JOHN 3:16

“For God so loved the world

    that he gave his one and only Son,

that whoever believes in him

    shall not perish but have eternal life."

JOB 1:21

The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away;

    may the name of the Lord be praised.

JOB 12:10

In his hand is the life of every creature

    and the breath of all mankind.

JOB 13:15

Though he slay me,

    yet will I hope in him.

JOB 14:1-2,5

Man born of woman

    is of few days and full of trouble.

He springs up like a flower and withers away;

    like a fleeting shadow, he does not endure.

                              

Man’s days are determined;

    you have decreed the number of his months

    and have set limits he cannot exceed.

JOB 19:25-27

I know that my Redeemer lives,

    and that in the end he will stand

upon the earth.

And after my skin has been destroyed,

    yet in my flesh I will see God;

I myself will see him

    with my own eyes – I, and not another.

    How my heart yearns within me!

JOB 23:10-12

He knows the way that I take;

    when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold.

My feet have closely followed his steps; 

    I have kept to his way without turning aside.

I have not departed from the 

commands of his lips;

    I have treasured the words of his

mouth more than my daily bread.

PSALM 23

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.

    He makes me lie down in green pastures,

    he leads me beside quiet waters,

    he restores my soul.

He guides me in paths of  righteousness

    for his name’s sake.

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.

Surely goodness and love will follow me

    all the days of my life,

and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

PSALM 31:14-15,24

                                

I trust in you, O Lord;

    I say, “You are my God.”

My times are in your hands

                                

Be strong and take heart,

    all you who hope in the Lord.

PSALM 34:18

The Lord is close to the brokenhearted

    and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

PSALM 39:4-7

Show me, O Lord, my life’s end

    and the number of my days;

    let me know how fleeting is my life.

You have made my days a mere handbreadth;

    the span of my years is as

nothing before you.

    Each man’s life is but a breath.

Man is a mere phantom as he goes to and fro:

    He bustles about, but only in vain;

    he heaps up wealth, not knowing who will get it.

But now, Lord, what do I look for:

    My hope is in you.

 

PSALM 48:14

This God is our God for ever and ever;

    He will be our guide even to the end.

PSALM 73:23-26

Yet I am always with you;

    you hold me by my right hand.

You guide me with your counsel,

    and afterwards you will take me into glory.

Whom have I in heaven but you?

    And earth has nothing I desire besides you.

My flesh and my heart may fail,

    but God is the strength of my heart

    and my portion forever.

PSALM 90:1-6

Lord, you have been our dwelling place

    throughout all generations.

Before the mountains were born

    or you brought forth the earth and the world,

    from everlasting to everlasting

you are God.

You turn men back to dust,

    saying, “Return to dust, O sons of men.”

For a thousand years in your sight

    are like a day that has just gone by,

    or like a watch in the night.

You sweep men away in the sleep of death;

    they are like the new grass of the morning –

though in the morning it springs up new,

    by evening it is dry and withered.

PSALM 100:4

Enter his gates with thanksgiving

    and his courts with praise

PSALM 103:11-17

For as high as the heavens are

above the earth,

    so great is his love for those who fear him;

as far as the east is from the west,

    so far has he removed our

transgressions from us.

As a father has compassion on his children,

    so the Lord has compassion on

those who fear him;

for he knows how we are formed,

    he remembers that we are dust.

As for man, his days are like grass,

    he flourishes like a flower of the field;

the wind blows over it and it is gone,

    and its place remembers it no more.

But from everlasting to everlasting

    the Lord’s love is with those who fear him.

PSALM 116:15

Precious in the sight of the Lord

    is the death of his saints.

PSALM 139:13-16

For you created my inmost being;

    you knit me together in my

mother’s womb.

I praise you because I am fearfully

and wonderfully made;

    your works are wonderful,

    I know that full well.

My frame was not hidden from you

    when I was made in the secret place.

When I was woven together in the

depths of the earth,

    your eyes saw my unformed body.

All the days ordained for me

    were written in your book

    before one of them came to be.

PSALM 147:3-5

He heals the brokenhearted

    and binds up their wounds.

He determines the number of the stars

    and calls them each by name.

Great is our Lord and mighty in power;

    his understanding has no limit.

PROVERBS 3:5-6

Trust in the Lord with all your heart

    and lean not on your own understanding;

in all your ways acknowledge him,

    and he will make your paths straight.

ECCLESIASTES 3:1-2,11,20

                             

There is a time for everything,

    and a season for every activity

under heaven;

    a time to be born and a time to die.

                                       

He has made everything beautiful in its time.

He has also set eternity in the

hearts of men;

yet they cannot fathom what God has done

from beginning to end.

                                       

All go to the same place;

all come from dust, and to dust all return.

ISAIAH 25:8

….he will swallow up death forever.

The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears

    from all faces.

ISAIAH 26:3-4,19

                            

You will keep in perfect peace

    him whose mind is steadfast,

    because he trusts in you.

Trust in the Lord forever,

    for the Lord, the Lord, is the Rock eternal.

                            

But your dead will live;

    their bodies will rise.

You who dwell in the dust,

    wake up and shout for joy.

Your dew is like the dew of the morning;

    the earth will give birth to her dead.

ISAIAH 40:6-8

All men are like grass,

    and all their glory is like the

flowers of the field.

The grass withers and the flowers fall,

because the breath of the Lord

blows on them.

    Surely the people are grass.

The grass withers and the flowers fall,

    but the word of our God stands forever.

ISAIAH 51:12

“I, even I, am he who comforts you.”

ISAIAH 55:8-9

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,

    neither are your ways my ways,”

                              declares the Lord.

“As the heavens are higher than the earth,

    so are my ways higher than your ways

    and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

ISAIAH 61:1,2-3

              

He has sent me to bind up the

brokenhearted,

    to proclaim freedom for the captives

    and release from darkness for the prisoners

              

to comfort all who mourn,

    and to provide for those who

grieve in Zion –

to bestow on them a crown of beauty

    instead of ashes,

the oil of gladness

    instead of mourning,

and a garment of praise

    instead of a spirit of despair.

ISAIAH 64:8

Yet, O Lord, you are our Father.

    We are the clay, you are the potter,

    we are all the work of your hand.

ISAIAH 65:17-19

“Behold, I will create

    new heavens and a new earth.

The former things will not be remembered,

    nor will they come to mind.

But be glad and rejoice forever

    in what I will create,

for I will create a new Jerusalem to

be a delight

    and its people a joy.

I will rejoice over Jerusalem

    and take delight in my people;

the sound of weeping and of crying

    will be heard in it no more.”

LAMENTATIONS 3:21-23

Yet this I call to mind

    and therefore I have hope:

Because of the Lord’s great love we

are not consumed,

    for his compassions never fail.

They are new every morning;

    great is your faithfulness.

I will say to myself, 

‘The Lord is my portion;

    therefore I will wait for Him.’

MATTHEW 5:4

“Blessed are those who mourn,

          for they will be comforted.”

LUKE 23:42-43

Then he [the thief on the cross] said,

"Jesus, remember me when you

        come into your kingdom.

Jesus answered him,

“I tell you the truth,

today you will be with me in paradise.”

JOHN 3:3

Jesus declared,

“I tell you the truth,

no one can see the kingdom of God

unless he is born again.”

JOHN 4:13-14

Jesus answered,

“Everyone who drinks this water will

be thirsty again,

but whoever drinks the water I give him

will never thirst.

Indeed, the water I give him

will become in him a spring of water

welling up to eternal life.”

JOHN 5:24-25

“I tell you the truth,

whoever hears my word and believes

him who sent me

has eternal life and will not be condemned;

he has crossed over from death to life.

I tell you the truth,

a time is coming and has now come

when the dead will hear the voice of

the Son of God

and those who hear will live.”

JOHN 6:37-40

“All that the Father gives me will

come to me,

and whoever comes to me I will

never drive away.

For I have come down from heaven

not to do my will

but to do the will of him who sent me.

And this is the will of him who sent me,

that I shall lose none of all that he

gives me,

but raise them up at the last day.

For my Father’s will is that

everyone who looks to the Son and

believes in him

shall have eternal life,

and I will raise him up at the last day.”

JOHN 6:47-51,67-69

“I tell you the truth,

he who believes has everlasting life.

I am the bread of life.

Your forefathers ate the manna in

the desert, yet they died.

But here is the bread that comes

down from heaven,

which a man may eat and not die.

I am the living bread that came

down from heaven.

If anyone eats of this bread, he will

live forever.

This bread is my flesh,

which I will give for the life of the world.”

“You do not want to leave too, do you?”

Jesus asked the Twelve.

Simon Peter answered him,

“Lord, to whom shall we go?

You have the words of eternal life.

We believe and know that you are

the Holy One of God.”

JOHN 10:14-15,27-30

“I am the good shepherd;

I know my sheep and my sheep know me –

just as the Father knows me and I

know the Father –

and I lay down my life for the sheep.”

“My sheep listen to my voice;

I know them, and they follow me.

I give them eternal life,

and they shall never perish;

no one can snatch them out of my hand.

I and the Father are one.”

JOHN 14:1-3

“Do not let your hearts be troubled.

Trust in God;

    trust also in me.

In my Father’s house are many rooms;

if it were not so, I would have told you.

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 take you to be with me

that you also may be where I am.”

JOHN 14:6

Jesus answered,

“I am the way and the truth and the life.

No one comes to the Father except through me."

JOHN 16:33

“I have told you these things

so that in me you may have peace.

In this world you will have trouble.

But take heart!

I have overcome the world.”

ACTS 16:30

“What must I do to be saved?”

“Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you

will be saved”

ROMANS 6:23

The wages of sin is death,

but the gift of God is eternal life

in Christ Jesus our Lord.

ROMANS 8:17-18,23-24,28-29

Now if we are children, then we are heirs –

heirs of God and coheirs with Christ,

if indeed we share in his sufferings

in order that we may also share in his glory.

I consider that our present

sufferings are not worth comparing

with the glory that will be revealed in us.

…we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons,

the redemption of our bodies.

For in this hope we were saved.

And we know that in all things

God works for the good of those who love him,

who have been called according to his purpose.

For those God knew he also predestined

to be conformed to the likeness of his Son,

that he might be the firstborn

among many brothers.

ROMANS 8:31,35,37-39

If God is for us,

who can be against us?

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

Shall trouble or hardship

or persecution or famine

or nakedness or danger or sword?

No, in all these things we are

more than conquerors through him

who loved us.

For I am convinced that neither

death nor life,

neither angels nor demons,

neither the present or 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.

ROMANS 14:7-9

None of us lives to himself alone

and none of us dies to himself alone.

If we live, we live to the Lord;

and if we die, we die to the Lord.

So whether we live or die,

we belong to the Lord.

For this very reason,

Christ died and returned to life

so that he might be Lord of both the

dead and the living.

1 CORINTHIANS 13:12

Now we see but a poor reflection as

in a mirror;

then we shall see face to face.

Now I know in part;

then I shall know fully, even as I am

fully known.

1 CORINTHIANS 15:35-37,42-57

    But someone may ask, “How are the dead raised?  With what kind of body will they come?”  How foolish!  What you sow does not come to life unless it dies.  When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else.

    So it will be with resurrection of the dead.  The body that 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.  So it is written:  “The first man Adam became a living being,” the last Adam, a life-giving spirit.  The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual.  The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven.  As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the man from heaven, so also are those who are of heaven.  And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven.

    I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.  Listen, I tell you a mystery:  We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed – in a flash, 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 clothe itself 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 true:  “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”

                    “Where, O death, is your victory?

                      Where, O death, is your sting?”

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.  

But thanks be to God!   

He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

2 CORINTHIANS 1:3-5

Praise be to 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 that we ourselves

have received from God.

For just as the sufferings of Christ

flow over into our lives,

so also through Christ our comfort overflows.

2 CORINTHIANS 1:8-9

We were under great pressure,

far beyond our ability to endure,

so that we despaired even of life.

Indeed, in our hearts we felt the

sentence of death.

But this happened

so that we might not rely on

ourselves but on God,

who raises the dead.

2 CORINTHIANS 4:16-5:-8

Therefore we do not lose heart.

Though outwardly we are wasting away,

yet inwardly we are being renewed

     day by day.

For our light and momentary troubles

are achieving for us an eternal glory

    that far outweighs them all.

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen,

    but on what is unseen.

For what is seen is temporary,

    but what is unseen is eternal.

Now we know that if the earthly tent is destroyed, 

we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven,

    not built by human hands.

Meanwhile, we groan, longing to be clothed with our

    heavenly dwelling,

because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked.

For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened,

because we do not wish to be unclothed

but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, 

so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.

Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, 

guaranteeing what is to come.

Therefore we are always confident 

    and know that as long as we are at home in the body 

        we are away from the Lord.

We live by faith, not by sight.

We are confident, I say, 

    and would prefer to be away from the body 

         and at home with the Lord.

So we make it our goal to please him, 

    whether we are at home in the body or away from it.

PHILIPPIANS 1:20-23

I eagerly expect and hope

that I will in no way be ashamed,

but will have sufficient courage so

that now as always

Christ will be exalted in my body,

whether by life or by death.

For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.

If I am to go on living in the body,

this will mean fruitful labor for me.

Yet what shall I choose?

I do not know!

I am torn between the two:

I desire to depart and be with Christ,

which is better by far.

1 THESSALONIANS 4:14-18

We believe that Jesus died and rose again

and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus

those who have fallen asleep in him.

According to the Lord’s own word,

we tell you that we who are still alive,

who are left till the coming of the Lord,

will certainly not precede those who

have fallen asleep.

For the Lord himself will come down

from heaven,

with a loud command,

with the voice of the archangel

and with the trumpet call of God,

and the dead in Christ will rise first.

After that, we who are still alive and are left

will be caught up together with

them in the clouds

to meet the Lord in the air.

And so we will be with the Lord forever.

Therefore encourage each other with

these words.

2 TIMOTHY 1:12

I know whom I have believed,

and am convinced that he is able

to guard what I have entrusted to

him for that day.

2 TIMOTHY 4:7-8,17

I have fought the good fight,

I have finished the race,

I have kept the faith.

Now there is in store for me the

crown of righteousness,

which the Lord, the righteous Judge,

will award to me on that day –

and not only to me, but also

to all who have longed for his appearing.

The Lord stood at my side and gave

me strength.

HEBREWS 6:19-20

We have this hope as an anchor for the soul,

    firm and secure.

It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain,

    where Jesus, who went before us,

        has entered on our behalf.

HEBREWS 11:1

Faith is being sure of what we hope for

   and certain of what we do not see.

 

HEBREWS 11:13-16

All these people were still living by

faith when they died.

They did not receive the things promised;

they only saw them and welcomed

them from a distance.

And they admitted that they were

aliens and strangers on earth.

People who say such things

show that they are looking for a

country of their own.

If they had been thinking of the

country they had left,

they would have had opportunity to return.

Instead, they were longing for a

       better country – a heavenly one.

Therefore God is not ashamed to be

called their God,

for he has prepared a city for them.

HEBREWS 12:1-3

Since we are surrounded by such a

great cloud of witnesses,

let us throw off everything that hinders

and the sin that so easily entangles,

and let us run with perseverance

the race marked out for us.

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus,

the author and perfecter of our faith,

who for the joy set before him

endured the cross,

scorning its shame,

and sat down at the right hand of

the throne of God.

Consider him who endured such

opposition from sinful men,

so that you will not grow weary and

lose heart.

HEBREWS 13:5,8

God has said,

    “Never will I leave you;

        never will I forsake you.”

Jesus Christ is the same

yesterday and today and forever.

JAMES 1:2-4,12

Consider it pure joy my brothers,

whenever you face trials of many kinds,

because you know that the testing

of your faith develops perseverance.

Perseverance must finish its work

so that you may be mature and complete,

not lacking anything.

Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial,

because when he had stood the test,

he will receive the crown of life

that God has promised to those who love him.

1 PETER 1:3-9

Praise be to the God and Father of

our Lord Jesus Christ!

In his great mercy

he has given us new birth into a living hope

through the resurrection of Jesus

Christ from the dead,

and into an inheritance that can

never perish, spoil or fade –

kept in heaven for you,

who through faith are shielded by God's power

until the coming of the salvation

that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

In this you greatly rejoice,

though now for a little while

you may have had to suffer grief in

all kinds of trials.

These have come so that your faith –

of greater worth than gold,

which perishes even though refined by fire –

may be proved genuine

and may result in praise, glory and honor

when Jesus Christ is revealed.

Though you have not seen him, you love him;

and even though you do not see him

now, you believe in him

and are filled with an inexpressible

and glorious joy,

for you are receiving the goal of your faith,

the salvation of your souls.

1 PETER 1:18-21,23-25

You know that it was not with

perishable things

such as silver or gold that you were redeemed

from the empty way of life handed

down to you from your forefathers,

but with the precious blood of Christ,

a lamb without blemish or defect.

He was chosen before the creation of

the world,

but was revealed in these last times

for your sake.

Through him you believe in God,

who raised him from the dead and

glorified him,

and so your faith and hope are in God.

You have been born again,

not of perishable seed, but of imperishable,

through the living and enduring word of God.

For,

“All men are like grass,

    and all their glory is like the

flowers of the field;

the grass withers and the flowers fall,

    but the word of the Lord stands

forever.”     (Isaiah 40:6-8)

1 JOHN 5:1,10-12,20

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ

    is born of God.

Anyone who believes in the Son of God

    has this testimony in his heart.

Anyone who does not believe God

    has made him out to be a liar,

because he has not believed the testimony

    God has given about his Son.

And this is the testimony:

God has given us eternal life,

    and this life is in his Son.

He who has the Son has life;

    he who does not have the Son of God

        does not have life.

He is the true God and eternal life.

REVELATION 1:8,17-18

“I am the Alpha and the Omega,”

says the Lord God,

“who is, and who was, and who is to come,

the Almighty.”

“Do not be afraid.

I am the First and the Last.

I am the Living One;

I was dead, and behold I am alive

for ever and ever!

And I hold the keys of death and Hades.”

REVELATION 2:11

“He who overcomes will not be hurt at all

    by the second death.”

REVELATION 3:5

“He who overcomes will, like them,

be dressed in white.

I will never blot out his name from

the book of life,

but will acknowledge his name

before my Father and his angels.”

REVELATION 3:21

To him who overcomes,

I will give the right to sit with me on my throne,

just as I overcame and sat down

with my Father on his throne.”

REVELATION 7:9-10,16-17

I looked and there before me was a

great multitude that no one

could count,

from every nation, tribe, people and language,

standing before the throne and in

front of the Lamb.

They were wearing white robes

and were holding palm branches in

their hands.

And they cried out in a loud voice:

“Salvation belongs to our God,

who sits on the throne,

and to the Lamb.”

“Never again will they hunger;

    never again will they thirst.

The sun will not beat upon them,

    nor any scorching heat.

For the Lamb at the center of the

throne will be their shepherd;

    he will lead them to springs of

living water.

And God will wipe away every tear

from their eyes.”

REVELATION 19:5-9

Then a loud voice came from the

throne, saying,

“Praise our God,

    all you his servants,

you who fear him,

    both great and small.”

Then I heard what sounded like a

great multitude,

like the roar of rushing waters

and like loud peals of thunder, shouting:

 “Hallelujah!

    For our Lord God Almighty reigns.

Let us rejoice and be glad

    and give him glory!

For the wedding of the Lamb has come,

    and his bride has made herself ready.

Fine linen, bright and clean,

    was given to her to wear.”

(Fine linen stands for the righteous

acts of the saints.)

Then the angel said to me,

“Write:  Blessed are those

who are invited to the wedding

super of the Lamb!”

And he added, “These are the true

words of God.”

REVELATION 21:1-7,22-27

    Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.  I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.  And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them.  They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.  He will wipe every tear from their eyes.  There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

    He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!”  Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

    He said to me, “It is done.  I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End.  To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life.  He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son.”……I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.  The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp.  The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it.  On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there.  The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it.  Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

REVELATION 22:1-5,7,12-14,16-17,20-21

    Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city.   
    On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month.  And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.  No longer will there be any curse.  
    The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him.  They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.  There will be no more night.  They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light.  And they will reign for ever and ever……

“Behold, I am coming soon!  Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy in this book.”
 
”Behold, I am coming soon!  My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done.  I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.”  “Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city.”
 
“I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches.  I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star.”

The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!”  And let him who hears say, “Come!”  Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.

He who testifies to these things says, 
    “Yes, I am coming soon.”

Amen.  Come, Lord Jesus.

The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people.  Amen.