For their deeds follow them!
Revelations 14:13“And I heard a voice from heaven saying, "Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on." "Blessed indeed," says the Spirit, "that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!"
Never for a moment think that whatever you do would be over when you leave this earth, listen for a moment, good or bad, your deeds would follow you! Caveat! With great burden and passion I preached this message in our church.
Listen! Would we not live our life more fruitfully, productively and effectively when we know for sure that our deeds follow us! It’s like those ‘Payback rewards points or coupons’ offered by particular outlets; when you purchase goods from that shop, you accumulate ‘rewards points’ and you redeem your points later through more delightful spending. Ah! Isn’t that thrilling? Now, this offer is to entice you to spend more –having worked with a multinational bank, I know a lot more about this. The Heavenly Kingdom allures you to live usefully so that your good deeds would get more ‘redeeming points!’ Are you listening? Do not be conceited and live selfish, futile lives, for many, weekends are for snoring and shopping, they would never invest it for spiritual and useful activities but rather preserve it for vain pleasures! I remember a young, smart, efficient, Christian married woman turn to me while I spoke of church, Bible and say: ‘I have lot of things to catch up with during my weekends rather than waste my time in religious activities.’ I was stunned with such blatant answers! I was mocked, booed and lampooned when I shared the Gospel or distributed Gospel tracts at work; nevertheless, I continued to conduct afternoon prayer cell at my work spot, I went for outreach ministries all alone during lunch breaks, I have distributed Bibles on roads, distributed Gospel tracts to college students and much, much more. I was a young mother of two children and was still working while I invested my break time for God. Weekends, along with my husband, we would visit hospitals and distribute biscuits to patients and also share the Gospel, we held meetings in slum areas and shared the gospel with the downtrodden people. Every bit what we did was noted by God!
Today, after several years, my son at the age of fifteen plays the keyboard at church and other big revival meetings and also teaches at our Sunday School. My daughter joins her father in worship at church and also conducts the ‘Youth fellowship’ at our church – your deeds would follow you! God would never ever forget what you do for Him!
Think of young people who work the whole week, drink and make merry during the weekend, forget and put God on the top shelf, live life on their own terms and still expect God to favor them! How fair is this? A Christian family wanted me to pray for good climate during the wedding in their family because they were having an open air dinner reception. Well, the same family praised God for the weather and went ahead to hold ‘open-air drink party’ after the wedding that ran up to midnight! How fair is this?
Revelations 22:12”Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done.” I shiver as I write this!
