November 5, 2017 Joshua 3:7-17 Family lineage         

All Saints Sunday

The people of the Bible are our family through Jesus Christ!

Psalter reading Psalm 43:1-5

1   Declare me innocent, O God!  Defend me against these ungodly people.  Rescue me from these unjust liars. 2   For you are God, my only safe haven.    Why have you tossed me aside?  Why must I wander around in grief, oppressed by my enemies? 3   Send out your light and your truth; let them guide me.  Let them lead me to your holy mountain, to the place where you live. 4   There I will go to the altar of God, to God— the source of all my joy. I will praise you with my harp, O   God, my God! 5   Why am I discouraged?  Why is my heart so sad?  I will put my hope in God!  I will praise him again— my Savior and my God                                        Psalm 43:1-5 NLT

7   The LORD told Joshua, “Today I will begin to make you a great leader in the eyes of all the Israelites. They will know that I am with you, just as I was with Moses. 8   Give this command to the priests who carry the Ark of the Covenant: ‘When you reach the banks of the Jordan River, take a few steps into the river and stop there.’” 9   So Joshua told the Israelites, “Come and listen to what the LORD your God says. 10   Today you will know that the living God is among you. He will surely drive out the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites, and Jebusites ahead of you. 11   Look, the Ark of the Covenant, which belongs to the Lord of the whole earth, will lead you across the Jordan River! 12   Now choose twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one from each tribe. 13   The priests will carry the Ark of the LORD, the Lord of all the earth. As soon as their feet touch the water, the flow of water will be cut off upstream, and the river will stand up like a wall.” 14   So the people left their camp to cross the Jordan, and the priests who were carrying the Ark of the Covenant went ahead of them.                                                         Joshua 3:7-17 NLT

Many in the Church know more about Halloween than about All Saints Day.  Do you know that to the Church what we call Halloween is All Hallows Eve?

All Hallows Eve, like Christmas Eve is a time to prepare for the celebration of LIFE!  For just as Christmas Eve is a time of preparation for the birth of Jesus Christ who would by His life and death offer life to us All Hallows Eve is a preparation for All Saints Day when we celebrate that all those in Jesus who have “died” are really alive and with Jesus!

Sometimes I get so sad that we teach our children about Halloween and not about All Saints Day.  For Halloween is a remembrance of a time when pagan priests would go around and demand “treats” such as food and children to be sacrificed to their “gods” or they would “trick” by putting a curse on the home.  People would dress in scary costumes hoping they would scare away the demons or evil spirits!

While Halloween is a celebration of death and evil All Saints Day is a celebration of life and good.  For we celebrate that because of the death and resurrection of Jesus all of our loved ones who had faith in Jesus are now not dead but are even more alive than ever before and their faith is now sight!

The scriptures tell us God has overcome evil and we no longer have to fear or be enslaved by evil!  We no longer have to offer our children as “treats” to the pagans in fear of “tricks” but are free to love knowing that because God loves us He will protect us through Jesus from the demons and evil!

Celebrate the victory of God over death, hell and evil by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ so we never again have to offer our children as a sacrifice to evil!  Thanks be to God who offers us life because He is the source of all life!