3 Ways to Shine for Christ in Every Cultural Season

When Jesus gave the sermon on the mount in Matthew chapter 5, he told his followers:

“You are the sunshine of the world. A city that is about on a hill can’t be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it in a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who’re in the home. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your father in heaven.” (14-16).  

It’s hard to be a light-weight to the world in the event you’re not standing amongst them. Whether you’re in college or not, there are many fall activities to go around. So don’t stay in. Go out and display the enjoyment of the Lord at fall festivals, pumpkin patches, and apple picking events, and don’t go it alone; take a gaggle.  While you’re there, sing songs, play games, and show how much you really love one another. Now that’s attractive!

“The world will know you’re my disciples by the love you’ve got for each other” John 13:35.

Suppose you’re in search of direct advice about learn how to approach events like Halloween, Thanksgiving, and homecoming. In that case, these are stuff you’ll need to work out on your personal and thru conversation and consultation with others, but my general advice follows.

Some Christians have fun Halloween, and a few Christians protest it. Others have alternative fall festivals that supply candy and promote dressing up in costumes. In my adult years, I’ve taken each of those stances at one point: being single, then married, then married and a mom. This is a nonessential issue that we should always not fight about. In any of the three approaches, ask the Holy Spirit to guide you. In college, I arrange a table and joined fellow believers to focus on the pagan origins of the occasion. Then, as a latest mom, I couldn’t resist dressing my infant up and marching him across the neighborhood (he was so cute). Today, I often take part in an enormous fall festival, complete with trunk-or-treating, to provide my youngest child and the neighborhood kids a Halloween alternative. Whatever you choose to do, do it wholeheartedly. If you do decide to participate on October 31^st with candy at your door, within the words of one in all the culture: “Go Hard!” I’ve at all times dreamed of seeing Christians go all out, with décor that points to the Holy Ghost (the Spirit of the Lord) and with tombstones that show the date they died to themselves and rose to latest life in Christ. How cool would it not be to have an entire yard stuffed with bones (either plastic or people wearing skeleton suits), representing the valley of dry bones present in the book of Ezekiel? Then, at the decision of an individual or figure acting as Ezekiel, we’d hear, “Dry bones hear the word of the Lord! I’ll make breath enter you, and you’ll come to life. I’ll attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and canopy you with skin; I’ll put breath in you, and you’ll come to life. Then you’ll know that I’m the Lord (Ezekiel 37:4-6). I say, in the event you’re going to hitch in on the decorating, do it right!

Thanksgiving is a time when families have fun together, but it is usually a stressful time, when some around us battle depression. These challenges are very real. As believers, we would like to be sensitive to those challenges and partner with the Holy Spirit if we’re experiencing them. If you’re latest to Christian life, sometimes the challenge is to be yourself while being around your loved ones, who could also be expecting to come across the old you. For that situation, do that tip: take a powerful believing friend home with you who can provide you with an excuse to drag away when that you must. If you possibly can’t take a friend home, then check in with a powerful believing friend when you are together with your family. That way, you possibly can pray with and draw strength out of your friend. Lastly, you possibly can set boundaries together with your family that can show you how to balance holiday stress.

Homecoming is a particular school-based event that invites students, alumni, and families to participate, however the challenges that surround it represent general challenges all of us face, whether we’re connected to a faculty or not. How will we maintain our holiness while dancing the Cha-Cha slide? How will we dress to impress while maintaining modesty? And, to drink or to not drink. That is the query. Here’s the reality: that’s so that you can know and for me to search out out. I can’t inform you learn how to dance, what to bounce to, who to bounce with, how late to remain out, who to confer with when you’re out, what to drink, what to not drink, and the way. Those decisions shall be different for every of us. Each of those decisions needs to be approached with prayer and in faith because whatever will not be done from faith is sin.

“So whatever you think about these items, keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who doesn’t condemn himself by what he approves. But whoever doubts is condemned in the event that they eat [food that is offered to idols-you have to read the whole chapter to get the context] because their eating will not be from faith; and every little thing that doesn’t come from faith is sin.” – Romans 14 22-23

Photo Credit: ©Unsplash/Vitaly Gariev