The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears; He delivers them from all their troubles.
The LORD is near to the brokenhearted; He saves the contrite in spirit.
Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him from them all.
He protects all his bones; not one of them will be broken.
But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest on me.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort,
who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.
For just as the sufferings of Christ overflow to us, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.
When Jesus saw the crowds, He went up on the mountain and sat down. His disciples came to Him,
and He began to teach them, saying:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
. . .
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
He was with God in the beginning.
Through Him all things were made, and without Him nothing was made that has been made.
In Him was life, and that life was the light of men.
The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
. . .
Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;
you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God with your body.
“Comfort, comfort My people,” says your God.
“Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her forced labor has been completed; her iniquity has been pardoned. For she has received from the hand of the LORD double for all her sins.”
A voice of one calling: “Prepare the way for the LORD in the wilderness; make a straight highway for our God in the desert.
Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill made low; the uneven ground will become smooth, and the rugged land a plain.
And the glory of the LORD will be revealed, and all humanity together will see it. For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”
. . .
‘He will wipe away every tear from their eyes,’ and there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the former things have passed away.”
Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ for the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness,
in the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began.
In His own time He has made His word evident in the proclamation entrusted to me by the command of God our Savior.
To Titus, my true child in our common faith: Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.
The reason I left you in Crete was that you would set in order what was unfinished and appoint elders in every town, as I directed you.
. . .
Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be afraid, for I am your God. I will strengthen you; I will surely help you; I will uphold you with My right hand of righteousness.
Your hands shaped me and altogether formed me. Would You now turn and destroy me?
Please remember that You molded me like clay. Would You now return me to dust?
Did You not pour me out like milk, and curdle me like cheese?
You clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews.
You have granted me life and loving devotion, and Your care has preserved my spirit.
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me will live, even though he dies.
And everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor principalities, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,
neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort,
who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.
“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe in Me as well.
In My Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and welcome you into My presence, so that you also may be where I am.
You know the way to the place where I am going.”
So will it be with the resurrection of the dead: What is sown is perishable; it is raised imperishable.
It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power.
It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.
Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—
in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.
For the perishable must be clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.
When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come to pass: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”
“Where, O Death, is your victory? Where, O Death, is your sting?”
. . .
Brothers, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you will not grieve like the rest, who are without hope.
For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, we also believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him.
For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that everyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.
For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.
A Psalm of David. The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters.
He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness for the sake of His name.
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
. . .
Of David, when he pretended to be insane before Abimelech, so that the king drove him away. I will bless the LORD at all times; His praise will always be on my lips.
My soul boasts in the LORD; let the oppressed hear and rejoice.
Magnify the LORD with me; let us exalt His name together.
I sought the LORD, and He answered me; He delivered me from all my fears.
Those who look to Him are radiant with joy; their faces shall never be ashamed.
. . .
And I heard a voice from heaven telling me to write, “Blessed are the dead—those who die in the Lord from this moment on.” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “they will rest from their labors, for their deeds will follow them.”
Therefore we are always confident, although we know that while we are at home in the body, we are away from the Lord.
For we walk by faith, not by sight.
We are confident, then, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.
He will swallow up death forever. The Lord GOD will wipe away the tears from every face and remove the disgrace of His people from the whole earth. For the LORD has spoken.
The righteous perish, and no one takes it to heart; devout men are swept away, while no one considers that the righteous are guided from the presence of evil.
Those who walk uprightly enter into peace; they find rest, lying down in death.
Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the Law of the LORD.
Blessed are those who keep His testimonies and seek Him with all their heart.
They do no iniquity; they walk in His ways.
You have ordained Your precepts, that we should keep them diligently.
Oh, that my ways were committed to keeping Your statutes!
. . .
Brothers, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you will not grieve like the rest, who are without hope.
For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, we also believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him.
By the word of the Lord, we declare to you that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who have fallen asleep.
For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will be the first to rise.
After that, we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord.
. . .
After Nathan had gone home, the LORD struck the child that Uriah’s wife had borne to David, and he became ill.
David pleaded with God for the boy. He fasted and went into his house and spent the night lying in sackcloth on the ground.
The elders of his household stood beside him to help him up from the ground, but he was unwilling and would not eat anything with them.
On the seventh day the child died. But David’s servants were afraid to tell him that the child was dead, for they said, “Look, while the child was alive, we spoke to him, and he would not listen to us. So how can we tell him the child is dead? He may even harm himself.”
When David saw that his servants were whispering to one another, he perceived that the child was dead. So he asked his servants, “Is the child dead?” “He is dead,” they replied.
. . .
Do not be amazed at this, for the hour is coming when all who are in their graves will hear His voice
and come out—those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.
This is the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants what must soon come to pass. He made it known by sending His angel to His servant John,
By the sweat of your brow you will eat your bread, until you return to the ground—because out of it were you taken. For dust you are, and to dust you shall return.”
But those who wait upon the LORD will renew their strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not faint.
At this time a man named Lazarus was sick. He lived in Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.
(Mary, whose brother Lazarus was sick, was to anoint the Lord with perfume and wipe His feet with her hair.)
So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one You love is sick.”
When Jesus heard this, He said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”
Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.
. . .
“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe in Me as well.
In My Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and welcome you into My presence, so that you also may be where I am.
I am torn between the two. I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better indeed.
But it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body.
Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,
I press on toward the goal to win the prize of God’s heavenly calling in Christ Jesus.
Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection! The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and will reign with Him for a thousand years.
Beloved, we are now children of God, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when Christ appears, we will be like Him, for we will see Him as He is.