[Darris McNeely] When I was a young man, I would go to my library in my small hometown. Every time I'd walk through the door, over the door, there was a name, Carnegie Library. I never knew who Carnegie was until I one day looked into it. It was Andrew Carnegie, a rich American industrialist who left a lot of money to build a lot of libraries, and all of them put his name upon them.

You ever watched or seen the names of people on monuments, on buildings and wonder who were they? Rich people, powerful people, Pharaohs would build the pyramids to leave a monument to their name and the memory of them. And the next generation comes and we forget who people were, even one or two generations back. That's the way life is. That's the way history is. 

You know, when we look at the scriptures, Christ tells us something about our own life, that when it is given to him, we don't have to worry about being remembered. John 14:13 lists what is the second of the Beatitudes in the book of Revelation. Been going through all seven of those and it's time to look at number two. In Revelation 14:13 Christ gives the second blessing, and it has something to do with being remembered. He said, "I heard a voice from heaven saying write, 'Blessed are the dead who died in the Lord from now on.'" This is the progression of the seals and signs that John is seeing revealed here in the progression of events at the time of the end. "'Yes,' says the Spirit, 'that they may rest from their labors, and their works follow them.'" 

Blessed are those who die in the Lord from this point forward God says their works will follow them. God doesn't forget our works when we give our life to him, that's the point. There is no great divide really between life and death if we truly understand the purpose of God and the plan of God and really what Christ says. Christ said in another scripture back in the book of John 11:25, speaking of the resurrection and the fact that He was the resurrection, and the life and about man, He said, "Though he were dead, yet shall he live." Death and life are not that separate in God's mind and in God's realm. When we come to understand that, then as Revelation 14:13 tells us, there's a blessing. It is a blessing, and a comfort and an assurance that our lives are with God, and our works will follow us when we give our life to God and He works within our lives.

That's the key, that's a blessing. And for our lives today, that can be a great comfort and assurance.

That's BT Daily. Join us next time.