Jun Malazo
SAGADA,
Mountain Province -- Just about this time last year, I needed to have a series
of medical tests. I had some serious
concerns with my health at that point.
To spare you all the details, I felt some pain in my chest area. I have had this kind of pain all throughout
my life intermittently, but this time the pain was more intense and happening
more often.
First I thought that maybe it was just
the stress of being the pastor of a church, but the pain seemed to be more than
just from emotional strain and stress. This caused my wife and me a great deal
of concern. I was very hesitant, but I
had to take a break from our busy ministry in Sagada.
This was a difficult decision because my
passion is ministering to the people of Sagada and helping our church grow
spiritually. The church was young,
however it was vibrant and growing.
Though I hated to go away, I knew that if I were to be as effective as I
could be in ministering to others, I must take care of my health first.
There were a million and a half thoughts
happening in my head while we made the long journey to the lowlands for an
appointment with a specialist. I needed
to face the possibility that there may be something physically wrong with my
heart that would require serious medical intervention.
Ultimately, I was thinking about death.
Please understand that I am not afraid to die (I’ll explain this further
later), but my concern was for my family’s future—without me. Many more thoughts flooded my mind that
day. If I were to attempt to write them
in this article, time and space would not permit it.
While I contemplated these things, I was
tempted many times to stop the car, make a u-turn, head straight back to
Sagada, and make my wife cancel that ill-fated appointment. My thoughts were even beginning to become
illogical and nonsensical.
I said to myself, “Maybe it’s better I
don’t go…maybe it’s better that I don’t know the truth.” Then I had to quickly make myself come back
to reality. Cancelling the appointment
would not help anyone—especially me. I
needed to just trust the Lord, knowing that He is control of my life.
We went to the appointment, and I’m glad
to say I lived to tell the story. After
a series of lab tests and scans, the doctor concluded that whatever was ailing
me could be avoided by regular exercise and proper diet and, of course, regular
appointments with the doctor.
You may ask, “What was the point of that
long saga?”
Life doesn’t always happen the way we
plan it. On the road of life, there are
many detours, delays, and disappointments.
We can try to plan ahead and make sure that everything works according
to schedule. But there are always the
variables—and plenty of them. We can try
to pick and choose appointments that we like and cancel the ones we do not
want, but there is an appointment that none of us can ever escape or
delay. It is the inescapable appointment
of death.
Death is a subject that most people
usually do not like to talk about. Our
human nature is to fear the unknown or things that we do not fully
understand. But death is something that
we do think about occasionally. We hear
of people dying every day through the many media outlets available today. Whether it’s natural or unnatural death (ie.
murder, vehicular accidents, etc.), we do hear about it, and it sometimes causes
us to think about when “our time” to depart from this world will be. Having someone close to us die also makes us
think about death and the afterlife.
There are many philosophical perspectives
out there about death and the afterlife.
Depending on many things, including a person’s cultural upbringing,
people each tend to have their own unique perspective about this subject. There are even many different schools of
thought that religious groups teach about death. One thought is that death is the end of
everything. This is called annihilation.
This belief is that once a person dies they simply cease to exist. Just as a candle that is consumed completely
with the wax and the wick fully burned, a person no longer exists.
Others teach the idea that when a person
dies, he is put in a place where he could, through time and the prayers of the
living, eventually be allowed to enter heaven.
This is the idea of purgatory.
There are many more philosophies out
there. People have written books on this
subject and documentaries have even been produced in which people offer their
own perspectives of life after death.
However, all of these perspectives are mostly mere philosophical
presumptions. There is no concrete basis
for each of these claims. Therefore, without
solid answers, people still live in uncertainty and fear of death just hoping
for the best someday when it is their turn.
I have good news! There is hope!
The Bible also gives us a perspective on
this subject. First, it tells us that
death is the result of one man’s sin.
"Wherefore, as by one man sin
entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for
that all have sinned:" (Romans 5:12)
According to the verse above, death has
been passed to all men because of one man’s sin. The Bible tells us that the man responsible
for this is none other than Adam. His
sin in the Garden of Eden is what gave man the death sentence. Adam and Eve once enjoyed perfect fellowship
with God. However, when they blatantly
disobeyed God’s direct command, that fellowship was severed. Man is now doomed to eternal damnation in a
place called Hell because of the sin nature that we have inherited from Adam.
But God has a plan. If you read further in the same chapter,
Romans chapter 5, you’ll find in verse 19 that God provided the plan for
redemption from our sins.
"For as by one man's disobedience
many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made
righteous." (Romans 5:19)
Jesus paid for our sin debt by the blood
that He shed on the cross.
"In whom we have redemption through
his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his
grace;" (Ephesians 1:7)
Secondly, the Bible speaks about two
different types of death. The word death
in the Bible speaks of separation. The
first type of death is the physical separation of body and spirit.
"We are confident, I say, and
willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the
Lord." (2 Corinthians 5:8)
The second type of death is what the
Bible refers to as the “second death.”
This is eternal separation from God in the lake of fire—hell.
"And death and hell were cast into
the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written
in the book of life was cast into the lake of
fire." (Revelation 20:14-15)
Lastly, contrary to some popular beliefs,
death is not the end. The Bible clearly
tells us that after a physical death there is a certain judgement coming.
"And as it is appointed unto men
once to die, but after this the judgment:" (Hebrews 9:27)
Every person that dies in their sin will
have to give an account of their lives before God. Paul said in Romans 14:12, “So then every one
of us shall give account of himself to God.”
Two men died in Luke 16. They
were men from different walks of life.
One was rich and lived comfortably, and the other was a poor beggar
named Lazarus. In summary, they ended up
in different eternal destinations because one died in his sin and other trusted
God for eternal life.
Death is inevitable. It is a fact of life. Everyone will have a turn some day, and only
God knows the appointed time. I
mentioned earlier that death is not something that I fear. Please understand that I am not making a
careless statement nor am I making light of this subject.
My confidence is in the promises of
God. God promised that If I accept Jesus
Christ as Lord and Savior, I would become His child. Becoming a child of God meant that I admitted
my own sinfulness before God. It also
meant that I accepted that I have to pay for my sin—this payment is death. Thankfully, the sacrifice of Jesus Christ
meant that He died for my sins.
Therefore, I do not have to pay for my sin because Jesus Christ paid for
it on the cross.
Christ’s death on the cross is
significant, but more importantly, His resurrection sealed the deal for our
redemption. Death could not hold Him
because Jesus is God. Romans 5:13,
"For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be
saved." You can have confidence today and accept God’s promise
of eternal life.
Furthermore, whatever your perspective
and personal belief of death is, it doesn’t change the fact that it does
happen, and it will happen to you someday.
Life is so fragile and uncertain. Will you be ready? I choose, like many others, to place my faith
in the God of the Bible that never changes.
I want to leave you with this promise from the Bible:
“And I give unto them eternal life; and
they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater
than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. " (John 10:28-29)
No comments:
Post a Comment