10-30-2016

Good Morning All,

           Isaiah 40: 3-5; “A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.  Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain.  And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”  

    One of life’s ironies; we all want great roads; smooth and well maintained and groomed.  We want them always ready to drive on at a moment’s notice we want to be able to get in our car or pickup or SUV or whatever you drive, and go where we want.  This is what we want yet we have no patience for road construction.  There are few portions of our lives which are universally despised and this is one of them.  Even if we complained about the condition of the road and wondered when they would fix it, we complain about fixing the road.

    We know that road construction is necessary.  Often travelled roads wear out.  The change of population or the introduction of new industry can mean a small country road needs to become a four-lane highway and that four-lane highway might become an eight-lane expressway.  Roads need a lot of work; constant attention or they will fail at a critical time.

    Our Scripture verses talk about road maintenance.  We all understand this passage is about making straight the way of the Lord.  We all understand it as a reference to John the Baptist and the preaching of repentance.  We like to think that this means that God will come and remove all the boulders in our lives, in our path to the Lord.  We like to think that God will make our travel smooth and free sailing. 

     The truth is that it is not our path that needs fixing it is our life.  It is our life, which reflects our faith; that needs to be under constant repair.  There are times when we need to be built up when we are low, experiencing life’s struggles.  There are times when the hills must be shaved down when maybe we feel we are capable of aiding in our salvation or we have the attitude of the Pharisee who was “thankful he wasn’t a sinner”.  Perhaps there are times when we engage in hidden sins or acts of selfishness and we must have the rough places smoothed out or the crooked areas straightened. 

    We often don’t like it.  We rarely like it when it is our sins which need to be corrected.  We rarely enjoy it when God corrects our lives.  Yet it is vital that we be cleansed of our sin.  We need to be prepared for when the time will come when we must not crumble, when our faith will be tested the most.  When we trust ourselves, we will crumble but if we keep our faith in God and his promises of salvation and of the forgiveness of sins, we can stand tall and strong.  The devil will not be able to attack us.  Prepare the way of the Lord; make straight his ways.  It might not always be what we want or enjoy but it is necessary that we be shaped and molded by God into the disciples which he wants us to be.

Dear Father in heaven, we give you thanks for making your ways straight in our lives.  At those times, we feel lost and injured but you are with us giving us comfort when we need and poking our conscience when we need it.  Continue to bless us with your grace and mercy.  In Jesus’ precious name we pay, amen.

God’s Peace,       

Pastor Bret