“In those days came John the Baptist…The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.” (Matt. 3:1, 3)
When our President pays a special visit to a foreign nation, a large scale preparation is made before his actual arrival in that place. An enormous amount of time is put into planning everything from security that must be in place, to the food they will take on Air Force One. It may take weeks, or even months, to plan one trip.
So, if that much time and effort go into planning for the arrival of an earthly leader, it should be no surprise that someone was sent ahead to prepare the way when the “King of kings” and the “Lord of lords” came into the world.
John the Baptist was the fulfillment of the prophecy in Malachi 3:1, “Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me…” The main message and ministry of John the Baptist was simply to “Prepare…the way of the Lord.”
Did you know that we have the same mission? Our job in this world is to help “Prepare…the way of the Lord.” By the way we walk, talk, dress, act, and react, we are either helping people see Jesus or hindering people from seeing Jesus.
I was knocking on doors one day (when I was at another church), and a man answered the door. When I invited him to our church, he said, “Does (and he named a man in our church) go to your church?” I said, “As a matter of fact, he does.” He then said, “Then I will never go there. I know how he lives.”
Oh my! Evidently the man he named in our church was not doing a very good job of preparing the way of the Lord at work. Does your life prepare others to receive Jesus? Will they want to know Jesus based on what they see in your life?