This week, I have a challenge for us, as we minister to children and youth in our classrooms, or as we parent or grandparent. Let’s look at the young faces in our care and imagine them in the midst of this scene in the future:
And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. 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. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done.
—Revelation 20:12-13
Let this sink in—deeply. Pause and consider the implications. Now, read as Pastor David Michael reflects on these glorious and sobering realities in his message, “Let Them Bless His Holy Name Forever: Our Eternal Hope for the Next Generations.”
Every face you see in your classroom or at your kitchen table will see the Lord, seated on his throne, and they will be confessing Jesus as Lord.
They will be either calling to the mountains and rocks: ”Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb” (Revelation 6:16).
Or they will be shouting: “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns…Worthy is the Lamb who was slain…[so that our] guilt is taken away, and [our] sin atoned for” (from Revelation 19:6; Revelation 5:12; and Isaiah 6:7).
Keeping the throne room in view and keeping the last day in view has been for me a way to keep a right perspective in ministry to children, youth, and families. This reinforces a sense of urgency—a seriousness about our task.
Look into the faces of children, or anyone for that matter and be reminded that this face will one day be in the presence of this holy, high, lifted-up God. That head will bow, those knees will bend, that tongue will confess Jesus is Lord.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, when we minister to the next generations, we are dealing with the most weighty truths in the universe. We are preparing them to meet the King of kings and Lord of lords! May this reality cause our hearts to more diligently, earnestly, and prayerfully go about our task so that, by God’s grace, the children in our care will come to…
…know, honor, and treasure God, setting their hope in Christ alone, so that they will live as faithful disciples for the glory of God!
