After studying the menu a diner asked his waiter, “How is the chicken prepared?”

The waiter answered, “Sir, we are very straightforward. We tell the chicken, ‘You are going to die.’”

The Bible is very straightforward. It tells us that we are going to die. No one lives forever in this life. Each one of us has an inescapable appointment with death. However, this biblical teaching is not there to cause us to live in fear or dismay. Its purpose is to give us the chance to prepare for the next life. It was totally up to God to save us. And it is up to us to accept the salvation that he graciously offers us through Jesus.

“Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.”—Hebrews 9:27-28.