{"id":2313,"date":"2020-07-10T10:07:32","date_gmt":"2020-07-10T18:07:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/?p=2313"},"modified":"2020-07-10T10:07:32","modified_gmt":"2020-07-10T18:07:32","slug":"devotion-matthew-31-3-in-good-company","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/?p=2313","title":{"rendered":"Devotion Matthew 3:1-3 In Good Company"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Matthew 3:1-3<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0In those days John the Baptist\u00a0came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea 2\u00a0and saying, \u201cRepent, for the kingdom of heaven\u00a0has come near.\u201d\u00a03\u00a0This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah: \u201cA voice of one calling in the wilderness, \u2018Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.\u2019\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

When we think of John the Baptist, what do we think?\u00a0\u00a0Depending on our knowledge of the Bible, some may say that he was weird guy who lived in the desert and baptized people.\u00a0\u00a0That is really not a wrong statement.\u00a0\u00a0Short, but not wrong.<\/p>\n

John was the last Old Testament prophet.\u00a0\u00a0He had a very specific two part ministry.\u00a0\u00a0The first part of his ministry was to let everyone know that the good news that the Messiah, who the Jews were praying and hoping to arrive, was coming soon.\u00a0\u00a0He preached for people to get ready for the Messiah by acknowledging the sin in their lives (that we all have).\u00a0\u00a0It was not just to acknowledge sin in our lives, but to make a commitment to turn from a life of sinning to a life of seeking God.\u00a0\u00a0He then baptized them as a public proclamation of their newfound commitment to God.<\/p>\n

The second part of His ministry, which he simultaneously did with the first part, was to let the world know that the Messiah, the great and mighty Savior from God, was coming.\u00a0\u00a0In fact, John knew that the Messiah was already alive on the earth and would soon be revealed.\u00a0\u00a0He would later point out Jesus as the Messiah.<\/p>\n

Family, our mission is like that of John the Baptist. He was called to warn people to turn from sins and to pledge allegiance to the Messiah.\u00a0\u00a0He was the person who announced the first coming of the Messiah.\u00a0\u00a0We are the people to announce the second coming of Messiah Jesus. Our mission is not to \u201csave\u201d anyone.\u00a0\u00a0That is solely God\u2019s job.\u00a0\u00a0Our mission, like John\u2019s was, is to announce so that people will know.\u00a0\u00a0Family, Jesus is coming.\u00a0\u00a0He is perhaps coming much sooner than any of us expected.\u00a0\u00a0Let us, like John the Baptist, be faithful to our mission.\u00a0\u00a0Let us, with renewed vigor and excitement announce that Jesus died for all who would come and obey Him.\u00a0\u00a0(John 3:16, John 14:21<\/b>)\u00a0\u00a0Jesus said of John \u201cTruly I tell you, among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet whoever is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.\u201d<\/i>\u00a0(Matthew 11:11<\/b>)\u00a0\u00a0Jesus had the highest praise for John.\u00a0\u00a0We have a like ministry as John and we, through Jesus, have an assured eternal position of being with God forever.\u00a0\u00a0So it is good to be weird to the world because we stand with God who loves us.\u00a0\u00a0Jesus has called us to a simple faith.\u00a0\u00a0Not an easy life, a simple faith.\u00a0\u00a0There is nothing better in the world.\u00a0\u00a0Look up, our redemption is close!\u00a0\u00a0Praise God!\u00a0\u00a0Jesus is coming soon for us!\u00a0\u00a0Praise God!\u00a0\u00a0Life in Jesus is very good indeed!\u00a0\u00a0Praise God!<\/p>\n

Psalm 150:6<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.\u00a0 Praise the Lord!<\/p>\n

Micah 7:7<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0But as for me, I watch\u00a0in hope\u00a0for the\u00a0Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear\u00a0me.<\/p>\n

Micah 6:8<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0He has shown You, O man, what\u00a0is\u00a0good; And what does the\u00a0Lord\u00a0require of You but to do justly, to love mercy, And to walk humbly with Your God.<\/p>\n

Numbers 6:24-26<\/b>\u00a0\u201cThe\u00a0Lord\u00a0bless you and keep you; 25\u00a0the\u00a0Lord\u00a0make His face shine on you and be gracious to you; 26\u00a0the\u00a0Lord\u00a0turn His face\u00a0toward you and give you peace.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Matthew 3:1-3\u00a0–\u00a0In those days John the Baptist\u00a0came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea 2\u00a0and saying, \u201cRepent, for the kingdom of heaven\u00a0has come near.\u201d\u00a03\u00a0This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah: \u201cA voice of one calling in the wilderness, \u2018Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.\u2019\u201d When we think…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192],"tags":[100,101,94,1874,17],"class_list":["post-2313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotion","tag-john","tag-matthew","tag-micah","tag-numbers","tag-psalm"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2313"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2313\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2314,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2313\/revisions\/2314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}