Halloween...A Chance To Be Different

It was the night before Halloween during my sophomore year of high school. I had absolutely nothing to wear for the next day's activities at school! Luckily my aunt, who was staying with us at the time, decided to graciously take me to the mall to get me a costume. When we arrived, I immediately set off for the $20-$30 section of the store....my aunt had other ideas. She has always been about going above and beyond...(this is one of the reasons I love her!), and on that Halloween Eve night, she didn't change her ways. As she made her way to the back of the store (where they keep the really cool costumes), she came across a costume that she thought was "so me!" If you know me, you know what she found- a genuine, full-body gorilla costume, complete with glowing eyes! She proceeded to buy the costume for me, and as you can guess, the next day, I was the hit of the school, coming in second place for best dressed!
What is it about Halloween that we all tend to get excited about? I'm not so much into the "evil" aspects of the day, nor am I really all that concerned abour bringing home a pillow case full of candy (believe it or not!). I don't know about you, but I have learned that my excitment stems from a deeper meaning. I love the fact that I get to dress up like someone, or in the case of the gorilla, something else for a day. For me, there is something freeing about not being "me" for a day. One day a year, I get to escape from who I am and become something else- something different. And if you are like me, you like that. For once we aren't plain old "us" but rather, we are something different, exciting, out of the ordinary, and it is exciting to us and those around us notice it!
In 1st Peter 2, Peter tells us, who have a relationship with Jesus, that we are a "chosen people, a royal preisthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God..." In essence, we are set apart and we are different from everything around us. And if you look at verses 11 & 12, you will see that Peter is calling us to live differently from the rest of the world, so that they can take notice of our differences and glorify God.
God is calling us to be different for His glory. He isn't calling us to put 0n a silly gorilla costume, but rather, He is calling us to leave plain old, sinful us behind, and put on His Son Jesus, so that others will see Him through us. Its time to no longer be "us", but rather it is time to dress our lives up with the character of Jesus, so that others take notice- its time to be different.
This week, we will be meeting at Matt & Amanda's house for small group. Since, we don't have a message to be working off of from this past Sunday night, think about these questions for Thursday night:
1. When have you ever dressed up? What were you? What has been your favorite "costume?"
2. Do you like dressing up? Why or why not?
3. What do you think it means to be different? For you, is this a positive or negative word?
4. Do you like to fit in and be like everyone else or stand out and be noticed? Why?
5. Read 1st Peter 2:4-12. "Chosen people, royal priesthood, holy nation, a people belonging to God"- these are titles that Peter uses to show us that we are to be different from the world. How different from the world are you?
6. Read verses 11&12. Peter tells us to "abstain" from the world- what does this word mean? When we do, what type of life does He say we will have?
7. What is the point of being different and standing out among everyone else?

We hope to see you Thursday night at 7pm at Matt & Amanda's!