I was not able to finish my devotion this morning; we needed to go to Sarawat Supermarket, the fridge is empty, hehe. Passing by in Jollibee, I heard the 2 crew chatting, looking for one of their colleague, who probably was absent, and one of them jokingly commented “baka pumunta ng sementeryo”. I then was reminded that we are celebrating today “Ang Araw ng mga Patay” (All Saints/Soul Day or Halloween) in the Philippines and with that; I decided to divert for a while our devotion. When we were in Batangas, we usually visit the grave of our grandparents, located in San Jose Cemetery a week before Nov. 1. We clean its surroundings and painting the tomb; a tradition that was passed to us by our parents. When all saints day come, most of the family members gathered in front of the tomb and pray that God will redeem the souls of our dead relatives – granting their salvation, we even pray to our dead (not to God) for the strength and assistance that they will be with us, as we go through in this life on earth… shall we go first on our verse for today before we continue? Let’s read the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus, (quiet long, bear with me) in: Luke 16:19-31 19 There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. 20 At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores 21 and longing to eat what fell from the rich mans table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores. 22 The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abrahams side. The rich man also died and was buried. 23 In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. 24 So he called to him, Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire. 25 But Abraham replied, Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. 26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us. 27 He answered, Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my fathers house, 28 for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment. 29 Abraham replied, They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them. 30 No, father Abraham, he said, but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent. 31 He said to him, If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead. There are many lessons in life that we can learn from this story. God can reveal much revelation verse by verse, however, let us focus on what will happen to a man after they died. Soon, if God permit, we will go verse by verse. We have two character here who live a different way of life on earth and two different destination after life; Rich Man on earth to go hell & Lazarus the beggar goes to heaven. Let’s focus on the agony of the rich man on hell in verse 27-28, he says “I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my fathers house, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.” As I read the bible and heard many teachings from it, I don’t remember any account from the scripture that we are to pray for the dead after they died because once a person died, he is already judge whether he will go to heaven or to hell as Heb 9:27 declares “Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment,” no second chance, no prayers can save them. Imagine this, in case through the many prayers a man can be saved after he died, this means that a drug lord, corrupt, robbers, holdappers, carnappers, kidnappers, assassins and those who are rich in this world but did not use their richness to glorify God can instruct their family and friends to pay the people and pray for them that they can enter heaven when they die. So, what will happen to the poor, to those who don’t have enough money to pay for the crying ladies in Binondo and Sta. Cruz if prayers can save them after they died? Another thing which is more important to note, Christ crucifixion and His resurrection will be of no value at all. Another thing we can see here is the petition of the rich man. Petition is synonymous to prayer in biblical perspective, so we can safely say that the rich man is the one interceding that Abraham might send Lazarus to his family and warn them that hell is real. You see that, “The dead is the one praying for the living”. We learn from here that we don’t need to pray to our dead, rather, we are to pray for those who are living that we, or they, will come to the knowledge of Christ and be saved. If there is only one person who died that we can pray for/to, He is none other than the Lord Jesus, because He is the only one who died and rose again and in His name and in the power of His resurrection, we too who died to sin can lived again, not in hell, but in heaven. Eternity awaits us… heaven and hell is the only option to choose. Whatever you do on earth will decide your destination. I can imagine the only question that God might ask us when we die “What did you do to Jesus that I sent you” Application: The next time you visit the tomb of your love ones; remember the lessons, the joy, the sacrifice and the love that they shared to you when they are with you. Thank the Lord that He allows you to know them and pray to God (not to the dead or for the dead) for the entire family who are still alive to live the life to the fullest that the Lord Jesus is offering. Grab this chance as an opportunity to share Christ in their life.
Posted on: Sat, 01 Nov 2014 09:05:07 +0000
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