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Pastor Allen Tan received his credential as an ordained minister of the Assembly of God church in Malaysia. He is a regular column writer for a Chinese language newspaper. <biography>
Photo with Allen on the far right with his children, John & Dave, in between him and his wife Cicilia on the right..
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2009 YEAR OF THE OX



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The Chinese would know that CNY (Chinese New Year) has a lot to do with superstition. Over the festive period the media in my country talked much about Feng Shui and the Chinese Astrology.

This year is the Year of Bull or Ox. In many shopping malls, a golden bull was set up for display. It reminded me of the sin of the Israelis during the exodus when they persuaded Aaron to build them a golden calf and subsequently worshipped it as their god.

The irony was, Moses was up on the mountain receiving the tablets of The Ten Commandments. The first two commandments God cautioned them that:
1 You shall have no other gods before Me;
2 You shall not make for yourself a carved image.
God knew beforehand what His people were about to do.

The golden bull has become an icon for the Chinese during CNY. They prayed that the bull will bring them lucks. By doing so they repeated the folly of the Israelis.

But the Chinese who traced their ancestry to Shem, one of Noah's sons, worshipped Jehovah God when they first migrated to China. They created their language in pictorial forms. There are thousands of Chinese characters. Besides creating words based on the stories of Genesis, they received revelations from Him.

A few days ago I received the Rhema that the Year of Bull has some significance for the Chinese. I did not read this from any other source. You know the word [Bull] is made up of a Cross [+] carrying a Man [^] on its top. What does that speak? It speaks that when the children of God made the golden bull, they offended their Master. Consequently they needed Christ to carry them up. Christ is the way of redemption. By the way, you will discover that there are umpteen crosses [+] in the Chinese characters.

Again, another awesome Rhema I received was that the word Year [年] is made up of the bull carrying a Man [^] on its top. In the O.T., you read a lot about Bull Sacrifice during Israeli festivals. The bulls were sacrificed as a mean of sin redemption as well as festive celebrations. In the olden days of China, bulls were helpful animals for crop fields. Bulls, sheep and goats were slaughtered as sacrifices. When a Bull was sacrificed, it was not the Bull that gave forgiveness but God. The Chinese stopped eating beef when they embraced Buddhism. Beef is a forbidden food for its believers. But the people in Northern China where Buddhism is not prevailing are still consuming it.

As Christians we do not belong to any of the animals in the Chinese Zodiac. We belonged to the Almighty God. God is the source of our blessing. God really loves the Chinese. He wanted to see the 1.3 billion Chinese souls come to salvation. Our Lord Jesus is coming soon. The economy downturn presently is one of the end-time signs.

Lastly, I wish you a Blessed Niu Year. (Incidentally, "new" is the word "ox" pronounced in Chinese).

January 29, 2009

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