For I know that my Redeemer lives,
and that at the last he will stand upon the
earth;
and after my skin has been thus destroyed,
then in my flesh I shall see God,
whom I shall see on my side,
and my eyes shall behold, and not another.
My heart faints within me!
Job 19:25-27
Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection
and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will
live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do
you believe this?" She said to him, "Yes, Lord, I believe
that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the
world."
John 11:25-27
"Do not let your hearts be troubled.
Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house there are
many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I
go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for
you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I
am, there you may be also. And you know the way to the place where I
am going." Thomas said to him, "Lord, we do not know where
you are going. How can we know the way?" Jesus said to him,
"I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the
Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father
also. From now on you do know him and have seen him."
John 14:1-7
If God is for us, who is against us? He who did
not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not
with him also give us everything else? Who will bring any charge
against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? It
is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right
hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us. Who will separate us from
the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or
famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written,
"For your sake we are being killed all day
long;
we are accounted as sheep to be
slaughtered."
No, in all these things we are more than
conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither
death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor
things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else
in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in
Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:31b-39
We do not live to ourselves, and we do not die
to ourselves. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die
to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the
Lord's. For to this end Christ died and lived again, so that he might
be Lord of both the dead and the living.
Romans 14:7-9
But we do not want you to be uninformed,
brothers and sisters, about those who have died, so that you may not
grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus
died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him
those who have died. For this we declare to you by the word of the
Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the
Lord, will by no means precede those who have died. For the Lord
himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel's call and with
the sound of God's trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in
Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be
caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the
air; and so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage one
another with these words.
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same
Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and
there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who
activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation
of the Spirit for the common good. To one is given through the Spirit
the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge
according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to
another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of
miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits,
to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of
tongues. All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who
allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.
For just as the body is one and has many
members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body,
so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into
one body — Jews or Greeks, slaves or free — and we were all
made to drink of one Spirit.
Indeed, the body does not consist of one member
but of many. If the foot would say, "Because I am not a hand, I
do not belong to the body," that would not make it any less a
part of the body. And if the ear would say, "Because I am not an
eye, I do not belong to the body," that would not make it any
less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would
the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense
of smell be? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each
one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would
the body be? As it is, there are many members, yet one body. The eye
cannot say to the hand, "I have no need of you," nor again
the head to the feet, "I have no need of you." On the
contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are
indispensable, and those members of the body that we think less
honorable we clothe with greater honor, and our less respectable
members are treated with greater respect; whereas our more
respectable members do not need this. But God has so arranged the
body, giving the greater honor to the inferior member, that there may
be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same
care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together with
it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.
Now you are the body of Christ and individually
members of it. And God has appointed in the church first apostles,
second prophets, third teachers; then deeds of power, then gifts of
healing, forms of assistance, forms of leadership, various kinds of
tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all
work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak in
tongues Do all interpret? But strive for the greater gifts. And I
will show you a still more excellent way.
1 Corinthians 12:4-31
My God, my God, why have you forsaken
me?
Why are you so far from helping me, from the
words of my groaning?
O my God, I cry by day, but you do not
answer;
and by night, but find no rest.
Yet you are holy,
enthroned on the praises of Israel.
In you our ancestors trusted;
they trusted, and you delivered them.
To you they cried, and were saved;
in you they trusted, and were not put to
shame.
But I am a worm, and not human;
scorned by others, and despised by the people.
All who see me mock at me;
they make mouths at me, they shake their
heads;
"Commit your cause to the LORD; let him
deliver —
let him rescue the one in whom he
delights!"
Yet it was you who took me from the womb;
you kept me safe on my mother's breast.
On you I was cast from my birth,
and since my mother bore me you have been my
God.
Do not be far from me,
for trouble is near
and there is no one to help.
Many bulls encircle me,
strong bulls of Bashan surround me;
they open wide their mouths at me,
like a ravening and roaring lion.
I am poured out like water,
and all my bones are out of joint;
my heart is like wax;
it is melted within my breast;
my mouth is dried up like a potsherd,
and my tongue sticks to my jaws;
you lay me in the dust of death.
For dogs are all around me;
a company of evildoers encircles me.
My hands and feet have shriveled;
I can count all my bones.
They stare and gloat over me;
they divide my clothes among themselves,
and for my clothing they cast lots.
But you, O LORD, do not be far away!
O my help, come quickly to my aid!
Deliver my soul from the sword,
my life from the power of the dog!
Save me from the mouth of the lion!
From the horns of the wild oxen you have
rescued me.
I will tell of your name to my brothers and
indred
in the midst of the congregation I will praise
you:
You who fear the LORD, praise him!
All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him;
stand in awe of him, all you offspring of
Israel!
For he did not despise or abhor
the affliction of the afflicted;
he did not hide his face from me,
but heard when I cried to him.
From you comes my praise in the great
congregation;
my vows I will pay before those who fear
him.
The poor shall eat and be satisfied;
those who seek him shall praise the LORD.
May your hearts live forever!
All the ends of the earth shall remember
and turn to the LORD;
and all the families of the nations
shall worship before him.
For dominion belongs to the LORD,
and he rules over the nations.
To him, indeed, shall all who sleep in the
earth bow down;
before him shall bow all who go down to the
dust,
and I shall live for him.
Posterity will serve him;
future generations will be told about the
LORD,
and proclaim his deliverance to a people yet
unborn,
saying that he has done it.
Psalm 22
As a deer longs for flowing streams,
so my soul longs for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God,
for the living God.
When shall I come and behold
the face of God?
My tears have been my food
day and night,
while people say to me continually,
"Where is your God?"
These things I remember,
as I pour out my soul:
how I went with the throng,
and led them in procession to the house of
God,
with glad shouts and songs of thanksgiving,
a multitude keeping festival.
Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my help and my God.
My soul is cast down within me;
therefore I remember you
from the land of Jordan and of Hermon,
from Mount Mizar.
Deep calls to deep
at the thunder of your cataracts;
all your waves and your billows
have gone over me.
By day the LORD commands his steadfast
love,
and at night his song is with me,
a prayer to the God of my life.
I say to God, my rock,
"Why have you forgotten me?
Why must I walk about mournfully
because the enemy oppresses me?"
As with a deadly wound in my body,
my adversaries taunt me,
while they say to me continually,
"Where is your God?"
Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my help and my God.
Psalm 42
"If you love me, you will keep my
commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another
Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom
the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him.
You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.
"I will not leave you orphaned; I am
coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but
you will see me; because I live, you also will live. On that day you
will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. They
who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and
those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them
and reveal myself to them." Judas (not Iscariot) said to him,
"Lord, how is it that you will reveal yourself to us, and not to
the world?" Jesus answered him, "Those who love me will
keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them
and make our home with them. Whoever does not love me does not keep
my words; and the word that you hear is not mine, but is from the
Father who sent me.
"I have said these things to you while I
am still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father
will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of
all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give
to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your
hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid. You heard me say
to you, 'I am going away, and I am coming to you.' If you loved me,
you would rejoice that I am going to the Father, because the Father
is greater than I. And now I have told you this before it occurs, so
that when it does occur, you may believe. I will no longer talk much
with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no power over
me; but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may
know that I love the Father.
John 14:15-31a
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