Please Release Me Let Me Go!
St. Peter installed a door bell at heaven’s gate with a notice, “Just press once and wait.”
After an hour the bell rang and the apostle opened the door but found no one. He went back inside and again the bell rang. Hastily he turned around, opened the door, but again found out that nobody’s there.
The apostle was puzzled and checked the door bell if it was functioning properly, and it was.
He closed the door and was about to leave when the bell rang again. Immediately, he opened it. “Aha! At last I catch you, old man! Why are you playing hide and seek with me and making fun of my door bell?”
“Don’t you understand this instruction?” as St. Peter pointed to the printed notice.
“I’m very sorry sir,” the elderly replied. “I really don’t mean to make fun of you, much more playing hide and seek with you,” he explained.
“It’s just that every time I arrived here and pressed the door bell, my family down there would resuscitate me, and I was sent back down there. At last, they stopped it and now I’m here, whew! Will you let me in, sir?”
Oldest Man Ever Lived!
As I post this blog today, June 13, 2013, the headline in Yahoo! News when I opened it is this:World’s Oldest Ever Man Dies Aged 116. The news continued by stating, “The world’s oldest person and the oldest man ever have lived has died of natural causes aged 116, officials in Japan said on Wednesday. Jeroemon Kimura, who was born in 1897, died in hospital early Wednesday morning “from old age”, official in Kyoto’s Kyotango city said in a statement”. We’ll talk about death and its reality in this blog post today but let me give a few comments first to this news report.
First, though you will be called the oldest man ever lived, you will still die.
Second, though this man died from old age – a natural cause, and others died of various causes, still they all died. Death is real and inevitable.
Lastly about the news, they called him the oldest man ever lived because probably they ignored or they are just unaware of the Bible which recorded that the oldest man ever lived in this world was Methuselah, with a world record age of 969 years (Genesis 5:27). By the way, Methuselah was the son of Enoch – the man who walked with God for 365 years and was gone, he’s one of the few in the Bible who never tasted death because God took him away straight to Him. And Methuselah, the oldest man ever lived was the grandfather of Noah, the ark builder, who saved a total of only 8 people including himself, when the ancient world was deluge by the great flood that caused the death of all human race.
WHY WORRY, BE HAPPY!
Death is basically defined as the separation of the soul/spirit of man from his physical body. The death of people close to our hearts is something that causes worry to most of us. Many are grieving not only because they miss their departed loved ones, but more than that, they are not sure where their spirits will be going. Their assurance of heaven as the final destination of the person who died is not secured. More often than not, they are confused with the many ideas and assumptions of people around them about the probable destinations of those who went ahead in what is called the after-life.
But if we have a personal relationship with Jesus, death would not be an issue: something that would bother us. He experienced it, more than that, He defeated it by rising from the dead and leaving the tomb empty and open as a proof that He was indeed alive. He said in the scripture that He is the resurrection and the life, and all who believes in him though will die, they will live again. The Bible also explicitly declares that when a person who is a believer dies, he will directly go to heaven: “… to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord,” (2 Corinthians 5:8 NKJV). My prayer is that our funny story today had amuse you and at the same time gave you hope about life after death, though it’s just a funny story. Truth about the after-life, death, resurrection and final destinations are all clearly revealed in the Bible – God’s word of truth.
DON’T WORRY, BE HEALTHY!
John 11:25, Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
Just the thought of death makes a lot of people cringe, afraid, terrified, confused, unsure and uneasy. This is the reason why many try to deny it and resort to believe the so-called reincarnation of man. Many are avoiding the topic of death when in reality most are asking the truth about it. Many are still worried about what will happen to man after death. Is it the end of everything? Is there something worthwhile to look forward after death? Where does the soul of a person go after he dies? Do we really have souls? These series of questions and a lot more keep on bothering every person in every generation. Despite all the sophistication and advancement in our days and though many attempts of science and religions were made to explain it, still people are sincerely asking about this inevitable issue of death.
Our Scripture today from the gospel of John recorded one of the greatest truths claimed by Jesus. He said to Martha, whose brother Lazarus had just died and been buried for days, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” If we continue reading the following verses after this, indeed Jesus backed His claim by raising the dead man back to life again. In the presence of many witnesses during that time, both those who believe Him and those who were just there with an attitude of “to see is to believe,” God’s power over death was demonstrated through Jesus Christ.
That is why we need not worry and be afraid of death. For Christ has power over it and overcame death Himself. He also experienced death, was buried and rose from the grave after three days. All we need to do is believe His promises and trust His claims. He is the resurrection and the life. He is our assurance of a wonderful life after death. For He who promised is faithful and cannot lie! He is God and He is good. Those who put their trust in Him will never be put to shame. Knowing and living these truths will set us free from the bondage of the fear of death. These will also free us from worrying and as a result will cause us to live happy and healthy, not only physically but as well us mentally, emotionally and spiritually.
So, you’re still afraid to die? Give your life to Christ. Trust Him with all your heart and the result? Worry no more!