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The New and Better Covenant

Dear COA Family,

An interesting observation that I have made is the willingness of people (including Christians) to copy the practices of others without thinking.

What do I mean?

An example is the practice of predominantly young couples who enter a new flat for the first time. Many whom I observe on their Instagram Reels would “roll the pineapple” into the house before they step in for the first time. According to Chinese feng shui practice, this represents the welcome or entrance of luck or good fortune into the home.

Unfortunately, such a seemingly harmless and fun practice does communicate a spiritual truth. Invariably, the owner would be inviting a certain spirit of fortune to enter the home to take up a foothold there. And I am not sure that such a spirit is from the Lord.

In our Christian tradition, we recognise that physical objects or residences can contain the actual presence of God. For example, in the Old Testament, God’s presence would especially be in the Tabernacle or the Temple. 2 Chronicles 5 records that after King Solomon had completed the construction of the Lord’s temple, it “was filled with the cloud, and the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the temple of God.” (v14).

In the New Testament, God’s Holy Spirit filled the place where the early believers were praying multiple times, resulting in even physical manifestations such as the sound of a mighty blowing wind and tongues of fire (Acts 2:2-3) or the home shaking (Acts 4:31).

Seeing that physical spaces can be momentous for containing God’s presence, we should therefore be careful with what we practice. We should not mindlessly mimic the practices of the world but follow what has been passed down to us from God’s word. (House Blessing services would be a good practice for Christians!) All of our actions carry weight!

In essence, we need to realise that every action we take has a greater significance than simply “ritualistic” or “fun”. This is because there is a spiritual reality and dimension to our lives that we should not ignore. This extends not only to house blessings but to many other areas of our lives as well.

God bless,

Revd Ian