Tag Archive for John the Baptist

Go to the Wilderness!

2019-10-23 Hymns No comments

Through the rough and wild John the Baptist,
God was calling His people
back to the wilderness
where their faith in Him had first been formed.
John was confrontive,
stripping them of their comfortable excuses.
He challenged, warned, and
invited the people with
brutal, unadorned honesty.
For Advent.

Recording
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Go to the wilderness!
Hear the voice of God!
His servant speaks the truth untamed,
And not for your applause.
His look is rough and unrefined.
His ways are raw and wild,
And through the fury of his words
God calls to you, His child.

Go to the wilderness!
Go confront your sin.
The Word that brings a storm of guilt
Will speak His peace within.
Confess the truth your heart has heard.
Repent and start to live.
The mercy that condemns your sin
Is longing to forgive.

Come to the wilderness!
Trust your God alone.
His mighty breath can fill your life
With life beyond your own.
So come and live the truth untamed!
Begin your life again,
For here you meet the Sovereign God
As Father and as Friend.

by Ken Bible, © 2010 LNWhymns.com.

His Indescribable Gift

2017-01-02 Devotional with Hymn No comments

The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is the one I meant when I said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’  I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel.” 

Then John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. I would not have known him, except that the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is he who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ I have seen and I testify that this is the Son of God.” (John 1:29-34, NIV)

All the gifts of God,
all the freedom of His forgiveness,
all His unfailing love,
all the life-giving renewal of His mighty breath,
all the beauty of His character,
all the joyful, glorious, abundant future
that His heart could ever imagine
have come to you in Jesus Christ.

Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift! (2 Corinthians 9:15, NIV)

Listen and sing:
Hymn: See the Lamb of God
Recording
Printed Music & Lyrics

God’s Kingdom Comes

2015-01-25 Devotional with Hymn No comments

As I study the gospels, I repeatedly encounter events that appear small from a human perspective but loom large from God’s perspective.

The Transfiguration
(Matthew 16:28 – 17:9)

Jesus referred to the Transfiguration as “the Son of Man coming in His kingdom” (Matthew 16:28, NASB) and “the kingdom of God…come with power” (Mark 9:1, NASB). That’s quite a build-up. And to be sure, the transfiguration provided a spectacular glimpse of the true glory of Christ, in the face of His coming humiliation and suffering. But only three disciples experienced it, and apparently only for a few fleeting moments. How is that the powerful coming of Jesus in His Kingdom?

John the Baptist and Elijah
(Matthew 17:10-13)

The appearance of Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration caused the disciples to ask about Elijah. Prophecy had promised that he would return and prepare the people for the “great and terrible day of the Lord” (Malachi 4:5, NASB; read vv.5-6). Jesus said that Elijah would “restore all things” (Matthew 17:11, NASB) and that John the Baptist was this returned Elijah. But John the Baptist’s ministry was relatively short, and his acceptance was limited. Herod silenced him, bringing his life to a premature and brutal end. To say that John restored all things seems a wild overstatement.

The Triumphal Entry
(Matthew 21:1-11)

Throughout His ministry, Jesus had consistently discouraged any open proclamation of His being Messiah. But then He arranged His own parade, encouraging Jerusalem to welcome Him as their Messiah. When the Jewish leaders protested, Jesus emphasized the absolute necessity and inevitability of such praise, saying that if His followers were silent, the very stones would cry out. But on a human level, all this seems a false promise. In this very city, within the week the civil and religious leaders would arrest, humiliate, execute, and bury this Messiah as a pretender and a criminal.

Cleansing the Temple
(Matthew 21:12-13)

After triumphantly entering Jerusalem as a conqueror, Jesus went to the temple and cleared it of commercial interests. He did this in fulfillment of Malachi 3:1-3, which foretold that the Lord would come suddenly to His temple and purify it completely. Jesus also connected His actions to Isaiah 56:3-8, where God promised to make His house a house of prayer for all nations, a place where outsiders would be welcomed and blessed. Yet it is unlikely that Jesus’ cleansing of the temple had any lasting effect. It doesn’t seem to measure up to the dramatic promises of Malachi and Isaiah.

The Resurrection
(Matthew 28:1-8)

We Christians make much of the resurrection of Jesus. But apparently the risen Christ appeared only to His followers, not to anyone else. Forty days later He was gone. Meanwhile, this whole world suffers on in the iron grip of death. Every one of us continues to die.

So why did Jesus and why does Scripture make so much of these events? To human eyes, they seem so partial and passing.

But indeed, the changes begun by each of these events are dramatic, deep, and very real:

  • The Kingdom of God—the presence and rulership of God—has come to us in Jesus. It has come in power and glory. By faith we see and interact daily with the glorified Christ.
  • The repentance and forgiveness preached by John are even now restoring right relationships between God and us and among His people. We are living in the peace of these restored relationships.
  • With exuberant praise, we His disciples welcome Jesus as our Messiah, our conquering hero who is delivering us from all oppression.
  • Jesus Christ is Himself the holy temple of God among us. He is purifying us to make us part of that holy temple.
  • Even now we are breathing the undying, unbounded life of Christ, and we will breathe it forever.

The Kingdom of God has come to us in Jesus Christ! It is growing in and among us through His Spirit. And in Him, it will soon come in all its power and glory.

Jesus’ life is a promise of all that soon will be for each and all of His people.

Listen and sing:
Hymn: See His Kingdom Come in Power
Recording
Printed Music & Lyrics

Are You God or Not?

2013-09-19 Devotional One comment

When John, while imprisoned, heard of the works of Christ, he sent word by his disciples and said to Him, “Are You the Expected One, or shall we look for someone else?” 

Jesus answered and said to them, “Go and report to John what you hear and see: the blind receive sight and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he who does not take offense at Me.” (Matthew 11:2-6, NASB)

I read this passage of scripture and identify with John the Baptist. Often I’ve sat imprisoned by need, wondering if You were going to be the Savior I needed right then.

Jesus, You surprise us at times. You do not work as we expect or as we hope. You perplex and disturb us.

But when we stand back and watch what You do, it is always love. It is always redemption and healing and restoration.

Thank You, Lord. Help us to keep trusting You through our ignorance and pain.

All the Life of God

2013-09-05 Devotional No comments

John 3:22-36

Near the end of the ministry of John the Baptist, the spotlight that had been on him was shifting to Jesus Christ. John accepted his fading role joyfully:

“He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30, NASB).

Earlier John had introduced Jesus as “The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29, NASB) and “The One who baptizes in the Holy Spirit” (John 1:33, NASB)

Now John gives us three more snapshots of the Messiah, raising our eyes to show us all that Christ will be for God’s people:

Jesus is the Bridegroom.
He came to bring about a joyful, loving, eternal union
between God and His people.

Jesus is from heaven,
from the unseen Father.
He came to show us wonderful realities
that we cannot know or experience any other way.

Jesus is the fullness of God.
He speaks and lives all the truth about God.
If we simply trust Him,
all the life of God is ours forever.