Notes taken at Pastor Mark's sermon last Sunday (Part 1)
The Chinese live under a lot of superstitions and rituals. Chinese parents always like to tell their kids - got ear no mouth (Hokkien: oo hee bor chwee)
This is the ghost month of the Chinese and there is an interesting superstition that they subscribe to - if you are walking at night and hear someone call out your name, don't just turn your head. The Chinese believe there are candles on your shoulders and head - and when you turn your head to respond, the lights extinguish. So the Chinese came out with their solution to this - you turn your whole body instead. =)
How about the famous one about not swimming during the 7th month because the water ghosts will pull your feet and drag you down to drown you? How come ghosts so smart - don't pull Ang Mor (caucasian) legs, pull Chinese legs? They know ang mor not scared so no power over them.
Last time wherever you go, you scared ghost. Now you go near them, they run because you are a child of light!
But because some times you don't know who you are, you are still scared. So they run, then you run also! (Laughs)
As Chinese we don't have the 10 commandments, but we have similar set of laws - do good, get good, do bad get bad. Not now kenah, next time also can kenah. As Christians, we know we are delivered from the law.
Chinese and Egyptians are similar. Very sophisticated societies since thousands of years ago. They are also connected by the silk road.
Chinese are interesting - whatever powerful, they will copy.
They have similar rituals as the Jews.
Why? Maybe they heard about how the Jews were delivered from Egypt.
When God asks Moses to deliver the people, He never use Moses when he was a prince. But 40 years on the mountain, after Moses talk to sheep until he forget how to speak, after he meh meh meh meeeeh meh to the sheep and become short tongue, then God used Moses.
Plague after plague, Pharoah was not convinced. The 10th plague was the 絕招 (best move) - firstborn sons were made to die!
Chinese heard how the Jews put the blood of the lamb (that is red) on the sides of the door and the top part. So they follow.
I went to China and they still do this - they stick red paper with words of blessings on the left, right and top of their door. In Singapore, they also do this, they drape the red cloth over the door so it falls by the sides of the door and above it.
So you see the Chinese follow many similar customs. The similarities are too close!!
China people stick pictures of 2 door guardians on their doors. These are called 天將, judicial angels. Their dressing is army one and they carry swords that can every angle.
In Genesis, when Adam and Eve were asked to leave the Garden of Eden. On East of Eden, God put 2 cherubims - these are also judicial angels - and their sword is not the flat sword, their sword is like light saber like that can cut every angle.
(More later... sorry I took the notes really fast, I lost some of the humour elements as I tried to record the stuff that were essential. =D )
This is the ghost month of the Chinese and there is an interesting superstition that they subscribe to - if you are walking at night and hear someone call out your name, don't just turn your head. The Chinese believe there are candles on your shoulders and head - and when you turn your head to respond, the lights extinguish. So the Chinese came out with their solution to this - you turn your whole body instead. =)
How about the famous one about not swimming during the 7th month because the water ghosts will pull your feet and drag you down to drown you? How come ghosts so smart - don't pull Ang Mor (caucasian) legs, pull Chinese legs? They know ang mor not scared so no power over them.
Last time wherever you go, you scared ghost. Now you go near them, they run because you are a child of light!
But because some times you don't know who you are, you are still scared. So they run, then you run also! (Laughs)
As Chinese we don't have the 10 commandments, but we have similar set of laws - do good, get good, do bad get bad. Not now kenah, next time also can kenah. As Christians, we know we are delivered from the law.
Chinese and Egyptians are similar. Very sophisticated societies since thousands of years ago. They are also connected by the silk road.
Chinese are interesting - whatever powerful, they will copy.
They have similar rituals as the Jews.
Why? Maybe they heard about how the Jews were delivered from Egypt.
When God asks Moses to deliver the people, He never use Moses when he was a prince. But 40 years on the mountain, after Moses talk to sheep until he forget how to speak, after he meh meh meh meeeeh meh to the sheep and become short tongue, then God used Moses.
Plague after plague, Pharoah was not convinced. The 10th plague was the 絕招 (best move) - firstborn sons were made to die!
Chinese heard how the Jews put the blood of the lamb (that is red) on the sides of the door and the top part. So they follow.
I went to China and they still do this - they stick red paper with words of blessings on the left, right and top of their door. In Singapore, they also do this, they drape the red cloth over the door so it falls by the sides of the door and above it.
So you see the Chinese follow many similar customs. The similarities are too close!!
China people stick pictures of 2 door guardians on their doors. These are called 天將, judicial angels. Their dressing is army one and they carry swords that can every angle.
In Genesis, when Adam and Eve were asked to leave the Garden of Eden. On East of Eden, God put 2 cherubims - these are also judicial angels - and their sword is not the flat sword, their sword is like light saber like that can cut every angle.
(More later... sorry I took the notes really fast, I lost some of the humour elements as I tried to record the stuff that were essential. =D )
Do you know whether the Jewish exodus period corresponds with the beginning of the Chinese practice?
ReplyDeletewaiting patiently for Part 2 :)
ReplyDeleteParentingjoy - i have put it up as a seperate post le =D I dug up what I could... =)
ReplyDeletecyberanger - thankee... sorry taking a while ha ha