Skip to main content

Seeing red on the door

During the olden day of the Chinese community, on the side of each main door of the houses, there would be a row of Chinese characters written on a piece of red paper. How did this practice come about? According to the folklore tales, Chinese ancestors originally painted the door with red paint to ward off the monster (so called Nian).

How bout this - the middle east version:

Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the doorframe. Not one of you shall go out the door of his house until morning. (Exodus 12:22)
Perhaps Chinese ancestors were influenced by Old Testament's Exodus story. Or maybe the story carried its way thru the Silk Road. Whatever it is, new year is the time for appreciation and thankfulness to the Lord for blessing us.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The wedding of ....

This wedding has some similarity with ours but, by comparison in every detail, each is still distinctly unique.

Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route

Just came back from Japan last week. Went to Tokyo for conference and added side trip to Tateyama Alpine Route and Kanazawa. I must say that Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route was great. You can do the trip either from Nagano side or Toyama side. For us, we did it from the Nagano side. Took the Shinkansen to Nagano early morning. Then boarded the express bus to Ogizawa. From there, we boarded the tunnel electric bus to get to Kurobe Dam. From the dam, it was all the way up to the peak (almost). Murodo is the highlight of the route. This is the place where you get to see snow covered peak and lake. In spring, there's snow wall nearby Murodo station. From Murodo, we descended to Bijodaira and Tateyama Station to catch the local train back to Toyama. The fare for the entire route is not cheap, but it's worth it. A hike from Bijodaira to Murodo should be interesting, which can be considered in future. View from the tunnel electric bus, onward to Kurobe Dam Arrived at Kurobe Dam View of t...

The power of commitment

We were grateful to have Dr Jerry White in town to share some insight on the topic commitment and the lordship of Christ. Dr White is the ex-president of The Navigators. When people talk about commitment, some respond as calling – calling for full time, missionary and so on. Is it true calling come from passion? The reality – not much deviation from our devotion and commitment to God. The pillar of our commitment: “Jesus is Lord”. Every believer shall confess Jesus as Lord (Phil 2:10-11). Do you (and us) commit to the lordship of Christ in mind, hear and will? It’s a decision (mind); a response (heart); an act (will). Is it easy to commit? From our mind, it is the seat of knowledge – knowledge of God (Matt 22:37, Rom 14:5, 1 Pet 1:13). The first step is getting to know (input?). What next if we have the knowledge? The heart – the seat of our emotion and desires. From the mind, comes down to the heart where the desire begins. Having desire is sufficient? Why not ...