Halloween has become a major “unofficial” holiday in America. Researchers at Hallmark Cards report that 65 percent of Americans decorate for Halloween their homes and offices for this annual event. Halloween is 2nd only to Christmas in retail spending at about $5 billion, and it is the third biggest party day of the year in the U.S. It is also reported that Americans purchase nearly 600 million pounds of candy a year for Halloween. That’s about 3 times as much candy as is bought on Easter and Valentine’s Day — combined.Halloween is a season of candy and fun and dressing up… But it’s also a season that’s identified with death. It has some very disturbing aspects to it, which was the reason some people never allowed their kids to go “trick or treating,” Death is a common theme that shows up in the decorations— skeletons and ghosts.My point is not to dwell on the negative aspects of Halloween. While many aspects of this season are wrong, we must remember that “death” is an important concept to understand when we commit ourself to Jesus Christ.Paul tells us, : “... don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his DEATH? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into DEATH in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life” (Rom. 6:3-4).In order to become a Christian you have to die. You have to die to the past, your old way of life, to sin. That’s why he says in the previous verse, “…We DIED to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” (Rom. 6:2) and in verse 6, “We know that our old self was CRUCIFIED with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin.”Paul repeats And this theme Colossians 3:3 which says, “For you DIED, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.” And in 2 Timothy 2:11 he says, “Here is a trustworthy saying: If we DIED with him, we will also live with him.”Ephesians 2:1-5, says God made us alive, who were “dead in trespasses and sins.” We used to be alive to sin but dead to Christ but now we are alive in Christ but dead to sin!”
