Church going on New Year days

Family photo taken in Methodist Church Kampar, Perak

during CNY 2010

It is hard to imagine to change an age-old habit. Our age-old practice of ancestor worshipping was based partly on Taoism and partly on Buddhism. Such practice was passed down from generations, while some rituals are just seeing and learning what your fellow folks are doing and following suit. Sometimes it is hard to draw a demarcation as to what is regarded as religious or just cultural. To me if a practice is based on the teachings of a particular specific religion then I would term that religious, all other copy cat practices without knowing the background or the actual implication of it I would term it as more towards cultural, something being passed down for generations from a particular ethnic group. For many, such practices are being carried out for ages without obvious reasons, and we never question why we have to do it and also why not to discontinue doing it. Eventually it has become a habit and routine for all of us in our daily life!

If you are the descendant of a particular ethnic group and attend a certain school, the language that you used as a medium of instruction tends to exert certain influence on the kind of religion that you become more familiar with. For example if you are from the Chinese school, many a time Buddhism becomes an element that is embedded in some of the literatures and readings. The Chinese literature is very much associated with Buddhism since the days of the Tang dynasty.

For a traditional Chinese family to become Christian, Muslim or convert to any other religions, it is not an easy task and it needs a spiritual breakthrough! With the blessings from God, my family is almost 100% conversion to Christianity except one of my sister. Even my father who was once a hard core Taoist priest for funeral ceremony was baptized about 2-3 years back, what a miracle to our family if it is not the direct interference from God!

Could one ever imagine a family celebrate and go to the church during the 1st day of Chinese New Year? It was something beyond my imagination years ago but this happened to my family now. It has become a top priority to remember God for all the goodness received through the year and get the continuous blessings from Him for such a special day and occasion. Before that, going to church on Chinese New Year days was deemed something boring and had no better things to do!

No one from one particular religion has gone to heaven and come back to earth to tell us what is the true story. Believing based on faith and also looking at the good examples of some of the believers tend to reveal some characteristics of the God that they are worshipping, though we humans are not perfect and tend to err. Fearing God is the beginning of wisdom, this is true. Every effort in life is vain and empty without God! Having a deep spiritual contact or encounter with God is another experience which words could not describe!

Go and search God, believe in God, what have you got to lose if it is not true? If it is a true God that promised peace and eternal life, how much we would have lost for not believing in Him.