Dead?

I grew up in a family of four boys and I was the oldest.  My dear sister was born when I was sixteen years old.  In the summers, us boys lived outdoors.  We went out in the morning and didn’t come home until dark.  We were scared to come inside because mom might have work for us to do.  At lunchtime, we ate a tomato out of the garden or sliced a cucumber … with the same jack knife that we skinned squirrels with.  I loved climbing trees and would try to go from one tree to another without going back to the ground.  If I would go high enough, I could swing out and cause the tree to lean over to the nearby one and transfer from tree to tree.  The old Tarzan movies might have something to do with my tree-climbing interests.  So, one day we were enjoying our creative tree climbing when my brother two years younger than me attempted a risky move.  He lost his grip, fell about twenty feet, and landed squarely on his back.  Phillip didn’t move, and I thought he was dead!  I shinnied down the tree as fast as I could.  Then I heard him gasp.  He had the wind knocked out of him and he was gasping to get his breath.  He was shaken, but just fine.  After sixty years, I still have that moment burned into my memory.  Hey, we all fear death.  That is because death is so final.  We can no more make amends or ask forgiveness of anyone after death.  The mind is shut down and nothing matters.  But, if we have trusted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we will live again!  Oh, we still fear death, but death is not final.  Death is only the door that opens into eternity.  Paul said in I Corinthians 15:55, :O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?”  We mourn at funerals, but we do not mourn as those who have no hope.  Our hope is in Jesus Christ and in the coming resurrection told of in I Corinthians 15 and I Thessalonians 4.  Hey, read about it and decide before it’s too late.