It was either the last week of August or the first part of September when I began to notice Halloween costumes being displayed in the stores. I have also noticed that we have developed such a love and passion today for the feeling of being frightened out of our minds; in any way we can.

Growing up I never really liked watching scary movies, yet the type of scary movies I was made to see, don’t begin to hold a candle to the depth Hollywood goes to scare people out of their minds. We have certainly come a long way from scary movies like, Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein.

Things like Frankenstein, the Werewolf, Dracula, giant scorpions and ants  or some huge piece of jello, to name a few, are made up scary things of Hollywood, yet they still brought me many nightmares. Many of today’s scary movies are bases on real horrible things that can take place in people’s lives. That type of fear in my mind is demonic in nature and I truly believe in the long run it brings great harm to people’s hearts and minds who subject themselves to them.

The first recording in the Bible we find of fear or being afraid is found in Genesis 3:8-10 “Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as He was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?” He answered, “I heard You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.” 

At first glance, one might think it was the sound of the Lord God as He walked in the garden that caused Adam, the man, to be afraid, but Adam quickly clears up the reason he was afraid, he was naked.

Adam and Eve had been physically naked before this incident, so why did he now notice he was naked; what really caused him to be afraid? The answer is given in Genesis 2:16-17 “And the Lord God commanded the man (Adam), “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die“

Adam knew the Lord God meant whatever He said and because Adam ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, Adam knew the evil he had done and death surely awaited him, so he hid.

Monsters, zombies, slasher films, even the devil himself, do not hold a candle to the sense of being afraid or fear that the sin of disobeying the Lord’s commands brings to one’s heart. The greatest command is found in Mark 12:30-31 “Love the Lord ‘your God’ with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these”

The Bible says the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. No wonder Adam hid; he knew he disobeyed the Lord’s command and the knowledge of good and evil now became very real to him. He was naked in the sense that the innocence and beauty he once had of being sinless was now forever gone.

The month of October is known for the celebration of Halloween and why some Christians would celebrate Halloween is beyond me. Halloween celebrates things which bring fear to people and cause them to be afraid.

I would much rather celebrate the truth that I once lived in fear, naked and hiding from the Lord because of my sin, but because of the Lord’s victory on the cross for all of my sins, I have no need to hide anymore. Those times when I fall short and sin, and we all do, I can go to ‘my Lord’ confess my sin to Him and the Lord forgives me of my sins and purifies me from all my unrighteousness!!

My friend, do you find yourself hiding a lot from the Lord? Come to the Lord, confess your sins to Him and allow the Lord to wash and purify you from all unrighteousness. Don’t live in nakedness any longer!!

Photo by Thomas Kelley on Unsplash