Participants: David Asscherick & Shanda Ban (Host), Randy Ban
Series Code: E
Program Code: E000009
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00:20 The apostle Paul in his letter to the Corinthians tells us
00:23 that the last enemy to be destroyed is death. 00:27 Also writing to a young pastoral understudy, Timothy, 00:30 he says in 2 Timothy chapter 1:10 that 00:34 Jesus abolished death. 00:37 For many of us death of something that is always 00:39 happening over there, something that happens to others 00:42 and not to us. 00:43 But we are going to be visiting with our guest today and 00:46 seeing that death is not always something that is over 00:48 there, for many of us it is something right here. 00:52 So our program is titled today Light after Death and 00:56 with me of course is my co-host Shandra Ban. 00:58 Shandra I am going to invite you to introduce our 01:01 guest today who is a very special guest. 01:06 So who do we have with us? 01:08 Yes this is a very special guest, not only to you, but to 01:11 me more so me probably. 01:13 This is Randy Ban, not only is he your co-worker at Arise 01:17 evangelism school but he is also my husband and I am so 01:20 glad and I hope I don't answer the questions for you like 01:22 usual. - like no finishing Randy sentences. 01:25 - I'll do my best. 01:26 So Randy you are special to me but your specialer to 01:30 Shandra - that is true. 01:32 So we are glad to have you on the program today. 01:34 Good to be here. - and as you have heard in the 01:36 introduction Jesus says there, or Paul says talking about 01:40 Jesus that He abolished death. 01:43 That makes it sound like death is something that is not 01:47 happening anymore, but just a few weeks ago you received 01:51 a phone call and what happened? 01:53 That's true, and just to give a bit of background on the 01:56 whole thing over there that is true, but for me I have 01:59 only been to four funerals in my life. 02:02 Two of them have been with Shandra only one with someone 02:07 it was my grandfather that died. 02:09 So I'm not very used to that and I was at home a few 02:14 weeks ago and received a phone call from my mom and 02:20 my cousin who was there with her and seen that my dad was 02:23 brought in an ambulance to the hospital. 02:25 He was getting dizzy and lightheaded. 02:28 So it wasn't like a car accident or something? 02:31 No he was at home and got a call up to my mom and 02:34 she called an ambulance and he was rushed away in an 02:37 ambulance and I started to pray for him. 02:42 Now was in such a shocker because I had received in this 02:44 type of phone call about twice the last couple years. 02:47 So I was praying a kind of here we go 02:50 again type of prayer. 02:51 Praying that the Lord would take care of him, in about 02:57 two hours later I received another phone call from my 03:02 cousin who was there with my mother and said that they 03:06 had done a scan of him and they found blood in his brain. 03:09 That was the first that I had ever received that phone 03:12 call before so at that moment, Hearing that he had a democratic 03:16 stroke my prayers changed a bit. 03:19 In my heart I was saying this is not good. 03:22 So the first phone call that came was dad is in the 03:25 hospital, but that had happened a couple times before. 03:28 But this, again was! 03:32 Yes there was blood in his brain and I was praying some 03:36 more and about an hour or so after that I received the 03:39 phone call that they had gotten into his brain and saw 03:42 that it was an in-operativable. The blood had gone into 03:46 his brain stem down, to his spinal cord was basically 03:49 shutting down his organs. So he was on a?. 03:55 He was going down pretty quick but they kept life support 03:59 on him until my nephew and sister could then arrive to 04:04 have some less time with him. 04:07 With a little context to this is all happening in Canada 04:09 where you are from. 04:10 Yeah my parents live in Vancouver British Columbia and 04:13 I was in California at the time and Shandra unfortunately 04:16 was visiting her family in Alberta so I was actually home 04:18 alone when I received the call. 04:20 My sister was driving from Washington state up to 04:25 Vancouver so when I gave her a call with the news that my 04:28 dad had passed, I was home alone and she was on the side 04:31 of the highway pulled over when I told her. 04:35 It was pretty tough but that's what happened. 04:39 So Shandra you two were not together? 04:42 I was visiting my family. 04:43 - and you are home in California? 04:46 I was by myself yeah. 04:47 Your dad is not an old man. - No he's in his early 60s. 04:53 But with some more background, his father died of a stroke 04:58 due to high blood pressure when he was in his late 50s. 05:02 My dad had high blood pressure and onslaught diabetes so 05:06 again that was related to the times that 05:09 he was pulled by ambulance before. 05:12 And this is to the viewers at home, if you know you have 05:16 some health issues just please make changes in your life 05:21 if you need to because my dad could have lived longer 05:25 for sure, his exit was early definitely due to health. 05:29 So then that highlights the point we are driving at here, 05:32 in your mind yesterday it had been to the hospital before 05:35 yet you are not expecting this call. 05:38 No not at all, not at all. 05:40 This is not something that happened a year ago or two 05:42 years ago, we are talking several weeks ago. 05:44 Well then as with any death, now we have plans and 05:50 preparations to make and you are flying out. 05:52 Yeah I was on a plane the next morning heading to 05:54 Vancouver and when I got out there. 05:57 Where's your heart what's happening here? 05:59 It was all so surreal, after did the phone call I was in 06:03 operativable, I'm not much of a crier and Shandra knows 06:07 that I broke down crying that he had passed several hours 06:11 in the early morning. 06:13 But when I got home to spend time with my family, praying 06:17 together, being together and working on the funeral plans. 06:22 Well you don't expect to be 28 years sitting in a 06:27 funeral home planning your father's funeral. 06:29 It was very strange to be in there. 06:31 The word has got to be surreal. 06:33 Yeah surreal was the word and I kept using it in my head. 06:35 You feel like you are all most watching it not 06:38 that you are in it. 06:39 Definitely, it is funny, even in the funeral home sitting 06:44 around with my mom and my sister, Shandra, and myself my 06:48 head was thinking why is that my dad sitting here? 06:51 Not thinking that I'm in a funeral home, I was in an 06:53 office, yeah it was definitely surreal. 06:55 We are going to come back to that, the reason I think, 06:58 and I know that we have talked about this Randy 07:00 that it feels so surreal is that we are not wired 07:03 to deal with death. 07:04 Death is not something that God ever designed us to 07:08 deal with and to encounter and frankly our internal 07:11 psychological coping mechanism just can't. 07:14 It is just too much. 07:15 Now of course we have a coping mechanism within the 07:17 Word of God which we are going to talk about. 07:20 But at this point you are at the funeral home, 07:22 you actually end up preaching your father's funeral. 07:27 Yeah, when the time came to work on the program, 07:31 this is all so weird because there's no handbook on how 07:33 to prepare a funeral service, but from the moment 07:37 I knew we had to do that instinctively in my head and 07:40 heart I knew that I was going to be the one 07:42 to preach the homily service. 07:44 I found out later that is not so common I guess, I am 07:48 not a Pastor or preacher. 07:50 But you had an unction from Spirit. 07:51 Yeah because I really reason that I knew alot of my 07:55 family and friends would be coming, a lot of my dad's 07:58 family who are not Christians at all and it would be 08:01 an opportunity for me to just preach Christ to 08:03 everyone that was there. 08:04 You have literally like a captive audience. 08:07 So you didn't actually take time to prepare the sermon 08:10 until the night before the funeral because who wants 08:13 to prepare the sermon for the father. 08:15 Yeah I didn't have that one in the file. 08:17 During the preparation my goal was to show them why 08:23 I believe my dad was saved and show them how they can, 08:29 anyone there be saved as well. 08:30 So when you say you preached Christ, it wasn't just like 08:33 oh my dad was a nice man and sort of going through the 08:37 memories, this you had urgency and you had intentionality. 08:40 Randy why don't you share a little bit of your dad's life 08:43 struggle and did share at the funeral. 08:46 My dad has been in and out with the church. 08:50 I think at all times he considered himself to be 08:55 a believer but I used to be concerned for my dad and 08:59 his salvation because he would be as what I would see, 09:02 in and out, in and out, and would be oh Lord could You 09:05 please keep him constantly with You. 09:06 But then a passage came to mind was Proverbs 24:16 where 09:11 it says that, "for a righteous man may fall seven times 09:14 "and rise again." And some versions then say "but the 09:17 "wicked just takes one fall." 09:20 I just started realizing then that the reason dad was up 09:26 and down was because he wanted to get back up. 09:30 If he had never struggled with his walk with the Lord 09:33 he would have been because he didn't care but I realize 09:36 that he wanted to live and that's what it looked like. 09:39 I started to realize that he was just more honest about 09:42 where he was with the Lord than most people, even myself. 09:44 It is so refresh and frankly two-year you say that. 09:47 That honesty because we have had other guests on the 09:50 program who sort of talk to us about that, oh everything 09:52 is fine and everything is good when it is not fine. 09:54 Your dad had that honesty where he was in and he was out 09:58 and he was struggling. 09:59 It doesn't mean that everyone has to struggle but that 10:01 was your dad's experience but then something happens? 10:03 Yes tell us about the morning. 10:05 Yes some providential things happened in the morning of 10:10 let me back up further just to again while these things 10:14 were coming back to my head as far as I think the Lord 10:17 was putting on my heart to say hey Randy it's okay. 10:20 He was in the saving relationship with Me. 10:24 Just the previous Christmas was one of the last times 10:28 we spent together and my dad is typically not the leader 10:31 of spiritual things because he was always up and down. 10:35 But at that Christmas before we ate with our family and 10:39 other close family members uncles and cousins my dad 10:42 wanted to say a quick word worship thought. 10:46 And before we even ate and he loves food. 10:49 He wanted to take time to do that and he had us all sit 10:52 down and he read from his devotional book. 10:55 - He's initiating? - Yeah he's initiating and I can't ever 10:59 remember that happening. - that's novel? - yeah. 11:01 He read a devotional and then he said I want to pray. 11:07 I have only heard my dead pray audibly maybe 3 or 4 times 11:12 in my life, but every time he would pray he would weep, 11:17 every single time I actually heard him pray. 11:19 - you never told me that before. 11:20 He would always struggle but an again in this Christmas 11:25 one he prayed and it was a long prayer. 11:29 It would typically be awkwardly long if we were just 11:31 going to keep kind of thing but he was just pouring 11:34 his heart out to the Lord and he was starting 11:37 to soften and everything. 11:38 Not only him but the rest of us as well. 11:40 Obviously. - so this is a genuine spiritual experience? 11:44 Yeah, so that came back to my mind, other reasons where 11:48 I started to understand and believe that 11:52 my dad was in this relationship. 11:53 Randy tell us about that morning. 11:55 Yeah so leading to the morning it was the Sabbath morning 12:00 the day that he died and he got a phone call from one of 12:05 my aunts, they saw he was online so they called him just 12:11 out of a whim. 12:13 I praise God for people will move with the Holy Spirit 12:16 is calling them, I think my aunt and uncle definitely. 12:19 They just felt impressed to call him and they were 12:22 speaking in the morning and again she felt urged to, 12:25 she knows where my dad is at and this is someone my dad 12:28 opened up to before. 12:30 She said John don't you think it's time to be right with 12:35 the Lord, to set your heart right with the Lord? 12:37 He said you're right it is time and my heart is right. 12:40 And he said he was ready to go back to church. 12:42 Yeah he said he was ready to go back to church and 12:43 willing to forgive the people he held feelings against. 12:47 So this is the morning of, that happened maybe at 12:51 6 or 7 a.m. and he was being pulled into the 12:55 ambulance later that day. 12:57 So is this your dad sister? It's my mom's cousin that 13:01 called. - and she said to him straight up its time for 13:04 you to get your life right with the Lord. - yes. 13:07 But she had that report with him, yes she had that. 13:11 He responds in saying yes, I want to be more on track, 13:14 I am on track and will be more on track with Him, 13:17 I want to go to church and he has no idea. 13:20 You have no idea that he is going to be getting wheeled 13:23 into an ambulance and he is not going to make it 13:27 to that evening. 13:28 And there is another good thing while he is going into 13:31 the ambulance. Yeah when he was in the house before and 13:33 the paramedics were coming he started had lost his vision 13:36 which happens when people are having a stroke, my mom 13:39 said she heard him say Lord I'm sorry as he was being 13:42 brought into this state. 13:45 I thought of Paul that he had to go blind before he could 13:49 really surrender his life and I believe that is what 13:51 happened with my dad that he had to get to this point 13:53 where he really surrender and I believe that he did. 13:55 So with those two things plus the prayer at Christmas 13:58 gave me hope, because I didn't find out about that 14:01 morning's call until like two days later. 14:04 That's the key word, you just said the word there hope. 14:07 That is the key word. 14:08 Now when you got to preach a sermon and this is awesome. 14:13 You are preaching and you are calling out and say 14:16 reconciliation, you're introducing them to Jesus, 14:18 my father passed away and there is an urgency. 14:21 There were several coworkers there 14:23 that were not Christians. 14:24 So you build the sermon around their primary text, 14:27 a primary passage and where would we be 14:30 without this passage? 14:32 1 Thessalonians 4:13- do you have it there please read 14:36 for us because we need to hear this again. 14:37 "But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, 14:41 "concerning those who have fallen asleep, let's use sorrow 14:44 "as others who have no hope. For if we believe that 14:46 "Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with 14:49 "Him those who sleep in Jesus. For this we say to you 14:52 "by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain 14:55 "until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede 14:58 "those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend 15:01 "from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an arc Angel, 15:04 "and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will 15:07 "rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be 15:10 "caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the 15:12 "Lord in the air and thus we shall always be with the 15:15 "Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words." 15:18 There's a part in that verse that says, I don't remember 15:22 the exact wording but basically we do not mourn. 15:26 We do not sorrow, and here it is who have no hope. 15:30 Even now it is surreal, I have to remind myself that my 15:35 dad is gone, I haven't lived at home for several years. 15:40 But what I do think about it I did sad, but then I realize 15:44 I'm not morning as much as may be I think I should. 15:48 But as they spend more time thinking about it I realized 15:51 that God has prepared me for comfort. 15:54 The reason I don't more the way I think I should mourn 15:57 is because I am typically see other people more that 16:00 don't have that help and I realize and start to thank Him 16:02 that I should be feeling worse than I do but I can praise 16:05 God, Lord thank You so much for giving me this comfort. 16:08 I don't have to mourn the way others do. 16:10 And from a biblical perspective, He says we who are alive 16:14 and remain will not precede them who are asleep. 16:17 From a biblical perspective your dad is sleeping. 16:20 Over and over again the Old Testament, the New Testament 16:24 our friend Lazarus sleeps, Abraham slept, your dad is 16:27 sleeping and this is why Paul can say what we quoted in 16:31 the opening is Jesus has abolished death. 16:34 We are like oh if he is sleeping but Jesus is like okay 16:39 you are not understanding, he's dead. 16:41 You have a hope in your hope is that your father is not 16:45 dead in the biblical sense which is referred to as the 16:48 second death, you will see your father again. 16:52 Yeah the whole first and second death thing really, 16:55 really came true for me just thinking more about that. 16:59 It's more of just a pause and again I have this hope that 17:02 oh I love the language the pause verses the playing. 17:07 So now the, this has impacted you. - yet definitely. 17:12 This has little fire under you, you said something earlier 17:15 why you said it just really spoke to me about the dead 17:18 and the living, do you know what I'm talking about? 17:22 Through my dad's death and the fact that I have so much 17:26 hope that he will be saved has given me a motivation to 17:30 really reach those who are living and give them that 17:35 same hope for themselves as well. 17:37 You can really see the frailty of life, you're dad did 17:40 not know that morning when he was talking to your mom's 17:42 cousin that that evening he was going to be gone. 17:45 - that's true. - we talked a little bit about this 17:47 yesterday the truth of the matter is any of us pretend as 17:50 though, we live our lives as if we are not going to die. 17:52 We have this sense of imperviousness, 17:55 almost invincibility to death. 17:57 But we should be thinking more honestly and more often 18:02 and more biblically about death. 18:05 Now really death is a part of life and we pretend. 18:09 I remember my own grandfather he was 80 years old and he 18:12 had written his will yet. 18:13 We pretend like it's not going to happen to us and here 18:16 you dad and I we cannot emphasize that enough. 18:19 He doesn't know, oh my cousin called or whatever and he is 18:22 having this conversation and he doesn't know that he is not 18:25 going to see that evening. 18:26 He will never wake up again into another morning. 18:29 But our hope, your hope is that he will wake up and 18:32 that is because we talk about the hope. 18:34 What is the cornerstone of that hope? 18:37 Is the death, burial, and resurrection. 18:39 Which it mentions there in that text and I literally read 18:42 that, I almost read this passage every morning since 18:46 the day that my dad passed. 18:48 It's so rich to me now, you really mean something now. 18:52 We are talking about the hope that we have and we have 18:56 to contrast that with others who do not have that hope. 18:59 And this gets us back to why feel so surreal. 19:01 This gets us back to why its so surreal and we were not 19:05 made to experience death. 19:07 God did not build Adam and Eve in the garden to experience 19:09 death, He built them to experience life. 19:11 Of course that is the gospel promise to, the gospel of the 19:14 world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever 19:16 should believe in Him should not perish but have what 19:18 we were always supposed to have, everlasting life. 19:21 Now put yourself in the situation, which you have of 19:24 course, and for viewers as well. 19:26 Put yourself in the situation of having someone pass away 19:30 and you think you will never see that person again? 19:32 It is impossible to cope with that. 19:36 I was eating cereal with you yesterday morning, I was with 19:39 you at the park yesterday afternoon, and we were in Hawaii 19:42 last year for summer vacation and now that it's gone? 19:45 That's stop. - and because it is such a real thing 19:48 I am now motivated to really share them with others. 19:51 My own personal faith is grown since my dad has passed 19:54 and also the fact share the gospel with others. 19:57 Some really awesome opportuni- ties came up, as I mentioned 20:00 being able to preach a sermon at my dad's funeral. 20:05 But also now anyone I meet I can use, I feel like I am 20:08 a very dangerous person for the Lord right now because 20:12 I can bring this up at any point and what is the 20:15 person going to do? 20:16 Discount the fact that my dad died, is just the way that 20:18 I can pull off from anything, meeting somebody on the 20:20 plane, need somebody in line. 20:22 I love that language and I feel like a dangerous 20:25 person for the Lord. 20:27 Now you have written a song about it? - That is correct. 20:30 You're in the throes of this, he doesn't say we don't 20:34 sorrow, he says we don't sorrow as others do. 20:38 So you wake up one morning and this song just poof comes 20:42 to you. - yeah I still do the whole morning thing, 20:45 I very much miss my dad and we have to live on this side 20:51 of eternity but I wanted to find a way for me to express 20:55 the love I have for my dad and the faith I have in it. 21:00 I felt impressed writes it. You're being humble there. 21:04 Stay at the opportunity to record the song earlier and 21:08 it's a beautiful song and we going to come back and talk 21:11 a little bit about it at this time we want 21:13 to go to that song. 21:15 It is so beautiful and I pray it will minister 21:16 right to your soul. 21:21 You are not perfect 21:24 But it's all you have ever known 21:29 But you did love me 21:34 In the way you knew how to show 21:40 And in times of pain 21:45 You did call His name 21:50 And in that day 21:55 In the twinkling of an eye 21:59 You will be changed 22:05 When He comes down from the sky 22:09 So in Christ you will sleep 22:14 In the grave you'll rest in peace 22:19 Till we meet again 22:24 When you are complete 22:39 I'm far from perfect 22:42 Chose to fall when I should have known 22:47 But I did love you 22:52 Through the ways I knew how to show 22:57 So I will walk in faith 23:03 Because I believe you're safe 23:08 and in that day 23:12 In the twinkling of an eye 23:16 I will be changed 23:22 When I see Him in the sky 23:26 So Jesus please 23:31 Keep me by Your side 23:36 Until we meet again 23:41 When I am complete 23:56 Our God is perfect 24:00 On the cross He let us know 24:04 Oh how He loves us 24:09 And the scars are there to show 24:14 He's preparing a home 24:19 For the ones He owns 24:24 And in that day 24:29 In the twinkling of an eye 24:33 He'll bring our change 24:38 When He comes down from the sky 24:42 Oh Lord come soon 24:48 Here our desperate cry 24:52 Until we meet again 24:57 When we are complete 25:02 And on that day 25:06 When He breaks through from the clouds 25:10 We will all be changed 25:15 When we hear that trumpets sound 25:19 There be no more tears 25:24 And we will all be heaven bound 25:28 When we meet again 25:33 When we are complete 25:46 When we all get to heaven 25:51 What a day of rejoicing that will be 26:03 Hallelujah sweet Jesus what a beautiful song. 26:07 Randy why don't you briefly tell us how that 26:10 song came to be. 26:11 It was one morning, again I have been wanting to write 26:15 this song for my dad and the Lord impressed me, again 26:18 I said I am not so spectacular of a musician but I was 26:21 having my morning devotional and I was impressed to go 26:24 to my keyboard and record the melody and all 26:29 the words can at that moment. 26:31 He gave me strength to do that, even though there is 26:34 death, beauty can come out of it. 26:36 And the strength in general, I know my mom is still going 26:39 through a time of mourning but he has been able to keep 26:42 her hopes high and she has even been able to witness to 26:45 the other nurses in the hospital while my dad was passing. 26:48 As a nurse she was actually the one, that she is a nurse 26:51 herself, - she actually was the one who removed the 26:56 ventilator and everything. 26:58 That really is the gospel and just this song is an example, 27:04 this beautiful song comes up as tragic experience. 27:07 This boldness, and the urgency that you and your mom have 27:11 came out of this experience and that is the gospel. 27:14 Jesus died on the cross and the whole plan of salvation is 27:18 consummated when Jesus not only dies but He is raised from 27:22 the dead, it's the gospel. It's the gospel. 27:24 While Randy thank you so much for being here it is a 27:27 blessing as your wife to see how God has enriched your 27:29 experience with Christ because of this. 27:31 As to our viewers please let this experience touch your 27:35 heart and if you would like to be in contact with us 27:40 e- mail us at Engage@3ABN.org or look us up on face book 27:44 just search for Engage but most of all just let the 27:48 circumstance, let me just say from my heart and life is 27:52 uncertain and we don't know when they can end, what the 27:55 thing is that God's love is certain so make a choice to 27:58 be in Christ Jesus today and God bless you. |
Revised 2014-12-17