the reason for my hope

"The righteous man perishes,

    and no one lays it to heart;

devout men are taken away,

    while no one understands.
For the righteous man is taken away from calamity;

2 

    he enters into peace;

they rest in their bed

who walk in their uprightness."

Isaiah 57:1-2

Bill was a righteous man, 

not because of anything he had done, 

but because of what Christ has done 

for each one of us. 

Bill chose to accept Jesus' call to repentance.

Bill chose to live his life following Jesus.

"When the perishable puts on the imperishable, 

and the mortal puts on immortality, 

then shall come to pass the saying that is written:

“Death is swallowed up in victory.”

“O death, where is your victory

"O death, where is your sting?”

The sting of death is sin, 

and the power of sin is the law."

I Corinthians 15:54-56

"Truly, truly, I say to you, 

he who hears My word, 

and believes Him who sent Me, 

has eternal life, 

and does not come into judgment, 

but has passed out of death into life."

John 5:24

"In the path of righteousness is life,

    and in its pathway there is no death."

Proverbs 12:28

"This is eternal life, 

that they may know You,

the only true God, 

and Jesus Christ whom You have sent."

John 17:3