You must remember, my friends, that many times I have planned to visit you, but something has always kept me from doing so. I want to win converts among you also, as I have among other Gentiles.

I want you to remember, my friends, what happened to our ancestors who followed Moses. They were all under the protection of the cloud, and all passed safely through the Red Sea.

Now, concerning what you wrote about the gifts from the Holy Spirit. I want you to know the truth about them, my friends.

We want to remind you, friends, of the trouble we had in the province of Asia. The burdens laid upon us were so great and so heavy that we gave up all hope of staying alive.

But do not forget one thing, my dear friends! There is no difference in the Lord's sight between one day and a thousand years; to him the two are the same.

W_ hat we are teaching you now is the Lord's teaching: we who are alive on the day the Lord comes will not go ahead of those who have died.

who died for us in order that we might live together with him, whether we are alive or dead when he comes.

If you don't, as soon as you are dead, my son Solomon and I will be treated as traitors."

David died and was buried in David's City.

Many of those who have already died will live again: some will enjoy eternal life, and some will suffer eternal disgrace.

the graves broke open, and many of God's people who had died were raised to life.

Everyone there was crying and mourning for the child. Jesus said, "Don't cry; the child is not dead---she is only sleeping!"

They all made fun of him, because they knew that she was dead.

Jesus said this and then added, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I will go and wake him up."

Jesus meant that Lazarus had died, but they thought he meant natural sleep.

He knelt down and cried out in a loud voice, "Lord! Do not remember this sin against them!" He said this and died.

For David served God's purposes in his own time, and then he died, was buried with his ancestors, and his body rotted in the grave.

Then he appeared to more than five hundred of his followers at once, most of whom are still alive, although some have died.

It would also mean that the believers in Christ who have died are lost.

and will ask, "He promised to come, didn't he? Where is he? Our ancestors have already died, but everything is still the same as it was since the creation of the world!"

All his sons and daughters came to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted and said, "I will go down to the world of the dead still mourning for my son." So he continued to mourn for his son Joseph.

or tattoo yourselves or cut gashes in your body to mourn for the dead. I am the LORD.

"You are the people of the LORD your God. So when you mourn for the dead, don't gash yourselves or shave the front of your head, as other people do.

You belong to the LORD your God; he has chosen you to be his own people from among all the peoples who live on earth.

When David noticed them whispering to each other, he realized that the child had died. So he asked them, "Is the child dead?" "Yes, he is," they answered.

David got up from the floor, took a bath, combed his hair, and changed his clothes. Then he went and worshiped in the house of the LORD. When he returned to the palace, he asked for food and ate it as soon as it was served.

The king was overcome with grief. He went up to the room over the gateway and wept. As he went, he cried, "O my son! My son Absalom! Absalom, my son! If only I had died in your place, my son! Absalom, my son!"

He said, "I was born with nothing, and I will die with nothing. The LORD gave, and now he has taken away. May his name be praised!"

"Mortal man," he said, "with one blow I am going to take away the person you love most. You are not to complain or cry or shed any tears.

Early in the day I was talking with the people. That evening my wife died, and the next day I did as I had been told.

"I know," she replied, "that he will rise to life on the last day."

Some devout men buried Stephen, mourning for him with loud cries.

At that time you were apart from Christ. You were foreigners and did not belong to God's chosen people. You had no part in the covenants, which were based on God's promises to his people, and you lived in this world without hope and without God.

But I know there is someone in heaven who will come at last to my defense.

I will see him with my own eyes, and he will not be a stranger. My courage failed because you said,

Wicked people bring about their own downfall by their evil deeds, but good people are protected by their integrity.

God said to me, "Mortal man, the people of Israel are like these bones. They say that they are dried up, without any hope and with no future.

If our hope in Christ is good for this life only and no more, then we deserve more pity than anyone else in all the world.