Good morning and welcome to the Daily Article podcast for Tuesday, August the 29th,

2023.

Today's article is written by Dr. Jim Denison and narrated by Chris Elkins of the Denison Forum.

Idalia strengthened to hurricane force early this morning and is expected to hit Florida's Gulf Coast tomorrow as a powerful Category 3 hurricane.

Evacuations have begun, schools have closed, and hospitals are suspending services ahead of the onslaught.

As a reminder of the tragedy that could be unfolding, Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast on this day in 2005,

killing more than 1,800 people and becoming the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history.

Here's another example of our mortality. Elton John is recuperating at home in southern France

after a fall and overnight hospital stay. The news follows the death

of television icon Bob Barker last Saturday at the age of 99, one of numerous celebrities who

have died in 2023. The victims of the shooting in Jacksonville last Saturday could have been

any of us. They could be any of us today. God's word is clear in Ecclesiastes

8, verse 8. No man has the power to retain the spirit or power over the day of death. Here's why I'm

addressing the fact of our mortality. Scripture teaches in Hebrews 2, verse 15, that through fear of death,

humans are subject to lifelong slavery. In what

ways does the fear of death produce such bondage? First, we minimize the future to maximize the

present. Many of us who do not want to consider the next world ignore or even deny the subject,

so they can focus on this world.

Actor George Clooney spoke for many, quote, I don't believe in heaven and hell.

All I know is that as an individual, I won't allow this life, the only thing I know to exist,

to be wasted, end quote.

This fear of death enslaves its victims to living in a fallen world without ultimate purpose or hope. This is because the best way to live this life is to do so in ways an omnipotent, omniscient, omnibenevolent God can bless in this world and the next.

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