I worked in a bookshop for three months, and I happened to pick up a stack of new Meg Cabot books - but nothing as sweet and innocuous as the Princess Diaries. This new series is called The Mediator, and is based on the concept of a girl who mediates (no, really?) between the living and the dead. The dead come to her and ask for help before they can "move on".
Now, I don't believe in ghosts. Demons, angels, God, definitely. But ghosts, no. But people seem to have this problem differentiating between them. You see, dead people can not hang around our world; the Bible is clear: as a cloud vanishes and is gone, so those who go down to the grave do not return. Their place shall know them no more; they will not come to their house again. Job 7 v9 and 10. Once you're dead you're dead. Ghosts cannot come back to beat people up in churches, throw people into walls or sit reading books while stroking cats on their laps. This is a fallacy.
But this isn't really so bad, is it? A girl who kicks ghost butt or clobbers them with monkey-wrenches? Getting injured in the process? Who performs voodoo exorcisms with chicken blood, worried only that she might get it on the carpet - or horror of horrors, her Prada shoes? Been there, seen that. Bought the Buffy T-shirt. Or not. It gets kinda freaky (not in a good way) when this girl, Susannah, has a ghost living in her bedroom. A male ghost from one and a half centuries ago, who was murdered in her bedroom, and he's roughly her age.
And she's in love with him.
This is nothing more than an unholy soul-tie to the dead, an occult relationship that leads straight to all kinds of bondage, from visiting mediums (none of whom is real, in my opinion) to trying to call up the aforesaid dead person. This is evil! Leading children into evil. How many children will be led into the occult by these accursed writings? Yes I'm laying it on a little thick, but I'm beyond shocked. I'm horrified. Ugh! Gross. A girl getting kissed by a ghost? In love with a dead guy? With a Catholic priest watching disapprovingly in the background? It's just beyond.
All narrated in this preppy, down-to-earth, chatty co-ed voice. Way too grown-up to be a sixteen year old. Casually describing how to lay out candles for a ceremony to summon unclean spirits? And she talks of ghostbusting and "kicking demon butt" in the same breath - demons are fallen angels, not dead human beings. Get it straight! And no-one can actually kick a spirit being.
As Christians we can kick demon butt, however. By putting on the full armour of God. You know the sword of the Spirit? That's the Word of God - a weapon the Holy Spirit uses against the foe. And the shield of faith quenches every "fiery dart" the devil can throw at you. You're not useless - you're a child of God, a co-heir with the Christ of the New Testament. You're not stupid - Christ Jesus is made unto you wisdom from God. The weapons we wield are not worldly, but are mighty for the pulling down of strongholds - little enclaves the devil builds on the mountain of our soul. The devil can take your pride, your envy, your anger/hate, and build himself a snug little nest of lies, but you have the authority to kick him out. Why? Because, while sin had kept us bound in satan's kingdom, we are forgiven through Jesus dying and rising from the dead in our place, redeeming us ("buying us back") into His kingdom - the price being His blood. So by his blood we are bought back, and any time satan trespasses, we plead the blood! The price of our freedom was God dying on a cross. The first fruit of our freedom was His resurrection. And the guarantee is the Spirit in us, a deposit guaranteeing our redemption. Think in terms of the market-place. WE ARE CHRIST'S PROPERTY. Stand up and FIGHT!
(You wanna be a Christian? That's it. Believe Christ died on the cross, and confess that God raised Him from the dead, and you will be saved. Whoever calls on the Name of the Lord shall be saved. It's so simple. And there's no catch! I love it! I love Him, because he loved me before I knew Him. He knew me before I was born. God is so much more than human words - you have to experience Him yourself. Go on, try Him! See how good He is!)