“Six days shall you labor
The seventh is the Lord's
In six He made the earth and all the heavens
But He rested on the seventh
God rested
He said that it was finished
And the seventh day, He blessed it
God rested.”
—Andrew Peterson
Fear of Being Forgotten (Isaiah 49:5-18)
“My name from the palms of His hands
Eternity will not erase;
Impressed on His heart it remains
In marks of indelible grace.
Yes, I to the end shall endure,
As sure as the earnest is given
More happy, but not more secure,
The glorified spirits in heaven.”
—Augustus Montague Toplady
The Hour Has Come (John 12:12-26)
“Never is tranquillity restored to our minds, or fear and trembling banished from them, except by knowing that Christ reigns amongst us.”
— John Calvin, Commentary on John
Jesus's Emotional Response to Us and to Death (John 11:28-44)
“Jesus wept, and in his weeping, he joined himself forever to those who mourn. He stands now throughout all time, this weeping Jesus weeping, with his arms about the weeping ones: ‘Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.’ He stands with the mourners, for his name is God-with-us. Jesus wept.”
- Ann Weems, Psalms of Lament
“For in [Christ] the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.”
- Colossians 2:9
“He sanctified the body by being in it.”
- Athanasius, On the Incarnation
Resurrection Changes Everything (John 11:17-27)
“That is what mortals misunderstand. They say of some temporal suffering, ‘No future bliss can make up for it’ not knowing that Heaven, once attained, will work backwards and turn even that agony into a glory.”
—C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce
Guarded by the Promise (1 John 5:13-21)
“Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;
For those whom thou think’st thou doest overthrow
Die not, poor Death, no yet canst thou kill me…
One short sleep past, we wake eternally
And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.“
—John Donne, Holy Sonnets