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PHILIPPINE ASIAN NEWS TODAY April 16 - 30, 2016
FAITH AND RELIGION
Wisdom from
the Word
Ben Berto
For the living know that
they will die; But the dead know
nothing, And they have no more
reward,
For the memory of them is
forgotten. 6 Also their love, their
hatred, and their envy have now
perished;Nevermore will they
have a share in anything done
under the sun. Ecclesiastes 9:
6,7 NKJV
11 These things He said,
and after that He said to them,
“Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I
go that I may wake him up.”12
Then His disciples said, “Lord,
if he sleeps he will get well.” 13
However, Jesus spoke of his
death, but they thought that He
was speaking about taking rest
in sleep.14 Then Jesus said to
them plainly, “Lazarus is dead.
John 11: 11-14, NKJV
On April Fools Day, I had
to have a minor body repair but
have to be “put under” by the anaesthetist because I shouldn’t be
moving when the doctor is working on me. Any way, there I was
talking with the nurse when the
medication hit and I was out like
light. I did not know anything until the effects of the anaesthesia
wore off and they woke me up.
The surgery was finished, there
was pain, but I could go home.
I did not even dream. As if I was
dead.
No wonder, Jesus called
death as sleep when his friend
Lazarus died. So his disciples
told him, well if he was asleep, he
will be okay, so Jesus told them
plainly that Lazarus was dead.
So they went to Bethany where
Lazarus was buried. Martha, the
dead man’s sister told Jesus, “If
you were here, my brother would
not have died.” Jesus told her
UNCONSCIOUS ON APRIL FOOLS DAY
not to worry because
he will live again. She
said he will but it will be
at the resurrection. Jesus told
her that He is the Resurrection
and the Life, so Lazarus did not
have to wait till the end of time
when there will be a resurrection for life and for judgment.
At the grave side, the smell of
death was overpowering. Jesus
told them to remove the stone.
Martha said, He’s been dead for
four days already. Jesus kindly
replies, “Did I not tell you Lazarus will live again. After praying
to His Father, Jesus commands,
“Lazarus, come forth!”. He did
not say, “Come down!” because
he knew that the dead do not go
to heaven or to hell when they
die. Some preachers say that
Jesus was specific in his command to Lazarus to come out
of the grave, because if he said
“come forth” only, all the graves
will open and all the dead from
Adam onward will resurrect. Instantly, life came to the dead
man and he arose came out of
the grave fighting to remove all
the clothes he was wrapped with
so Jesus told the people to help
him. No doubt, some people
would have asked, “Lazarus, how
did it feel to die?” He would have
said, “ Nothing. Like, I just went
to sleep. No dreams.”
What are the characteristics of the dead? They do not
breathe, move, and can’t hear,
except when the Archangel’s
trumpet calls at the resurrection.. They do not praise God
(Psalm 115: 17). They are like
the doornail. Like a dead mackerel. That is why when we want
to say something good about a
person, do it while he is alive and
will appreciate it.
King Solomon said that
The story is told about
a politician, campaigning from
house to house, who chanced
upon two boys who were quarreling over a P100 bill they found
on the street. To settle the issue,
the boys agreed that the one who
tells the biggest lie gets to keep
the money. “You know,” the politician told them, “when I was a
little boy, whenever I saw money
on the street, I did not pick it up
or even touch it.” Whereupon the
two boys looked at each other,
handed the money to the politician, and said: “You win. You
keep the money.”
***
In today’s Gospel (Jn.
13, 31-35), the Lord tells His
became ashamed. So they sewed
fig leaves together to cover themselves. And Adam lived for 930
years but he died after.
In Ezekiel 18:20 NKJV
says, “20 The soul who sins shall
die. The son shall not bear the
guilt of the father, nor the father
bear the guilt of the son. The
righteousness of the righteous
shall be upon himself, and the
wickedness of the wicked shall be
upon himself.” When God made
man, He breathed into him the
breath of life and man became a
living soul. When Adam and Eve
sinned they died, not immediately but eventually died as a result
of disobeying God.
But God did not let Satan enjoy his triumph because
He had already a plan that in
case man sins, God will redeem
him. Genesis 3: 14, 15 ,NCV
says, 14 The LORD God said
to the snake, “Because you did
this, a curse will be put on you.
You will be cursed as no other
animal, tame or wild, will ever
be. You will crawl on your stomach, and you will eat dust all the
days of your life.15 I will make
you and the woman enemies to
each other. Your descendants
and her descendants will be enemies. One of her descendants
will crush your head, and you will
bite his heel.” So that is the plan
of redemption that we are talking
about. In the Cross at Calvary,
Satan bit the heel of Christ, but at
the judgment, Satan’s head will
be crushed. He will be burned to
ashes, cremated in the fires hell
that will thoroughly cleanse the
world of sin and its after effects.
When Jesus comes
back the second time, he will
resurrect all the dead that are
saved, and gives them immortality. In 1 Corinthians 15: 51-53
NKJV we read, “Behold, I tell you
a mystery. We shall not all sleep,
but we shall all be changed---in
a moment, in the twinkling of an
eye, at the last trumpet. For the
trumpet sound and the dead will
be raised incorruptible, and we
shall all be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption
and this mortal must put on immortality.” At this moment, only
God is immortal.
There was only one possibility that Adam and Eve could
have achieved immortality after
they sinned that was if they could
have access to the Tree of Life in
the Garden, but God put a guard
around it, a flaming sword that
turned every which way to prevent them from eating its fruit.
The Lord is good to his
promises. He said in John 3: 16,
“ For God so loved the world that
He gave his only begotten Son
that whoever believes in Him shall
not perish but have everlasting
life.” God loves you and me and
He promised to come back for us
to bring us to His home. John 14:
1-3 says, “ Let not you heart be
troubled. Believe in God, believe
also in Me. In My Father’s house
are many mansions. If it were not
so I would have told you. I go and
prepare a place for you, and if I
go and prepare a place for you, I
will come again and receive you
to myself that where I am, there
you may be also.” Let’s be there,
my friends.
For prayer, questions
and Bible study, call Ben at 604581-1278, Junjun at 778-9278040, and Stanley at 604-7003053. You are invited to worship
with us every Sabbath(Saturday)
at the Abundant Life Community
Seventh-day Adventist Church at
13062-104 Avenue, Surrey. Welcome.
Love one another!
Moments
Fr, Jerry M. Orbos, SVD
the living know that they will die
but the dead don’t know anything at all. He gave this advice
to us, “Live joyfully with the wife
whom you love all the days of
your vain life which He has given
you under the sun, all your days
of vanity; for that is your portion
in life, and in the labor which you
perform under the sun.10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it
with your might; for there is no
work or device or knowledge or
wisdom in the grave where you
are going.” Ecclesiastes 9: 10,
11.
Some people believe that
the dead will not really die. They
say that there is a soul in the
body that is immortal. They say
that when a person dies, the soul
will go off somewhere maybe to
Nirvana, but before that they will
become like insect and migrate
through several stages until they
reach Nirvana, their version of
heaven. Where did they get that
idea? In the third chapter of
Genesis, we find the root of the
doctrine of the immortality of the
soul. “4 Then the serpent said to
the woman, “You will not surely
die. 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.”
Genesis 3: 4,5, NKJV. God said,
that Adam and Eve will surely
die if they eat of the fruit of the
Tree of Knowledge of Good and
Evil. Satan told Eve, “No , not really”. In spite of all the warnings
from God Himself, Eve chose to
believe Satan who was speaking through the snake, and ate
of the fruit, then gave some to
Adam who knew what his doing
but his love for Eve was so strong
he threw his lot with her. Then,
they found something else. They
found that they were naked, and
disciples: “Love one
another.” As we come
closer to Election Day,
more than ever let us listen to
the Lord’s mandate that we love
one another. This is the time
when money and the “dirty tricks
department” come to full use,
when the only focus is to win
by all means, by any means, at
whatever cost, even at the cost of
human lives. More than ever, let
us listen hard to the Lord telling
us: “What does it profit a man to
gain the whole world and forfeit
his soul?”
***
Politics is a game, a dirty
game, so they say. Okay. Fine.
But don’t forget that games have
rules, and rules must be kept.
Otherwise, there would be dis-
order and chaos, and when that
happens, it is the little ones who
get the beating, and nobody really wins. Let us all vote wisely,
and be vigilant, and pray for the
sanctity of our votes.
***
If we play the game of
politics using all sorts of tricks,
then we should call it the game
of “politricks”! And a politician
is a “politrician”! Be reminded
that the evil one is the master of
tricks, deceit, lies and manipulations. Let us pray doubly hard to
our guardian angels these days
to protect us and shield us from
agents of darkness. May God,
goodness and guts (not guns,
goons and gold) win in the end.
Time for more prayers, and more
vigilance!
***
“Keep it low.” Remember
how our parents and elders tried
their very best not to quarrel or
have heated discussions in front
of their children? They tried to
keep it low, so as to present a
good example and not disturb
the peace and wellbeing of the
family. Compare that to what
we have now. Full-scale, all-out
public war—in all venues, with
accusations, insults, tirades and
character assassination! No matter what, we must not do away
with basic respect and decency.
***
It is a sad commentary of
our times, but the bottom line of
politics, Philippine style, is money: He/she who has the money
wins, and he/she who wins gets
WWW.PHILIPPINEASIANNEWSTODAY.COM
the money. Of course there are
a few good men and women out
there, lone voices in the wilderness, who are true and sincere.
Kudos to them! May their tribe
increase! Sad to say, they are the
ones who don’t have the money,
so they end up not winning, and
the winners go on with the stealing.
***
Money talks. Money talks
loudly, and when it does, the
heart will find it hard to listen.
“Love one another!” Try saying
that in a situation where people
are at the height of stepping on
each other, shouting at each other, and shooting down each other! It is hard, maybe even absurd,
but it has to be said anyway. The
good news must be proclaimed.
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