Helaman 14:19

"Therefore repent ye, repent ye, lest by knowing these things and not doing them ye shall suffer yourselves to come under condemnation, and ye are brought down unto this second death."
Helaman 14:19


This sounds depressing kind of... second death?  Isn't it bad enough the first time? :)  I think it is interesting though, the whole idea of the differences in deaths, and that neither of them really has to have power over us.  The first death is physical death, where our bodies die but our spirits keep living.  This is overcome through Christ's atonement, and means that we will all be eventually resurrected and alive again, physically, forever.  Which is kind of cool.  Immortality... the dream of the ages, right?  And we all get it. :)  The second death is not the death of the spirit... spirits are immortal already.  But it is the separation of our spirits from God's presence, which will feel really bad like death, since God's spirit sustains us.  This is probably the same thing that already happened after the war in heaven to Lucifer and his followers.  They never got bodies, so they don't have any physical being, but they are separated from God by being cast out of heaven.  And although I don't really know whether "Hell" is actually a place or just this same second death... knowing that you can never return to God's presence... by all reports, sticking with God will be more fun.
We don't have to suffer either death permanently.  Most people go through the first death... only a few exceptions.  A couple of prophets and apostles have been translated directly, or granted super extended lives.  And to get around the second death, we just need to repent.  I say "just" ... I do realize that it is really, really hard sometimes. So much of life is, in the moment.  Sometimes it takes looking back to wonder why we let ourselves suffer so much, or why we were so stubborn and prideful. :)  The awesome thing is that, if we are open to it, God teaches us all along the way.  Which is why we can look back and know that we've changed, and gotten better. :)  Today, let's work on avoiding the second death. :)  Let's change who we are, and become better.  Let's repent, and turn to God.