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WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY TO YOU?
Are you grieving the death of someone you loved?
Facing
life alone?
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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