confucious says...

hallo everyone! so as i wrote last time, i wanted to post what i learned at the confucious seminar in a logical and comprehensible manner, to i'm going to do my best at doing so. :) oh and by the way, thank you so much for reading and leaving comments, its very encouraging to now that people are reading and are taking an interest in what we're doing and what God is doing! here we go:

if you read John 8 starting in verse 13 you'll see a conversation is being had between Jesus and a pharisee. the pharisees are challenging Jesus on legal grounds because no man on trial in a Jewish court was allowed to testify on his own behalf. They were making a point that if Jesus was the only one testifying as to who He claimed to be, it would not be enough to prove His case. but fortunately - we know that Jesus is Lord and is able to defend himself. in 8:16 he says "and yet if i do judge, my judgment is true; for I am not alone, but I am with the Father who sent Me." this is Jesus' way of showing himself equal with God, because Jesus is apart of the perfect triune relationship (Father, Son, Holy Spirit). if you continue reading, in 8:28 Jesus makes another statement which would show that He links Himself to God the Father. it says "then Jesus said to them, "when you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and that I do nothing of Myself; but as My Father taught Me, I speak these things." note that He is saying that He gets His teachings directly from God.

if you look at our own lives, no one is a child of God because of our parents, nothing our parents can do will grant us salvation. they can teach us of Jesus and His sacrifice and all that He did for us, but if we do not grab onto this truth, we are not guaranteed eternal life. satan likes to use things that are apart of us, apart of our culture (things our parents have taught us) and twist them and put in lies here and there. for example: "i'm from thailand and i can eat whole peppers." having this knowledge, satan would throw in some sort of lie. one so subtle its hard to detect, but we must always be looking out for what is truth and what is not. because obviously, theres nothing wrong with eating peppers. ;-P if you continue on in the scriptures, john 8:58 says "Jesus said to them, "most assuredly, I say to you, before abraham was, I AM." He's letting the pharisees know that His Father is before abraham. to the pharisees abraham had the promise from God and thru him they were promised salvation, but Jesus is making it known to them that His Father is the way to salvation, not thru abraham. this is an example showing satan's lies creeping into their culture, like i had mentioned before. it happened then, whats to say it won't happen now?

Genesis 1:3 says "let there be light". Jesus Father is the Father of Light/Life. sometimes even in our own songs of praise and worship we will sing about His life and His Love. can you look back and remember how there were things that your parents would keep from you, things that they didn't want you to have to experience? theres an inherent response to real life in parents, they want to spare their children from the truth of life, keeping their innocence as long as possible. really God wanted the same for us, hence He gave adam and eve all the food they could have, everything they wanted and needed, and asked one thing - don't eat of the one tree. so even though God wanted us to keep our innocence, He was not about to force us to stay innocent. adam and eve knew good because of they knew God. what they didn't understand that once you loose your innocence, once you gain the knowledge of evil, you die. its in genesis 3 where satan places doubt into eve's mind and lies. read genesis 3:5 "for God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." he was basically saying - you're not going to die, you're just going to become as clever as God, you'll get your PhD in good and evil. the death that God was speaking of was spiritual death, not physical death, you die when you get your PhD of evil. Jesus says in john 10:10 says "the thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly." Jesus wanted us to keep our innocence, but since we wanted our knowledge of good and evil, we lost it, we allowed the enemy to sneak in his lies and steal away our lives. thankfully, we have a God that gives us a second chance!

matthew 13 is full of parables, or stories taught by Jesus. 13:10-13 says "and the disciples came and said to Him, "why do you speak to them in parables?" He answered and said to them, "because, it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. for whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. therefore, i speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand." Jesus didn't want the wrong people to hear what He was saying. He loves us so much He does not want the wrong people to know what it is He's talking about, until they too have life. they are not going to understand what He is saying, they won't be able to comprehend nor do they hear the truth which is being taught. its not until we come to Jesus will we truly understand the parables. from the very beginning, God wants His friends to come and ask question. now, hong kong children are stuffed with info from the very beginning. many are enrolled into school by the age of 3 years old (believe it or not - they have schools for 1 year olds!! and even pre-natal schools). they are stuffed with information but its incorrect knowledge and its filtered with pride and shame. they have homework, they must study, they must excel - this is whats taught to them and this is whats ingrained in the parents minds. they don't realize that its more important to find God as their Father than to get A's in school.

confucious (551-479 BC) is known as the chinese father. he never taught about spiritual things, not of religion, but of philosophy/way of thinking. its important to realize this and also that he never talked about spirits. there are 2 aspects/tenants of confucianism; ren and li. ren was "to be benevolent, kind, generous, well mannered father, seeking the well being of others..." - basically - "do not do to others what you do not want done to you." this is expressed by being a gentlemen. they were supposed to unquestionably answer to ren, to being a gentlemen, to answering to the head of the house and so forth. li, the other tenant of confucianism states "the order of the world and heaven, social decorum. (how to dress at a particular time, facial expressions, way of walking to adopt while interacting with certain people.)" some examples of the outworking of li were fillial piety and the education system. basically, its knowing how to act when and where, knowing your roal. this unfortunately, does not allow children in the education system, to ask questions. its 'do as i say'. this works into xiao... this is how it worked. (let me see if i can make the diagram on here:

if you can see, parents are over their children, the husband is over his wife, and the older brother is over his younger brother. the same goes for life outside the family - ruler is over his subject, teacher over their student, and sometimes even a friend over a friend. with this way of thinking, it puts small families to shame as well as females. females do not have a very good time in this working out of relationship. for example: if you were a younger sister and you fell in love and wanted to get married. if your older brother was not yet married, you would not be permitted to marry, because you're not to get married before your "successor". the problem with the xiao system was that it only works if your superior is a true gentlemen, following ren.

many chinese families long for closeness in their relationships but unfortunately, do not act on it. for ex: at the airport you see moms & dad's eagerly awaiting the return of a child or a parent, very excited, on the edge of their seat. once they see them, instead of giving them a long awaited hug and kiss, they just pick-up their bags and its off to the bus/car to get home. instead of being under the thumb of a "superior" we should be looking at how Jesus and His Father were and how close they were. instead of just taking everything they are told w/o the chance of asking a question, instead ASK questions, seek out the truth because it will set you free. its insane that children are not to ask questions in school. if they do - they are considered an insubordinate child, a bad kid, stupid, etc... but children should ask questions, should be exploring and wanting to know more. instead of being cooped up in school and after school - cooped up in their house studying hours on end, they should learn through playing!

when i mentioned that there were schools for children at the early age of 1 years old - they are busy teaching them music and chinese characters so that they will get ahead. this is the confucious education system: "even if you come from a poor background, if you STUDY you can make it to the top." in english we learn how to read through phonetics (ex. C-AT is CAT). in chinese (HK), they do not have that so they learn by memory. they teach: here is the lesson, learn it. they teach: you do not need to understand, just know what it says. it is right.

the problem is that there are many christian families caught up in this system here in hong kong. if they were to say "don't worry about the exam/homework." teachers would call the parents in for a meeting and pressure them to pressure their children to work harder, study more. just as the parents don't want their children pressured, they don't want to be pressured either. its a double edged sword. all of this is a goal of confucianism: to become a sage, a servant of society, to reach perfection through learning. when jackie was explaining this, she mentioned a song and 1/3 of the congregation knew what the song was. the song was about if i'm not mistaken the song was about a child running home in a storm but he was not scared of the storm, rather he was scared of going home if he did not do well in school. 1/3 of the congregation knew the song and it broke my heart. another thing that confucianism teaches is that men are to obey their fathers rules/commands/wishes 7 years after his fathers death. can you imagine? he's under the rule of his father, not truly allowed to be a man with his own convictions and passions. he's under the pressures of his father and ancestors to boot.

although confucious did not teach of spirits, when he died, his teachings got turned into a religion when his disciples said to worship ancestors/the dead. when you worship ancestors, you are tied to the life of your ancestors. meaning you're not tied to the live you've been given through God and your life WITH God. so many times bud and i have been walking around HK and we get a big sniff of incense burning and its in honor of ancestors. the ancestral worship breaks my heart because rather than holding onto the promise of God, they hold onto the old ways of feeble humans.

after we disected the essentials of confucianism, a major way of thinking still used today amongst the chinese, we looked at taoism and buddhism. to briefly summarize - buddhism was not originally a religion it was a way to the goal of nirvana (through dharma) - knowledge, attitude, speech. they had the noble 8fold path. taoism's goal was to become immortal, so essentially looking for eternal life. it takes 3 separate religions to fulfill the promise that Jesus made. john 14:6 says "I AM the way, the truth, and the life." buddhism says they have the 'way' to a peaceful life. confucianism says you gain perfection through knowledge, aka 'truth'. and taoism has the goal of eternal/spiritual 'life'. why get involved with so much when you can just turn to Jesus?

i have a good amount of notes on those two if you're interested but i know that this post is already extremely long. i'll be surpised if anyone read it in one sitting. i hope i did not bore you. its just interesting to see the mindset of the chinese that are not living the life Christ has given them. its quite sad, to see the bondage that they are stuck in, that they can't be free because they are under the thumbs of their ancestors. the children can't think freely and explore and learn in a way any other than dictatorship and learn what i say because its the truth. its very sad. so please pray for the people of china, of Hong Kong. pray that they will see God's truth and want to be released from the bondage they are enslaved too. and pray that bud and i and the rest of the team once they arrive, and the other christians that are not even associated with our initial group - will reach out to the people and bring them into their lives to show them what true life is all about. thanks for reading!

agape,

christin joy.