Young People’s Blog

“Thou hast a little strength, and hast kept My word, and hast not denied My name” (Revelation 3:8).

None of us likes to be told that we are not very strong, for naturally we like to be strong and able to do a lot. Yet here the Lord praises those in Philadelphia for having a little strength. Why is this?

It is because we are not living in the early days of the church, when everything was fresh and new, and things were going on well. We are living right before the Lord’s coming, and we have only a little strength. Perhaps you sometimes feel this way and think that there is not much that you can do for the Lord. But here are two things that He values — things that each of us can do.

We can keep His Word, which means simply that when we read something that the Bible tells us to do, we obey it. It also means that we do not deny the name of the Lord Jesus. This world hates the name of the Lord Jesus, and uses it in swearing much of the time. But God values it when we speak His name reverently, and honor all the truth connected with His name. It takes courage to do this, but again, each of us can do it.

“I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead” (Revelation 3:1).

This is a very serious thing in our verse for today, yet it was written to an assembly that pretended to be an assembly of God. What had happened? Sadly, people had gotten used to Christianity, and were pretending to be Christians, when they had never really accepted the Lord Jesus as their Savior. It is possible to carry a Bible, to go to Christian meetings, to memorize verses from the Bible, and to be able to talk about Christian things, yet not be a real Christian.

There are many people in Western Europe and North America like this, as well as in other parts of the world. They are trusting in the fact that they live good, morally upright lives, and go to “church” regularly. Yet they are not truly saved, and often what they hear when they go to “church” is not a real gospel message.

If you know the gospel, are you saved? It is a very dangerous thing to pretend to be a Christian, and yet to be unsaved. A true Christian has new life in Christ, but an unbeliever is dead. Are you dead or alive?

“Thou openest Thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing” (Psalm 145:16).

I happen to be writing this on December 1, and here in Canada it is getting cold. There is snow on the ground, yet there is still a little chipmunk under our birdfeeder, eating as much as possible from the seeds the birds drop down. It is late for him still to be out and about, as they usually disappear before this.

Have you ever wondered how chipmunks survive the winter? They go underground to their burrows, but they do not hibernate exactly like bears. They semi-hibernate by going to sleep. Their body temperature goes way down, and they sleep for long periods. But they wake up from time to time and eat from food stores they have collected in the fall, usually nuts and seeds. In this way they can manage, and then they come out again in March or April, when spring comes.

How wonderful it is that the Lord has arranged all this for them, and given them the instinct to know how to do it. He has planned for every animal to survive!

“To him that overcometh will I…give…a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it” (Revelation 2:17).

When you and I are taken to heaven when the Lord comes, we know that the Lord Jesus will give rewards to those who have been faithful to Him down here in this world. Some rewards will be public, such as crowns to wear, or positions of authority in the millennial kingdom. But here we read about one reward that is private; no one else knows about it.

If we do something special for someone, sometimes he or she may write us a letter, expressing their appreciation for what we have done. We value these letters, and may keep them for many years. I knew a man who received a letter from the king of England, when he sent him a little book for his two daughters. He kept that letter all his life.

What the Lord will give us is a white stone, with a new name written on it. Something that is written on paper could easily get old and tattered, but if something is written on stone, it will last. Think of being given a white stone by the Lord Himself! Each one of us should be careful how we live down here, because that new name will last for all eternity.

“He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay” (Psalm 40:2).

“Thou hast laid Me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps. Thy wrath lieth hard upon Me, and Thou hast afflicted Me with all Thy waves” (Psalm 88:6-7).

Before we were saved, you and I were in a “horrible pit,’ struggling in “miry clay.” We were like people caught in quicksand, and we could not get out ourselves. That is a picture of what sin had done to us, and only the Lord Jesus could pull us out.

But in order to do this, He Himself had to go down into the pit. He had to be “made sin” for us, and to experience all the awful judgment of God against sin. In the Psalms, we find how the Lord felt when He had to endure all this, and the language used in this verse shows us how hard it was for Him to do this.

He recognized that it was the judgment of God against sin, for He says, “Thou hast afflicted Me with all Thy waves.” Waves speak of judgment, and all the judgment of a holy God against sin had to fall upon the Lord Jesus. What a debt we owe to Him!

“Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love Him” (James 1:12).

Yesterday we spoke about the assembly in Smyrna, where they were suffering persecution, and how the Lord would give a crown of life to those who were faithful unto death for Him. You and I, who live in countries where this does not happen, might wonder, Can we win that crown, or is it only for those who die for Christ?

The crown of life is mentioned twice in the Word of God, and we see it mentioned again here in the book of James. In James it is not given for giving up our life for Christ, but rather for living for Him, and constantly resisting temptation. This takes real spiritual energy, for Satan keeps on tempting us with sin all through our lives. If we live to be older people, we may have to endure this testing for 60 or 70 years.

The Lord values this kind of faithfulness to Him, and will reward us with the same crown as those who give up their lives for Him. You and I can win that crown of life too.

“Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer…be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life” (Revelation 2:10).

In Revelation, chapters 2 and 3, we have seven different churches, or assemblies, addressed. The condition of things was different in each one, and in Smyrna, they were being persecuted for their faith in Christ. The Lord tells them that some of them may be put in prison, and even put to death for being believers in Christ.

But He tells them not to be afraid. Men may kill the body, but they cannot take away our salvation. The Lord says that if we are faithful unto death, He will give us a crown of life as a reward. In North America and in Europe we do not suffer this kind of persecution right now, but in many places in this world Christians are being treated badly. Some are in prison, some have lost their property, and many are being put to death. We can be thankful for the liberty which we have, but we should remember our brothers and sisters who are suffering for Christ, and we should pray for them.

“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16).

Just about everything we buy today has an instruction manual. Cars have them, and today they can be quite thick and complicated. Other things like refrigerators, microwaves, vacuum cleaners, lawn mowers, power drills — all of them come with a manual that shows us how to set them up and operate them.

Here in our verse today we have the perfect instruction manual for our life in the world — the Word of God. Of course, we can never know everything about God, but in His Word we find the knowledge of God. Whatever we need to know in this world in order to live to please the Lord, we can find in the knowledge of God through His Word. We have the perfect instruction book in the Bible.

Sometimes an instruction book in this world deceives us, for sometimes people make mistakes when they make the book. Sometimes we have a question that the manual does not answer. But the Word of God is perfect; it never makes any mistakes, and tells us all we need to know.

“And when I [John] saw Him [the Lord Jesus], I fell at His feet as dead” (Revelation 1:17).

The Apostle John had known the Lord Jesus very well, for he was one of the disciples who had been with the Lord during all of His earthly ministry. He was also one of the disciples who was closest to the Lord, and at the last Passover, he was actually “leaning on Jesus’ bosom” (John 13:23). Yet here, when he saw the Lord Jesus, he was so frightened that he “fell at His feet as dead.” Why was this?

When the Lord Jesus was on earth, He looked just like any other man, and people could approach him easily. But here in Revelation, the Lord Jesus is seen as a Judge. As such, He appears with “eyes like a flame of fire,” “feet like unto fine brass,” “His voice as the sound of many waters,” and “His countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength” (Revelation 1:14-16). He appears as One who is to be feared, and even John was afraid.

Yet how beautiful is the Lord’s answer to John! He tells him, “Fear not.” He was the same Jesus that John had known, and His judgment was for unbelievers, not for those like John. Some day you and I will see Jesus in His judgment character too, but we will not have to be afraid.

“Looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life” (Jude, vs. 21).

If we are true Christians, we know that we already have eternal life. As soon as we accepted the Lord Jesus as our Savior, we had eternal life, and we can never lose it. However, we do not yet have all the benefits that are part of having eternal life. We still have an old sinful nature, and we are still living in a world where eternal life is not at home. We are surrounded by sin, and our new life cannot sin. Also, we still have bodies that are subject to disease and eventually death.

All this will change when the Lord comes for us, and takes us home to be with Him. The “mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ” is really the Lord’s coming for us. It will be a mercy when He comes for us, for as this world gets worse and worse, it becomes more and more uncomfortable for us as Christians. We long to be taken out of it, and to be where we will really feel at home.

When that happens, we will suddenly have glorified bodies, and will no longer have a sinful nature. We will be taken out of this world, no longer to be surrounded by sin. It will be a wonderful time!