Crying In The Wilderness

I can only imagine the burden that fell on John the Baptist, when the assignment fell on him from the Lord. How it felt to look at his peers and elders, to look at his leaders, the priests, the high priest, the rabbi’s, the Pharisees and Sadducees and to come to the realisation that they all were more content with religious ceremony than with authentic relationship. How heavy it must have been to be in a city a many men and feel like he stood alone in a wilderness.

The world today feels like a similar place, full of religious sentiment but lacking Kingdom integrity. A place where popularity determines authenticity more that truth does. A world where foolishness speaks more boldly and confidently than wisdom and truth. A place where we couch cowardice and a lack of moral integrity as, acceptance, love and tolerance.

'Then they said to him, “Who are you, that we may give an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself?” He said: “I am ‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Make straight the way of the Lord ,” ’ as the prophet Isaiah said.”'
John 1:22-23

When John said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness,” he was clearly not in a literal wilderness, he was surrounded by many people, but where he stood, as one fervently on fire, hungry, ready to sacrifice himself for the truth of God, he was alone. He was crying out to deaf ears, surrounded by men who thought that they were children of Abraham because of their bloodline, when the fatherhood Abraham is celebrated by God for, was the fatherhood of faith, not blood.

Now more than ever, the need for men and women who like John the Baptist, are ready to cry out, yes with their words, but also with their lifestyles, and prepare a way for the Lord. There has to be a cry that this thing we’ve been calling Christianity, is just religion and the standard God has for His sons, is much higher, we can no longer be content with worldly acceptance but be ready to risk it all to please God’s heart, to love people enough to tell the hard truth and usher people into a genuine relationship with God, because anything less is an act of hatred, that is content seeing many die instead of being bold enough to help them see and choose life.

'For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies,” says the Lord God . “Therefore turn and live!”'
Ezekiel 18:32