(June 20, 2010) A Weekly Meditation of Pastor Chang

<Futurology, Soothsaying, Fortunetelling, and the Biblical Prophecy> (18)

Last Sunday I had shared with you about one of our aged mothers (92), Mrs. Chiang, and the story of her pass-away. Now let me share with you the second one who also passed away because of cancer five days later. People called her, Mrs. Hsieh. She was Tiffany Fan’s mother. Actually I never met her, because she lived in Taipei, Taiwan. She was younger than I am, only 50’s. Actually, I called her, “Sister Jen” because “Jen” was her maiden name. We had several times of phone conversations.

Since last year, after knowing she had cancer, her daughter, Tiffany, began worrying about her mother’s salvation because for a long period of time she never went back to church although she was a “baptized Christian.” Besides, she was also involved in some New Age Therapy, witchcrafts, and fortunetelling. Because of that, she was influenced by Taiwanese folk religion and Buddhism that in order to gain salvation, one must work hard to build up one’s good merits and credits.

Tiffany always shared her concerns with her cell group leaders: Hong-Jen & Pearl Lin. They prayed very fervently. They also invited me to join them in prayers. I had several opportunities to talk with Sister Jen through phones. She asked me many questions about her faith in Christ and the issues of other religions. By God’s grace, she was very satisfied. She agreed to be back to the church and reclaimed her lost faith. Namely, she wanted to be back to the Lord Jesus Christ. She even once joyfully asked me: whether I could become her pastor or not? Of course, I agreed.

Two weeks ago, when Tiffany just went back to Taipei to see her mom, she told me that her mom recently complained about “seeing” some earthworms climbing on her body. She did not know: why? But I know what it means. Some people especially who used to get involved in witchcrafts, idol-worship, and fortunetelling, when they were about to die, sometimes they would tell such a kind of terrified experience. Some would see cockroaches or earthworms or even snakes. Actually these worms come from the hell (Mark 9:48); they will never die and are disgusting to crawl on the dead. Immediately, I noticed that it was because of Sister Jen’s past involvement in the witchcrafts. I asked Tiffany to write down what kinds of witchcrafts that she was involved before. We confessed sins and asked for forgiveness from the Lord; then, we prayed that let the precious blood of Jesus Christ come to do cleansing work. Since that time after, she could sleep peacefully.           

Last Monday (June 7), I told myself: besides my personal prayers and worship, I should give myself a day off. But unfortunately, the same as before, I still received many phone calls. About 2:30 PM, I got another phone call from Taipei. It was Tiffany. She told me that they were at hospital. The doctor told the family that her mom would only last for one or two more days. She hoped that I could pray with her mom and the family. I prayed and blessed Sister Jen and the entire family to be ready when the time would come that the Lord could take her home peacefully.

Originally I though, it was only a simple prayer then we could hang up to wait for at least one or two more days. But after my prayer, it seemed that the Holy Spirit did not want me to stop. I followed the guidance of the Holy Spirit, I kept praying for Tiffany’s father, sister, and Tiffany. Then, the Holy Spirit still urged me to keep on. I began to read the Scripture. I started with Psalms 23, 24, 27… then, John the Gospel, Romans … suddenly, the phone was disconnected. I tried to call back. It did not work. After waiting for about 15 minutes, Tiffany called me back and told me, because the cell phone ran out of battery. Since we were reconnected, I continued to read the Scripture from Romans 8, then, the last 2 chapters of the Book of Revelation. It was very wonderful. When I finished the last word of the Scripture and said, “Amen!” Tiffany said to me, “My mom just take her last breath and pass away peacefully.”

Praise the Lord for such a kind of miracle. Tiffany’s father, a newly baptized Christian when he saw this, he was comforted. His faith was strengthened. He said that how real the heaven and the hell are! I told the family that their mom just departed from her physical body. Probably her spirit would stay there for a while; they should stay for a little bit longer to wait until the angels would take her home. They should keep talking to mom about good things to comfort her. 

Next day, Tiffany called me from Taipei, she amazingly told me, the spiritual atmosphere at the room of the hospital where her mom past away was so sacred that even her young sister could feel and sense that 3 angels were in the room to participate in the worship, in prayers, and in listening to the Scripture readings until the last moment. It was marvelous. Praise the Lord! This is another testimony that any Christian who passes away is another kind of blessing for eternity.