Young People’s Blog

“Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord…and their works do follow them” (Revelation 14:13).

“And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God…and they were judged every man according to their works” (Revelation 20:12-13).

More and more it seems that people in this world are viewing their actions as if what they do matters only in this life. They look at the consequences of their actions only in the light of what may happen in this world. This is Satan’s lie, as he persuades people that after death, they will not have to face any judgment for their sins.

Our verses today show that there are rewards for those who live to please the Lord, and judgment for those whose works are evil. The first verse talks about the works of those who die in the Lord. He will remember what we have done for Him and reward us for it. But those who stand before the “great white throne,” spoken about in Revelation 20, will be the wicked dead, who have died without Christ. At that time their works will be brought out, all of them, and they will be judged according to God’s record. What a serious thought! How awful to have books opened, and all your sins brought out, including every evil thought! Then judgment will be carried out—“cast into the lake of fire.”

But if you are not saved, this does not have to happen to you. Today God is waiting for more to be saved, and you too can be saved and join those who will be rewarded rather than judged.

“I would have you wise unto that which is good, and simple concerning evil” (Romans 16:19).

Our natural hearts, which are driven by our old sinful nature, always want to know the details of evil, even if we have no intention of indulging in it. That is why movies and videos are so popular today! Some of them are documentaries, but most of them give the details of the evil that is in the world, and people enjoy watching it all. Many books are the same, and even some Christian books give the sordid details of sin in the world, for the publishers know that this content is what makes the book sell more readily.

In our verse for today, we are told to be simple concerning evil. We do not need to know all about the evil in this world in order to be kept from it. Rather, we need to be wise concerning good. If we are occupied with good, we will immediately recognize the bad, and be kept from it. Then our minds will not be defiled with evil, for they will be filled with something better.

“Wrath is cruel, and anger is outrageous; but who is able to stand before envy?” (Proverbs 27:4).

Yesterday we had a story from World War I, and here is another that illustrates our verse for today. At Queen’s hospital in England during World War I, there was a famous surgeon named Harold Gillies, who pioneered a lot of new techniques in plastic surgery. He was really the father of modern plastic surgery, and it was he who repaired a lot of the disfigured faces of soldiers injured in the war. At the same hospital there was another surgeon named John Aymard, who also did plastic surgery. A new technique in surgery was developed at the hospital, and there arose a dispute about who did it first. Gillies got the credit for it, and probably rightly so, but Aymard nursed his resentment against Gillies for the next twenty years, and continued to insist that he had been the first to do it. The real problem was that Gillies was famous and was honored for his work, while Aymard’s name was relatively unknown. Aymard was envious of Gillies’ fame, and wanted some for himself.

Let us be careful of allowing envy to build up in our hearts, for envy is really wanting something that God has given to someone else. Let us be content with what the Lord has given us, and to use it for His glory. Who gets the credit for something in this world is not important, for when we are with the Lord, we can be sure that He will reward each one in a right way. He knows what we do, and that is enough.

“He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied” (Isaiah 53:11).

During World War I, at the battle of Passchendaele, in France, an English soldier named Sydney Beldam was seriously wounded when a piece of shrapnel struck him in the face. Worse still, he lay for three days out on the field in the mud, until he was finally rescued and taken to the hospital. He eventually ended up at Queen’s hospital in England, where he underwent nearly forty operations to reconstruct his face and make him look normal again. But then something happened. An attractive girl named Winifred, who was an accomplished pianist, came to the hospital from time to time to play the piano and cheer up the soldiers who were recovering there. Those who saw it happen recorded that “when Sydney and Winifred came face-to-face with one another, it was love at first sight.” All the pain and suffering Sydney had gone through was forgotten in his love for Winifred.

The Lord Jesus went through all the suffering from the hand of God in the three hours of darkness on Calvary’s cross, in order to bear our sins. Yet He will be perfectly satisfied when He has you and me as His bride with Him in heaven. He will never say, “It wasn’t worth it.” If Sydney Beldam had never been wounded, he would probably never have met Winifred. The Lord Jesus could not take us as His bride if He had never gone to the cross.

“And He took the damsel by the hand, and said unto her, Talitha cumi; which is, being interpreted, Damsel, I say unto thee, arise…and He…commanded that something should be given her to eat” (Mark 5:41,43).

You can see the connection between our verses for today, and what we had yesterday. A healthy person wants natural food, and a person who is spiritually healthy wants spiritual food. But the young girl in Mark 5 had evidently been sick for some time, and when we are sick we usually are not hungry. We may drink liquids, but we do not want solid food. Then the girl became so sick that she died. When the Lord Jesus brought her back to life, she was instantly back in good health, and He told them to give her something to eat. He knew that she would be hungry!

If we are spiritually sick because we are away from the Lord, we do not want to read the Word of God either. We have no desire for it, because we are not spiritually healthy. What we need is to get back to the Lord and to get healed. Then once again our hearts will want that spiritual food from the Word of God.

If you are a true Christian, yet have no desire to read your Bible, perhaps you need to ask yourself, Am I spiritually sick?

“Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and Thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart” (Jeremiah 15:16).

What does it mean to eat the words of the Lord? Perhaps that sounds like a strange expression to you. But let us think a little about what happens when we eat. We take the food into our mouths, chew it, and then swallow it. Then our saliva, together with other digestive juices in our stomach and small intestine digest that food so that it can be absorbed into our bodies and become part of us. In this way our bodies maintain themselves, and we have energy and strength to do our work.

It ought to be the same with the Word of God. We need spiritual food as well as natural food, and that food is found in the Bible. When we read the Word of God, we ought not simply to read it and then forget what we read. Rather, we ought to think about it, meditate on it, and then make it part of us. In this way we grow spiritually, just as we grow naturally when we eat natural food.

More than this, most of us do not eat simply as a duty we have to perform. No, we get hungry and then enjoy our food. We look forward to eating. In the same way, if we are in good spiritual health, we want to read the Word of God, and it brings enjoyment to us.

“Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever” (Revelation 5:13).

As we saw yesterday, the Lord Jesus has the character of both a lion and a lamb. Naturally we all like the character of the lion. Even though we may feel sad when it attacks and kills other animals, yet we like to see an animal that is strong and confident, and can look after itself.

However, when it comes to praise, honor and glory, the redeemed ones all celebrate the character of the Lord Jesus as a Lamb. Whether it is saints on earth, or the angels, or various creatures, or the twenty-four elders (the heavenly saints), they all praise and honor the Lord Jesus as the Lamb of God. His power as a Lion is needed to execute judgment, but it is as the Lamb that He has put away sin, and glorified God. It is as the Lamb that He has made a way for sin eventually to be forever removed from this entire universe, and as a Lamb He has displayed the love and grace of God. It is as the Lamb that we can praise Him now, and as the Lamb we will praise Him for all eternity.

“Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda…and I beheld, and lo, in the midst…stood a Lamb as it had been slain” (Revelation 5:5-6).

It might seem strange to us to read of the Lord Jesus being described as both a Lion and a Lamb. We can scarcely think of two animals that are so different from one another. The lion is sometimes called “the king of beasts,” for rarely will any other animal dare to attack it. It is a beast of prey that readily attacks and kills other animals. The lamb, on the other hand, is a docile animal that does not resist even when it is taken away to be slaughtered, and it is utterly defenceless against a predator.

The Lord Jesus has both characters, for when He suffered for sin, He “opened not His mouth” (Isaiah 53:7), but submitted to suffering and death so that our sins could be taken away. Even in heaven, when He is the One who reigns over all things, we will still see the marks that show us how He suffered for us.

However, He will also come in power and glory to judge this world, and to set up His kingdom. When He comes at that time, He will come as a Lion, and none will be able to resist Him. Men may laugh and scoff at God’s claims today, but when the Lord Jesus appears in judgment, all will be compelled to fear and honor Him. What a privilege we have to honor and praise Him now!

“Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus” (Revelation 22:20).

In two earlier verses in this chapter, the Lord Jesus says, “Behold, I come quickly” (vss. 7,12). When it is at the beginning of a sentence, the word “behold” in the Bible has the sense of “pay attention,” or, as we sometimes say in modern language, “listen up!” But here, at the end of the chapter, the Lord assumes that His people have listened, and are both waiting and watching. For this reason He simply says, “I come quickly.” When He says this, His people gladly respond, “Even so, come, Lord Jesus.”

We want the Lord to come, but we also want more people to be saved. If it seems that the Lord is slow about coming, it is only because He is longsuffering, and God’s house must be filled. But God has always kept His promises, and the Lord Jesus will come and take us home very soon.

“And His servants shall serve Him: and they shall see His face” (Revelation 22:3-4).

It will be a wonderful day when the Lord comes, and we are taken home to be with Him. In that eternal day, there will still be service that we can do for Him, but most precious of all is that we shall see His face. In that connection, here is the last verse of a hymn that I have often enjoyed—

In the light of that heavenly place,
Light from His face, beautiful face:
In the light of that heavenly place,
I’ll wish I had given Him more.
More, so much more,
Treasures unbounded for Him I adore,
By and by when I look on His face,
I’ll wish I had given Him more.

 Grace Reese Adkins