12.3 My Time Has Come. I Ran The Race, I Kept The Faith

(2 Timothy 4:6-8)

As for me, the hour has come for me to be sacrificed; the time is here for me to leave this life. I have done my best in the race, I have run the full distance, and I have kept the faith. And now there is waiting for me the prize of victory awarded for a righteous life, the prize which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on that Day- and not only to me, but to all those who wait with love for him to appear.

12.2 We Should Always Be Ready

(1 Thessalonians 5:1-11)

There is no need to write you, brothers, about the times and occasions when these things will happen. For you yourselves know very well that the Day of the Lord will come as a thief comes at night. When people say, “Everything is quiet and safe,” then suddenly destruction will hit them! It will come as suddenly as the pains that come upon a woman in labor, and people will not escape. But you, brothers, are not in darkness, and the Day should not take you by surprise like a thief. All of you are people who belong to the light, who belong to the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. So then, we should not be sleeping like the others; we should be awake and sober. It is at night when people sleep; it is at night they get drunk. But we belong to the day, and we should sober. We must wear faith and love as a breastplate, and our hope of salvation as a helmet. God did not choose us to suffer his anger, but to posses salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us in order that we might live together with him, whether we are alive or dead when he comes. And so encourage one another and help one another, just as you are now doing.

12.1 Be Alert, You Do Not Know The Hour

(Mark 13:32-37)

“No one knows, however, when that day or hour will come- neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son: only the Father knows. Be on watch, be alert, for you do not know when the time will come. It will be like a man who goes away from home on a trip and leaves his servants in charge, after giving to each one his own work to do and after telling the doorkeeper to keep watch. Watch, then, because you do not know when the master of the house is coming- it might be in the evening or at midnight or before dawn or at sunrise. If he comes suddenly, he must not find you asleep. What I say to you, then, I say to all. Watch!”

11.4 I Rejoice Because I Go To The House Of The Lord

(Psalm 122)

I was glad when they said to me,
“Let us go to the Lord’s house.”
And now we are here,
standing inside the gates of Jerusalem!

Jerusalem is a city restored
in beautiful order and harmony.
This is where the tribes come,
the tribes of Israel,
to give thanks to the Lord
according to his command.
Here the kings of Israel
sat to judge their people.

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem:
“May those who love you prosper.
May there be peace inside your walls
and safety in your palaces.”
For the sake of my relatives and friends
I say to Jerusalem, “Peace be with you!”
For the sake of the house of the Lord our God
I pray for your prosperity.

11.3 Our Citizenship Is In Heaven; There Our Body Will Be Glorified

(Philippians 3:17-21)

Keep on imitating me, my brothers. Pay attention to those who follow the example that we have set for you. I have told you this many times before, and now I repeat it with tears: there are many whose lives make them enemies of Christ’s death on the cross. They are going to end up in hell, because their god is their bodily desires. They are proud of what they should be ashamed of, and they think only of things that belong to this world. We however, are citizens of heaven, and we eagerly wait for our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, to come from heaven. He will change our weak mortal bodies and make them like his own glorious body, using that power by which he is able to bring all things under his rule.