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Apples of Gold
Radio Script for August 19, 2009
“Where, O Death, Is Your Sting?”
Hello, I’m Doug Apple…with Apples of Gold.
You are just a blip on the radar.
That’s what James might say if he was writing today.
He was trying to get us to put our life in perspective.
What is your life? It is a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes.
Ecclesiastes says there is a time to be born…and a time to die.
Have you ever opened the newspaper to a blank obituary page?
Just this morning I received two text messages about people dying.
Counting everyone, about 150,000 people die each day. That means about 500 people will die during this Apples of Gold.
This is no surprise, at least not since the Garden of Eden.
God told Adam and Eve not to eat from the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.”
But the serpent told Eve, “You will not surely die.”
Well, that turned out to be a big lie, and death came into the world. Romans 5 hammers that point home.
Verse 12 says “…sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned…”
Romans 6:23 puts it this way: the wages of sin is death.
So sin entered the world through Adam, and death entered the world through sin, and now because everyone sins, everyone dies.
Ecclesiastes 7:2 says death is the destiny of every man. And then it adds, “…the living should take this to heart.”
Well death is something we don’t really want to take to heart. We don’t even want to think about it.
Hebrews 2:15 talks about our fear of death.
But then it says that Jesus Christ came to “free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.”
Verse 14 says that Jesus took on flesh and blood “so that by His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death – that is, the devil…”
Yes, the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord!
In First Thessalonians 4, Paul said he did not want them “to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope.” Through Jesus we have this hope: “we will be with the Lord forever.” And verse 18 says, “Therefore encourage each other with these words.”
We find more encouraging words in First Corinthians 15. “Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
A little sidebar here – we only die once. There is no reincarnation. Hebrews 9:27 says that we will die one time. After that comes the judgment.
Eventually there will be no more death. Jesus said in Revelation 1:18, “I hold the keys of death and Hades.”
First Corinthians 15:25 says that Jesus “must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet.” And “the last enemy to be destroyed is death.”
In Revelation 20:14 we see death and Hades being thrown into the lake of fire.
And finally, in Revelation 21:4, “There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
So, yes, our life is just a blip on the radar. It is a vapor that is here and gone.
Soon enough we will be one of those 150,000 people that die every day.
But we know the story. We know that death came into the world through sin.
And we know that Christ came to save us from sin and deliver us from the fear of death. That’s why Paul said, “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”
That’s the same Paul who wrote, “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” (Philippians 1:21)
So we can say, along with Paul, Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? Thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!
Comments?
E-mail me: dougapple@wave94.com.
May God bless you today! With Apples of Gold…I’m Doug Apple.
© 2009 The Arrow’s Tip
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(Proverbs 25:11 – “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.”)
Why “The Arrow’s Tip”? Each morning, after diligently seeking the Lord, I write Apples of Gold. Then before I release it to the public I pray one final prayer, “Lord, send forth your arrows.” I envision Apples of Gold as arrows, tips dipped in the river of the water of life that flows from the throne of God (Rev. 22:1), sailing toward the hearts and minds of men and women around the world.
Doug Apple
General Manager - Wave 94
Christian Radio for Tallahassee
PO Box 4105
Tallahassee, FL 32315
(850) 926-8000
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