There's no need to fear the dark.
In thumbing through the diary for the month I noticed a tiny change. British Summer Time has been re-named as 'European Summer Time'. I'm not sure when this happened, as it was a small change, but it makes no substantial difference. The artificial change from 'EST' marks a resetting of clocks and progressive shortening of daylight hours. Thankfully light expels the darkness.

The Bible draws a sharp division between darkness and light. Darkness represents the spiritual realm of evil and death. Light symbolises God's eternal and victorious Kingdom which is full of life. In the Gospel of John the theme of darkness and light is emphasised right from the outset. It introduces us to the eternal God who is the giver of life: "Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood [or overcome] it" (John 1v4-5).

This is an important truth to remember. Yet evil is increasingly accepted as the norm. We see it in the widespread availability of Halloween merchandise and in children dressing up as witches or ghosts to knock on doors asking: 'trick or treat'? In the USA this is a much bigger occasion, but far less dark than the British counterpart. Some argue that it is 'just harmless fun'. But, it makes things that are essentially evil more acceptable. Halloween activities are based on dark pagan festivals. The realities behind what is going on are not a mere fantasy played out in cartoons or movies. The power of evil is real and drives us far from God and the good things he gives us.

However, evil is not the greatest power and so there is no need to fear the dark. The resurrection of Jesus Christ shows that he is the victor and the one who wields the greatest power. When Jesus died on a cross he not only dealt with our sin so that we can be forgiven, but he also disarmed the spiritual powers and authorities and made a public spectacle of them (Colossians 2v15) so that we can be free! Through faith in Jesus we can walk out of the darkness into the light. Let's give thanks for his victory.

Yours in Christ,

Paul Kingman