There is an old story told about an evangelist who asked an older person if he believed in the hereafter. He got this reply: "Of course I do. About once a day I open the refrigerator door, stare into it and ask, what am I hereafter?"

Seriously, the "hereafter" is a topic that many begin to think about when serious health issues hit or upon the death of a loved one or as we begin to age. Many of us have grown up with the religious idea that if you are not good, you will go to hell to be burned and tortured forever, but if you are good, you will go to heaven to sit around on clouds playing harps. Most of us took these stories for granted without really searching our Bibles to see if this is so. But what is our true destiny when we die? To prepare for the "hereafter," we should be in the "here after"—here, in the Bible, after the truth! You just might be surprised.