Young People’s Blog

“Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, answered and said to the king…Be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up” (Daniel 3:16,18).

Previously, these three young men had always been in Daniel’s company, and it is clear that he took the lead in being faithful to the Lord. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego followed his good example, and were faithful too. But now a new test occurs, and for some reason Daniel was not around. Now they had to face a severe test on their own, and they did so. We all know how their refusal to worship Nebuchadnezzar’s golden image resulted in their being thrown into a furnace of fire. Yet the Lord preserved them in a wonderful way, and showed the king the power of the true God.

It is often the same for us today. As young people, we may look up to someone older who is faithful to the Lord, and who encourages us in our Christian walk. But the time comes when the Lord wants us to rely totally on Him, and not on some other person, no matter how godly he or she may be. When that time comes, we will find that the Lord will never fail us, but will honor our faith, and help us with whatever test He may send us.

“While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease” (Genesis 8:22).

The condition of this earth is of great concern to many people and nations today. The combination of an increasing population on the earth, together with pollution and other factors, have blended together to damage the environment and cause real alarm to many. However, we have God’s assurance that as long as the earth endures, there will be different seasons, with cold and heat, and also day and night. This is very reassuring to us, for the Lord knows how long this earth has to last to accomplish His purposes.

It would seem that they did not have seasons before the flood, and that the temperature was relatively constant all year around. Since the flood God has allowed seasons, and the farther we move away from the equator, the more pronounced are the times of cold and heat. But wherever we live, God has promised stability as to these seasons, as long as the earth endures. We do not have to get all upset at what is happening today, for God will always keep His promise.

“For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but of the world” (1 John 2:16).

Most of you have probably heard the term “bucket list.” It originated back in 2007, when a movie was made about two men who were diagnosed with cancer, and who set out to travel the world and visit as many places as possible before they died. The travel industry quickly adopted the term, persuading people to make a list of all the places they wanted to visit. They promoted the idea that everyone should have a “bucket list,” and encouraged people to visit exotic places such as the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt, the Taj Mahal in India, and Machu Picchu in Peru.

It is nice to travel and see different places, but a recent account by a few people who had traveled extensively said that they were often disappointed. Either the traveling to get there was too difficult, or the area was too crowded, the site was not all that interesting, etc. There were very few times when they were completely satisfied with the experience.

It is not wrong to enjoy seeing different parts of the world, but no matter where we go or what we see, it will never satisfy us. Only Christ can satisfy fully, and not only does He satisfy, but it lasts.

“Be not affrighted: Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified: He is risen; He is not here: behold the place where they laid Him” (Mark 16:6).

As we have seen in our verses the past few days, resurrection is a wonderful thing, and it began with the Lord Jesus. He suffered for us on Friday, and was buried that day by Joseph of Arimathaea and Nicodemus. During all of the next day, the Jewish Sabbath, He lay in the grave. But then, on the first day of the week, He rose from the dead. That is why Christians gather together on the Lord’s day, and not on the Sabbath, as did the Jews. That is why we remember the Lord on His day—the day of His resurrection.

The women to whom the angel spoke in our verse had come to embalm the Lord with spices, and it is nice to see their desire, but those spices were not necessary. The Lord had risen from the dead, and instead of being sad, they could now rejoice.

“But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? And with what body do they come?” (1 Corinthians 15:35).

Have you ever wondered what we will look like when we are in heaven with the Lord? Will we look just as we do now, or different? Will we be able to recognize one another? People were asking that kind of question away back in the Apostle Paul’s day, and he answered it for them.

If you had never seen a cornstalk before, and someone showed you a kernel of corn, would you be able to figure out what a corn plant looked like? No, you would not. Or if you had never seen a daffodil flower, and someone showed you a daffodil bulb, would you be able to tell what the flower would look like? Again, the answer is no. Yet each seed or bulb produces a characteristic plant that is instantly recognizable, and is distinct from other plants.

It will be the same with our heavenly bodies. They will be different from the bodies we have now, but they will be changed bodies, not new ones. Just as the disciples knew Moses and Elijah on the mount of transfiguration, so I believe we will know each other in heaven. But we will have bodies of glory, “fashioned like unto His glorious body” (Philippians 3:21). We do not know now just what they will look like, but they will be distinctive.

“Evil communications corrupt good manners” (1 Corinthians 15:33).

This verse, in this same chapter about resurrection, gives us another important warning. When I was growing up, my mother always insisted that we practice good table manners. But once in a while we would find ourselves eating with other boys who had not been so carefully taught. Then we would often begin to adopt their careless and sloppy way of eating, and my mother would have to straighten us out. I have always been thankful that she taught us good manners!

In the same way, if we listen to people out in the world, their evil communications can make us forget the importance of following the Lord. Then we may begin to think that we too can abandon the narrow way of following Christ, and begin to indulge ourselves in the things of this world, without regard to the consequences.

We should not isolate ourselves from the world, for we should bring the gospel before them, but we should not allow their evil communications to corrupt what we have learned about the pathway of faith.

“Why stand we in jeopardy [danger] every hour?…Let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we die” (1 Corinthians 15:30,32).

The Christian pathway through this world is not an easy one, and there are often dangers as we seek to avoid the pitfalls around us and walk to please the Lord. If there is no resurrection of the dead, Paul argues, why should we take such a path? Why not just enjoy ourselves, eat and drink, and then die?

If there were no resurrection of the dead, this kind of thinking might make sense, and in fact, many in this world are adopting it today. Satan has persuaded them that death is the end of everything, so why not just have a good time, and then die? But the Word of God clearly says, “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). As someone has remarked, the Christian pathway is well worthwhile, even if it were much harder than it is, because it ends in glory. But the pathway of the unbeliever is not worthwhile, for he is trading a few years of enjoyment in this world for an awful eternity in hell.

“For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:22).

As children of our father Adam, the first man, we are all sinners, and are all subject to death. God had warned Adam and Eve that if they disobeyed Him and ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they would surely die, and this has definitely happened. But now something wonderful has happened. If we accept Christ as our Savior, our verse today says, “All [shall] be made alive.”

The key phrase in the verse is “in Christ.” In this time of God’s grace, every true believer is in Christ. This was a special revelation given directly to the Apostle Paul; it was not known before, and believers in the Old Testament did not have this assurance. If we are “in Christ,” then we are just as fit for heaven as He is. If He is risen from the dead, then we too will rise from the dead, if we die before He comes to take us home. We cannot have more security than this! We are united to Christ, and are seen before God as being “in Christ.” As such, we have everything that He has. Again, what a wonderful thing this is!

“If Christ be not risen…your faith is also vain [empty]…but now is Christ risen from the dead” (1 Corinthians 15:14,20).

Resurrection from the dead is a wonderful thing, when we think of how our bodies decay and go back to dust within a few years after we die. But the Lord Jesus Christ is risen from the dead, and the fact that He is risen is our assurance that God accepted the work He did on Calvary’s cross. God was so pleased with what His beloved Son had done that He raised Him from the dead.

Some in Corinth were preaching that there was no resurrection, and the Apostle Paul points out to them that if there were no resurrection, then Christ was not raised from the dead, and their faith was all for nothing. They were still in their sins. But Christ is raised, and because we are united to Christ, we too will be raised. Again, how wonderful this is! We will speak a little more about it tomorrow.

“And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men…and every bondman, and every free man…said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us…from the wrath of the Lamb” (Revelation 6:15-16).

Yesterday we spoke about the judgment of God, and here in Revelation 6 we see it beginning to be carried out. Many on the earth at that time will recognize clearly that judgment is coming, and that the Lord Jesus will be the One to do it. However, it is significant that they do not refer to Him as God, or as the Lord Jesus, but as the Lamb. Why is this?

The reason is very solemn. Those who are calling on the rocks and mountains to fall on them are not heathen people who have never heard the gospel. Rather they are those who live in so-called Christian countries, who know the gospel, and may have even grown up in Christian homes. They know who the Lord Jesus is, and they know that He died as the Lamb of God to put away our sins. But they never accepted Him as Savior, and now they are about to fall under His judgment.

I hope that all who read this are saved, and will never be among those who call on the rocks and mountains to fall on them, to hide them from the judgment of God.