‘The young Rivera was well-grounded in the Christian faith and would earnestly and deeply pray for the healing of the sick, the infirmed and the suffering.’

PRESIDENT Bongbong Marcos’ ratings rose by 12 percent in the recent SWS survey largely due to several breakthroughs and notable decisions improving the economy and agriculture.

The government’s strong and relentless response against high crimes committed by dismissed Bamban, Tarlac mayor Alice Guo and preacher Apollo Quiboloy, as well as the President’s lawful and tempered campaign against the still widespread illegal drug menace also substantially contributed to higher public trust and confidence.

His order to raise the salaries of government workers was quite laudable although part-time public employees, including a large number of faculty that have been serving for five to 10 years in state universities and public schools and colleges have been left out and are appealing to the President for his kind consideration.

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When former Press Secretary Robert Rivera went to the room of his son, Robert Jeremiah, to check why his alarm clock had been ringing for almost an hour, he was jolted at the sight of his son sprawled on the floor. He and his wife Elyza rushed Jeremiah to the nearest hospital, praying and hoping that he would be revived.

Doctors said Jeremiah may have been lifeless for more than three hours, having succumbed to fatal arrhythmia, which is caused by sudden irregular heartbeat leading to a heart attack. Robert said his asthmatic son had collapsed, apparently after trying to get hold of his nebulizer a few meters from his bed. Jeremiah, the youngest in the family, would have turned 19 on September 22 and started college a week after.

The Rivera couple was “in shock and disbelief, dazed and could not speak without weeping.”

The family and their close relatives belong to the New Life Christian Ministries in Alabang and found themselves questioning God and His mercies. As he embraced the lifeless body of his son when he found him that morning, his lips could only muster a Biblical promise that seemed broken, from Jeremiah 29:11. “For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

Jeremiah was an outstanding student and an exemplary overachiever at the Southville International School in Paranaque. Only 18, Jeremiah was able to reap remarkable achievements as a gold medalist at the Hong Kong International Science Olympiad (2022) during the Copernicus Natural Science Olympiad Regional Round and as a silver medalist at the Thailand International Math Olympiad (2022) and at the Guangdong-Hongkong-Macau Greater Bay Area Math Olympiad (2022).

The young Rivera was well-grounded in the Christian faith and would earnestly and deeply pray for the healing of the sick, the informed and the suffering. His mother, broadcaster Elyza Rivera, recalled that Jeremiah laid hands on a classmate stricken with stomach cancer, who got healed a few weeks later. She also recounted that one of her friends, who could not get pregnant for many years, finally conceived after she was prayed over by Jeremiah.

I delivered a devotional and prayers during the wake of Robert’s son at the Christ the King Memorial Chapels in Green Meadows, Pasig. The following is the main part of my Biblical message lifted from a preaching by Bill Johnson, head pastor of Bethel Church in Redding, California after his wife passed away due to cancer despite their fervent and earnest prayers for her recovery.

“No one who is conscious of eternity can find sting in death. The questions for all the stuff I’ll never have any of those in heaven. I will be a worshipper for all of eternity, I will glorify Him for all of eternity, I will declare His wonders, I will bow before the Lamb on the throne for all of eternity, I will declare His greatness, His grace, His kindness for all of eternity, but I’ll never have the chance to do it with pain. That’s only in this life.

“And I want to give the most priceless gift I can give Him and that is joy in loss, that is celebration in pain, that is giving up my right to understand. He gives the peace that passes understanding which means I have to give up my right to understand and to enjoy the peace that He has purposed to give me.”

Pastor Johnson quotes John 12;24: ‘I say to you unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies it remains alone, but if it dies it produces much grain.’ And, every disappointment can become a seed that brings increase, and people who are going through a loss or deep loss in their lives should walk through it with the Lord. So, the seed does not remain alone but releases into our life what only God can do with loss. And, that is to bring increase, to bring blessing and to bring reward, and only He can take the crisis and turn it into something that changes our life forever.”  The pastor and his family’s sorrow was somehow eased by a revival that started in their church and spread to the Christian communities in the western US through a book written by his wife on communion and healing.