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“I [the Lord Jesus Christ] am He that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell [hades] and of death” (Revelation 1:18).
On the Humber river, near Deer Lake, Newfoundland, Canada, apparently there is a phone out in the forest, protected by a wooden box, and it is not hooked up to anything. It is an old dial-type phone, and was apparently put there by the town of Deer Lake, so that people could go out into nature and supposedly communicate with their dead relatives or friends. Of course, they cannot hear anything on this phone, but many say that they have obtained real comfort in this way.
Satan will do almost anything to deceive man, including a device like this that pretends to communicate with the dead. But our verse for today tells us that there is only One, the Lord Jesus, who has the keys of hades and death. Hades is the condition of a soul without a body, while death applies to the body. No one on this earth today can talk to the dead, but Satan, who has always been a liar, wants to deceive people in this way.
How wonderful it is to know that if our loved ones who have died knew the Lord Jesus as Savior, they are with Him in heaven. We cannot communicate with them, but we know that they are in the full enjoyment of His presence. How much better this is than a dead phone, into which people can talk, but never get an answer!
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