than any other action that I have ever taken and there have been many terrible regretful decisions to choose from.  I sat in that clinic horrified that all of these woman sitting in the office didn’t look scared at all or even remotely saddened flipping through their magazines; some with husbands, boyfriends, mothers, and even fathers.  I felt as I got up to go to the exam room it was the longest hall I had ever walked in my life.  I laid on the operating table weeping.  I went back to my apartment alone and wept even more. 

The next two years of my life was a drunken blur until one evening I was broken and depressed; I lay on my floor and cried to God to help me.  I called my mom and confessed what I had done two years previously and she came and moved me home with her.  Nothing really changed when I arrived home. I was still very much involved with men and alcohol.  As I look back I can see how God had started to orchestrate some things from that moment on my apartment floor. 

I met a woman that was my boyfriend’s roommate that was heavy in to partying at that time.  A couple years later ran into that same woman at a bar in town here that I worked at.  I knew instantly she was different as she wasn’t drinking and I even offered to buy her a drink and she refused.  I asked her what was up and she just smiled and said we would have to talk later.  A couple weeks later I ran into her again, same thing, she was visibly different but still wouldn’t share.  She called me a few days later and invited me to her place to catch up.  I was so intrigued that I wasn’t going miss this dinner date.  She shared with me how she had met Jesus Christ and how He has radically changed her life.  She was the youth leader at this very church.   I was pretty skeptical to say the least.  Through the following months watching her life she testified on many levels that this was not just a passing phase and God had really met with her and was living inside of her. 

One afternoon she was doing my hair as she was a cosmetologist as well as a youth leader.  I shared with her my true perception of God.  I asked tough questions about God being all knowing and all loving.  She called her pastor to the salon where he answered my bitterly stated questions truthfully.  He didn’t give me sugar coated answers just raw truth.  The truth was painful.  I felt that God could, should, and would not forgive the murderers of innocent children or those that had touched children in hurtful ways.  Gus shared how God forgives all who ask and this frustrated me terribly that just anyone could receive eternal life through Jesus Christ.  I spent many months pondering what it meant to be saved and counting the cost because it wasn’t as easy as I had originally thought back in the salon.  There was a lot of asking for forgiveness I had to do not just of God but of others.  This is not an easy task.   Repenting is a hard thing.  Repenting doesn’t mean you are sorry it is a lifestyle change.  Webster says it is this: to turn from sin and dedicate oneself to the amendment of one's life.  In some cases that means giving back time to your spouse or kids that you stole or in my case giving back money to the bar owner I used to work for.  I am an all or nothing kind of girl so I was not about to just willy nilly say a prayer and try to partially work it out later. 

Halloween night of 2002 I pulled behind Riverside Gas Station and asked Jesus to come into my heart and be Lord of my life.  It was just Jesus and I, the way I thought it ought to be.  I was baptized as a believer in Jesus Christ a few months later at Woodland Bible Church.  I feel the time I spent weighing the cost in the previous few months really benefited me in the coming year.  I was aware that after you come to know the Lord life was not gonna be easy street.  I only had one thing that Jesus really freed me from besides Satan himself without any effort from myself.  I had the filthiest mouth.  Every other word was the ‘F’ bomb.  I used to try to not swear for a whole day and the next words out of my mouth were obscene.  From the moment I asked Jesus into my heart those words were gone.  I know it doesn’t sound like a lot to you but there was no way in my own strength I could have done this without him.  I never thought about swearing anymore.  I didn’t have to try to watch my mouth around people.  Those words were literally gone. Now all the other things/troubles that Jesus talks about in life didn’t hold off long and they weren’t just miraculously just going away, they were work.  In Luke 19:1-9 when salvation came to Zacchaeus’ house he said he was going to pay back anyone he had cheated.  I went to that bar owner that I had stolen from with a check for $1000.  It was so difficult to look a man in the eyes that trusted you and say I stole from you and if you want to press charges I totally understand.  This man who is not saved showed me amazing mercy and kindness but most importantly forgiveness.  I knew that I couldn’t right all my wrongs physically but purposed that I would do whatever the Lord led me to do in the area of repenting of my past.  It meant I had to walk away from most of all my friends that were gonna hinder my walk with Christ.  This was such a struggle to leave so many that I had shared so much of my life with.  Even though it hurt to walk away, I have seen God’s promise in Matthew 10:39 come to pass.  It says, “Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it”. I really did lose MY life when I found Christ.

That summer my grandma that was like a second mother to me died from cancer.  I had never prayed for God to end someone’s pain but in her last moments I was pleading with God to take her home.  My dad died a couple weeks later and this opened an emotional trunk that I had sealed up many years previous.  2 years ago I lost my best lifetime friend. She was a 31 year old wife and mother of 2 adorable children. No one loses this woman in their life and is not completely broken. God has definitely shown me thought these three losses that life is fragile and that I wake up each day only because God has willed it.

When God gave me the amazing gift in my husband I then became very aware of my pride, selfishness, insecurities, and lack of self worth.  This really took a toll on the first years of our marriage.  God was really mirroring His love for me through Gus and I was not the most accepting because I felt so unworthy.  Our marriage since has gotten tons better through lots of prayer and patience from my husband and the slow painful process of dying to my flesh on a regular basis. All that being said please take note that God didn’t not promise that once you get saved your life will be easy street. He says that you WILL have trouble but when those troubles came for me I now had a hope and a reason to press on.

This is my story.  I really want you to see how God used all these past things for His Glory. God used me to plant a seed in that bar owner. God has used me to give hope to teenagers with unplanned pregnancies. God has used me to feed the hungry. God has used me to comfort the fatherless. God has used me to give hope to those struggling with sexual abuse. God has used me to show people in this community that their prayers for me were not in vain. God has used me to show this community what a life truly redeemed by Him looks like. I very much have the same personality that God gave me but my life and eternity are forever changed by Him.

 All this being said I want to leave you with a couple thoughts that may initially hurt but hear me out.  There is nothing lucky or unlucky about your life.  Your life is not/was not left to chance.  Everything that has happened to you has either been the will of God or out of the permissible will of God.  In Romans 8:28 it says “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him”.  I also want to say to you that nothing, not choices, nor circumstances are outside of God’s redeeming power.  It is in the tough times in my testimony that it may seem that God is nowhere to be found that He now seems to shine the brightest. God did not allow the painful things in your life to happen to you so you would not bring him glory.  Don’t let one thing that you have gone through be in vain.  We must go back and claim every moment of our pasts for the glory of God.  It is not enough to just diffuse those hard moments but we must use them.  If you live your life, I mean really live your life to bring God all the glory alone, and then all those hard times will have been worth any amount of turmoil in the moment to bring Him the great glory as I hoped to have done today. 

Today is Thursday and I brought our broken dehumidifier to the recycling. They will properly drain the fluids in the lines and recycle the remaining material. It cost me $5 to correctly throw-away this “taking up space in our already full garage” dehumidifier. But I got $7 yesterday for a super-sized garbage bag of aluminum cans. So, I am money ahead and have 1.5 sq ft more space available to park something else in the garage.

Little tips I have heard about clutter is to do things like:
When you buy a new piece of new clothing, give an old piece of clothing to Good Will.
I read of a person who made it a habit to try to recycle, giveaway or throwaway something every Thursday. Throw-away Thursdays.

 This is not quite what John the baptizer had in mind when he told people to give away their extras.
Luke 3:10-11
“What should we do then?” the crowd asked.
11 John answered, “Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same.”

The people were convicted by John’s call to repent and they asked him what they should do. His reply was to be generous and not self-serving. Give to those who do not have what you have in multiples of. This causes me to view my clutter completely different.

Jim McCracken oversees TrueBridge (more info @ truebridge.org), a network of over 30 churches and last Sunday he spoke at our church about depression, the guilt it brings to a Christian, and finding victory through the darkness. The Center for Disease Control reports that 1 in 10 people are affected by depression in the US.

McCracken shared what the Bible says about depression and he spoke from his personal experience with depression. The Bible uses words like downtrodden, anxious, worried, downcast, and despair when people were having an experience similar to depression.

Often, Christians try to push those feelings aside and embrace scripture passages like Nehemiah 8:10
“Nehemiah said, “Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.””

At the time that Nehemiah encouraged the people with these words, they were in despair and grieving. The book of the Law had just been read to them and they realized that they were not following God in so many areas of their lives.

The joy of the LORD is to be your strength when depressing times hit you. God is ready to rescue you from despair, knowing that those times hit every person. Some are affected more often or stronger than others, but all struggle at some point in their life with depressing thoughts, actions and attitudes.

Trying to self-rescue and ignoring your true feelings works against what God can give you during those dark times. His strength and joy are made perfect in your weakness. McCracken encourages people to take similar steps he took when depressed:

>be real to the LORD about your life
>seek a Christian counselor
>lighten the load you are carrying
>let the joy of the LORD be your strength

Our community is walking through a the tragic death of a 13 year old that was struck and killed while riding his bicycle by a 16 year old driver. Police are sorting out the cause of the accident. Meanwhile, a family has lost a son, a teenage driver struggles with the finality of this accident, students try to make sense of the loss and a community grieves.

Colin was a good student, played soccer, and was very active in his church’s middle school youth group. He was one of triplets born to his parents. His grandparents had served as missionaries overseas until they retired. The young driver either lived in the same neighborhood or used to live there and had friends in the area.  The bicyclist may have gone through a stop sign; the driver’s inexperience may have been a factor - either way, there is no going back to undo this event.

Many ask “Why?”. Why do tragic events happen? Asking why does not result in any good answers. Ever since Adam and Eve disobeyed God, sin has stained our world. Bad things happen to good people because of this sin stain.

Asking “What?”  or “How” are better questions. Those questions provoke you to grab hold of Jesus and hang on to Him for whatever is next in such deep sadness. What can we learn about forgiveness? How can we face another day and move forward? The parents of Colin have expressed their deep sadness over the loss of their son. Their faith causes them to hold no malice or bitterness towards the driver, but instead Colin’s father offered these words:
“It is our family’s deepest desire and hope as a community, family, church [that] we support this young driver who continues to live with the events that occurred in those brief moments. And to do that, he will need all our love that we can offer him.”

The book of Psalms has 150 chapters. More than 2/3 of the chapters are a heart cry to the LORD asking the “Why” questions. The writer resolves by writing that they do not understand “why” but will hang onto God in the deep valley of despair. It is the only way of making any sense of tragic events.

Psalms 42:4-5
These things I remember
    as I pour out my soul:
how I used to go to the house of God
    under the protection of the Mighty One
with shouts of joy and praise
    among the festive throng.
5 Why, my soul, are you downcast?
    Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
    for I will yet praise Him,
    my Savior and my God.

Most people do not want to let God know they are mad at Him for a couple of pretty good reasons. One reason is that they do not want to get God ticked off at them. It is bad enough if a spouse, boss or neighbor is upset with you, but it is risky business to get the Maker of the universe upset with you.

Another reason people do let God know they are made at Him is because they are counting on Him to help them out of the situation that is angering them. You are in the hospital praying and believing God for your healing while being angry at Him for allowing this illness or disease to afflict you. It feels like you would be canceling out your prayer for healing, while railing against God.

The book of Psalms in the Bible has some of the most beautiful poetry that was set to music back in the day. David was the main contributor of the Psalms. Surprisingly, out of the 150 chapters of Psalms, 2/3 of them are expressions of anger, laments and tirades against God about unfair circumstances. It is very clear God is big enough to handle David’s complaints and your tirades. God already knows what is in your heart, so you might as well let Him have a piece of you mind, so you can have peace of mind.

After your tirade, voice your trust in Him as loving and perfect in fairness. David would end his anger laden songs with a recognition that he will trust in no other except God. Read David’s tirade in Psalms 94 and notice his resolve.

Psalms 94:16-19
Who will rise up for me against the wicked?
Who will take a stand for me against evildoers?
17 Unless the Lord had given me help, I would soon have dwelt in the silence of death.
18 When I said, “My foot is slipping,”
    Your unfailing love, Lord, supported me.
19 When anxiety was great within me,
    Your consolation brought me joy.

Peter Scazzero wrote a book titled, “Emotionally Healthy Spiritually” - Unleashing a Revolution in Your Life in Christ. It is based on the premise that it is impossible to be spiritually mature while remaining emotionally immature. Most of this material is from Scazzero’s book. See more at www.emotionallyhealthy.org.

Spiritual life is not an escape from reality but a commitment to a true reality. Loss marks the place where powerful transformation happens if we have courage. Limits are behind all loss. Even with “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength” we cannot do or be anything we want.

Scazzero calls us to surrender to our limits. By surrendering you enlarge your soul through grief and loss. The book of Job in the Bible is about a man who lost everything in one day. Most of us experience losses more slowly over the course of our life until we find ourselves on the door of death, leaving everything behind.
> We lose our youthfulness.
> We lose our dreams.
> We lose our routines and stability in transitions.
> Most of us experience catastrophic losses:
> We lose a family member, friend, marriage, employment, a loss of innocence.
>We grieve many things we cannot do, our limits.
> Also, we lose our wrong ideas about church.
The church is not the perfect family with perfect people we expected. People disappoint us or misbehave.

Job was the Bill Gates of his day.
Job 1:1-2
In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil. 2 He had seven sons and three daughters, 3 and he owned seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred donkeys, and had a large number of servants. He was the greatest man among all the people of the East.

His wealth was staggering. A large herd, large staff, large family and his wisdom was well known. As Job is trying to make sense of life, he is covered with boils from the soles of his feet to the top of his head. His skin darkened and shriveled.

His sores became infected with worms. His eyes were red and swollen. He could not sleep, was always in pain. Job lived outside the city with the “unclean”

After 10 funerals and a hopelessly ill husband, Mrs Job had enough – “Curse God and die” was her recommendation to relieve the pain. Addiction is the common way to relieve pain; television, busyness, working 70 hours, overeating, prescription pills, watching porn, drinking and anything to numb us from pain.

You and I carry defenses to shield us from pain:
>denial – “I am OK I just got fired…”
>minimizing – “He is just drinking once in a while…”
>blaming others – “The doctors messed up his meds….”
>blaming yourself – “Because I am not worth it she is having an affair…..”
>rationalizing – “Counseling is not working because anger runs in the family…”
>intellectualizing – “Compared to other marriages, my problem is not so bad….”
>distracting – “Our family is not in trouble, look at the fun we had last Christmas…”
>becoming hostile – “Do not talk about her. She is dead and talking is not going to bring her back.”

Scazzero sees God’s path to new beginnings from the life of Job:
1.       Pay attention - Job held nothing back of his anguish from God.
2.       Waiting in the confusing in-between - guard against quick fix bandaid answers or repairs.
3.       Embrace the gift of limits - Job had to embrace his limits. Fear of God, submit to others, be patience with others, and grow in wisdom
4.       Let the old birth the new - In God’s time, you will be blessed. God made Job twice as prosperous than before

John 12:24
  Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.

The US is in a partial government shutdown and hours away from a budget deadline that requires approval from both the Senate and House of Representatives. The media has kept the public well informed of the deadlock between Democrats and Republicans which blame each other. If Jesus were physically present at the capital and if people sought Him out for a solution, what would Jesus do?

The Bible records questions people had about Jesus, the government, and religious taxes. Whenever people asked for Jesus’ sound byte about the government, Jesus reminded them that His kingdom is a better kingdom than any rule or government on the earth.

Matthew 17:24-27
After Jesus and his disciples arrived in Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma temple tax came to Peter and asked, “Doesn’t your teacher pay the temple tax?”
25 “Yes, he does,” he replied.
When Peter came into the house, Jesus was the first to speak. “What do you think, Simon?” he asked. “From whom do the kings of the earth collect duty and taxes—from their own children or from others?”
26 “From others,” Peter answered.
“Then the children are exempt,” Jesus said to him. 27 “But so that we may not cause offense, go to the lake and throw out your line. Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you will find a four-drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for my tax and yours.”

Jesus would counsel the US today to honor our debts, to spend only what we have the ability to repay and to be the lender instead of a borrower. Then Jesus would remind us that His rule and reign is perfect, powerful, and completely just.

(This is a reposting of a previous blog with some revision)
In 1492, he sailed the oceans blue. We observed Columbus Day on October 14 this year, although the discovery of the New World was October 12, 1492. (we like our Monday holidays!) Christopher Columbus was looking for a western passage to China and India. Columbus underestimated the size of the earth, he overestimated the land mass of Eurasia and he incorrectly believed that Japan was further east of the coast of China.

Columbus was both wrong and at odds with the scholarly consensus of his day. Nonetheless, Columbus was a great explorer and navigator. Three wrongs can still be something right. After two months of sailing, Cuba was sighted and believed to be mainland China. His expedition found Hispaniola and Columbus thought it might be Japan. It was his third of four trips across the Atlantic that he realized he had not reached Asia, but had discovered a continent previously unknown to Europeans.

We can only discover what is already known. He sailed the oceans blue, to discover what God already knew. All discoveries and breakthroughs are things God has known for eternity.

Ecclesiastes 1:9-10
What has been will be again,
    what has been done will be done again;
    there is nothing new under the sun.
10 Is there anything of which one can say,
    “Look! This is something new”?
It was here already, long ago;
    it was here before our time.

Happy Columbus Day!