Knock, Knock...

Who's there?

Boo.

Boo, who?

Well, you don't have to cry about it!

We just completed another Halloween season. This year, as I understand it, more that $1 Billion was spent on decorations alone in the U.S. and over all over $5B spent for the holiday (candy, costumes, decorations, etc.) At the rate it is growing, Halloween will likely surpass Christmas as the most profitable holiday. Unbelieveable? But it's true.

While I don't buy into (except for the candy, I love the candy!) the hype of halloween, I do think there is at least one thing that we can learn from it. Fear!

While I don't fully comprehend the fun many find in haunted houses and corn mazes, I do know what it is to be scared out of one's wits, to be in circumstances where the dampness in ones' trousers grows with the intensity of the situation. It's called good, healthy fear. And it is needed on our lives.

Oh, I'm not talking about ghoul's jumping out of doorways or spiders dropped from the ceiling, but a true fear of important things like life, death and God. It's not that I think we should be afraid of the future or of God, but a healthy fear that is truly a deep, awe-inspiring respect of the unknown and wholly unknowable. I'm talking about recognizing God's ultimate and universal power over all of Creation and Eternity, that God holds our futures in His hands.

But we'd rather be scared of ghosts and give no thought of God at all.

What happened to approaching God with fear and trembling?

What happened to covering our faces when God was near? or falling to our knees when His name is spoken? Have we become so insolent toward God that respecting his power doesn't mean anything anymore?

That's what happens to Israel time and again in their history. Self-absorbed, self-sufficient, self-indulgent, self, self, self... And what did it get them?

The wrath of God!

What I need is a good, healthy fear of the sovereign God of the Universe. It is God who is in charge of the earth and all that is in it. It is God who stands at the place of judgment before whom all will stand some day. It is the same God who carefully prints names into the book of life and who caused fear in the strongest of men and women throughout the scriptural story.

That's the God who loves me and while I worship Him with loud praises, I approach him on my knees because to fear Him with awesome respect is to love Him as He deserves.

As the now famous song states, "I ain't 'fraid a no ghosts," (Ghostbusters) or anything else in all of Creation...

...But I am of God!

Peace ><>
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