Alive!

"Aunty, he's alive lah" "Huh?, who, Jesus? Right, Jesus is alive; that's what I just shared," I was getting a bit confused. I am still getting used to the way some of these people who come to the street-feeding talk their lingo. "No, aunty, that one you say died. I saw him la." "You mean TS, the drunk...no, really?..cannot be, you sure or not?" "Aiyah, aunty, why you don't believe me?" And he stalked off in a huff, quite hurt that I doubted. I slapped myself inwardly...immediately Jesus' words rebuked me, "O ye of little faith..." After all the preaching I have shared with these people on the dead being resurrected, here I am, doubting it myself. Another fella nearby piped up, "Ya, aunty, really..I saw him also "

I told myself, "This I have gotta see." I remembered sharing sometime ago about this guy whom I was told had apparently died after getting walloped in a fight. (He was the one who at one time made me so ashamed I wrote a whole story about him here   My heart had been very heavy when I heard the news of his passing, and being much moved, I had talked about it as I shared the message that Saturday. Now people are telling me he's alive? I was curious, what happened? If only he was here....

And he was indeed. As I moved over to the medical station, there he stood, in the flesh, yes, very much alive. And amazingly so changed in appearance and demeanor. "You are alive," I smiled at him. "Sure I am, who say I die? I got little bit stomach pain here, and my head..." he pointed to his body, as the volunteer handed him the medication. I caught hold of his hand and sat him down on a nearby chair. His transformation was fantastic. He was totally sober, his eyes clear. Dressed in clean and very decent clothes, his hair cut short and tidy, he looked every bit a handsome young man. Amidst trying to understand his heavy foreign accent and broken Malay, all I could gather was that he had somehow been 'rescued' by his abang/adik who had come back from America and was now comfortably staying with them in a rented apartment. I asked him what he had been doing all this while; he replied "Pray". I probed further, "To whom?" He wagged his head as he pointed up to heaven, "Yesus". My heart rejoiced; he had not forgotten the name he had called out, even in his drunken stupor the last time I ministered to him. "Halleluia" I said, and he replied, "Amen." "Are you still drinking?", I had to ask. "That one, devil, strong," he pursed his lips - at least now he could identify the enemy of his soul and was obviously fighting back. "Jesus stronger," I reminded him. "Amen," was the soft reply.

As the people dispersed, some of them saw us talking and came over... "Eh, you not dead, still alive?" I think he was getting a bit cheezed off by how everyone seemed to think he had died (no thanks in part to my sharing, I am sure) He started rattling off in his mother-tongue to one of his country-men sitting beside us, who was happily smiling away at all the attention. I turned to face the others who had gathered around "Ya man, he's alive, just like Jesus... He knows Jesus, do you?" A youth with dyed brown hair and tattoos on his arms nodded enthusiastically, "Since I was 15, aunty... my sister, my father mother got back together because of Jesus, now only my brother who don't wanna make amends with me..." He was grinning from ear to ear. The other guy with him put a hand up in the air as I looked in his direction, very quick to stop me from asking further..."I very soon, aunty, soon." In this alley, they all knew this old aunty who can't stop talking about Jesus. How many times they must have heard me repeat the same old lines, "Jesus loves you. He died and rose again alive to give you life. Do you understand?"

Saying, preaching, even believing it is one thing. But seeing a 'dead' man so alive in front of me is another. It didn't matter what the real story was. Whether it was a case of mistaken identity or miscommunication, whether it was a rumor, how his relatives found him....none of that mattered. Only 1 thing mattered - where once upon a time, for all intents and purposes, even if he had not physically died, this incorrigible drunk was as good as dead, now he was gloriously alive. And he knows who his Savior is. Just a couple of days before I had been sharing with the kids the Bible record of Jesus delivering a man possessed by 6000+ demons. So tormented he tore the chains and shackles people tried to 'tame' him with,  went around naked, cut himself with stones and resided in the town cemetery. By the time Jesus finished off the demons, the man was found sitting at His feet, fully clothed and in his right mind (Mark 5:1-15).

And that is how TS, the ex-drunk appeared to me. He had spent years on the street in the horrible 'possession' of something that was killing him off, destroying his body, spirit and soul. No one could reach him. Many had tried before, and honestly to our shame, we had all given up. Seeing him restored 'in his right mind', I am reminded of the unfailing love of God for the most wretched, the ones everybody gives up on. And how mighty the power of God to literally raise up a man destroyed and 'dead' to give him a brand new life - that's resurrection power. The same power that raised Jesus up alive from the grave 2013 years ago. What happened then is still happening now. Praise God.

 "And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins...God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)" ... Ephesians 2:1, 4-5