November 8, 2026

As Christians we want to be followers of Jesus. That’s as it should be. However, we may not realize that sometimes we may need to go before Jesus. I don’t mean we speculate or go beyond what is written. Rather, I mean we may have an opportunity to prepare a person or place so that Jesus receives a better reception. Maybe it’s a gentle suggestion maybe it’s sharing something about how God has made a difference in your life. Maybe its questioning a wrongheaded presupposition. I remember a few years ago having bible studies with a potential new member. I was not the only one who was studying with him and through a combined effort he eventually came to Christ. 

Shortly after his conversion, some difficulties arose. He was forced to struggle with the reality that Christians will still have sin and sometimes do the wrong thing. He told me during that time that a mutual friend had previously warned him that Christians were still human and would make mistakes, but not to let that discourage him because it’s Jesus that is perfect, not his followers. Thankfully he had been prepared ahead of time.

On another occasion I remember a friend who was rather dismissive of faith. His dad explained that he should not be too quick to dismiss faith as the secular answers he thought he was finding in college would not ultimately provide the kind of purpose and meaning he would someday realize he needed. He later explained that this short warning stayed with him and weighed on him for many years. It was on his mind when many years later he realized that his family needed something more than what the secular world had to offer and began going to church. 

John’s ministry was critical to God’s plan, it involved preparing the way. Perhaps in various small ways we might also prepare the way for Jesus in the lives of the people around us. 

In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness.  And he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough places shall become level ways, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.'”Now John wore a garment of camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey.  Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

~ Kevin Cleary