2 Corinthians 5:1 - 10 (ESV)

1 For we know that if the tent, which is our earthly home, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

2 For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling,

3 if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked.

4 For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened ––not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.

5 He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.

6 So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord,

7 for we walk by faith, not by sight.

8 Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.

9So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.

10For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.

1 Thessalonians 4:13 - 18 (ESV)

13But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.

14For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.

15For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.

16For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.

17Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.

18Therefore encourage one another with these words.