As September turns to October, normal programming is put on hold for a month. While action films may be weaved in here or there, Halloween related movies will take center stage. This month long marathon seeks to scare the hell out of you. As the deaths quickly accumulate in these slasher classics, the haunting fear of death is often desensitized as villains have their own set of nine lives.
What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered in the ear, proclaim upon the housetops. 28 And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; but rather be afraid of Him who can destroy both soul and body in hell (Gehenna), Matthew 10:27-28.
Growing up my mother was a paramedic, often running off to the nearest accident. emergency or fire. I was sheltered from most of this as a child until my neighbor’s house caught on fire and my next door neighbor was rushed to the hospital. My first brush with death was during a sailboat excursion in the Chesapeake Bay. When our vessel capsized in the middle of the channel, a giant cargo ship was heading straight for us until a good Samaritan pulled us out of the water just in time.
And also that He might deliver and completely set free all those who through the [haunting] fear of death were held in bondage throughout the whole course of their lives.16 For, as we all know, He [Christ] did not take hold of angels [[a]the fallen angels, to give them a helping and delivering hand], but He did take hold of [[b]the fallen] descendants of Abraham [to reach out to them a helping and delivering hand], Hebrews 2:15-16.
By the time I reached high school, a classmate and her family were all killed in a car accident and one of my best friends died of cancer shortly after graduating from high school. Two of my teammates in two different sports committed suicide two years apart. These events conceived in me the haunting fear of death. Yet, when I finally put my complete faith and trust in Jesus in college, this fear gradually subsided once I realized that my eternal future was secure, 1 John 5:13.
by Jay Mankus
ExpressYourself4Him 