Voice in the Desert

Mark begins his gospel like this:

"It is written in Isaiah the prophet: 'I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way' -- 'a voice of one calling the desert, "Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him."'

I imagine someone yelling at the top of their lungs, "Prepare the way for the Lord!! Make way!! He's coming!! Make straight paths for him!! Prepare the way!!" This person attracts attention. Those listening wonder who is coming. Some might go out to the road to help fill in those huge holes so royalty will not fall. Others begin getting the big rocks out of the road so this person can pass. The road must be made straight, the path cleaned and prepared. Preparation is necessary to receive the one coming!

How are we going to prepare?

Many times, I feel unprepared to receive the Lord. He desires to come close to work intimately with us. Yet, we fail to make the proper preparations. There are rocks in the way that prevent his coming close. I might even put up the fence of selfishness. As he comes near, he could disappear in the pothole of our consumption with TV and video games. The path is not made ready to receive the Lord.

John prepared the way for Jesus coming by preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Change was necessary before Jesus came. Jesus desires to be close. He wants to use you in powerful ways. You need to prepare the way for the Lord. Let us do this today!

Intimacy Discussion

I must admit that I was a little nervous about last night's class. Even though we were splitting up into guys and girls groups, I didn't know what to expect...and this made me nervous. Everything was for nothing because both classes went great. Tanya and I stayed up pretty late last night (at least late for us) talking about general things each group discussed. I was happy that both groups had good discussion about the topic of sex, intimacy, honeymoon stuff.

What makes me even more bust-my-excitement-button-right-off excited is that two of our elders were able to talk openly about their own marriages and offer words of advice to young men and women in our college ministry! We need this so much! There are not too many elderships (that I know of anyway) who are so committed to college students as to dedicate themselves to discussing a topic that destroys so many marriages today....sex.

Praise you, Lord, for putting this opportunity into our lap and giving us the courage to follow through with it. Amen.