The Next Generation in the Kingdom of God
1) Worldly education is collapsing, but God’s original model of education continues
The current state of education in Korea is not so different from what has already happened in the United States. Today, our education system feels like it is run aground. While not every school is in crisis, many students and teachers treat each other with disregard, sometimes even hostility. Students report teachers for all kinds of violations, and many teachers have long given up on meaningful relationships with students, letting go of their identity as educators. As a result, a large number of Korean elementary, middle, and high school students are wasting the most important years of their lives. They are suffering from rising rates of suicide, violence, loan sharking, teen pregnancy, exposure to obscene content, and smartphone addiction.
There were people who foresaw this failure of public education. A common message among them was the call to step away from both public and private education systems. John Taylor Gatto, an education expert and author of Dumbing Us Down, who taught in New York City public schools for 30 years, exposed the brokenness of the education system and warned of its consequences.
“Science is promised as the progress and savior of the future. But who will control its applications? How can we guide the moral and ethical decisions of those immersed in atheism and relativism within public education? Will they make themselves the law? Or worse, become tools of imperialism? Can the intellectual, economic, and scientific elites be held accountable by a public that lacks talent and education? Will students who go through public education graduate with the wisdom to understand complex issues, protect their freedoms, and fulfill their responsibilities? Can the uneducated truly be free? History tells us clearly that they cannot.”
“Why do we become more foolish the more we’re educated?” “Dismantle institutional schooling.” “Abolish the teacher certification system.” “Return education to the private sphere so that those who want to teach and those who want to learn can choose each other freely.”
Additionally, here are a few brief statements from writer Ken Myers and Bradley Heath, author of Milestones & Stumbling Blocks: Understanding Education in Post-Christian America, which highlights the failures of public education in the U.S. and the state of Christian schooling: “A school and its structure are shaped by the affections of our children.”
“Christian parents have a responsibility to lovingly guide their children toward truth, beauty, and goodness. To do this, evangelical education must take place within the support structure of a faith community—a responsibility that belongs to the church. This sacred alignment happens when Christian schools and home education shape culture through the content and context of Christian teaching. In contrast, public education shapes culture through secular content and worldly contexts, which drastically alters both direction and affections. We must understand that the school we choose inevitably shapes our children, and ultimately, it shapes the world.”
Why has education collapsed to this extent? We agree with Heath’s declaration that “the root of this crisis lies in Christian parents’ ignorance of Christian-based education and the church’s failure to take responsibility.” That’s why the only education we must pursue now is the restoration of Christian education. “The world’s education is crumbling, but God is alive and working. He has never stopped moving throughout history.” And we are part of that ongoing work.
》Scripture Prayer
(1 Kings 19:13–21,NIV) 13 When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. Then a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 14 He replied, “I have been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.” 15 The LORD said to him, “Go back the way you came, and go to the Desert of Damascus. When you get there, anoint Hazael king over Aram. 16 Also, anoint Jehu son of Nimshi king over Israel, and anoint Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel Meholah to succeed you as prophet. 17 Jehu will put to death any who escape the sword of Hazael, and Elisha will put to death any who escape the sword of Jehu. 18 Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel—all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and whose mouths have not kissed him.” 19 So Elijah went from there and found Elisha son of Shaphat. He was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen, and he himself was driving the twelfth pair. Elijah went up to him and threw his cloak around him. 20 Elisha then left his oxen and ran after Elijah. “Let me kiss my father and mother goodbye,” he said, “and then I will come with you.” “Go back,” Elijah replied. “What have I done to you?” 21 So Elisha left him and went back. He took his yoke of oxen and slaughtered them. He burned the plowing equipment to cook the meat and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he set out to follow Elijah and became his servant.
》Pray that the Word may become the Conclusion.
1. Education in Korea and around the world is drifting off course. Many students from elementary through high school are wasting the most precious years of their lives, suffering from issues like suicide, violence, loan-sharking, teen pregnancy, exposure to obscene media, and smartphone addiction. Public and private education alike have failed to provide real solutions in this painful and heartbreaking reality. Now is the time for Christian parents, faith communities, and Christian schools to unite in the cross of Christ, return to God’s original design for education, and pray that the next generation will be restored through the life of Jesus Christ.
2. The constant stream of news about social issues leaves us sighing, making us lament, “Is there anyone really righteous?” Especially heartbreaking are the countless stories of children left unprotected in the face of suffering at home, in school, and in society. God heard Elijah’s cry. Though Elijah had devoted his entire life to seeing change and restoration, he saw no fruit and said, “I alone am left.” Yet God responded by telling him to raise up the next generation. Let us pray that the church—the body of Christ that believes in the gospel of the cross—will wholeheartedly commit to raising up the next generation through the gospel and prayer in this time.
2) God Uses a Child’s Faith for His Kingdom
When the northern kingdom of Israel was suffering under Aram’s invasion, it was a young slave girl—taken captive—who became the turning point, leading Aram to recognize and fear the power of God. When Naaman, the commander of Aram’s army, was facing death from leprosy, the girl spoke innocently and boldly to her mistress, without hesitation or fear: “If only my master would see the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.”(2 Kings 5:3,NIV)
Likewise, when Jesus was teaching in a wide-open field and the large crowd grew hungry, it was a child who gave five barley loaves and two fish to Andrew. Jesus used that offering to perform a miracle—feeding five thousand people and still leaving twelve baskets of leftovers. After this, He began to teach about His own flesh and blood as the true bread and drink of life for sinners.
》Scripture Prayer
(2 Kings 5:1–5,NIV) 1 Now Naaman was commander of the army of the king of Aram. He was a great man in the sight of his master and highly regarded, because through him the LORD had given victory to Aram. He was a valiant soldier, but he had leprosy. 2 Now bands of raiders from Aram had gone out and had taken captive a young girl from Israel, and she served Naaman’s wife. 3 She said to her mistress, “If only my master would see the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.” 4 Naaman went to his master and told him what the girl from Israel had said. 5 “By all means, go,” the king of Aram replied. “I will send a letter to the king of Israel.” So Naaman left, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold and ten sets of clothing.
(John 6:5–11,NIV) 5 When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” 6 He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do. 7 Philip answered him, “It would take more than half a year’s wages to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!” 8 Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up, 9 “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?” 10 Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” There was plenty of grass in that place, and they sat down (about five thousand men were there). 11 Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish.
》Pray that the Word may become the Conclusion.
1. Let us praise God for using the pure and simple faith of the young girl who was taken into General Naaman’s house as a servant. When no one could do anything in Israel’s desperate situation, God used a child’s faith to display His power—and even gave Naaman the gift of faith. Today, the humanistic and secular education systems around the world have left the next generation spiritually desolate. In a time when we feel helpless and hopeless, let us expect God to move. Let us pray that God will show His power and salvation again by using the faith of children in classrooms and education fields.
2. Jesus once asked Philip how they could feed the large crowd, testing him. Philip quickly calculated that even two hundred denarii worth of bread wouldn’t be enough and gave up in despair. But a young boy who had heard the conversation came forward and offered his five loaves and two fish, willing to give what he had for Jesus to use. Let us reflect on our own faith—do we respond to challenges by calculating and giving up, or do we offer what little we have, trusting in the Almighty? Let us stop calculating what seems impossible when it comes to the next generation standing before the gospel and revealing God’s glory. Instead, let us offer whatever faith we have—whether it be as a family, school, or church—and plead with the Lord to use it to bring revival in His Kingdom.
3) The Kingdom of God Belongs to Those Like Little Children
“But Jesus called the children to him and said, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.’” (Luke 18:16–17, NIV)
God has saved sinners through the gospel and made them His children, citizens of His kingdom. Jesus said that receiving the kingdom of God is like coming to Him with the faith of a child—believing in His death and resurrection with simple, childlike trust. Before the perfect gospel that Jesus has accomplished, we are to humbly accept His kingdom as sinners who have received grace through faith alone. As citizens of God’s kingdom, we have been given the joy of living in fellowship with brothers and sisters in Christ, sharing in the richness of the Church, His cosmic body. Yet temptations and attacks, like those of a worldly seductress, try to drag us down into destruction. Even when these forces seem overwhelming, we can overcome them through the childlike faith that receives God’s Word and clings to prayer.
》Scripture Prayer
(Proverbs 7:1–5, 22–27,NIV) 1 My son, keep my words and store up my commands within you. 2 Keep my commands and you will live; guard my teachings as the apple of your eye. 3 Bind them on your fingers; write them on the tablet of your heart. 4 Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,” and to insight, “You are my relative.” 5 They will keep you from the adulterous woman, from the wayward woman with her seductive words. 22 All at once he followed her like an ox going to the slaughter, like a deer stepping into a noose 23 till an arrow pierces his liver, like a bird darting into a snare, little knowing it will cost him his life. 24 Now then, my sons, listen to me; pay attention to what I say. 25 Do not let your heart turn to her ways or stray into her paths. 26 Many are the victims she has brought down; her slain are a mighty throng. 27 Her house is a highway to the grave, leading down to the chambers of death.
》Pray that the Word may become the Conclusion.
1. Around the world, young people are being swept away by lust, pleasure, and immorality—like cattle being led to slaughter. The most intense spiritual battle is taking place among the next generation. Let us thank God for planting Christian schools in the field of education and for continuing to overcome the forces of evil. Now is the time for families and churches to rise up and commit to the battle of raising the next generation with childlike faith, as true citizens of the Kingdom of God. Let us declare with boldness that the victory has already been won—through the cross of Jesus Christ.
2. The foundation of childlike faith is the Word of God. We have received the grace to treasure His Word, to engrave it on our hearts, and to live according to it. When our lives are united with His Word, we become one with it—wisdom becomes our sister, and understanding our relative. Let us pray that the children of God who live by faith will keep and obey His Word and enjoy the fullness of life that comes from being one with it.
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