The End

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Category: Teachings & Articles
Published: Tuesday, 26 February 2019 01:27
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The End

A Necrological Service for late Vicky Estrella-Pajela

Carmen West, Rosales, Pangasinan

February 23, 2019 (Saturday); 8:00 P.M.

Rewritten February 25, 2019 (Monday); 2:19 A.M.

 

 

The end is just the beginning.

Ate Vicky is sitting on my left side after Nelids at Shakey’s SM-Rosales, January 1, 2019

 

The beloved, bereaving family of late Vicky Estrella-Pajela, her extended family, her friends and guests, Good Evening.

 

Let me first recite to you a Reading inspired from a writer, in fact a songwriter, but also a shepherd who became a sensational figure in just a day for slaying a 9 feet tall giant called Goliath. This is what he wrote and sung which I will sing today…

 

“O Lord, make me know my end and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am!” - Psalm 39:4/ ESV

 

 

Other translations

In other translations, it goes like this:

 

NLT: “Lord, remind me how brief my time on earth will be. Remind me that my days are numbered how fleeting my life is.”

 

KJV: “"LORD, let me know how my life ends, and the standard by which you will measure my days, whatever it is! Then I will know how transient my life is. “

 

ASV: “Jehovah, make me to know mine end, And the measure of my days, what it is; Let me know how frail I am. “

 

 

Time is His

CLSF Music Team awhile ago sung a song that goes like this, “Time is in His hands, beginning and the end, beginning and the end. How great is our Great, sing with me how great is our God…”

 

And I would like to speak the words “the end.” The end of the life of Ate Vicky. Every beginning has an end. Remember that the Scriptures’ first book start with Genesis which means beginning while the last book is the Book of Revelation which means the end. And in Isaiah 46:10 it says, “Declaring the end from the beginning and from the ancient times.”

 

God declared that He is the first and the last thus it refers to the beginning and the end (Isaiah 41:4; 44:6). And yet Jesus Christ also said in Revelation 1:17, “I am the first and the last,” and in Isaiah 44:8 it says, “Besides me there is no God.” And that is a little bit confusing and we need a further investigation, study and research for that.

 

Anyways, what I am saying is this – things must come to an end. And this is the end of the life of Ate Vicky, whether you like it or not. It is on God’s Hands not mine nor yours.

 

You see God is wonderfully so good, gracious and just. Why? Because He is so just that He has provided each one of us the same time. Whether you are rich or poor, educated or not, God has given each one of us the same time like 24 hours a day or 365 days a year. But how we use this time depends totally from us. And when our time is up, no one can ever control that but only Him.

And God said, “He has made everything right in its time,” (Ecclesiastes 3:11/ BBE).

 

Our day of birth is the right time as well as day of our death as in Obituary. We provides ourselves with Birth Certificate as well as Death Certificate signifying our birth and death which is the time of our existence from beginning to end.

 

 

The end

The question is… is this the end of the life of Ate Vicky? When you and me will die, would that be the end?

 

I often hear this question especially among the Millennial generation and Z- generation, this question, “May forever ba?” Do you believe in forever?

 

When this simple shepherd boy who turned General and Captain of the Israeli Army under the reign of king Saul said, ““O Lord, make me know my end” marks his inquisitive spirit. David is wanting to know how he was though he defeated a goliath and stating this by himself, “Let me know how frail I am. “ That’s in International Standard Version (ISV). Why would David question his weaknesses when he knocked down a giant? Is he acknowledging that it wasn’t his power but the sufficient grace and mighty works of God in his life? How many brave people like David would ever acknowledges his humble beginning only to show to the whole world the power if not from him but from God?

 

Again, in the passing by of Ate Vicky, what happens next? May forever ba?

 

The word “always” spoken by Christ in Matthew 28:20 saying these very words, “I am with you always,” in Greek pas meaning “ever.” The word “ever” is defined by Webster as eternal or forever.

 

In other words, there is forever.

 

 

 

Death, is it the end?

Death, is it the end of our existence?

 

As it is being told, a dead body may be reincarnated to another human body. If not, there is transmigration of the soul (the transfer of one’s life to another existence) like if you have done bad or evil in your life you will soon encounter the so-called karma and you’ll be soon reborn as an insect. To atheist, he said, “There is no God” and one’s human life merely ends like just in a snap of a hand. To agnostic, he doubts or unsure on God’s existence. To others, there is the so-called nirvana, the state of perfect happiness and peace that releases man from all forms of suffering. Some believes that when man dies, his soul shuts down automatically and that there is no heaven nor hell. After death, after the end of your life, what comes next?

 

 

Bible says

The Bible says, “I am the resurrection and the life; he that believes in me though he were dead shall live,” (John 11:25).

 

Resurrection in Greek anastasis mans “rising from the dead” while “life” in Greek “zoe” means “living soul.” Meanwhile, the words “shall live” in Greek ‘zao’ pronounced as “dzah-o” means “tobreathe.”

 

Let me share this. Is Ate Beth Borquelis here? She have a first account of experience regarding resurrection. Here’s the story.

 

One day, Beth’s brother-in-law suffered in excruciating pain and they immediately rushed him in a hospital in Villasis town. But right there and then, he died. The bereaved family grieved with tears flowing down from their cheeks when suddenly they cringed in horror when the clinically dead body came back to life again. To make the story short, they brought him back to their house where they feasted for day in celebration. Then this man who rose from the dead said, “I won’t be staying long but I will just stay for a couple of days.” Few days later, he died finally.

 

How will you explain that?

 

 

A pioneer

Ate Vicky was one among the pioneers when I first preached the Gospel here in the neighborhood. And that was many years ago back sometime in November, 1986. Some of you here in fact accepted the Lord Jesus Christ before in the same that Ate Vicky did.

 

 

Zero

It was early afternoon on Monday this week when I visited Ate Vicky in the hospital. I saw her struggling to breathe and some gadgets were placed on her body to ease her breathing difficulty. I knew right there and then that she was fighting for her life. And she been a fighter all throughout her life. She finally started breathing normally.

 

But at 8:45 P.M. on the same day, I was told she was in a critical condition. Immediately, I went back to the hospital where she have been admitted only to see her again grasping her breath. I saw how she took a long, deep and interrupted breathing space choking her breathe. She was immediately given an oxygen mask while her attending physician was monitoring her on a strict watch together with four (4) attending nurses.

 

I went in and out the room praying and interceding and even make bargaining with the Lord. I saw her daughter leaving the room and with tears on her eyes at the corridor saying, Wala nasi Mama. I rushed in and prayed while the 4 others nurses took turn reviving her. For the next one hour, they tried to resuscitate her including electric shock at least twice but to no avail.

 

Her pulse is zero. Her heart beat is zero. Her blood zero.

 

Until I said, “This is too much. Stop it. No human means not even the medical wonders can revive her back to life. Let it be done unto the hands of God.”

 

For one hour, Ate Vicky was technically dead. Her immediate family members – her husband and two grown up children had mourned of her passing by. Then I left the room when suddenly her daughter walked out from the room saying, “There was one heart-beat.” I rushed in and prayed for her reciting Psalm 23 and in verse 4 I forcefully said, “He revives my life” in International Standard Version (ISV). The word “revives” means “to restore to life” (Webster). Only the dead can be revived. Then I anointed her head with oil and continue reciting Psalm 23 aloud upon the hearing of everyone. Then her zero pulse beat came back. Then her zero blood pressure came back until she finally came back from life again after being dead for one whole hour.

 

Ate Vicky’s coming back to life again is a sign that I asked from God that Monday early afternoon when I kept repeating in my warfare prayer these words, “Lord, you are a God of signs, our Jehovah Nissi, our banner, our signs. Give me signs…:” That is why I kept asking nurses and anyone who have seen her revival the details of what had happened.

 

Her beloved husband and children were able to speak to her and fellowship with her for the next 7 more hours until she finally rested at 8:20 in the morning of the next day, Tuesday.

 

With these two events of resurrection who can refute? Why would someone doubt the power of resurrection that Christ had been said?

 

 

 

No resurrection

1 Corinthians 15:13/ NLT says:“For if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is useless and your faith is useless,.”

 

If YOU will not believe in resurrection, it is plain and simple

  • Our preaching is useless, and

  • Your faith is useless

 

The end

Going back to what king David said, “Lord let me know how my life ends,” this king-and-priest once combined who was once a shepherd boy, a general of the army of God, a scriptwriter sought God with a brilliant question, “let me know” in the Hebrew word “yada” which means “to perceive” “in great variety“ of senses which is “literally, figurative, euphemistically and inferentially” according to James Strong.

 

The word “inferentially” is not based on religious feeling or emotion but rather scientific which is reaching a conclusion about something from known facts or evidence – Webster).

 

When David sought how his life end in the same way how our lives end including Ate Vicky, this psalmist used the word “end” in Hebrew “qets” pronounced as “kates” which refers to “at the end (of space and time)” or “border.”

 

When the human physical body (as a matter that occupies space and time earthbound) expires, where will the soul goes? Will it not goes beyond the end of space and time? Would that be another border or portal? Can you call that portal or door – the eternity or forever? Come to think of it.

 

When our human, mortal and finite body comes to an end like when Ate Vicky’s physical body given up from this natural realm then another portal or border begins – and that is the end of space and time which common sense tells me it is eternity, everlasting or forever. For our soul can not be placed in physical box just like this realm of the (physical) world. The soul is immortal and that is why Apostle Paul said, “For me, to live is Christ and to die is gain,” (Philippians 1:21).

 

So, the end is just the beginning.