By Charlie Gray

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, there are 171,146 words currently in use in the English language. I have always enjoyed learning and using new words.  With that said, I have decided to completely remove a word I’ve used all my life, from my vocabulary. The word is death.  As Followers of Jesus, there is no such thing.  We are assured of  that divine reality. This becomes the basis of our faith and the fuel that drives us through the pain and loss in this world.

Each of us had a past life that we remember nothing of.  It was a life where we flourished, were nourished by others and survived. It was a life of the past that moved us forward into the life we now live.  That past life was the time we all spent in our mother’s womb.

That life is now behind us.  We have no memories or photos to represent it.  What we do have is the realization that it existed and we have now moved on.  For me, that reality provides hope that there is yet another life ahead for me. An eternal residence in the Kingdom that God has prepared for me.  As believers we refute the finality of death.  Oops !!! …….. didn’t mean to use that word !!!!!