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Showers for the Tender Harvest--"Let my teaching fall like showers on tender plants." - Deuteronomy 32:2
Adventures in the Throne Room
by Jill Nelson (Jill's bio)
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Music rocked the auditorium, flowing in waves across the sea of children crowded against the stage. Hands waved in the air like a forest of palm branches. Young bodies bounced uncontrollably in the rhythm of delight. Mouths moved in sync with the lyrics. Fresh faces alight with joy tilted upward toward the object of their adoration.What's all the fuss about? A frenzied rock group? The latest boy-band? Elvis? Not a chance!
This is fan-mania the way it was meant to be—every ounce of adoration trained upon the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Jesus! “You have turned my mourning into dancing. You have turned my sorrow into joy.” Cries of praise rang through the room without restraint or censure as worldly shackles fell away.
On their knees before God, children prayed for one another or for their adult chaperones. Some knelt quietly with closed eyes, tears streaming down faces aglow with peace. Some lay prostrate, shoulders shaking with sobs of intercession for the hurting and the lost.
Situation normal for “Worship Weekend”—an annual event that draws children and children's ministers from all over the U.S. and some foreign countries.
When the guest speaker at length got up to preach, the children's hearts were prepared to lay down the weights and sins that had so easily beset them. Kids, you say? What weights and sins could hold them away from Jesus? Things like too much Nintendo or TV or time spent at the mall. Or try the big guns—anger, hatred, fear, unforgiveness...
We live in a scary world, even for a kid with Jesus. Children aren't safe in their schools any more. And tragically, they often are not safe in their homes. Innocence is destroyed early. In the US in particular, the danger can come from a surfeit of plenty...or from the bitterness of lack in the midst of a culture of abundance. Throughout the world, the enemy destroys innocence with weapons of godless philosophy, false gods, oppression, famine, and war.
If the church can give kids nothing to counterbalance the terrors and seductions of everyday life, we can count on them leaving in droves. We can expect to see them spend their instinctive worship energies at secular music concerts, sporting events, or in fanatical causes. Not in the Throne Room where they belong—where they would find all the love and acceptance and peace they are seeking elsewhere.
As children's ministers, we have a responsibility to share with our children regular Adventures in the Throne Room. They need to be able to laugh and to cry and to sing and to dance in a place of absolute safety—the Presence of God. If we as children's ministers, don't know how to get there ourselves, how can we lead the little ones?
God, humble our stubborn pride! Teach us to trample it underfoot as we release ourselves into exuberant praise. As we lay on our faces before You, weeping with joy from Your presence, or sorrow for a lost and dying world. As we submit ourselves to the prayers of our young charges by inviting them to lay hands on us for the healing of our bodies and any other need. Let us have the wisdom and humility not to reserve these moments only for the privacy of our prayer closets, but to display our worship toward You unashamedly in public assembly.
We must slay hypocrisy and be transparent in our love for God before the younger generation. If that means we have to change “the way things have always been done in our church,” then let's get busy and do it. If we don't, we will die as a church assembly, as a family, and as individuals. And we will take our children with us.
Strong words for strenuous times, my friends. We are in the last days. As the enemy has pulled out all the stops in a final push toward hell, we must answer by surging toward glory.
We cannot accomplish the will of God by clinging to our traditions and nursing our dignity. When Jesus stated that the Sabbath was meant for man, not man for the Sabbath, He clearly indicated that traditions are signposts pointing toward higher service in the Kingdom of God; they are not ends in themselves. There is nothing holy in any of our traditions. And there is certainly nothing holy in the pride we guard so zealously behind tradition's false security.
Let me ask you, dear reader, do you spend time in the Throne Room? Is the Presence of God your manna from heaven? If you cannot answer yes to both of these questions, you must judge your fitness to lead the little ones. Yet, if you answered an honest and humble “no” to the questions, all is not lost. You can change those answers by repentance and a meaningful, refreshing sojourn at the feet of Jesus.
We cannot afford any longer to be the blind leading the blind into the ditch. Only the spiritually alive can share that life with others. The church needs us spiritually fit and familiar with the high ground in order to guide our charges on regular Adventures in the Throne Room.
Copyright 2002, Jill Nelson. All Rights Reserved. Used by permission.
| About Jill Nelson: Children have been the focus of Jill Nelson's ministry for twenty years. She and her husband have four--two boys, two girls--all teenagers. (Prayers, please.) Jill supervises the children's ministry at her local church and delights in writing her own material. Her heart is to glorify God by guiding children into a powerful personal relationship with Him. E-mail Jill |
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