Well, since we're talking a lot about pagans and paganism, I thought I'd just suggest Laughing Shall

Well, since we're talking a lot about pagans and paganism, I thought I'd just suggest laughing.

You're still going to die whether you had done those things or not, whether you had drowned or lived you're still going to die. This is the challenge. This is why Ecclesiastes 7 says it's better to be vexed to be indignant to be angry then laugh.

Let me read those for you, please, in chapter seven. A good name is better than precious ointment, and the day of death than the day of birth. It's better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting, for this is the end of all mankind, and the living will lay it to heart.

Regarding the title, The Art of Dying. Yeah, it comes from, I didn't make it up myself, unfortunately, I think it's a great title as well, but it comes from the medieval tradition called the Ars Moriendi, and this was a tradition that was developed kind of during the plague, as the plague was making its way through Europe, people were dying left and right, and they were doing so alone, without family members, without any assistance, without anyone to care for them, because most people who were able to would just flee, and so they developed this book, basically, a series of woodcut, and each picture was one of the temptations that you would face on your deathbed, and so without, say, a priest in the Middle Ages to visit with you, these books were meant to help people prepare and turn their hearts toward God at the end of their lives.

He thought, it's my life. No, it's not, Saul. He died like he lived. Arrogant, willful, defiant of God's word. And so his life is a tragedy. The next day, in verse 8, the Philistines come to the battleground to strip the dead and find Saul's body along with his sons.

It's about a man who, a sailor, who does something foolish at sea and causes his whole crew to die. And he's sitting on the deck, and there all the corpses of his crewmates are around him, and he says, "...the many men so beautiful, and they their dead did lie, and a thousand thousand slimy things lived on, and so did I.".

The book ends in tragedy here for King Saul, but it is not the end. It is merely a reminder of the sequence of ends that compose life. And those ends are like stacked on top of one another. They are in our lives as well, aren't they?

Better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, because that is the end of all mankind, and the living puts this in his heart. Better is vexation than laughter, for when a face is sad, a heart may be merry.

One short sleep past, we wake eternally. And death shall be no more. Death thou shalt die. � Is that any good? I don�t know. I didn�t plan this. You know me. I don�t plan these shows, and I know you can tell that, but I�m just kind of curious why is that here?

A while ago, I found an illustration, and it was about South Koreans and how they would fake their funerals so they could learn. And back in the day when I read this on Reuters, it was interesting because not many people think about death very often.

There's so much that we could say. Look at Samuel, 1 Samuel 2 .6, the Lord kills and makes alive. He brings down to Sheol and he raises up. That's true. But look at Isaiah 26 .19, your dead will live.

Death is all around. We read 1 Kings 17. Let us understand that there's nothing new under the sun. That things today are no less morbid, no less death -celebrating, really, than they were then. Malcolm Muggeridge said all news is old news happening to new people.

It could be tomorrow, but that's my destiny too. The wise will go to the house of mourning and lay it to their heart that that's my end. He goes on to say, sorrow is better than laughter, for by a sad countenance the heart is made better.

A good name is better than precious ointment and the day of death than the day of birth. It's better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting, for this is the end of all mankind and the living will lay it to heart.

The foolish, well, they'll always be in the comedy clubs, at the parties, yucking it up somewhere. Now, sure, you can do both, but it's better to go to the funeral. It's better to come face to face with mortality, to have a sad face for a while, so as to get a glad heart.

There are sometimes more humorous ones, maybe trying to just take the sting off of some of this, you know, going to Davy Jones� locker, or going to the happy hunting ground, God�s resting place, some call it, to meet one�s maker.

� Talking about not what happens after we die, but the dying process, how can we have any joy in the middle of that? We see here that God is testing. There�s a final judgment, Ecclesiastes� author knows that, but there�s a testing right now.

Ambrose Bierce, who was an author and quite a satirist, said this. He says, death is not the end. There remains the litigation over the estate. Then I have a couple of Woody Allen quotes. There are worse things in life than death.

I am the resurrection and the life, says the Lord. He who believes in me will live even though he dies. And whoever lives and believes in me will never die. The Lord be with you.