It’s late (or early) on New Year’s and I’m laying in the bed awake, listening. I hear the faint pops of fireworks way off in the distance and the muffled late night rumblings of my sons who are still too amped on Starbucks Mocha frappes to sleep.

I wish I could make out what they’re saying, but I know from the inflection in their tones that this after-midnight discussion is an excited one. A hopeful one. A conversation that is looking forward instead of backward. It’s the kind of conversation that always seems to happen on the one night each year when the old is gone and the new has come.

New beginnings bring out the best in us. They bring out the hope in us. They make us feel that anything is still possible, and that even though we’ve seen hard times, maybe, just maybe, this will be our time, our year.

Jesus makes all things new, and that one truth is enough to cause many of us to begin to talk excitedly about what is still to come. Maybe in hushed tones at first, but louder as we realize that for each one of us, the best really does lie ahead.

Last year we were wounded. This year we’ll be healers. Last year, scars defined us. This year, our Warrior King will turn our scars into stories to be told and retold, each time with a bit more joy, with a bit more of the realization that while scars may remind us of our pain, they also remind us that we are survivors who have been spared so that we can tell the stories of a King whose kingdom cannot be stopped, contained, conquered or explained. His war cry is the lion’s roar, and His warriors are the unafraid, the undaunted, and the unstoppable force being unleashed on an enemy whose days have long been numbered.

This King’s name is Jesus, and though the Chinese astrologists would want us to believe that 2013 is the year of the snake, we know better.

We know that this is the Year of the Lion.

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
(Ephesians 6:12)

Today is Halloween and I’m confused.  Not so much about Halloween, but about how so many Christians will deal with it.  Tonight in neighborhoods across America children will walk past dark houses and wonder why the people inside won’t give them candy.  Their parents will tell them nobody’s home but they’ll know that’s not true.  They will wonder how Christians could be so cold and, well, I think they might be right.

We’ve kind of got this all or nothing approach to Halloween.  Either we figure out a way to participate in it without celebrating it (like Hallelujah Night, or Trunk or Treat nights, or Fall Festivals, or my personal favorite, the “Dress Up Like A Nice Character And Play Games And Say Something So You Can Get Candy But Don’t Think For A Second We’re Actually Doing The Same Thing As All The Other Children That Are Dressed Up Like Bad Things Saying Something So They Can Get Candy” night) or we turn off the lights on our porch and hide behind the couch hoping some 4 year-old instrument of Satan dressed like a monster won’t knock on our door.

My point here is not to poke fun or take shots at people for having beliefs about a holiday, and it’s definitely not to say that churches, which provide safe alternatives, are wrong.  They aren’t.  My question is more along the lines of how can we as Christians say we want to reach the world for Jesus and then, on the ONE night when so many of them will willingly come to our houses, turn the light off on them?  Isn’t this the best time to turn on the light, open the door and show that little one the love of Christ?  I think Christians should give out the best and most candy because then the word would spread in the neighborhood that “the person in that house is really nice and they give out LOTS of candy…you have GOT to go there!!!”

I can tell you that our family does not like Halloween.  For reasons that we could debate well into the next century, we don’t agree with it.  But tonight, our light will be on and there will be a big bucket of candy by the door.  And every time the doorbell rings, we’ll smile and tell that little ghost how cute he or she is while we’re dropping a ton of candy in their bag.  And later, when that ghost is a boy or girl again and they find out we’re Christians, they’ll probably think it’s true.

Sometimes, it’s important to remember who we’re fighting.

Have you ever played a game of cards with a group of friends and you couldn’t wait to lay down your cards because you just knew that you had an incredible hand?  In fact, you knew that you had probably had an unbeatable hand, and so you smiled to yourself the whole time the hand was played, and it was all you could do to not let that smile creep onto your face.

And then, as the cards were finally being played, at the last minute, one of the other people at the table played a card you weren’t expecting.  They played the one card you’d forgotten about, the card that had slipped your mind in all your excitement about the cards you’d been holding, the only card that could possibly take down your unbeatable hand.  The trump card.

In cards, the trump card is the one you want to hold, but you never want your opponents to hold.  Even the lowest card in the deck can beat a high card if it’s a trump card, and many of us experience the downside of the trump card everyday in the battle that rages in our minds.

We finally feel like we get a break – the kids obeyed, the boss didn’t rant, the job didn’t take until late evening, the bills got paid and there was money left over – and then, out of nowhere, the trump card comes crashing to the table.  Perhaps you’ve felt stuck, and then you read a scripture that inspires you, and fills your spirit with all kinds of hope about what God could possibly accomplish through you, and just as you’re starting to dream, Satan trumps your enthusiasm with a well-worn, oft-played trump card.  “God can’t do that through you!  You aren’t ________ enough!  You don’t ________ enough! You haven’t _______ enough!”  Just as soon as the faith had started to grow in you to believe that God could pull off the miraculous through you, an equal and opposite flood of doubt, fear, and insecurity overwhelms you, and you begin to fold what had been an incredible hand.

Many of us have.  Many of us will.  But none of us have to, because there’s another player at the table, and He holds the ultimate trump card.  He has truth that can answer every one of the lies that Satan can try to play, and in this game, it all comes down to one reality:

IF GOD’S WORD IS TRUTH (John 17:17), THEN NOTHING ELSE MATTERS.

God’s Word is the Ultimate Trump Card, and because it is, we have to know it.  We have to be able to play His trump cards anytime and every time that Satan attempts to trump the vision that God has given us.  “You aren’t good enough” feels devastating until you trump it with the truth of 2 Corinthians 5:21.  Suddenly, the pressure isn’t on you and I to be good enough, but instead to thank God for making us righteous in Christ.  We don’t have to be strong enough, smart enough, big enough, because the truth of Scripture trumps every one of those cards from the devil’s hand.

In fact, the Ultimate Trump Cards from the Bible trump more than the lies from our enemy.  They trump how we feel, what we think, and what seems like the right thing to do.  One play from God’s Word, and every hand folds.

Maybe you’ve been too quick to fold when your enemy plays a lie, or perhaps you’ve given way too much power to your emotions and thoughts, and have allowed them to lead you away from the destiny and good works God has prepared for you (Ephesians 2:10)?  Maybe it’s time to play with a new deck of cards.  Try these ten truths from Scripture the next time you need to overcome a lying trump card with an Ultimate Trump Card.