Encourage one another; do not give in to fear!
Be not dismayed nor hopeless for those no longer here.
Let not your grief be helpless like those who do not know
Of Jesus’ true redemption God does on us bestow.
Encourage one another; live not in dank despair!
Those who have passed before us are still in God’s good care.
When comes at last reunion with Christ the Living One,
We will be yet preceded by those whose rest is done.
Encourage one another; God’s faithfulness is sure!
Our Lord does not abandon; our hope is yet secure,
Alive or dead, no matter; for all, not just for some.
God holds us all, both now and for ages yet to come.
TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, October 2020 (after 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18)
MUSIC: Tune WIE LIEBLICH IST DER MAIEN, Johann Steurlein, 1575
What can I say? The epistles inspire me, evidently. The challenge here is to catch the main point without getting bogged down in the kind of theological minutia that causes schisms.
