"Death has been called the 'new obscenity', the nasty thing which no polite person nowadays will talk about in public. But death, even when unmentionable, remains inescapable. The one sure fact of life is that one day, with or without warning, quietly or painfully, it is going to stop. How will I, then, cope with death when my turn comes? Christians hold that the Jesus of the Scriptures is alive, and that those who know him as Savior, Lord, and Friend find in this knowledge a way through all life's problems, dying included. For 'Christ leads me through no darker rooms than he went through before.' Having tasted death himself, he can support us while we taste it, and carry us through the great change to share the life beyond death in to which he himself passed. Death without Christ is 'the king of terrors,' but death with Christ loses the 'sting,' the power to hurt, which it otherwise would have."

-J.I. Packer, "Growing in Christ" (page 55).

Lives again our glorious King, Alleluia!
Where, O death, is now thy sting? Alleluia!
Once he died our souls to save, Alleluia!
Where's thy victory, boasting grave? Alleluia!

-Charles Wesley, "Christ the Lord Has Risen Today" (1739).


* My apologies to Mr. Al Gore for borrowing this title from his laughable excuse for a factual documentary on Global Warming ;-)