Matthew 3:1-12
While Jesus was living in the Galilean hills, John, called “the Baptizer,” was preaching in the desert country of Judea. His message was simple and austere, like his desert surroundings: “Change your life. God’s kingdom is here.”
John and his message were authorized by Isaiah’s prophecy:
Thunder in the desert!
Prepare for God’s arrival!
Make the road smooth and straight!
John dressed in a camel-hair habit tied at the waist by a leather strap. He lived on a diet of locusts and wild field honey. People poured out of Jerusalem, Judea, and the Jordanian countryside to hear and see him in action. There at the Jordan River those who came to confess their sins were baptized into a changed life.
When John realized that a lot of Pharisees and Sadducees were showing up for a baptismal experience because it was becoming the popular thing to do, he exploded: “Brood of snakes! What do you think you’re doing slithering down here to the river? Do you think a little water on your snakeskins is going to make any difference? It’s your life that must change, not your skin! And don’t think you can pull rank by claiming Abraham as father. Being a descendant of Abraham is neither here nor there. Descendants of Abraham are a dime a dozen. What counts is your life. Is it green and blossoming? Because if it’s deadwood, it goes on the fire.
“I’m baptizing you here in the river, turning your old life in for a kingdom life. The real action comes next: The main character in this drama—compared to him I’m a mere stagehand—will ignite the kingdom life within you, a fire within you, the Holy Spirit within you, changing you from the inside out. He’s going to clean house—make a clean sweep of your lives. He’ll place everything true in its proper place before God; everything false he’ll put out with the trash to be burned.”
December 16th, 2006 at 1:13 pm
Make a straight path in the desert…..
How often do we have winding paths….I look back at my life and see winding, not a straight path. But in the last couple of years it has finally felt my path has become pretty straight…..and in becoming straighter I have had an increasing desire to help others to help make their paths towards God straighter.
Partly through this blog and other stuff that God has been doing over recent weeks at work and home and in ‘church’, that desire has becoming increasingly stronger over this Christmas time.
The Christmas story and Jesus humaness is about reality and vulnerability….something that the world can often see as weakness…..but underneath it all is screaming out for….for a place to discuss the winding path..the things that they don’t like about themselves, actions etc……there’s a desire for someone to walk with them and challenge them to find the straight path.
So, for me, the call to be a “John” is becoming strong and stronger, and Dream is a the heart….a place for people to feel able to be real and accepted, what ever winding road they’re on….and a place for God to have space “to make a clean sweep of (y)our lives. He’ll place everything true in its proper place before God; everything false he’ll put out with the trash to be burned.”
I’ve just been listening to u2 ‘the saints are coming’…..to right we are, that’s what we are called to do…and as we come with our vunerabilty and the reality of our lives it will release many blessings and straighter paths in the process.
Wanna be a “John” too?!
December 16th, 2006 at 8:02 pm
“change you life. God’s kingdom is here.”
This is between the eyes stuff!
And challenging for us in Dream too as John goes for the jugular with the religious people who were showing up for an “experience” becasue it was the popular thing to do… “what counts is your life”
gulp!
December 16th, 2006 at 11:24 pm
This is challenging, but it struck me a while ago that there is another side to “He’ll place everything true in its proper place before God; everything false he’ll put out with the trash to be burned”, and that is that Jesus will be able to deal with my sin far more effectively than I can myself. This is inevitably a painful and difficult process, but thank God that I don’t have to shoulder the burden of my sin alone!! (Although neither will I be able to hold onto the bits I want to either…).
March 8th, 2007 at 1:36 am
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