24/10/11

Crying in the wilderness

Mark 1:3 - The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.

Just these days back I have been so down spiritually but fighting at all fronts. The grace of God and His Hand is always there behind me in the areas which are impossible for me. But there is one area which really put me down and in fact just before I picked up today's message I was getting depressed with the same thought and the Lord gave this message.

I share the same feeling as John the Baptist did when he was proclaiming the Lord Jesus Christ. Understand John was speaking to the Jews, for whom scriptures were a part of their lives. Reading the Torah was a must along with the books of the Prophets. Even though they knew scriptures but yet they did not understand nor did they live them even though they thought they did know and were following them.

Although times have changed the situation has not changed. It may come as a surprise that even though today we have so many preachers and so many so called experts on the Bible yet there are very few who really hold the right understanding of the Bible.

It really depresses me when the basic foundational elements are not clear with believers and the feeling is like John who cried in the wilderness. Man has mastered control of the door from their ears to their hearts. They know how to control what they want to hear and what they do not want to, even though all the words fall on their ears. Some may go to extend to complement and yet do not receive a pinch of what the words reveal.

Sometimes the thought comes to take a break, but then if we do not carry our CROSS then we will not have any chance to be true Disciples of Christ and to be with Him eternally.

A farmer does not check every grain that he throws on the ground if it will grow for sure. He throws them by the hundreds with whatever visual discernment he possesses. He spoke to the people knowing for sure that most of them will hear but not understand.

John came as a Man of God in the limelight after a long gap of four hundred years. His style and way of life was unlike any other. He was not living in the desert as a repentance of his personal life, for He knew Jesus Christ from the time he was in his mother's womb. It was the people's way of life that caused him to live the life he did. More than his words it was the things he did that caught their attention first.

Let us pray we do not be like the Jews confident that we know but give due consideration to every scripture and every word that the Lord speaks to us through His Word.


[ Prayer Starter ]
Lord, work in our hearts Lord and heal our ears that we receive every Word that comes from You. You gave us a mind to reason and understand. It is attitude of not giving importance to every Word that causes us not to understand and behind it is the fear that it will completely change our way of life. Lord let us not be a stiff-neck people, stubborn in our ways like the Israelite in the desert. You showed them your glory knowing that they would not enter the promised land but their children would. It was for the sake of their children You did great miracles for them. Let us be the ones along with our children to enter the true Promised Land...

This prayer we make in Jesus' Name, Amen.


[ Reference Scriptures ]
Exodus 20:19 - And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die.

Deuteronomy 29:2-6, 14-20
2 And Moses called unto all Israel, and said unto them, Ye have seen all that the LORD did before your eyes in the land of Egypt unto Pharaoh, and unto all his servants, and unto all his land;
3 The great temptations which thine eyes have seen, the signs, and those great miracles:
4 Yet the LORD hath not given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day.
5 And I have led you forty years in the wilderness: your clothes are not waxen old upon you, and thy shoe is not waxen old upon thy foot.
6 Ye have not eaten bread, neither have ye drunk wine or strong drink: that ye might know that I am the LORD your God.
14 Neither with you only do I make this covenant and this oath;
15 But with him that standeth here with us this day before the LORD our God, and also with him that is not here with us this day:
16 (For ye know how we have dwelt in the land of Egypt; and how we came through the nations which ye passed by;
17 And ye have seen their abominations, and their idols, wood and stone, silver and gold, which were among them:)
18 Lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turneth away this day from the LORD our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations; lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall and wormwood;
19 And it come to pass, when he heareth the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst:
20 The LORD will not spare him, but then the anger of the LORD and his jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the LORD shall blot out his name from under heaven.

Isaiah 6:9-13
9 And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not.
10 Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.
11 Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate,
12 And the LORD have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land.
13 But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return, and shall be eaten: as a teil tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in them, when they cast their leaves: so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof.

Luke 1:41-45
41 And it came to pass, when Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit;
42 and she lifted up her voice with a loud cry, and said, Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.
43 And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come unto me?
44 For behold, when the voice of thy salutation came into mine ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy.
45 And blessed is she that believed; for there shall be a fulfilment of the things which have been spoken to her from the Lord.

The Word of God was given free to us, therefore we should also share it freely with others. (All rights are with God)