Paul Tripp: The Bible is a story about a life that ended in death so that death would forever die so that life could live forever.

Kate Crowley: Welcome to Right Here, Right Now in today's program from Paul Tripp Ministries. Join us as Paul connects the transforming power of Jesus Christ to everyday life. Now, here's Paul Tripp.

PT: I don't know how to say it best. Maybe this is the way to begin. It's the most devastating of human experiences. It's something almost everyone dreads. It's something we all fear.

Yet it hangs over our heads with scary inevitability. Yet we do everything we can to avoid it. We'll spend time; we'll spend money; we'll spend great effort to delay it as much as we possibly can.

It's impossible for us to prepare for, but we try to get ourselves prepared the best we can; and when it comes, none of us really knows what to say or what to do. You can fool yourself into thinking it won't get you, but it will--it always does.

It's hard to know how to relate to somebody who's going through it. Inside, you wish you could just avoid them, but you know you can't. It's an experience that brings out the best and the worst of your faith.

It isn't a respecter of persons; it doesn't have any favorites; it doesn't care how much you're worth, or how old you are, or how young you are, or how much power you have, or how much position you have, or whether you're a man or a woman or boy or girl. It doesn't care what your political persuasion is or where you go to church. It doesn't care if it's the right moment for you or not. It will come when it's supposed to come.

It may be the hardest of human experiences; yet it was not part of the original plan. Let me say that again, "It may be the hardest of human experiences; yet it was not part of the original plan."

And there will be a day when we'll all attend its funeral because it too will die. You may be in the middle of it right now or next to someone who is. It may be around the corner for you in some way, and you don't even know it. And I'm going to help you to think about it, straightforward and honestly, today and the days that follow.

Music: "Death Is Not The End" by Bob Dylan

When you're sad and when you're lonely
And you haven't got a friend
Just remember that death is not the end
And all that you held sacred
Falls down and does not mend
Just remember that death is not the end
Not the end, not the end
Just remember that death is not the end

Kate Crowley: This is Right Here, Right Now and today's compelling topic which affects everyone, "When Grief Enters Your Door."

There's more coming from Paul Tripp. As you get ready for today's broadcast, go ahead and call a friend and invite them to join us. Don't forget, at any time during the program, you can log onto paultrippministries.org where you can pick up a copy of Paul's book, War Of Words, an in-depth look at how words can deeply impact your life.

While there, you can also check out other important materials including video, audio, and print resources dealing with marriage and parenting. That's paultrippministries.org. More later, but now, Right Here, Right Now continues with Paul Tripp.

The Newspaper Guy and the Obituaries

Paul Tripp: I love our ability to electronically access information. I love the Internet and what's available to us there to learn and to know. But, you know, I'm a newspaper guy as well.

I love reading the newspaper. I love holding it in my hands. I love the look, the feel, the touch of it. And I read the newspaper every morning. It's part of my morning routine, and I was reading the paper yesterday. Now, like I said, "I do it every morning." And I read that there have been 403 murders so far in Philadelphia this year. I think now that I'm doing this broadcast, about 409 for the year of 2006.

Now, think about it; that's over 400 people right in the middle of their lives whose lives were abruptly cut short. That's 403 families who face the hardest thing that a human being can ever face.

That's 403 husbands and wives and children, sisters, brothers, aunts and uncles and friends who got that horrible life altering phone call. That's 400 people who will never have another conversation; that's 400 people who will never have another hug or kiss.

That's 400 people who will never make another decision; that's 400 people who will never again wake up in the morning to face another day; that's 400 people who will not be there at Christmas or for a birthday or for a family reunion.

Wow! That is 400 people whose lives unexpectedly and violently ended - and they simply are not coming back again.

Now each of those people lived a life. Each life was separate and unique. Each life was its own little individual drama, its own little individual story. And as I read, my mind, as it often does when I read the newspaper, began to wonder, how many other people die each day in Philadelphia from old age, disease, accident, or other causes?

How many people die each day in Pennsylvania, in the USA, in North America, in the Western Hemisphere, in the world? How many families around the world, every day, are facing the unthinkable? How much does this broken world cry in grief every day?

You know, there's not one of us who wants to grieve. All of us feel sad for those who do. Yet there's one thing for sure; somehow, someway, at some time, death will enter our door. There's no getting around it.

There's no way to philosophically or theologically alter the fact: we live in a world where death lives. We live in a world where death lives. It lurks in the shadows. A thing to be feared, a reality to be avoided, but we're never completely successful; it gets us all in the end.

Someday you will cry tears of grief. Someday you will die, and others will grieve your loss. And so, here's what we need to do, and we're going to do this in the next few days: we're going to bring grief out of the shadows.

We need to yank death out of the darkness. We need to look it in the eye; we need to understand what we're facing and be ready as we can be, and I would like to help you do that.

Music: "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" by Green Day

I walk a lonely road
The only one that I have ever known
Don't know where it goes
But it's home to me, and I walk alone
I walk this empty street
On the boulevard of broken dreams
Where the city sleeps
And I'm the only one, and I walk alone
I walk alone, I walk alone
I walk alone, I walk a-
My shadow's the only one that walks beside me
My shadow heart's the only thing that's beating
Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me
'Til then I walk alone

The Bible Is a Manual About Death

Paul Tripp: I have said this to you before, and I will repeat it again: "the Bible is a manual of life." Now because the Bible is a manual about life, it is also a manual about death. There is a way in which the two opposing forces of life and death are on every page of Scripture. The Bible really is a life and death story.

You see, the Biblical story is really about a great history-consuming battle between life and death. You see, the great drama of the Bible is not whether you will have a happy life or nice friends or enjoy a good marriage. No, the great drama of Scripture is whether life will conquer death, or death will conquer life.

You see, the great dramatic hope of the Biblical characters is that someday, some way, death will die. So if you want to understand death, if you want to really understand the experience of grief, if you want to be as ready as you possibly can be, there is no better place in the world to go than the Bible. The Bible really does say more about death than any book you could ever read.

Nowhere does the shocking sadness of death get displayed with more clarity and flesh and blood sensitivity than the pages of Scripture. The Bible sort of records it all.

The Bible records instances of sibling homicide, parents mourning the death of their children, masses of people dying in wars and plagues, the sadness of death in old age, the grief of a family, the cries of mourning friends.

The Bible is so accurate, and so honest, and so candid, and so sensitive in the way it records that dramatic experience of death. It's all there. It's all recorded with candor, and color, and accuracy, and tenderness. So, if you want to understand death, if you want to know how to properly grieve, there just is no better place to go than the Bible.

But here's our problem, and I think this is everybody's problem. We deal with it in different ways, but it's all of our problem. I think there's a way in which all of us participate in what I'm about to say.

"When it comes to death, when it comes to grief, we all tend to want to deny reality." We all tend to work to deny it. Death just makes us uncomfortable. Death makes us uneasy. Death causes us to be afraid. Death makes us anxious. Death makes us feel weak. Death confronts us with our lack of control. I'm persuaded that the reason we do not want to think about death is because of what death tells us about life.

Now, I want you to get that concept again because I think it's a very important one as we begin this consideration of death and grieving. I'm deeply persuaded that the reason we do not want to think about death is because of what death tells us about life.

So let me just list six things that death teaches you about life.

Here's the first one. Death confronts you with the fact that you're not in control. Oh, we like to think that we're in control of our lives. We like to think that we have more power and personal sovereignty than we actually have. And death really confronts that.

If you were in control of your life, you would not plan to die. There are very few people who actually want to die, and so death confronts us. It comes always at the wrong time. It never regards our schedule. It never regards when it's convenient for us. Death confronts you with the fact that you're not in control.

Second, death forces you to face the fact of your weakness and dependency. We are such weak people. An accident, a disease, old age can rob us of life, and we really are dependent on God giving us strength every day for that day, or we cease to exist.

Unless God provides what we need, life doesn't continue. Death confronts you with the fact that you are not in control. Death forces you to face the fact of your weakness and dependency.

Third thing. Death requires you to accept that 'what is' will not always be. You see, we like to think that today will become tomorrow, will become tomorrow, will become tomorrow, will become tomorrow, will become tomorrow, will become tomorrow on into eternity. It doesn't work that way.

Death requires us to face the fact of an abrupt change in our plan, abrupt change in our lives. All of a sudden, things can be dramatically different. Death is the ultimate interruption of life as a status quo.

So death confronts you with the fact that you're not in control. Death forces you to face the fact of your weakness and dependency. Death requires you to accept the fact that 'what is' will not always be.

Fourth thing. Death makes you respect the reality that what you do and say does make a difference. Think about this. You can't do whatever you want with your body. You can't do whatever you want with your life. You can't stand in front of a speeding semi and expect to live. You can't eat poison and expect to live. The fact that there is life and the fact that there is death requires us to face the fact that what I do and what I say, how I live, does make a difference.

Death confronts you with the fact that you're not in control. Death forces you to face the fact of your weakness and dependency. Death requires you to accept that 'what is' will not always be. Death makes you respect the reality that what you do and say does make a difference.

And here's the fifth thing. Death invites you to face the fact that the life you are living is not all about you. You see, if life was all about you, you would never die. You would live, and you would be the center of your life. There's something bigger and more significant going on. Death makes me confront that.

And then sixth, death welcomes you to admit that you need help, to admit there are things in life that you cannot fix, you cannot solve, you cannot defeat. You cannot defeat death. You need help.

Death confronts you with the fact that you are not in control. Death forces you to face the fact of your weakness and dependency. Death requires you to accept that 'what is' will not always be. Death makes you respect the reality that what you do does make a difference. Death invites you to face the fact that life that you are living is not all about you. Death welcomes you to admit that you need help, to admit that there are things that you cannot fix, cannot solve, cannot defeat. Death forces you to be honest. Death requires you to be humble. Death teaches you things about life.

Music: "By And By (We'll Understand) by Selah

Mpasi, ntantu ta kwisa
Beto bakisa yau ve
Nki nzila Yesu baka kwa zulu
Kansi Yandi twadisa
Beto ku landa Yandi
Beto bakisa yau mbote by and by
By and by, bu nsuka ta kwisa
Bana ya Nzambi ta kwenda na zulu
Beto yimbila kilumbu beto ndandu
Beto bakisa yau mbote by and by
Awa mpukumunu
Santana seka Nzambi
Beto kele ntantu sambu masumu
Beto yituka nki na yonso kele kwisa
Beto bakisa yau mbote by and by
CHORUS
Bima mingi kele ve
Bu muyoyo ya beto
Kansi beto kwikila Tata Nzambi
Bonso ndinga ya Yandi
Beto ata luvundu
Beto bakisa yau mbote by and by

Why We All Hate Death

Paul Tripp: Do you know why we all tend to hate death? We all hate death, not only because it is so shockingly final, but because it makes each of us feel so incredibly needy and so incredibly weak. You see, death forces you to be honest. It requires you to be humble. The Bible brings the drama of death into the light where it can be seen and understood.

Now, think about this. Do you really know what the Bible is all about? Here it is in its shortest form - this is a summary of the Bible in the shortest form I can think of. The Bible is a story about a life that ended in death so that death would forever die so that life could live forever. Let me say that again, "The Bible is a story about a life that ended in death so that death would die forever so that life could live forever."

You see, the Bible doesn't run from death; the Bible doesn't hide its grief. The carnage from the epic struggle between life and death is strewn all over the pages of the Bible. In the Bible, you hear the pain of those in the throes of death, and you are a witness to the sadness of those who are left behind. Yet, because the Bible is a story, it has a beginning, and it has an end.

Now, here's what you have to understand. The Bible is not a catalog of philosophical or theological observations about death. No, in the Bible, death is a drama. It lives in the streets; it walks down our hallways; it sits in the rooms where we live. So the Bible tells you exactly where death had its terrible beginning, and it tells you exactly how it will have its final end.

Now, here's what you need to grab a hold of. The reason the Bible is unafraid of death, the reason the Bible is able to bring death out of the darkness into the light, is that the Bible understands that death some day will die. Death, as powerful as it is, is not ultimate. Death was not here in the beginning, and it will not be here in the end.

And so we do not have to tremble in the presence of death. We can open the pages of Scripture, and we can face death head on. We can dissect it and we can learn. And remember--as we do that, we learn things not just about death, we learn things about life because death doesn't just teach us about death; death teaches us about life.

It teaches us that we're not in control. It teaches us to face the fact of our weakness and dependency. It requires us to accept that 'what is' will not always be. It makes us respect the reality that what we do does make a difference. It invites us to face the fact that life is not all about us, and death welcomes us to admit that we need help, that there are things we cannot defeat.

And so we're going to open the pages of Scripture. We're going to look death in the face and unafraid. We're going to dissect it and we're going to learn. Won't you do that with me?

(Music Interlude)

Is there a chance that grief has entered your door? Have you faced death of a family member or friend? Are you facing it now? Are you able to look death in the face and be unafraid? Or, are you a person who is quite skilled at playing the good old denial game?

Well, you cannot read the Bible without being confronted with the reality of death. It starts pretty early in Scripture, and it really is the blood that stains every page. You cannot be honest about life without facing the inevitability of death; yet you do not have to be afraid.

Here is the bright reality that splashes across the pages of the Word of God. Someone has been willing to die so that death would die so that life would live forever.

So although the Bible is a story that's filled with sadness and filled with grief, filled with darkness and death, and it is that kind of story because it's an honest story about life in the fallen world. Ultimately it's a story of hope!

Why? "Why?" you ask? How could it be a story of hope if the drama of death is on every page? Well, it's a story of hope because the Bible, the Biblical story, records the death of death by the power of God's sovereign grace, death will die and because of this, you can look death in the face and have hope - you really can, right here, right now.

Kate Crowley: Hope for tomorrow that never ends, Paul Tripp and the freeing truth that can be found in the Word of God from our current series, "When Grief Enters Your Door," on Right Here, Right Now.

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Next time we're together, Paul continues his compelling new series, "When Grief Enters Your Door." For Paul Tripp and all of us at Paul Tripp Ministries, I'm Kate Crowley, reminding you that, in Jesus Christ, there really is help, right here, right now. See you tomorrow.