A STARTLING CONFESSION!!!!!!

 This time of year you see all kinds of decorations hanging everyhere! Bats, Mummies in shredded shrouds , Count  Draculas , Frankensteins and Witches on brooms, I mean ALL the dark scary supernatural things that go into making Halloween Halloween.

 Sometimes the neighbours go all out turning their front yards into CEMETERIES complete with  styrofoam "TOMB STONES",

Plastic Skeletons everywhere... fiber glass "Spiders webs" even prerecorded eerie groans, moans and rattling chains! (Accompanied by what you HOPE is just a recording of a shriek or a scream every now and then!)

 And as I walk around the various neighbourhoods here and there  and see the decorations start to go up I just feel that I need to make a startling confession here, Something that I never told anyone before. But its true! I reall did!


 I   GREW UP IN A HAUNTED HOUSE!!!!!!!!

 The house I lived in was haunted by many MANY ghosts! You never knew just where they were and when they would pop out at ya but ......POP OUT THEY DID ...... ALL THE TIME!

They made life miserable! They seemed to be  always there just waiting and lurking in the shadows ready to LEAP INTO YOUR LIFE for just a brief instant and wreak their havoc at a moments notice !

 Just WAITING for the chance to "LIVE" AGAIN IF ONLY FOR A SECOND OR TWO!

 They could pop out at dinner , or at lunch, In the morning,  or after school! I could be playing with my plastic soldiers and matchbox cars on the living room carpet or doing my homework at the kitchen table, it never mattered and you never were quite sure just WHEN the ghosts  would pop up but you could rest assured SOONER OR LATER THEY WOULD   BE THERE!!!

 Right now you are probably thinking BROTHER JOSEPH! I don't like the "vibes" I am feeling just reading this!

 You think YOU don't like the vibes! YOU SHOULD'A BEEN THERE!!!!

BROTHER JOSEPH....

 YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT THE OCCULT!!!

Oh, Did you think I was talking about the Occult? Oh no my friend something MUCH scarier, MUCH WORSE, MUCH MORE DESTRUCTIVE THAN THE OCCULT!!!!!

 Do you think I am talking about Ghosts like the ghost of Jacob Marley here? 

 OH NO!!!! 

Not that kind of ghost at ALL!

I am talking about the GHOSTS of our Families PAST! Every failure, every fight, every disagreement or dissapointment  that had happened not just in MY lifetime but actually went back GENERATIONS in our family (ALL THE WAY BACK TO IRELAND FOR GOONDESS SAKES!) and these "GHOSTS" had a habit of manifesting themselves over and Over and OVER  again~!

 I remember growing up that we actually had a "MEDIUM" in our house, the one who seemed to be the "CHANNEL" that these "GHOSTS" used to make their "PRESENCE" felt in our midst.

 MY MOTHER

 She was an expert at going back twenty ..thirty.. fourty or more years and with just a "DO YOU REMEMBER THE TIME....?" could dredge up the most negative hurtful destructive memories and anecdotes about 1.) A fight she had had with my father, "He was TERRIBLE !" 2.) Negative Facts about HER Father and his Alcoholism,  "HE WAS TERRIBLE!"  3.) Negative Facts about her Mother and her   INABILITY to love anyone "SHE WAS TERRIBLE!"  4.) Negative experiences with HER Brothers and sisters growing up and into their adulthood "THEY WERE TERRIBLE!"  5.) Negative experiences she had with my brothers growing up in their childhoods  "THEY WERE TERRIBLE!!"  6.) Negative experiences with my Fathers Father (HE WAS TERRRRRRRIBLE !!! but your grandmother was a SAINT I don't know HOW she put up with him all those years! I REMEMBER THIS ONE TIME..... .....")

 And perhaps the scariest  " GHOST"  of all.....

 HER NEGATIVE REMEMBRANCES OF ME AND ALL THE "PAIN" I HAD CAUSED HER IN MY YOUTH!

 "DO YOU REMEMBER THE TIME YOU...?"

  "YOU WERE TERRIBLE!!!!!"

Her Ghost Stories were TERRIFYING! 

THEY WERE SOUL DESTROYING!

 I am fifty seven years old! Soon to be 58! And I STILL dread even a VISIT with my mother because even at 82 years of age,  the GHOST STORIES start up in the first ten minutes of ANY visit!!!!

 "Joe do you remember the time your father.....?" "Joe do you remember the time your Grandfather....?" 

"Joe do you remember the time your brother...............?" 

"JOE..............................................................

DO YOU REMMMMMMEMMMMBERRRR?"

And yes.... I DO remember, many frightening, hurtful , damaging memories!

GHOSTS!!!! GHOSTS!!!!! GHOSTS!!!!!!

 Ghosts of the past still trying to hurt and destroy!

Sometimes we read the Bible and don't see how deeply POWERFUL and even how WONDEFUL some of the gifts of the Spirit of God are! One is "IN MY NAME YOU SHALL CAST OUT DEVILS" Mark 16:17

 That doesn't just mean the devils that people can be possessed with, but those evil depressing destructive memories and experiences that demonic spirits use to lower our self esteem and trouble us so very deeply!

 I THANK GOD that even as those destructive spirits of torment, depression, hate and fear were working overtime in our home to destroy  MY soul,  The SPIRIT OF GOD was at work to RESCUE !

I BELIEVE IT WAS SPECIFICALLY *BECAUSE* OF THE CONSTANT BOMBARDING OPPRESSION OF THOSE SPIRITS THAT I CALLED OUT TO JESUS CHRIST TO SAVE ME FROM THE VERY DESTRUCTION THAT THEY PROMISED TO BRING!!!

 Again the Bible is TRUE! WHOSOEVER SHALL CALL UPON THE NAME OF THE LORD SHALL BE  SAVED! 

I did! And I AM!!

Yet there are still GHOSTS out there!

   So many times I shudder as I hear OTHER parents reminding THEIR children about the failures of those they ought to LOVE!

 Using the GHOSTS of Yesterdays' conflicts to demonize, marginalize and actually KILL AND  DESTROY the love, affection, respect and trust that children have for their OTHER parent or grandparent or even siblings!

GHOSTS

Mean, Hateful , Malice Filled

GHOSTS!

 I wonder if there are even Christian men and women who wether they realize it or not are dealing in GHOSTS?

Calling them up. Animating them. Killing and Destroying with them?

One thing I can say since Jesus came into my life......

 I AINT AFRAID A NO GHOSTS!