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WINNING WITH THE WORD by Dr. MaryAnn Diorio “Winning with the Word” is a weekly blog that will help you to be a winner in life by applying God’s principles for living the abundant life as found in the Bible, God’s manual for life. AN INVITATION TO YOU: To follow this blog, click here.   If this blog has blessed you, please encourage your family and friends to subscribe as well. Thank you! ______________________________________ Do you prefer listening instead of reading? Then click below on the PODCAST LINK to today’s blog post: PODCAST: “WHERE WILL YOU GO WHEN YOU DIE?” by Dr. MaryAnn Diorio ______________________________________   Hello and happy day! This is Dr. MaryAnn Diorio, your Virtual Life Coach welcoming you to Winning with the Word!. Today I'd like to start our program by asking you a very important question. It's a question that may at first sound negative, but in reality, it's one of the most positive questions I could ever ask you. In fact, it may very well be the most important question anyone could ever ask you. The question is this: Do you know where you will go when you die? Perhaps you've never thought about that question before, or perhaps it has crossed your mind on occasion, but you quickly brushed it aside because you did not like to think about it. After all, no one really likes to think about death. Do you know the reason people don't like to think about death or even to talk about it? The reason is that the concept of death is foreign to God's original plan for humanity. It was not something He ever intended for man to experience. On the contrary, when God created man and woman, He intended for them to experience only life forevermore. He intended them to live in total health of spirit, soul, and body, to enjoy abundant wealth. and to be happy and full of joy forever. Somewhere deep down in our hearts, we know that we were meant to experience this kind of life. We know that we were meant to live forever. Consequently, the thought of death troubles us.  "The concept of death is foreign to God's original purpose for humanity." Furthermore, because we believe that death is beyond our control, we try, in a variety of ways, to get a handle on it so that it won't seem so frightening. Have you noticed that when you acquire knowledge about a particular topic, any fear you may have had about it loses its power over you? Well, subconsciously, we believe that if somehow we can figure out death, we will be able to master it, that if somehow we can arrive at an understanding of death, the fear of death will lose its power over us. One of the ways we try to get a handle on death to gain some control over it is by coming up with all kinds of explanations as to what happens to us when we die. For instance, some people believe that death is simply the end of life and that there's nothing beyond it. This belief spawns what is commonly called an Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow you might die philosophy. After all, if this life is all there is, why not throw ourselves recklessly into living it by doing whatever we want. Others believe that everyone will go to heaven because God is good, and a good God would never send anyone to Hell. Even if we've done terrible things during our lifetime, when it's time to die, God will feel sorry for us and let us off the hook. Still others believe that if they live a good life, they will make it to Heaven, although they won't know for sure until after they die. These people are great at doing all kinds of good works, because they are convinced that the more good works they do, the better chance they will have of making it into Heaven. At the same time, however, they live with a continual undercurrent of fear and worry, because they won't know until they die whether or not they actually made it to Heaven. Then there's that group of people who believe what the Bible says, which is that after we die,