Today we are sharing a devotional from Karen Rees.
The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks. Luke 6:45
Do ghosts actually get hungry? According to the traditional Chinese religion of ancestor worship, they do. This religion says that we, the living, can’t know the gods. But our ancestors, who are now with them in the afterlife, can. As a result, our ancestors are extremely important to our welfare. If we provide for their needs in the afterlife by making offerings to them, they in turn will intercede with the gods on our behalf.
What happens if an ancestor has no living descendant making those offerings? Those ghost ancestors get awfully hungry. And a hungry ghost is an angry ghost who will come down and cause trouble for anyone it finds.
The Hungry Ghost Festival solves this problem. Every August, places are set up all over Hong Kong where people can make food offerings and burn incense sticks, lucky money, and all kinds of paper gifts for ancestors who have no living relatives providing for their needs.
Ancestors as Examples
Ancestors, both physical ones and spiritual ones, are also important in Christianity. But the reason is very different. Rather than ancestors getting the gods to serve us, our ancestors’ examples encourage us to serve God – to trust Him and obey Him. Think of those Fathers of the Faith mentioned in Hebrews 11 or of some important mentor, grandparent or parent who was a strong Christian example.
The examples of ancestors can also be a warning of what happens when we don’t trust and obey. In 1 Cor 10:1-11 Paul reminds the Christians in Corinth of the dangers of disobedience using examples of sinful behavior from Israel’s history and the disastrous consequences.
Neighbours
The dinosaur pictured below belongs to our new neighbors. They recently moved into an apartment next to ours. After they had fully moved in, the dinosaur standing guard on their front door seemed to be there to stay. We decided it would look good with a bow on its head. I guess the neighbors liked the bow because it’s still there.
Judging from the piano and violin we hear being played, our new neighbors’ children must be musical. We’ve had a few brief friendly exchanges with the neighbors, and they have probably seen the scripture verse in Chinese we have beside our front door. Also, because our apartments are at right angles to each other, we can see into their kitchen and living room, and they can see into our living room and a bedroom. This could be called “keeping an eye on the neighbors”. 🙂
From what we’ve seen, they appear to be good neighbors. What kind of neighbors do we appear to be to them?
In Jesus’ discussion with a teacher of the Law about the commandment to love your neighbor as yourself – Luke 10:25-37 – he told the Parable of the Good Samaritan. At the end, the teacher of the Law acknowledged that the Samaritan’s actions made him a neighbor to the injured man.
This brings me back to examples. My example, be it good or bad, will have an impact.
It’s easy to be a good example when life is going smoothly. It’s much harder when our world is falling apart – when fear, anger, divisiveness, and heated FB exchanges become the norm. Yet this is the time when godly examples are most needed.
Since a godly example can only grow out of what I have within, my daily prayer is, “May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.” Psalms 19:14
