Death is Dead

I got an Ipod for Christmas - 45 years old and I finally got on board. I wanted it so that I could download and listen to sermons and audio books and that's what I've been doing. Recently I downloaded a "Sermon Jam" by Ravi Zacharias. Now, if you don't know what a sermon jam is don't feel bad - I didn't either. But I really like Ravi Zacharias so I tried it. If you'd like to listen, you can download it free here (just right-click on the link below and select "Save Target As"). Trust me - you won't be disappointed.

http://www.relevantrevolution.com/mp3/ravi-lord.mp3

In it, he shares the following:

“Have you ever wondered what you would do to frighten Lazarus after he’d been raised from the dead? What would you do to threaten him? Lazarus, I’m gonna’ kill you? Caligula says, ‘I’m going to kill you.’ Lazarus says, ‘Ha, ha, ha.’ Caligula says ‘stop ha, ha, ha-ing. I’m going to kill you as I’m killing all the Christians.’ Lazarus doubles over in uncontrollable laughter, comes up for air and says, ‘Caligula haven’t you heard? Death is dead! Death is dead!!'

How do you frighten somebody who has already been there and knows the one who’s going to let him out?

But just think, of stepping on shore and finding perfection - of touching a hand, and finding it God's hand - of breathing new air and finding it celestial - of waking up in Glory, and finding it home.

Ladies and gentlemen, your hope and mine in Christ, is that one day we will be with God - one day, we will be with Him."

I was listening to this on the airplane on the way home from the funeral last week. Obviously, death was on my mind - I was sorrowful and death seemed the enemy. But as I listened to this, my perspective changed. Death is not the end - it's just the beginning. In fact, it's the beginning of our real life - our eternal life. Our time here on earth is just a prelude to eternity. I love how C.S. Lewis put it in his children's book The Last Battle:

And as He spoke He no longer looked to them like a lion; but the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them. And for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.

Death's hold on us is its fear, but as Christians that fear is gone. So just remember - our life here is just the cover and the title page. When we see Him, every chapter will be better than the one before.

So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. 1Corinthians 15:54