Life and Healing for Our Land

But to you who fear My name
The Sun of Righteousness shall arise
With healing in His wings...

- Malachi 4:2

A new typhoon (international code name- MIRINAE) is threatening our country. As of late last night, a NASA report said that it was 480 nautical miles east of Manila, its eye expected to make landfall at around 8 a.m. of Saturday morning, Asia/Pacific time.

After the two tropical cyclones that devastated parts of Northern Philippines just last month, news of any approaching storm sends jitters to our hearts.

Thousands dead, thousands of homes destroyed or wiped out, millions of people affected, and billions of pesos lost in ruined crops and infrastructure. This is just part of the quantifiable damage.

But the real loss can't be measured or stated in statistical, quantifiable terms. As I shared in a previous post entitled Room Enough, the wounds inflicted by the recent storms run deep.

Deep in the hearts of the people, and deep in the heart of our nation, many wounds remain fresh and unhealed.

There are wounds of grief, fear, and trauma, to name a few.

Tears still come to my eyes as I look at some video accounts of the twin calamities that hit us, said to be the worst in 40-50 years.

Below are a couple of heart-wrenching videos that have deeply stirred my heart... but the truth is, the videos have failed to capture the real story, the story that God alone knows.

For indeed, only He can fathom the depth and the intensity of the grief and the pain, the individual stories of loss behind the scenes, the feelings of abandonment and devastation that will never be given words...

My friends and I have lifted up prayers and contributed cash and goods for the ongoing relief operations... but honestly, I cannot imagine what it must have been like to be up on rooftops for 16-20 hours under blinding rain, and having saved nothing but the very clothes on one's back.

My heart is gripped, and tears fall from my eyes... I cannot really imagine what it is like to lose everything, to have nothing to go back to.


But this much I know: after the storms come the sure process of rebuilding and restoration.

The human body has the tremendous capacity to heal itself. Our heart was created for hope. God never designed our bodies for death, we were meant to live forever in eternity!

The Tree of Life stood in the middle of the garden of Eden, and God gave the invitation to Adam and Eve to freely eat of it.

Man has fallen, and we do live in a fallen world, and the enemy would have us remain trapped in fear...

cover our eyes with the veil of deception,

cause us to walk the path of hopelessness and despair.


But the amazing truth is that Jesus, the Son of God has already given His life to pay our ransom and to redeem us from enemy territory.

We now have the freedom to choose death, or choose life!


I believe that historical events, and natural catastrophes... yes, even those that do not affect me directly, still have a divine purpose in my personal life.

John Donne once wrote:


...any man's death diminishes me,
for I am involved in mankind...
and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls,
it tolls for thee.


There's so much beauty and truth in these lines of poetry!

We do not live our lives in solitary confinement.

And so I found myself in tears many years ago when Princess Diana died, and grieving with America on that September 11 morning when New York City was attacked by terrorists.

I have cried often the past month, while praying or looking at the news... and though I didn't personally experience the floods, and my homes and loved ones are intact, I could feel the pain of those who suffered loss.

My heart identifies with the pain of my fellow human being.

And while weeping with those who weep, and grieving with those who grieve...somehow I have also experienced a new level of growth because of this.

In the midst of the pain, there was a surge of new life inside of me!



Life is defined by growth and change, whether in stages, or in cycles.

And where there is life, there is growth.

Growth always involves a season of dying. The process of growth includes pain, gold is purified in a crucible, a baby grows in a dark womb, a seed has to go into the earth and die before it can begin to grow.


These days I have been thinking of what God is saying to me personally, and to our nation, in the aftermath of the calamities that many of my countrymen are still reeling from.

I remember Pastor Edgar's word to us when the floods devastated portions of Metro Manila: "The floods have come that we may be brought to higher ground."

The floods dislodge us, let us break free from our moorings, and suddenly we find ourselves adrift on open seas.

Painful as it is, this is an invitation for us to go up higher, to come closer, to experience life at a higher level.

I hasten to say that this is not an attempt to oversimplify the circumstances, or to belittle another person's pain, like putting a band-aid over a gaping wound.

The awesome truth is that there is a God who truly cares when the storms come. We are not left to our own devices.

He is issuing the call to draw nearer, hold on to Him, the Rock that can never be shaken.



But there is an enemy who sees his opportunity... to steal, to kill, to destroy.

And daily we walk, we trudge through this valley, the valley of the shadow of death. Satan aims his fiery darts at us, "death missiles," that's what we call them.

He constantly whispers, "Walk in fear! Live in fear!"

But we are free to make a choice: believe the enemy, or believe what the Lord is saying.


Will you listen to what the enemy says, or will you listen to what I am saying? I hear the Lord asking me.

The choice is yours to make. Will you believe what your natural eyes can see, or will you choose to look at these recent events, using your spiritual eyes?

Will you believe in My agenda, or will you put more weight on the enemy's strategies and schemes?

Will you come closer, or will you stay where you are?

These questions are truly thought-provoking. I know I have to listen to the right voices.



Our God says:

I have come to give you life!
- John 10:10


So I will restore to you the years
that the swarming locust has eaten!
- Joel 2:25


..I will raise up the tabernacle of David
which has fallen down,
and repair its damages,
I will raise up its ruins,
And rebuild it as in the days of old.
- Amos 9:11


Have you not known,
Have you not heard?
The everlasting God, the LORD
The Creator of the ends of the earth
Neither faints nor is weary
His understanding is unsearchable
He gives power to the weak
To those who have no might
He increases strength...
- Isaiah 40:28-29


Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth
for the first heaven and the first earth
had passed away...
Then He who sat on the throne said,
"Behold I make all things new."
Revelation 21:1, 4

There are hundreds more of such life-giving words and promises of restoration in the Bible!

And so the Father has the right to ask, "Whose words will you believe?"

Many of my fellow Filipinos in the Luzon islands are still in evacuation centers because they no longer have homes to go home to. Floods have not receded in many parts. And then the threat of another strong typhoon, about to make landfall in Southern Luzon.

I went to bed last night asking God to protect our northern islands from another storm. When I awoke early this morning this Scripture passage from Malachi 4:2 was ringing in my ears:

To you who fear my name,
The Sun of Righteousness shall arise
With healing in His wings...

The heavenly Father was asking, "Will you fear the enemy and believe his lies? Or will you revere my name, and believe the truth that I speak?

It is so easy to believe the words of Satan: "Be afraid! Beware! Nothing good will come out of it! Everything is beyond hope and recovery. The only way to go is down."

Planting seeds of death.



I believe Malachi records the following words for us, to warn us, and also to encourage us:

Then those who feared the Lord spoke to one another,
And the Lord listened and heard them
So a book of remembrance was written before Him
For those who fear the Lord
and meditate on His name.

"They shall be Mine," says the Lord,
"On the day that I make them my jewels.
And I will spare them
as a man spares his own son who serves him."

Then you shall again discern
between the righteous and the wicked,
Between one who serves God
and one who does not serve Him.

Malachi 3:16-18

There are certain passages in the Bible that strike me with awe. This is one of them.

If God is putting our tears in a bottle, these verses say that He is also writing down our words of faith...the words of encouragement that we speak to one another, the words of our lips that are the fruit of a heart that fears God.

And He promises that we will be His jewels, we will be spared because of our own words of faith! There will be a distinction between those who speak words of faith and words of doubt!

Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

I will choose to believe, even when my eyes tell me recovery seems impossible at this point. There is a lighthouse that shines in the darkest night, there is hope, there is promise.

My Father, I choose life...

How I want my words to be written down in this scroll of remembrance...

My words of faith which say that God will restore, He will heal. He will rebuild. He will repair.

My Father, I put my hope in You...


Luke 21:28 is quite direct. Read what it says:

Now when these things begin to take place,
straighten up and raise your heads,
because your redemption is drawing near.

This is a time to look up in hope, and not be weighed down by despair!

I speak these redemptive words to my fellow Filipinos:


My dear countrymen, be encouraged by these words, receive life.

Choose hope! Choose life!

God is pouring new oil in our midst!

The hills are dripping with new wine!

The fields are filled with new grain!

Bangon, Pilipinas! Muli tayong mabubuhay! Buhayin natin ang pag-asa! Manalig tayo sa Panginoong Diyos! (Rise up, Philippines! There is life. Let us keep hope alive. Let us put our faith in God!)

Thank You Lord, for You hear our prayers, You will heal our land! In wrath, remember mercy, dear God!