Holiday

A few colleagues of mine were talking about Christmas and New Year holiday. Some of us were complaing that they have to work on Christmas eve/day. When asked about whether they are Christians or not, they said no. I then asked why then they complained that they have to work on these days. It turned out that they cannot spend time with their friends or family. Some said that Christmas is for shopping, giving and receiving presents to friends and family. When then I asked if they actually know why we have Christmas, most of them could not answer or refuse to acknowledge the fact that that day is to celebrate the birth of Christ, son of God who came down to earth so that anyone who believes in him will go to heaven.

I was hit with various feelings by this revelation of the general ignorance of the meaning of Christmas. I was intrigued to find out that there are actually more people than I know who can actually happily 'celebrate' Christmas without wanting to find out why there is Christmas. On the other hand I was saddened by the aparthy, the feeling of not wanting to care among us.

Is it really that hard to admit that there is God and son of God? Is it really hard to give up one self and obey God? Is it really hard to confess your own sin, give up your pride and lead a humble life to serve God? Is it really so hard to accept the fact that we have already carried the inherited sinful nature once we were born right from the begining of your life? Why do we care so much about people before Christ who may or may not be saved by Jesus while we who has the opportunity of hearing his words in the new testament cannot follow him?

Among these colleagues of mine, one of them is a muslim and he tried to let me know that he also believes in God but cannot accept the fact that God can exist in three forms:Holy Spirit, God head and son of God. What I can see in him from my angle of viewpoint is he does not want to see this fact.

Majority of us here just refuse point blank the message written in the bible: Follow Jesus to God!

It is not about burning incense/paper/doing good deeds that can redeem yourself. It is about giving up yourself to follow Jesus Christ.

In the non Christian Chienese community, Chienese see Christianity as a threat. A lot of them treat it as a White man religion. Long time ago while the Indians brought in Buddhism on elephants with peace, doing good but no harm, and was willing to amalgate the religion with the local Confusicsm and Hinduism, Christianity was brought in with the western culture, opium and canons and totally unnegotiable to accept the local culture of worshipping statues. This has cast a strong prejudice against the Good News regarding Jesus Christ. What was however forgotten is this has reflected the human sinful nature and biased judgement regarding something they cannot accept and NOT the Christianity itself that is to blame.

Now quesdtion is how we are going to lead a Christian life while still maintaining certain Chinese Culture. Burning incense/paper to the predeccesors is fine but personally I think it is quite pointless to burn incence to those quiet statues in building. I have always been feeling this way since I was really young. Only when desperation hit then I became so blindly obsessed that somehow buring incense and wishing upon statues would make me feel better. But somehow this hollowness in side me would have never been filled up until a feew years ago when I started to know about Christ.

Hmmm........... It will be fun when I am going to tell this to my parents.