John's Ministry in the Wilderness

Meditations based on readings from

The Story of My Life As Told by Jesus Christ

July 31, 2019

John's Ministry in the Wilderness

Page 41-42

Matthew 3:1-12; Mark 1:2-8; Luke 3:1-18

John the Baptist’s preaching reveals the dual mission of the Messiah. The Messiah will judge the oppressors and set free the oppressed. The coming of God’s Kingdom will bring God’s justice into the world through the lives of the followers of the Messiah. To prepare the way, John preaches the need for both confession and repentance.

Except for Communion Sundays, many churches no longer include prayers of confession in their worship liturgies. On Communion Sundays, there is a congregational prayer of confession and maybe a time for personal prayers of confession. How deep is your confession? When I recently visited a church on their Communion Sunday, the time allotted for personal prayers of confession was less than ten seconds. It was just a brief pause that was barely sufficient for a shallow confession that only listed a few sins. However, even if we have a deep, meaningful prayer of confession, in our reading today John the Baptist reminds us that God calls us to repentance, not just confession.

Repentance does not mean feeling guilt for sin. Repentance is a basic reorientation of your life. You turn from one way of thinking about yourself, others, the world and God, and turn to another vision. Repentance is admitting that what you have been basing your life on is a lie, on a flawed view of what is true and of lasting value. Repentance is coming to the place where you believe God in Christ Jesus is telling you the truth about yourself, others and what has lasting value in life.

My Takeaway: The Apostle Paul applied the teaching of John the Baptist in this imperative:

“Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.”

Romans 12:2

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Copyright © 2019 by Alex M. Knight

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

• Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

• The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.