It’s hard to believe but we are already in the month of October! Fall is upon us and you can begin to feel the coolness in the air. It won’t be long before we will have to dig out those sweaters and jackets and fire up the fireplace.

Each month of the year comes with its own character and what sets it apart from the other months. One special characteristic about October falls on the last day of the month and that’s ‘Halloween.’

As a kid, I used to look forward to Halloween; mainly because of all the candy I would get from going Trick or Treating. Sadly, my teeth paid a big price because of all the candy I ate back then.

Halloween costumes back in the day consisted of, Casper the friendly ghost, dressing up as a pirate or hobo, or some simple character we thought were scary characters.

I was never much of a fan of scary characters/movies and though I would watch scary movies from time to time, the nightmares they gave me and the fear that entered my heart and mind because of doing that, lasted a long time.

Today’s scary characters/movies are far worse than the scary characters/movies I grew up with and the fear they bring really leave their marks in our hearts and minds for a long time.

People have this fascination/enjoyment today with being scared out of their minds and even though the fear it brings leaves scars on their hearts and minds for a long time, they continue to have a craving to be frightened out of their minds.

Psalm 111:10 “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow His precepts have good understanding. To Him belongs eternal praise” (emphasis added)

I’ve been involved as a Christian in a real exorcism and let me tell you, what I witnessed has forever been burned in my mind. In the end we were victorious in casting out the demon in someone’s life through the power of Jesus Christ, but let me assure you, the devil is real and not someone you want to tackle on your own strength and ability.

When the psalmist writes “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” the fear he’s talking about is having a reverence/respect/devotion for the Lord.

Today we glamorize fear but sadly the fear we have glamorized has and will continue to cripple people for the rest of their lives. The nightmares that come because of being frightened are real and without the help of the Lord, they will never go away. The fears of Halloween today are not funny and what are we teaching our children by glamorizing all that fear.

As Christians we need to fear, have sincere reverence/respect and devotion towards our Lord, for He is a mighty God, more powerful than the devil and all his demons. All they do is fill us with all kinds of lies from the pit of hell.

Let’s determine to focus more on the power/strength/devotion/love of the Lord and to teach that to our children so they and us as well, can have the wisdom we will need in life!!