Be a Voice Shouting in the Wilderness

Saturday, November 15th, 2025

3:50 pm

Good afternoon! I hope you have had a good day! I have, it has been pretty good. It has been so nice outside today. Right now I am chilling on my porch enjoying the weather.

This morning, I was in Matthew 3:1-12, Mark 1-8, Luke 3:1-18, and John 1:19-28. These 4 sections are all parallel to each other. They pretty much say the exact same things, but there are a few differences if you read them. But they talk about John the Baptist, and the message he preached. He lived in the Judean wilderness, preaching on both sides of the Jordan River. He told the people to repent of their sins and turn to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven was near. Teaching if anyone turned to God and confessed theirs sins, they should be baptized. Several people followed him, and several people repented and he baptized them. All 4 gospels says that he was the one Isaiah the prophet talked about in Isaiah 40:3. Isaiah said, "he is a voice shouting in the wilderness, 'Prepare the way for the Lord's coming!'" As John was preaching this, some Pharisees and Sadducees came, they asked him who gave him the authority to baptize people and if he was the Messiah or Elijah. He called them a brood of snakes and asked them who warned them to flee from God's coming wrath. He told them that he was neither, and that he baptized with water, but someone was coming who was greater than he, whom he was not even worthy enough to be His servant, and He would baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire. That He would be the one to separate the chaff from the wheat, gathering the wheat into His barn but burning the chaff with never-ending fire. He told the people that they needed to prove by the way they lived that they had repented of their sins, to not just say they were safe because they were descendants of Abraham because God could create children of Abraham from stones. He then told them that God's ax of judgment was ready to sever the roots of the trees that did not produce good fruit. They would be chopped down and thrown into the fire.

The verses of John shouting in the wilderness to repent of our sins and turn to God, is how we should be today. We too, like John, are supposed to go out into the world and share the Gospel with the world. Sharing the Good News with any one who will listen. Showing people how to give their lives to God. Warning them of the wrath that is to come if they don't. Those verses of being separated like wheat and chaff, or like being a tree that is cut down for not producing good fruit for God, is scary. It is a warning for all of us. If you are in a wilderness season, people that are teaching like this about Jesus is a light in the darkness. A way out of what ever hole they are in. God needs us to be like John, not afraid to preach God's Good News to a hurting world.

Are you telling others about Jesus and what He has done, and can do for them? If not, why not? Remembering what God had done for you and has brought you through, can help encourage you to share with others. We don't have to be afraid, because God will give you the right words to say and the boldness to step out for Him. You are needed to share His love with a hurting world. Don't be afraid.