Of Food and Ghosts

The morning downpour gave the air a cool, refreshing feel yesterday when I brought my old aunts and uncles to the Choa Chu Kang columbarium. The Chinese "qingming" festival (清明节 or so-called "tomb-sweeping" day) has already passed but I reckon any time is a good time to visit my mother's niche at the columbarium. Our remembrance of our dear departed ones need not be tied to any ritualistic adherence to any particular day or to the Chinese tradition.

I've always enjoyed looking at the niches in the columbarium. Many families adorn the niches of their loved ones with not only colourful flowers but also fanciful decorations and even angpows. What strikes me particularly is the decoration with miniature artificial food - tiny dianxin in their baskets, multi-layered hamburgers, bowls of what looked like noodle soup, plates of poultry, etc.

Offering of food to the deceased on special occasions is an enduring Chinese custom among non-Christians who practise so-called "pai-sin" (mixture of ancestor worship and elements of Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism). This offering of food may be motivated by filial piety to provide for the afterlife of the deceased, by the desire to gain their favours in supernatural blessings and assistance, or perhaps by fear of the supernatural powers of "ghosts" and the perception of the need to appease them not to inflict curses or do evil.

So do "ghosts" exist after death? Many non-Christian traditional Chinese clearly believe in the existence of ghosts and celebrate the festival of "hungry ghosts" with much fanfare. My mother, before she became a Christian, used to cook my late father's favourite dishes for his death anniversary and invite him (his "ghost"?) to eat the food offerings. At the festival of "hungry ghosts", she would pay the temple monks to burn offerings of paper money and other material stuff of paper eg clothes.

What about the Christian view of "ghosts"? Do "ghosts" exist from the biblical perspective? The answer is "No, there are no ghosts."

I've learnt from Dr Violet James (whose course on Asian religions I attended at the Singapore Bible College years ago):
* Death is a radical break with life, a final separation with no possibility of returning to heaven or hell.
* There is no communication between the living and the dead (Luke 16:19-31).
* God forbids acts of worship or prayers to the dead.
(Course manual by Dr Violet James)

In the gospel of Luke cited by Dr James, Jesus tells about the rich man who was cast into the torment of fire in hell after he died and pleaded with father Abraham (in heaven) for water to cool his tongue. Abraham replied that "... between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us". Just as the dead cannot go from hell to heaven and vice versa, they cannot go from hell or heaven to earth.

But what about the "ghost" of the prophet Samuel who was summoned by a medium (the witch of Endor) for King Saul? (1 Samuel 28). Dr James explained that this apparition was not a "ghost" of the deceased but a "spirit" purporting to be Samuel.

Finally, the exhortation from Dr Violet James is a good reminder to us:
"But Christians must do the following:
- Love and care for family members while they are alive.
- Set examples as children of God in life and action, thought and deed.
- Remember the dead on special days by thanking God for their love, care and concern while they were alive."

House of God

I felt uneasy when I saw the fundraising video of a so-called "mega-church" posted on youtube. I was uneasy with the opening words in the video: "We want to build God a house, and it's not just for our members, it's for the King of kings and the Lord of lords .....". The concluding words in the video? "And the house that is to be built for the Lord, it must be exceedingly magnificient, famous and glorious to all countries ....."

My uneasiness stems from my comparison with the words ingrained in me from Scripture - the words of the Lord Jesus Himself and the words of the Apostle Paul in his address to the Athenians.

The gospel of John records Jesus' encounter with a Samaritan woman at Jacob's well in Sychar. During their conversation, Jesus told the woman that God is spirit and his worshippers must worship Him in spirit and in truth.

"19 "Sir," the woman said, "I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem." 21 Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth." " (John 4:19-24)

The Apostle Paul's words to the Athenians almost 2,000 years ago (around the time of his 2nd missionary journey in AD 50-52) are still relevant today - God does not live in temples built by hands and he is not served by human hands.

"24 "The God who made the world and everything in it is the LORD of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. 27 God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 28 'For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.' 29 "Therefore since we are God's offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone--an image made by man's design and skill." (Acts 17:24-29)

Indeed, we the believers in God are His temple and God's Spirit lives in us (1 Cor 3:16). We are "like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ." (1 Peter 2: 5)

But isn't there a need for a "house" - a "physical" place - for believers to gather together, to worship the Lord, to have communion with one another?

In the OT days, the temple built by King Solomon was a magnificient building containing gold, silver, bronze and cedar, taking over 7 years to build but was later destroyed by the Babylonians. The expense for Solomon's temple came largely from the spoils that King David took from his wars and from tributes paid by the vanquished peoples. And yes, even in NT days during the medieval times, cathedrals were grandiose structures. It is said that "the more splendid the architecture, the more the church believed it was praising God" (http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/medieval_church_architecture.htm). The vast building funds are also said to come primarily from the poorer classes.

Today, should believers in Christ seek to have church buildings that are magnificient, that seek to be famous and glorious? While many may argue that they willingly contribute to such church buildings, I would think the humility of Christ provides a key principle in what a church building should be. When we take the attitude of Jesus who humbled himself and made himself nothing (Phil 2:5-8), God is glorified in how we live our Christian lives - in love and humility - and not how we build our church buildings.

In Ban-On (northern Thailand) where my church carried out short-term missionary trips, the local church building is a simple wooden structure, with cement floor, ceiling and standing fans and wooden benches. When I was in Wuhan earlier this year, the local Christians had their worship service and meetings in a rented space at the top floor of a building. The Wuhan "Root and Fruit Church" (上下堂) has only basic amenities but the local Christians' fervour permeated the whole place despite its humbleness.

God does not need us to build a house for Him. Where 2 or 3 are gathered in Jesus' name, there God will be.

How Do You Justify Your Existence?

"How do you justify your existence?" This was the traditional opening question that was asked of each special dinner guest to the monthly banquets of the Black Widowers club (a literary creation of Issac Asimov). And it was the tradition of the 6 members of the Black Widowers club to grill their guest and exercise their collective mind and deductive wit to solve a mind-teasing puzzle or perplexing mystery.

Interestingly to me, nine out of ten of the Black Widowers' dinner guests cited their professional vocation as the reason why they existed. Throughout my entire working life, work was also what kept me going, occupying most of my time, filling my mind and driving most of my thoughts and emotions. Yes, family, friends, health did matter to me but it was always work which was foremost in almost all my adult years.

After I quitted working for a living, I was filled with an intense, sad feeling of being a "nobody". This feeling was with me for quite a while even as I took up new challenges (of the culinary kind, having virtually no cooking or baking experience), pursued my old love (of reading, especially crime and mystery stories), renewed my long-time aspiration (to improve my diction in Mandarin) and acquired new interests (becoming a Korean drama junkie and then developing into a China TV serial addict).

As I wrestled within myself to reconcile to not having "work" to justify my existence, I kept reminding myself that I am a child of God. As a child of God, I do not need to justify my existence.

"For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus." (Gal 3:26)

"14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. 15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry , Abba, Father. 16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: 17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God , and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together ." (Rom 8:14-17)

It is God who justifies my existence. God has made me and He has a purpose for doing so. What is His purpose for me in this life? I do not know but it does not matter now to me that I do not know. I believe day by day the good God will lead me to do what He wants me to do, for His glory. Even in the simple activity of watching of China DVDs, I believe there's a purpose for me to brush up on my Mandarin listening and speaking skills - perhaps to interact better with Christian friends from China. Or even cooking for family and friends - I feel this is still a personal ministry, albeit mundane and ordinary, nonetheless a channel to bring blessings of joy and enjoyment.

I am particularly touched by a sonnet by John Milton (which Asimov used for one of his Black Widowers stories): "They also serve who only stand and wait."

On His Blindness
When I consider how my light is spent

Ere half my days in this dark world and wide,

And that one talent which is death to hide

Lodg'd with me useless, though my soul more bent

To serve therewith my Maker, and present

My true account, lest he returning chide,

"Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?"

I fondly ask. But Patience, to prevent

That murmur, soon replies: "God doth not need

Either man's work or his own gifts: who best

Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best.

His stateIs kingly; thousands at his bidding speed

And post o'er land and ocean without rest:

They also serve who only stand and wait."
(John Milton. 1608–1674)

And so, while I may not justify my existence, I have hope in the Lord and take heart in waiting upon Him.

An Excellent Prayer in Trying Times

I read 2 Chronicles 20 and Matthew Henry's commentary on the chapter for my devotion this morning. I've been reading one chapter of the Bible, beginning with the 1st chapter of the 1st book in the Bible (Genesis), and Matthew Henry's corresponding commentary (from Numbers onwards) almost daily since 2008. This was a discipline and aspiration that I had set for myself ever since visiting my friend in Shanghai in Mar 2008 and being impressed by her deep knowledge and application of Scripture.

Back to 2 Chron 20. I was struck this morning by the verses which I had underlined in previous readings - v12 "We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon you." and v15 "For the battle is not yours, but God's." The context was King Jehoshaphat's prayer to God when faced with an invasion by a vast army of Moabites, Ammonites and Edomites.

How often have I been in trying times and do not know what to do. Even as an 18-year-old Christian (huh, 18 years old? 18 years as Christian lah!), there are times when I do not know how to pray, what to pray for; there are just no words that I could utter even in my heart or with my mind. Tears sometimes take the place of words that are not there. I take heart in the words of the Apostle Paul in Romans :

"26 ... the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will."

I've shared with my former boss about the dilemma that I sometimes have in praying - pray for this no good, pray for that also no good. Her advice to me? Pray for God's will be done.

Looking at King Jehoshaphat's prayer in 2 Chron 20, we also have a model that we can emulate. Matthew Henry calls Jehoshaphat's prayer "an excellent prayer". In this prayer, Matthew Henry sees Jehoshaphat:

1) Acknowledging the sovereign dominion of God, giving to God the glory of it and taking to himself the comfort of it.

v6 "O LORD, God of our fathers, are you not the God who is in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. Power and might are in your hand, and no one can withstand you. "

2) Laying hold on their covenant-relation to God and interest in him. Whom should we seek to, whom should we trust to, for relief, but to the God we have chosen and served?

v7 "O our God, did you not drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel and give it forever to the descendants of Abraham your friend?"

3) Showing the title they had to the good land they were now in possession of. We are tenants, you are our landlord - will you not hold your own? Those that use what they have for God may comfortably hope that he will secure it to them.

v7 "O our God, did you not drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel and give it forever to the descendants of Abraham your friend?"

4) Making mention of the sanctuary, the temple they had built for God's name, not as if that merited anything at God's hand, but it was such a token of God's favourable presence with them.

v8-9 "They have lived in it and have built in it a sanctuary for your Name, saying, 'If calamity comes upon us, whether the sword of judgment, or plague or famine, we will stand in your presence before this temple that bears your Name and will cry out to you in our distress, and you will hear us and save us.' "

5) Pleading the ingratitude and injustice of his enemies. We may comfortably appeal to God against those that render us evil for good. The justice of God is the refuge of those that are wronged.

v10-11 "But now here are men from Ammon, Moab and Mount Seir, whose territory you would not allow Israel to invade when they came from Egypt; so they turned away from them and did not destroy them. See how they are repaying us by coming to drive us out of the possession you gave us as an inheritance. "

6) Professing his entire dependence upon God for deliverance.

v12 "O our God, will you not judge them? For we have no power to face this vast army that is attacking us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon you. "

The battle, then, is the Lord's.

Bread Rained Down From Heaven

S and KH had promised to bake their humongus bread for us in Wuhan. Warm, crispy, freshly baked french loaf for breakfast ..... also banana-walnut bread, white milk bread, pancakes ..... spread with home-made strawberry jam and kumquat jam, air-flown yakun kaya ..... washed down with a cup of aromatic starbucks or ipoh white coffee ..... How well they feted us!

Our Wuhan experience spurred each of us (K, LL and I) to try our hands (or rather the bread-making machine in the case of LL) at bread-baking back home. LL's french loaf tasted so good with her chicken curry. K's 'no-knead' bread looks so good, but alas, can only feast with my eyes.

Still, nothing is better-tasting than the bread that is "rained down from heaven", that tastes like "wafers made with honey" - bread that is not made by hand or machine but a gift from God, the Creator of all things. The Israelites called this bread from heaven "manna". God provided manna to the Israelites every day for forty years. (Ex 16:1-35)

Based on the first census taken two years after the exodus from Eygpt, there were 603,550 male Israelites 20 years or more (excluding the Levites) who were able to serve in Israel's army (Num 1:45). From this count of military strength, estimates put the total Israelite population at 2 to 3 million (http://www.keyway.ca/htm2001/20010121.htm). It would take a miracle to feed such a huge population in the desert where food is scarce, and to feed them every day for forty years! Only the Almighty God could perform this miracle and He did!

"Manna", the bread from heaven, can satisfy the physical need of the Israelites only one day at a time; none can keep the manna till the next morning (Ex16:19-20). There is another bread from heaven - the living bread that satisfies our eternal, spiritual need. Jesus is this living bread. The Bible teaches that "man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord" (Deu 8:3, Matt 4:4). We need the spiritual nourishment that only Jesus can give.

"Then Jesus declared, 'I am the bread of life, He who comes to me will never go hungry and he who believes in me will never be thirsty .' " (John 6:35)

"48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. 50 But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." (John 6:48-51)

Jesus is much more than the Bread of life. He is in every facet of our life. Dr Willmington writes:

To the baker, he is the Bread of life (John 6:35)
To the artist, he is the One altogether lovely (Song of songs 5:16)
To the architect, he is the chief Cornerstone (1 Pet 2:6)
To the astronomer, he is the Sun of righteousness (Mal 4:2)
To the banker, he is the hidden treasure (Matt 13:44)
To the builder, he is the sure foundation (Isa 28:16)
To the carpenter, he is the door (John 10:7)
To the doctor, he is the great Physician (Jer 8:22)
To the educator, he is the new and living way (Heb 10:20)
To the farmer, he is the sower and the Lord of the harvest (Luke 10:2)
(Source: Willmington's Guide to the Bible)

Who is Jesus to me? He is my everything.

Bread First?

We were gathered at Expo Hall 6 waiting for the English Presbytery Easter Convention to begin. And I was urging LL to hand me her home-made pineapple-mango jam. "Shouldn't we wait till the service is over?" K mused at my side. "It's ok," I said defensively to her. "Read 1 Kings 19," I added.

Was I being irreverent to think of physical food while waiting to receive spiritual nourishment? Looking back, I should have quietened my heart to focus on the Lord Jesus, whose death and resurrection we were commemorating at the Easter Convention.

Indeed, we should quieten our hearts before any worship service. At Bethel's Mandarin service that I attend from time to time on Sunday, the choir always sings the same opening song - that in the holy temple of God, there should be quietness (在神的圣殿中, 应当肃静.)

Why, then, did I ask K to read 1 Kings 19? At the back of my mind were two incidents in which I was taught that physical food came before spiritual food - a Christian counselling course which I attended at the Singapore Bible College and the advice of my former church elder (who's a GP) concerning my mother.

During my Christian counselling course, the example of Elijah in 1 Kings 19 was cited to show that there were times when physical healing had to come before emotional, mental or spiritual healing. After his Mount Carmel victory over the false prophets, Elijah fled from Queen Jezebel who threatened to kill him. In his exhaustion, he slept and was then fed by an angel of God with bread and water. And strengthened by this food, Elijah traveled 40 days and 40 nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God. There, the Lord appeared to Elijah and instructed him.

What about my mother then? She became a Christian shortly after being diagnosed with terminal cancer. For a very short while, I tried my best to tell her simple stories from the Bible in my broken hokkien. When I shared with my church elder concerning my mother's lack of knowledge of the Bible and inability to go to church (she was already bedridden when she accepted Christ), he advised - take care of the physical body first, don't worry about the spiritual life.

I have come to understand that our Lord God is gracious and compassionate. He looks at our hearts, regardless of how much we know in our head or what we do in our body. At one time, my sis said to me that she needed to read and understand the Bible first before she could become a Christian. Thanks be to God that He does not require this of my sis (or any one) for her salvation. Becoming a Christian is very simple - just call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ:

"9 ... if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. 11 As the Scripture says, "Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame." 12 For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile--the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, 13 for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." " (Rom 10:9-13)

Salvation is by faith alone (sola fide), in Christ alone (solus Christus), through grace alone (sola gratia), rooted and grounded in scripture alone (sola scriptura) and for God's glory alone (soli deo gloria).

"I AM WHO I AM."

"That's irreverent," I told my friend when he proudly showed me his son's website. Most personal websites would use such caption as "About Myself" for their personal profiles. My friend's son used the caption "I Am" for his web profile. "I Am"? Didn't he know that this was the name that God called Himself in the Bible? Yes, he did know (being a Roman Catholic).

So is using the title "I Am" for oneself an issue?

In biblical terms, "I AM" speaks of the Deity. To knowingly use the title "I AM" for oneself is to seek to raise oneself to God's level, to be like God. This manifestation of pride is the cause of the downfall of both angels and Man in times past.

"13 You said in your heart, "I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain. 14 I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High." 15 But you are brought down to the grave, to the depths of the pit. " (Isa 14:13-15)

In the Old Testament, God clearly said to Moses at the burning bush that His name was "I AM".

"13 Moses said to God, "Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' Then what shall I tell them?" 14 God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I AM has sent me to you.' " 15 God also said to Moses, "Say to the Israelites, 'The Lord, the God of your fathers--the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob--has sent me to you.' This is my name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation. " (Ex 3:13-15)

And when God gave the ten commandments to Moses at the "burning" mountain (Mount Sinai), the third commandment was:

"You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name. " (Ex 20:7)

That "I AM" is God's name is also evident in the New Testament. Jesus calls himself "I AM" seven times in the Gospel according to the Apostle John:

I am the Bread of life (John 6:35, 41, 48, 51).

I am the Light of the world (John 8:12, 9:5).

I am the Good Shepherd (John 10:11, 14).

I am the Door (John 10:7, 9).

I am the Resurrection and the Life (John 11:25).

I am the true Vine (John 15:1, 5).

I am the Way and the Truth and the Life (John 14:6).

Jesus has given us His assurance that He is with us - to feed and fill us with His truth, to protect and give us life, to shine and lead the way - not only today but in the resurrected life to come.

Emmanuel - God with us!