PREPARING THE WAY

JOHN THE BAPTIST

Read: Luke 3:1–20 

     Finally they said, "Who are you? . . . "John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, "I am the voice of one calling in the desert, 'Make straight the way for the Lord." John 1:22–23 NIV (Isaiah 40:3)

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      John the Baptist was the last prophet preceding the coming of Messiah. He knew from the time he was a child that God had special plans for his life. No doubt, his parents prepared him as they told him of Gabriel's message to Zechariah,
      "And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous-to make ready a people prepared for the Lord." (Luke 1:17)

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      We, like John, have a special purpose for living. As believers, our primary purpose is to glorify God with our lives. John was a special called-out prophet, but we believers are also called to be conformed to the image of Christ. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son… (Romans 8:29 NKJV) 

     Lord, may our lives become more and more like Yours as we look into the mirror of Your Word.

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John answered, saying to all, "I indeed baptize you with water; but one mightier than I is coming, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose." Luke 3:16 NKJV

THE BOY JESUS

Read Luke 2:39–52

     After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. Luke 2:46-47 NIV

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     Mary and Joseph were busily talking with their friends on the way to Nazareth, knowing that they didn't have to check on their son, Jesus. But when they could not find him a day's journey out, they were understandably concerned. When they finally found him, Mary was distraught and she said to him, "Son, why have You done this to us? Look, Your father and I have sought You anxiously." And He said to them, "Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father's business?" But they did not understand the statement which He spoke to them.  (Luke 2:48–50 NKJV)

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     This exchange between mother and Son was, at least in part, a fulfillment of Simeon's words to Mary, "And a sword will pierce your own soul too." (Luke 2:35) Mary spoke of "your father and I", and Jesus spoke of "My Father," and they didn't understand.

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     Lord, help me to see the eternal significance of Your plan for my family, even when I don't understand.

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     Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But his mother treasured all these things in her heart.Luke 2:51 NIV

RACHAEL WEEPING FOR HER CHILDREN

Read Matthew 2:1-23; Genesis 35:9-19; Jeremiah 31:15

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     When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under– Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: Matthew 2:16–17 NIV

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     More than 1400 years before Christ was born, the patriarch Jacob buried his beloved wife, Rachel. We read, "So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem). Over her tomb Jacob set up a pillar, and to this day that pillar marks Rachel's tomb." (Genesis 35:19–20) The prophet Jeremiah predicted a future day when children would be slaughtered near Rachel's grave. (Jeremiah 31:15) This was fulfilled when Herod killed all of the male babies under two, trying to destroy the Jewish Messiah.

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     We live in a day where it could be said "A voice was heard in America of weeping and mourning for children, because they are no more." The travesty of millions of babies aborted over the past thirty plus years must grieve your heart, Lord. Don't let us become apathetic to the cries of unborn babies, or the grief caused to women in our day.

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     "A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more." Matthew 2:18 NIV