Prepare the Way

John the Baptist came to prepare the way of the Lord. Matthew 3:3 says this of John:

For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said,
“The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord;
make his paths straight.’”

If you look just a verse earlier in Matthew, you read the message that John was specifically preaching,

“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

To the church in Ephesus, Jesus commands them to repent, and do the works you did at first. They had left their first love. The remedy? Repentance. Repent and do the works you first did when I was your first love.

Repentance, I believe, prepares the way of the Lord in our hearts. Repentance prepares the way for the Kingdom in our lives. Jesus Himself started His ministry saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

If you are feeling distant from God today, repentance may be just the remedy. Been living in sin? Repent. Unforgiveness in your heart? Repent. Cold heart? Repent, as I have had to do recently.

And don't stop. Let's continue to repent.

Repentance seems to wonderfully re-align our hearts and minds with the will of God, and light a fire in our heart once again for Him.

Revelation 2:5 in the Amplified Bible says, Repent (change the inner man to meet God's will) and do the works you did previously [when first you knew the Lord]...

Let's re-align ourselves with His will today, let's repent of our sin, and prepare the way of the Lord in our hearts.

A Deadly Neglect

You can be doing things right, and in the midst of the right, be treacherously wrong. You can be walking in holiness, serving the family of God, performing good works with toil and patient endurance for the Master, and yet neglect the Master altogether, a potentially deadly mistake.

I venture to say deadly from what we read in the letter to Ephesus in Revelation 2. The church in Ephesus were commended by Jesus this way...

I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake, and you have not grown weary.

I would love to hear this from the Master! He is commending them on their good works. However, the next thing He says is...

But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.

In the midst of their good works, the Ephesians had left their first love. In working for the Master, they forgot about the Master Himself. Here, we see Jesus's heart to have true intimacy and a love relationship with His Bride, His people. And we also see the potentially eternally deadly consequence of abandoning our first love - I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.

In the midst of our work for God, we cannot forget or neglect a heart beating with love and passion for Him. In the midst of doing right for Him, we cannot neglect Him. Mike Bickle said, "there are lovers and there are workers, and lovers get more work done than do workers." Jesus is the lover of our soul, the One passion and longing of our hearts!

If you have fallen out of love with the Master, heed the loving, and I emphasize loving, words of Jesus and repent, today. Let's do the works we did when we first met our Savior and fell in love with Him.

Church Bless God

God Bless America.

This is a common phrase in our nation. We desire God's blessings, and that we should.

Some have turned the saying around recently, recognizing the state of affairs in our nation, and instead are exhorting, "America Bless God." There is a recognition that America has left her founding faith and roots, and so the call is for a nation to return to her loyalty to Almighty God.

Though it is most definitely desirable for a nation to turn to the Lord, I believe we have a much deeper issue than America needing to return to the Lord.

I believe the Church needs to return to the Lord. Church Bless God.

The church is and always will be God's agent of affecting the world. We, as the church, are God's holy nation. Our loyalty is to the King of kings and a heavenly home before any earthly leader or country. So when we point to the fact that the U.S. is leaving her founding faith, I believe it's much worse, the Church has left her only good and necessary faith in Christ.

America was influenced by founding fathers with biblical standards and principals they lived by. That is why our fathers left the shores of Europe - for religious freedom - a deep commitment to God. In other words their commitment was to Christ before a nation, and a godly nation sprung up as a result. Again, the nation itself wasn't godly, but the people who governed her and protected her were.

Their ultimate loyalty was to God alone.

If we are not careful, we think America has been chosen as God's unique vessel through which He does His work on earth. America is not, the church is. And because of that, our nation sprang up with a godly heritage.

So, our answer as a nation is not for the nation of America to return to God. Our answer is in the Church, God's holy nation, returning to God himself.

As the church, we have fallen more in love with the world than with Jesus. We think the world is in shambles, but it would be better for us first to judge ourselves - there isn't much difference between the world and followers of Christ.

Many have heard the stats regarding the church. One in particular I recently read was that the divorce rate among Christians was highest in the "Bible Belt" of the U.S. (The Jesus Letters, Chap. 3, by David Ravenhill). I have heard too that divorce rates are around 50% more or less for those who are pastors in a church! And those are our leaders!

Yes, America is slipping away from her roots as a nation. However, I would venture to say that the Church, the Bride of Christ, has left her heavenly Groom. If there is to be hope for a nation, if there is to be hope for godly leadership in the world, the only hope comes from Christ and His work through His body, the Church.

Let's (the church) return to our roots. Let's repent of the sins we have committed. We must rededicate ourselves to living and serving by the commands of heaven. To live by the statutes of God's holy nation as revealed in His word. Let's turn from our other idols and loves, and fall headlong in love with our Master Jesus Christ once again.

Before a nation can be changed, the change must first exist in the church, God's agent of change, hope, and life to the world.

Church Bless God.