Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or
drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a
Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality,
however, is found in Christ. Do not let anyone who delights in false humility
and the worship of angels disqualify you for the prize. Such a person goes into
great detail about what he has seen, and his unspiritual mind puffs him up with
idle notions. He has lost connection with the Head, from whom the whole body,
supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it
to grow. Colossians 2:16-19
Hong
Kong is an amazing city. I lived there in the summer of 1984 working with a
mission team. I marveled at the architecture and the pace of such a modern,
world-class city. I also marveled at little fires I would see burning in the
gutters of major thoroughfares each evening. The Chinese would bring food,
decorations and various other things as a peace offering to evil spirits. This would
insure their peace and prosperity. If they practiced these rituals to appease
the spirits, they could live their lives in peace.
What
a contrast. Here among these modern buildings were little piles of burnt trash
from last night’s sacrifices. High rises often had vacant fourteenth floors,
much like our thirteenth floor superstitions. Fourteen was too close to the
Chinese word for death. No one wanted an office on the fourteenth floor. Our
office was on the fourteenth floor. God
is greater than the number fourteen.
The
design of most of the buildings in Hong Kong relies on Fung Shui. Doors and
windows had to be placed in the correct order and at the correct angles to ward
off evil spirits and to allow good energy to flow. Seriously, how could such a modern
city be subject to so much hocus pocus?
But,
before we judge the Hong Kong Chinese, let’s consider the hocus pocus in our
own lives. If good things happen to us, then we must be living right. If bad
things happen to us, it must be because we skipped church last Sunday, didn’t
offer thanks for our food, spent our tithe on ourselves, or missed reading one
of Allen’s devotionals. (If you’re curious, it was the last one.)
Let
me debunk this bunk. You can do all of the right things and bad things will still
happen. You can do all of the wrong things and actually have good things
happen. Some things are subject to cause and effect. If we don’t get enough
sleep, we’ll be tired and grouchy in the morning. If we eat too much and don’t
exercise, we will get fat. But, we don’t create the cause of every effect in
our lives.
All
good things are not necessarily a blessing. All bad things are not necessarily
a curse. Everything that happens is not necessarily our fault.
How
do we get these funny, oddball, superstitious ideas in our heads? Well,
according to this verse, we are running around like chickens with our heads cut
off. “He has lost connection with the Head.” It’s our connection to Christ,
the Head of the Body (Ephesians 4:15-16), that gives us direction and
assurance. Honoring superstitions or even rituals and holidays in the Bible
don’t bring us “good luck” or blessings. Remaining connected to God Himself is
all we need to assure that we are in the right place with God.
How’s your connection with God? What are you saying to Him
these days? What is He saying to you?
To make a tax deductible donation to Galatians 4:19
Ministries:
http://joytotheworldfoundation.org/index.php?option=com_crowdfunding&view=details&id=1149-galations-419-ministries&catid=8-operating-projects&Itemid=10
No comments:
Post a Comment