Devotional on Luke

2014 – Park at Blaine, WA

One tough man

Luke 3: The main character in this drama…will ignite the kingdom life, a fire, the Holy Spirit within you.

John the Baptist storms onto the world stage as “Thunder in the desert.” This is one tough man. He preaches a radical repentance. He calls some of his congregation “snakes” and tells everyone to straighten out their lives. When people begin to speculate that he might be the Messiah of God he points to the precious Lamb of God who’s soon to be revealed. John says that water baptism is the best he can offer. The coming Messiah, he declares, will baptize with the fire of the Holy Spirit, changing people from the inside out. John’s approach to life change is to take a hard line against sin. Those who claim a righteousness of their own he calls “snakes.” It’s a hard message, one intended to draw attention, and of course it’s true. However, John’s message is of only limited value. The tax collector who repents and commits himself to do the right thing is still the same person he was before. The real need of his life will never be met in this manner. The need is for him to be changed, transformed into a new person. John’s method creates skin deep believers. Jesus’ method creates saints of God. Any time I’m tempted to come down hard on people, challenging them to straighten up and fly right I need to remember that the finest, most anointed practitioner of that kind of preaching ever says that he’s a mere stage hand compared to the real Star, Jesus. His method isn’t to “tell it like it is.” Rather, it’s to be a loving, humble servant of God and man. Lord, make me more like your Son, Jesus.

Take Away: More than reformation people need transformation.

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