Post-Sermon Blog: Wilderness

I spent all afternoon semi-consciously thinking through what I wanted to say about John the Baptist, and the importance of his personal life before God (supposed to be Main Point 2 :) .

John spent significant time in the wilderness as a boy; one pastor said he essentially skipped adolescence through his wilderness time. He was also full of the Spirit - which means his mind and affections were set upon the LORD (this plays out in different ways throughout the Bible). The two go hand in hand, and the result was a courageous man (not boy, or guy).

Because John went to the wilderness, he knew who he was before God. This prepared him to be able to worship his younger cousin - another Jewish man. John's time in the wilderness gave him courage to call the religious leaders of the day "vipers", to call the military people who came to him 'cowards' (read between the lines of "stop extorting people with threats in Luke 3), and to call the local mayor a sinner who should publicly repent (not call a press conference and do everything but repent).

I will leave it up to you to determine how to get to the wilderness yourself - be it metaphor or literal. But, if you're like me it would encourage your heart as a man (or woman), husband (or wife), friend, son (or daughter), employee, and simply as a human being - to know who you are before Christ. I pray that you will enter the Holidays full of the knowledge of who you are in Christ (For John he began with who he was in God, and moved to who he was in Christ!). I pray also that this knowledge will give you the courage to relate to your family, engage the inevitable loneliness of the holidays, and move forward in love to those around you.

Merry Christmas; hope to see you at the Christmas Eve Service.

Yours,
Matt Blazer