Nothing creates enthusiasm like the opportunity to start over. If you have ever messed up and wished for an opportunity to undo and then redo, you know what I am talking about. Although in life’s game, we cannot do this, the closest that we can come to doing this is presented to us at the first of each new year. This is why people make new year’s resolutions. It is the most ideal time of the year to start over. Here we are again at the first of a new year. Whatever happened last year that represented failure and disappointment, let’s start over and have a great year.

We are rapidly approaching the end of the first decade of the 21st century. The only comforting thing about time flying so fast is that soon we will be flying away to be with the Lord. I’m not talking about death. I’m talking about life, eternal life in Heaven effected by the Rapture of the Church. Whatever you planned to accomplish this year, you have one month left, one-twelfth of the time you had when 2010 began. In 2011 we may be in Heaven. If you are not ready for all of this to transpire, let your motto be, “I’m Going To Decide In December.”

If October is known for Halloween, November is known for Thanksgiving. And what is Thanksgiving known for? Turkey and dressing dinners with all the trimmings. We only have to examine the word “Thanksgiving” to understand what the meaning of this word is all about. It is a time set aside to give thanks to the Lord. I Thessalonians 5:18 says, “In everything give thanks.” It does not say, “for everything give things” but “in everything.” So in the midst of everything, good and bad, we are to give thanks. Although it is easy to give thanks when things are good, it is not so easy to give thanks then things are bad. But we can always thank the Lord that things are not worse than they are. Let us be thanks givers not only during November but every month of the year. Remember November is not turkey month. It is the month of thanksgiving.

Unfortunately, when people think of October, they often think of Halloween. And Halloween conjures up thoughts of goblins and ghosts. The ancient Celts believed that the border between this world and the other world became thin on Halloween allowing spirits, both harmless and harmful to pass through. The families’ ancestors were honored and invited home while harmful spirits were warded off. It is believed that the need to ward off harmful spirits led to the wearing of costumes and masks.

Christians do not believe this superstition. We do believe that the border between this world and the other world is thin enough for the Ghost, the Holy Ghost, to come to us and fill us. Let’s not ward off this wonderful Spirit by our costumes of self-righteousness, but let us pull off our masks of hypocrisy and allow His Spirit to go home with us.