The Pastor’s Piece, Pastor Kevin Cernek, FCFI Chaplain

FCFI

August 24, 2025

Sometimes, as I minister to the people in our congregation – and others – I feel a bit like a parent. I sit with people when they’re sick. I offer comfort in sorrow, and hope when everything seems hopeless. I try to help and encourage, wherever and whenever I can. I’ve lifted people out of chairs, walked them down hospital hallways. I’ve sat beside them during therapy, and even helped them in and out of the bathroom.

One memory stays with me from the early days of pastoring. A gentleman in our church was in the hospital. While I was visiting him, a nurse came in and asked if he needed to use the restroom. He told her no. After she left, he looked at me and said, “I really need to go, but I didn’t want to bother her. Will you help?” I said yes – and I helped him to the restroom and back. I’ll spare you the details, but it was quite a messy ordeal.

Then there was the time I went to visit an elderly widow who lived alone. I called ahead, knocked on the door, and heard her say from the other room, “Come in, it’s open.” I found her in the kitchen stuck headfirst in the refrigerator! She had lost her balance while reaching in and couldn’t get back out.

There are so many memories. I remember one winter night, a frantic farmer’s wife called in the middle of a heavy snowstorm. Her husband had fallen and broken his ankle and she was afraid she’d get stuck trying to get him to the hospital. They only lived a few miles away, so I jumped in my four-wheel drive truck and was able to get him to the hospital where they were able to set his ankle and get him on the road to recovery. I remember pacing the hospital and calling home periodically to report to his wife the progress that was being made – while she enjoyed hot tea in the warm glow of their fireplace.

Another occasion I found somewhat funny was when someone asked me if I’d go visit their adult child who was serving time in a federal prison near Oregon, Wisconsin. When I arrived  I was surprised – the facility looked more like a peaceful retreat than a prison. The driveway was lined with flowers, and neatly trimmed shrubs. Off  in the distance, there was a well-kept, state-run dairy farm where inmates worked as part of their rehabilitation. But I never did get to see the young man. I hadn’t called ahead or submitted the proper information for a background check, so they wouldn’t let me in. I had to laugh – I needed to pass a background check just to get into jail. I joked with the warden, saying, “Well, I could always cause a little ruckus and get arrested. That would get me in, right?” He didn’t laugh. Apparently, prison humor doesn’t go over too well with wardens.

Can you imagine a world where justice always prevails, righteousness rules, and peace never ends? A world where joy is everywhere, where people live long, healthy lives, and a hundred-year-old is still considered young? Imagine a place where children play safely near snakes and wild vermin, where lions and lambs lie down together, and all are led by a little child.

Can you picture a world without war, where food is plentiful in every corner of the earth – even with the greatest population the world has ever seen? A world ruled by Jesus Christ Himself, our loving and perfect King?

That’s not a fantasy. That’s the Millennial Kingdom – God’s promised future for those who have put their trust in Jesus. It’s coming. The Bible teaches that Jesus will return to reign over a literal kingdom on earth for 1,000 years. “This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘Once again men and women of ripe old age will sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each of them with cane in hand because of their age. The city streets will be filled with boys and girls playing there,’” (Zechariah 8:4-5).

That’s a picture of millennial peace: cities full of grandparents and children – no fear, no danger,  no war, no crime, no calamities. The Bible says if someone dies at a hundred-years-old, it will seem like they died young. People will live for hundreds of years in good health, and the people in the city, and those in the country will be filled with life, joy, and safety. There will be no need to lock your cars or your homes. Violence will be a thing of the past. Jesus will reign over his kingdom, bringing perfect justice and peace – and with it, the absence of fear. This is the future promised to those who belong to the King.

God’s promise to His people: “I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in my people; the sound of weeping and of crying will be heard in it no more. Never again will there be an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not live out his years … For as the days of a tree, so will be the days of my people … Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear. The wolf and the lamb will feed together …” (Isaiah 65:19–25).

(Kevin Cernek is Lead Pastor of Martintown Community Church in Martintown, Wisconsin).