We beg you, sisters and brothers, about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him not be to be easily shaken from your understanding nor alarmed because of a spirit, or a word or a letter (seeming to be from us) to the effect that the Day of the Lord has come.
Take from us, O God, all pride and vanity, all boasting and self-assertion, and give us the true courage that shows itself in gentleness, the true wisdom that shows itself in simplicity, and the true power that shows itself in modesty.
Also in this we pray constantly about you, that our God might count you worthy of (his) calling and may complete every desire arising out of goodness and (every) work born out of faith in power. that the name of our Lord Jesus might be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and Lord, Jesus Christ.
O thou, who art the light of the minds that know thee, the life of the souls that love thee, and the strength of the wills that serve thee; help us so to know thee that we may truly love thee; so to love thee that we may fully serve thee, whom to serve is perfect freedom. Amen
… if indeed it is just for God to pay your trouble back to those who trouble you and relieve you who are being troubled with us, at the revelation of our Lord Jesus from heaven with his powerful angels in flaming fire giving punishment to those who do not know God and those who do not obey the Good News of our Lord Jesus, who will suffer punishment, – eternal destruction – from before God and from the glory of his strength, when he comes to receive glory among his holy ones and to be marvelled at by all who believe, — because you believe our testimony among you.
God be in head and in my understanding; God be in my eyes and in my looking; God be in my mouth and in my speaking; God be in my heart and in my thinking; God be at my end and at my departing.
(So that we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith in all the persecutions and the troubles which you are enduring. )
…this is evidence of the just judgement of God to the end that you are declared worthy for the kingdom of God and for which you are suffering,
Lord God, your feed us with the living bread from heaven. You renew our faith increase our hope and strengthen our love. Teach us to hunger for Christ who is the true and living bread and live by every word that comes from your mouth, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Paul and Silavanus and Timothy to the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,
grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
We ought to give thanks to God always about you, sisters and brothers, as is fitting because your faith is growing abundantly and the love of each one of you all for one another is increasing.
So that we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith in all the persecutions and the troubles which you are enduring.
God, give me grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, Courage to change the things which should be changed, and the Wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.
Living one day at a time, Enjoying one moment at a time, Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace, Taking, as Jesus did, This sinful world as it is, Not as I would have it, Trusting that You will make all things right, If I surrender to Your will, So that I may be reasonably happy in this life, And supremely happy with You forever in the next.
Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecy. But test everything, hold fast to the good. Shun every kind of evil.
May the God of peace himself, make you completely holy , and may your whole spirit, soul and body be kept entirely blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ
He who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.
Brothers and sisters, pray for us.
Greet all the brothers and sisters with a holy kiss.
I charge you, before the Lord, to read publicly the letter to all the brothers and sisters.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart; Naught be all else to me, save that thou art – Thou my best thought, by day or by night; Waking or sleeping, thy presence my light.
We implore you brothers and sisters, to respect those who work hard among you, and watch over you in the Lord, and admonish you, and consider them with the greatest respect in love because of their work.
Live at peace among yourselves.
We encourage you, brothers and sisters, to warn the ill-disciplined, to encourage the low spirited, to help the weak, and to be patient towards all.
See that no-one pays back evil for evil, but always pursue the good for one another, and for all.
Be thou a bright flame before me, Be thou a guiding star above me Be thou a smooth path below me Be thou a kindly shepherd behind me Today – tonight -forever Amen.
About times and dates, sisters and brothers, you do not need us to write to you, for you know very well that the day of the Lord comes like as a thief in the night.
When they say ‘Peace and security’, then destruction will come upon them suddenly as labour pains on a pregnant woman. and they will certainly not escape.
But you, sisters and brothers, are not in the darkness, that the day surprises you like a thief. For you all are children of the light and day.
For we are not of the night and darkness. So now let us not sleep as the others but let us keep aware and be sober
For those who sleep, sleep in darkness, and those who get drunk get drunk at night.
But who we are of the day are sober having put on the breastplate of faith and love and the helmet of the hope of salvation. Because God did not appoint us for wrath but for attaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep we may live together with him.
Therefore encourage one another and build up each other just as you are doing.
O Love, O God who created me, in your love recreate me. O Love, who redeemed me, fill up in me whatever part of your love has fallen into neglect within me. O Love, O God, who first loved me, grant that with my whole heart, and with my whole soul, and with my whole strength, I may love you.
For this we tell you by a word of the Lord, that we who are living who are remaining until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep, because the Lord himself with a command, with the voice of the archangel, and the trumpet of God, will come down from heaven and the dead in Christ will rise first.
Then we who are living who are remaining together with them will be swept up in the clouds for a meeting with the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord, always.
Therefore encourage one another with these words.
Teach us, good Lord, to serve thee as thou deservest; to give and not to count the cost; to fight and not to heed the wounds; to toil and not to seek for rest; to labour and not to ask for any reward, save that of knowing that we do thy will, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen