Showing posts with label death. Show all posts
Showing posts with label death. Show all posts

The Love that Wants You Dead

Posted by Bernard Rosario On 10:34 PM 2 comments



Self-centeredness and loving others had always been oppositions to me. I always thought that you can’t truly love others when you deeply think about your own personal image. However, GOD is really weird. He harmoniously maintains His passion for His personal glory and His passion for our personal gain. I will try to illustrate this using a very familiar story.

1Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill. 3So the sisters sent to him, saying, "Lord, he whom you love is ill." 4But when Jesus heard it he said, "This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it." 5Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. (John 11:1-6)

The Sandwich
Lazarus and her two sisters are very close to the heart of the Lord. Christ’s love for them is in verse 3 and Christ’s love for them is in verse 5. And there is a sandwich: Christ’s love in verses 3 and 5 sandwiches the glory of GOD in verse 4.

The So-Dilemma
Verse 6 will give a dilemma for the critical reader. Most literal Bible translations initiate verse 6 with a “so” or with a “therefore.” “So” implies a transition from reason to outcome.
  • I studied hard so I passed.
  • I was soaking wet yesterday so I am sick today.
  • Anna loves pink so she wears pink almost daily.
Verse 5 is then most likely the reason for the outcome in verse 6. I, therefore, paraphrase, “Christ intensely loves the three SO, when Lazarus was dying, He made sure that he would die (He stayed two more days).” If you think I am implying that it was Christ’s very love for them that wanted Lazarus dead, then you got my point. Jesus loved Lazarus much SO He wanted him dead.

The Love that Wanted Lazarus Dead
This was a problem to me and I believe it still is a problem to some. The problem arises primarily because of our poor definition of love. For most people, to love is to desire no harm for the loved. But true love is much more than just desiring no harm – it is desiring the highest possible good for the loved. And there is no higher possible good than GOD Himself. Jesus, in His love, wanted Lazarus dead because He wanted them to see the glory of GOD (verse 4). I strongly believe that these three whom Jesus loved never had a weaker faith after seeing this display of GOD’s glory. They had received a gift infinitely more valuable than life from the One who loves them much.

GOD desires to show us His glory. And His glory most of the time shines the brightest when our pits are the deepest. He Himself digs these pits and He Himself puts us in the deepest. And when He finally decides to show His glory, He will shine the brightest. He loves to show His glory because He loves you and wants to attract you to Himself. He loves you much and may perhaps want you dead.

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Death Treat -- To Die is Jackpot

Posted by Bernard Rosario On 8:45 PM 4 comments




Last Wednesday, the Grand Lotto jackpot towered an almost half a billion pesos (Php495,597,376.80 to be exact). It is the largest in Philippine lottery history. It is grand indeed that someone who hits it will be able to afford 285 Toyota Fortuners, or maybe more than 4000 Intel Core i7 MacBooks, or how about 30 condominiums in Makati, or even 1.65 square kilometers of commercial lot, enough to cover a baranggay-wide business area. But for me, I can just measure it with my salary for 4130 years (yes, years not months and in case you’re drowned, please don’t forget that we are living in 2010AD). So the next time you see a long line of lotto ticket buyers, or you hear that your Sunday School teacher has consulted a numerologist, or you notice that your pastor has changed the TV channel on Saturday night, this may perhaps explain why.

I wonder why people cluster on ticket stations and church attendance can rarely be a crowd when my Bible says in Matthew 13:44,
The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells his 285 Toyota Fortuners and his 4000 Intel Core i7 MacBooks just to buy that field.
And again, Jesus commands in Mark 10:21,
You lack one thing: go, sell all your 30 condominiums in Makati and your baranggay-wide commercial lot and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.
For Christians, the true jackpot is death. For Paul, to live is Christ and to die is jackpot (Phil. 1:21). To die is worth more than my salary for 4130 years multiplied by a thousand more. It is gain because it is the beginning of an unending joy-filled and pleasure-filled fellowship with the most enjoyable Being, GOD, the Author of all joys and pleasures, and with fellow GOD-treasurers.

An Unbounded Me. It takes faith by His grace for us to see death as the true jackpot. It is only by grace can we be so truly excited of heaven where we will wear our glorified bodies capable of everything except to displease GOD. No more pain, no more sufferings, no more disappointments, no more sin! We will never see GOD’s face frown but He will always be smiling for me. Oh! May His grace uphold my sanity when I see a millimeter of His smile.

An Undivided Society. We can also be so enthusiastic of heaven for it will be a community of GOD-lovers. Perfect peace, perfect harmony, perfect unity, perfect fellowship. There, we will see John Calvin and John Wesley shake hands in front of Apostle Paul. Even Presbyterians, Methodists, and Baptists will agree on baptism. Worship songs will be shared by the hymn writers, the gospel rockers, and the reformed rappers. I won’t worry for our things being stolen neither for our secrets being broadcasted.

An Unveiled Glory. But the pinnacle of everything is the removal of curtains that veil the glory of GOD. GOD has suppressed His breath when He gave life to Adam. He has limited His mighty hands when He held the divided sea. He repressed His voice when He thundered Mount Sinai. He submerged the fullness of His holiness when He appointed Isaiah. He concealed His true glory in human body when Jesus was born in Bethlehem. All the things that amaze us because of tremendous displays of His power and might are just glimpses of His true glory. But after His appointed time of our death, we will behold the perfections of His attributes unveiled. The display will be so exciting that we will never get bored of it even after a trillion of trillion years.

What a gain! Death is jackpot.




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