John testified about him when he shouted to the crowds, “This is the one I was talking about when I said, ‘Someone is coming after me who is far greater than I am, for he existed long before me.’”   John 1:15

The birth of John the Baptist happened months before the birth of Jesus.  Elizabeth was pregnant first and was well into her pregnancy when Mary conceived through the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit.  And yet, John told the people than Jesus existed before he did.  The only possible explanation is that John was not talking conception dates or birth dates.  Something far greater was being revealed and I believe they could tell that his reference was to something otherworldly by the breathless tone in John’s voice.  

Now, I know what you may be thinking.  Nowhere in these verses does it say that John was breathless.  Yet, when I imagine how John delivered this news, all the while trying to comprehend the eternal storyline of Jesus, it is impossible for me to believe that he could be nonchalant.  

The Gospel of John movie unveils this very scene in the most stunning way possible.  I’ve watched it hundreds of times and each time I see John speak, I remember Jesus words that ‘John was a lamp, burning and shining.’  His ministry was so very short but his impact so very massive.  If you would like to see the several minute clip of John the Baptist, the video link is below.  

It begs me to ask myself whether or not I’ve ever talked about Jesus this passionately.  Does my ministry reflect such urgency?  It is a litmus test for my own soul and I assess myself often to see if I feel the degree of intensity I witness in John.  

Lord, I don’t want my testimony to ever be casual.  Turn me into a burning flame.  Amen

He came into the very world he created, but the world didn’t recognize him.  John 1:10

The Treasure that Israel had been waiting for was born in the middle of the night.   He was the Savior of the mother who delivered Him, the Teacher of the man God chose to be the father in their household.  He was the Rabbi in a manger who would know more than every other Rabbi he would meet.  He was the stone that the builders would reject, the Bread of Life for which His people would have no appetite. He was rejected in every way.

 
Few believed that He was the One they had been crying out for throughout the ages.  In some ways, I just don’t understand.  Even Jewish people in Nazareth knew, from prophecy, that their Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. They knew He would be born of a virgin and they knew Mary’s story.  Certainly, they had heard the stories of the shepherds who witnessed a glorious display in the heavens and the wise men who followed the brightest star for 400 miles with expensive gifts in tow.  They also knew from their own people’s history that many of God’s chosen leaders came from obscurity.  God had anointed a shepherd fresh from the pastures to be their greatest king from thousands of years before.  Why then did a King from Nazareth make them stumble?  Why was this Prophet not honored in His own hometown?  How could there have been such spiritual blindness?

For the same reasons I stumble today.  More than any other generation, I know the history of Jesus.  I have more Bible teaching at my fingertips than any previous people group who has lived before me.  In spite of all these resources, I struggle to believe the promises that are in front of my face.  I’m not hearing them second hand.  No, I’m reading them for myself with full spiritual understanding.  

I need peace but I often look elsewhere, outside of the Peace-giver.  I need composure, a moment to take a spiritual breath, but often remain so worked up that anxiety overtakes me.  I need hope but instead of raising my eyes to look into the face of the One who has planned my eternity, I’m spun up about the hopelessness of the times.  Oh, it need not be.  

Rabbi, teach me.  Put your hand on my head and bless me.  I am at Your feet.  Feed me from Your hand. Comfort me, hush me, like the Mother and Father I need.  You are exactly what I need, the One right here, right now.  Amen

John himself was not the light; he was simply a witness to tell about the light.  John 1:8

John the Baptist never confused who he was with who Jesus was.  He told the Pharisees, “I am not the Christ.”  When others perceived the spiritual power behind His ministry, they wondered if he might be Elijah.  He was clear, even then, that he was not.  

It is important to know who we are and who we are not; to know what we can do and what we could never do.  Our egos are fragile, ever looking for what will strengthen them, what will offer a kind of significance that feels permanently empowering.  Hearing someone say, “No one can do for me what you do,” can be pretty intoxicating.  It feels so good that we can’t wait to help them  again so we can receive the next compliment.  

What we must understand is that each of us are idol makers.  We set out to find God but it’s easy to abandon the search when someone nearby walks in the power of the Spirit and bears great Godlikeness.  The taste of God’s love and compassion is so profound that we are willing to experience God second-hand.  That person gives just enough of what we need that we can’t imagine we’ll want more than they can provide.  

It’s ironic ~ we’ll never tell someone else that we think they are God – nor do we expect to hear them say that we are God to them and the object of their worship.  Yet, that is how the relationship functions.  

John was called by God to bear witness to the Light of the world.  He was influenced by the Light, changed by the Light, and even radiated the Light.  As strong as His resemblance was at times to Jesus, He knew His place.  He was to prepare others to meet Christ, the One who was to come.  He would not allow others to make him the center of their worship.  His own Spirit recognized Jesus when they were both in their mother’s wombs.  He leapt at the presence of God, even in babe form.  His awe of God-incarnate never diminished.

You are my Savior and the Savior of all who need me today.  Amen

God sent a man, John the Baptist, to tell about the light so that everyone might believe because of his testimony.  John 1:6

God sent so many of his servants to a literal desert to set them apart from society, to test their faith, to shape them, to heighten their listening skills, and ultimately, to prepare them to be peculiar.  A person can live life a little differently if he knows it’s just for a day or a weekend but let him be tested in a desert that spans years and he will emerge as peculiar.  No longer will he be governed by the mindset of the mainstream.

How many God has taken to the desert.  A place where no one asked to go.  A place away from competing voices.  A place away from distractions.  A place of deafening silence and little provision.  It is there that God speaks and His voice is powerful, yet parental, against the backdrop of deprivation.  If the desert were a palace, would God’s servant even listen?  Not like he would if his surroundings were stark.  

Moses lived in a desert 40 years. Jesus prepared for ministry in a desert 40 days. John the Baptist made the desert his home before prison bars defined his dwelling place just weeks before his death. He didn’t look, dress, act, or dine like anyone else.  John the Baptist was God’s peculiar servant.  

The past twelve months have been a kind of desert.  Away from friends and family, away from the workplace, away from social gatherings, we have tried to adjust to the quiet.  God’s voice has spoken into our need, and for many, His voice has been shaping them to re-emerge peculiar.  At large, people will not be the same after this.  They may feel out of place in the company of certain friends.  They may be ill at ease with idle chatter.  They will be more thoughtful and discerning.  New habits were formed in our desert.  Many of the things we used to habitually put on our calendar may no longer appeal to us.  

Why?  We have sought God’s face in the wilderness.  We have bent low the to hear the voice of God in perpetual quiet.  We are now an army of peculiars.

I am a babe. Teach me how to live all over again.  Amen

The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone.   John 1:4

Jesus gave life to everything that lives, right down to the microscopic level.  Nothing existed until He fashioned it into existence.  But there are so many other ways He offers it.  Life is granted on so many levels with implications too wonderful to take in all at once.  Here are a few that make me humbly grateful.

Source of life – The Creator, Inventor, and Dreamer.  By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.  Hebrews 11:3

Fountain of life – One who continually pours out whatever I need to live.  For with You is the fountain of life.  Psalm 36:9

Sustainer of life – One who sustains and enables me to persevere when I want to quit.  God is my helper; the Lord is the sustainer of my life.  Psalm 54:4

Everlasting life – One who gives life on the other side of the grave.  The instant physical breath expires, there will be a gasp of celestial air.  And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.  I John 5:11

New life – One who brings me from spiritual death to spiritual life.  The people who walk in darkness will see a great light; those who live in a dark land, the light will shine on them. Isaiah 9:2

Resurrection life – One who calls me continually out of the graveyard of the flesh to walk in resurrection power. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you.  Romans 8:11

Oh, how many ways I depend on Him for ‘life’ today.  He is healing my body, He is sustaining me through trouble, He is pouring out streams from His own life to enable spiritual understanding.  He is wooing me to forsake my flesh, the place that is toxic to my freedom, and to step out of the tomb into resurrection life.  

Every time I think I understand a simple scripture, you open it wider to my understanding.  Oneness with You means more access to Life in all its forms.  Thank you.  Amen

God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him.  John 1:3 [NLT]

God and Jesus. Co-creators.  Not Creator and Created-One.  Both God.  Both infinite.   Co-artists and designers of the heavens and the earth.

These two parts of the trinity worked together in tandem. There was never a glitch in their relationship.  In their glorious perfection, they did their work in a harmonious partnership.  There was no tension in their creativity.  There were no disagreements over ideas.  There was no striving for prominence.  Competition was absent.  There was no withholding of praise for the other’s work.  In the beautiful slow dance of the Three-in-one, ideas were born, developed and expanded, and then implemented without interruption.   

What can I learn from their holy synergy?  A lot.  Two people who work together in the flesh will clash.  Even collaboration at its best.  Ah, but two people, full of the Spirit, sample a taste of God-head synergy. Obsessed to glorify God, they enjoy many of the same characteristics God and Jesus experienced, an absence of tension, disagreements, and competition. When there’s a hiccup produced by the flesh, they rely on supernatural help to identify the problem and then work things out until kingdom rhythm resumes.

I am not like you, you are not like any other.  In our differences, there can be joy in kingdom collaboration.  Have you known it?  I have.  They are usually the endeavors where everyone involved gathers on their knees to seek God’s help and blessing. 

So much is still being created that has never been created before ~ by You, Yahweh, and the Word.  Together, You both speak things into existence that nurture my world.  Thank you for constructing my path today.  Amen

In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God.  John 1:1 [NLT]

In the beginning God…  Genesis 1:1a

Ancestry.com has grown in popularity and there are people who have spent years constructing their personal genealogy.  I’ve shared meals with people who love to talk about their discoveries.  Their face is alive and their voice is animated as they tell from whom, and from where, their family emanated.  They discover that they are not peculiar and, in fact, are quite like their ancestors. 

I met one person who claimed that she traced her family line back to Adam.  I didn’t ask how.  

If I’m willing to live by faith, I can believe that my beginnings are rooted in someone earlier than Adam.  “In the beginning God…”. In the beginning was the Word…””   Before Adam was created out of dust, God was there. The Word, Jesus, was there.  The Trinity was the foundation of everything created and not yet created.  Behind every genealogy is a Person, not nothingness.

To understand who I am, I must know where I came from and why I was created.  I can’t ask a four-hundred-year-old ancestor such questions but I can ask the Word.  He’s talking.  And He’s answered my deepest questions in the revealed Scriptures; He doesn’t withhold critical information from His creation. 

The internet provides access to ancestry.com.  The Scriptures do better than that.  They provide access to ancestry.God

O Ancient of Days, the Word of all creation, You are the foundation of all life. My history began in the cradle of Your heart.   My journey through John is dedicated to You.  Amen

“Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.” Matthew 13:8,23

Picture this slow motion movie ~ The best of all seeds fall from the hand of God. They land in perfect soil ~ fertile, aerated, and treated. The moment they hit the dirt, germination happens and from the first moment, the promise of something great begins to happen.

I can picture it, can’t you? Don’t you want it? I sure do. I want pristine conditions for spiritual seeds. How incredible is it that heaven’s seeds can come and grow inside of me! God is generous to share them without me having to go to heaven first. “The kingdom is here, now”, Jesus said.

What makes my heart the perfect place to grow heaven’s seeds?  I am open at all times. Willing to listen. Willing to learn. Insatiably hungry. Willing to lay defenses aside. Willing to be wrong. Willing to change.   When seeds hit my soil, no demonic birds can steal it. No limestone foundation comprised of unresolved issues prohibit growth. No weeds are anywhere in sight to crowd out the free expanse of this new planting. Stunning results are assured. What will I become with heaven’s seeds growing inside of me? There is no mystery here. I become the tree in Psalm One; battered at times by the winds of adversity but never fearing annihilation.

On this first day of 2021, I move toward this goal by engaging my personal Gardener. “I am the vine, my Father is the husbandman – or vine dresser.’ John 15:1 ESV I know that my Father constantly assesses the garden of my soul. He searches me and knows what it will take to improve my soil conditions. He never passes judgment to declare me hopeless if I ask for help. He gives specific spiritual guidance. He reveals every rock and why it’s there. He changes my appetite if I love the things of this world too much. He is my compassionate Healer when worries block my ears from hearing Him. He wants my harvest even more than I do.

I’m a picture person. Right now, I see Him slowly walking the pathways of my heart. He’s tilling and inspecting the soil…smiling at the possibilities of a new year, new months, and brand new days.

Your seeds are infused with resurrection power – the same that raised You from the dead, Jesus. Don’t let me limit what You want to do by being unteachable. Speak into my soul and be relentless. In Jesus’ name, Amen  

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole. … When he was hung on the cross, he took upon himself the curse for our wrongdoing.  Galatians 3:13

A wee little baby was born with a purpose that defied understanding.  He wasn’t born to be a teacher, or to tell stories about God, or to perform miracles, or to be king of Israel.  He was born to reverse the curse that was pronounced in the Garden of Eden.  

The curse came upon Adam and Eve when they failed to believe God about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  Turning their back on belief, and then sealing it with an act of disobedience, ushered in immense consequences for them and every one of their descendants.  Is it any wonder that Jesus would grow up to say, “Whoever believes in me, though He dies, yet shall He live.”  Unbelief brought the curse.  Belief in Jesus would free us from it.  

The sin of unbelief was committed in a garden.  Thirty-three years after little Jesus was born, He would enter another garden to deal with the weight of our curse and to give up His life to reverse it.  

Every one of us who has embraced this little Savior and believed in Him is no longer cursed ~ but blessed.  The theme of our life is not ‘paradise lost’ but ‘paradise restored.’  Barren landscapes, once brown and decayed by sin, are now lush and green.  The likes of Psalm 23 are where we live.  There is an expanse of green in every direction.  We dare walk barefoot in tender grass without the fear of cutting our feet.  We dare drink water from any pond or water source without fear of contamination.  This is paradise and this little Savior, asleep in hay, shook our world with love and sacrifice.  Futility and hopelessness were instantly banished with His words, “It is finished.”  

I still believe and choose to act on it.  Thank you, baby Jesus.  Amen