Divine Encounters (Luke 3:22)

And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased. (Luke 3:22 KJV)

Yesterday, we saw that Jesus obeyed in the issue of baptism, and when He prayed, heaven opened. Today's verse tells us that, when Heaven opened, the Holy Ghost took the bodily form of a dove, flew down, and as I read this, "descended upon Him".  In my mind's eye, I see a dove sitting on Jesus's shoulder.

We have grown so accustomed to this verse that it hardly seems unusual at all, but consider this. John in his camel skin outfit is in the Jordan River with Jesus, having just baptized Him. Jesus is dripping wet, and suddenly a big white bird flies down and lands on His shoulder. Since this is the Holy Ghost in dove form, Jesus knows this bird, because it is part of the Trinity with Him, and contains His essence. No one else knows this dove nor do they know that it is the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove. I don't have to imagine very hard to know that the bystanders were not only stunned, their eyes were riveted on Jesus. (Which is, admittedly, the perfect place to be looking)

While the crowd is standing there with their mouths gaping, a Voice from heaven booms out. Clearly understandable, the Voice says, "This is my much loved Son, and I am well-pleased with Him." Right there in the middle of the Jordan River, the people experienced the Holy Trinity in a profound and unforgettable way. They probably told everyone they saw for weeks about these remarkable events. Really, they were probably talking about the Divine Encounter that occurred in the least likely place, at the most unexpected time, for the rest of their lives.

Divine Encounters are not always as dramatic as this one, but they always leave us changed and astounded. In what way have you experienced the divine recently? Where have you seen our Lord demonstrating His power and His love? Are you telling everyone you see about this wonderful news?

Pray today that our children, our loved ones, will come face to face with the divine in an unassailable way that cannot be mistaken for anything except God Himself, and that it will leave them not only astounded, but also changed to be more like Jesus.

The Prayer That Opened Heaven (Luke 3:21)

Now when all the people were baptized, Jesus was also baptized, and while He was praying, heaven was opened, (Luke 3:21NASB)

The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. (James 5:16b KJV)

We could write a book about the baptism of Jesus, but today we are looking at the last part of this verse, the part about what happened when Jesus prayed. I do recognize that we need the next verse to complete the thought. With that said, though, this is an astoundingly profound bit of Scripture.

Heaven opened while Jesus was praying.

Wow!  Jesus (Matt 3:13-17) told John that He had come for baptism "to fulfill all righteousness". He was not being baptized because He had repented of sin. He was being baptized as an act of obedience that showed us the way.  There was a three step process here:
1. Obedience to the Father
2. Prayer
3. Heaven opened

James (the brother of Jesus) would later write about the effectual, fervent prayers of a righteous man. They accomplish much. We have a tendency to think that prayer accomplishes much, but that is not exactly what Scripture says.

Here we see that Jesus demonstrated heaven-opening prayer, and it began with obedience. He was perfect and sinless, but he was also obedient, and when He prayed, things happened. When He prayed, heaven opened.

James writes that the prayer of a righteous man accomplishes much. None of us are righteous, but we can have the righteousness of Christ when we put our trust in Him.  Obedience moves us closer to righteousness, thereby moving us closer to "availing much" prayer.

I am not saying that God only hears the prayers of perfect people. I am saying, however, that, when we are in right relationship with our Lord, we can pray more effectively. We can allow Christ to pray through us.  What happens then? When Christ prayed by the Jordan that day, heaven opened. Wow! That was some availing much prayer!

If we want truly "availing much" prayer (and who doesn't?) then we must move closer to "righteous" status. When I work in the prayer room, my first action is always to get clean before The Lord by asking Him to show me my heart and what is displeasing to Him. He never fails to find something that needs to go. It is only after some divine heart-cleansing that I am ready for availing prayer. I'm not so good about that in my daily prayer. I tend to pray constantly throughout the day, but if I started with thorough heart cleansing every day, repenting of all God finds that displeases Him, how much more effective could I be?

Today, let's begin the work of interceding for our children and our loved ones by praying for ourselves. Let's pray for a heart checkup, a Divine examination of our hearts, asking Him to show us what needs to go. Let's take a step closer to righteousness. Only then will we be ready to pray that those we love will take steps toward righteousness too.

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The Showdown (Luke 3:19,20)

But when Herod the tetrarch was reprimanded by him because of Herodias, his brother's wife, and because of all the wicked things which Herod had done, Herod also added this to them all: he locked John up in prison. (Luke 3:19, 20 NASB)

Herod Antipas was the youngest son of Herod the Great, who, in his will, divided his kingdom among his sons. He left the job of Tetrach of the region of Galilee and Perea to Herod, where he ruled for 42 years.  Herod had antagonized the Jewish people many times, but his marriage to Herodias was particularly heinous. He had traveled to Rome to visit his brother, fallen in love with his brother's wife, and the two of them had left their spouses and married. Not only was his new wife the former wife of his brother, she was also his niece (which made the marriage incestuous).

John could not be silent, and denounced the marriage. Herod arrested and imprisoned John. Undoubtedly John knew the risk he took in speaking out against Herod, but fear of consequences did not stop him from speaking truth. John's job was to preach "a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sin" and he did not hesitate to call sin when he saw it.

John was extremely popular and had attracted crowds of people by his preaching. Herod may have feared that a revolt would be triggered by John's denouncement. His father had killed all male babies under the age of two in response to the magi's questions about a newborn king. In their family, threats to their power were not tolerated. John's family had had enough of silence. A showdown was inevitable.

John's passion for truth and righteousness led him to a decision point. Speak or be silent. When we remember that John's ministry was not about denouncing sin but calling people to recognize their sin, repent, and receive forgiveness, his need to speak out is understandable. In the end, his need to speak truth superseded his need to preserve his life.

Ours is a country founded on the premise of individual rights, which includes the freedom of speech. There are people on both sides of every issue speaking out, but how do we respond personally to the evils we see around us? Is there a point to our words? John did not just denounce evil. He had a solution for sin and was eager to share it. Repent and be forgiven. He told everyone he met, no matter how important or powerful they were.

The question for us is this: How committed are we to sharing the good news of the forgiveness and cleansing that only Christ can give? How committed are we to bringing light to a dark and lonely world?

Today, pray that the faith we claim and the words we speak will match, and that we will not hold back when truth needs to be spoken. Pray too that the believers our loved ones encounter will be bold as lions and gentle as lambs as they speak the words of life to them.

Repent and be saved. Four words that are filled with life. Speak them today.

The Power of Words (Luke 3:18)

So with many other exhortations he preached the gospel to the people. (Luke 3:18 NASB)

There was a lot more of this—words that gave strength to the people, words that put heart in them. The Message! (Luke 3:18 MSG)

An exhortation is a little speech (or a few sentences) strongly urging people to do something. John didn't just tell them to repent. He gave specific examples of how repentance would look in their lives. He helped them find their way through the early days of this remarkably personal faith they had embraced. 

I love how the Message describes it. "Words that gave strength to the people, words that put heart in them". John spoke with words that they could remember, that they could hold to and use during the difficult days. Remember, they lived in an occupied nation with enemy soldiers who were often harsh and cruel, and who served under a ruler who was cruel, if not insane. A word of encouragement that strengthened their heart was exactly what they needed. 

The psalmist described the Word (God's Word) this way:  "Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path." (Psalms 119:105 NASB) That is exactly what the word of God is supposed to be for us. It's like a little palm-sized lamp that gives us just enough light to see the next step. It strengthens and encourages us if we will allow it. 

Spend some time today pondering those verses that you know as God brings them to your mind, and allow them to strengthen and direct you. Maybe you need some time in Scripture to learn new verses. Let those words from God infuse your being and allow them to make you stronger in your faith and more diligent in your obedience.

Pray too that God will bring Scripture memorized as a child to our loved ones and that He will use it to guide, direct, and draw them back to Himself.

Burning the Trash (Luke 3:17)

"...He’s going to clean house—make a clean sweep of your lives. He’ll place everything true in its proper place before God; everything false he’ll put out with the trash to be burned.” (Luke 3:17 MSG)

NASB translates this by saying Jesus has a winnowing fork in his hand and he will gather the wheat and burn the chaff with an unquenchable fire. 

The Holy Spirit comes into our heart when we allow Him to ignite the fire in our hearts, but John wants us to understand something important. Holy Spirit's job is not to tend the fire. We tend the fire by staying close to our Lord. Our obedience and surrender tends the fire. 

The Holy Spirit gets busy with housecleaning. He wants to keep all that is good (the wheat), but whatever is not good goes straight to the fire. Wikipedia defines chaff as "the dry, scaly protective casings of the seeds of cereal grain..." It's inedible and keeps us from the "good stuff", the nourishing grain inside. Why would we want to hang on to chaff? It's just the waste part. It's wheat trash. How silly we are to argue with The Lord about keeping such useless garbage. But, we do. 

Holy Spirit is no dummy. He knows that, given our druthers, we would try to keep the wheat AND the chaff. Sometimes we are even foolish enough to try to keep the chaff at the expense of the wheat. He has a great solution for that - FIRE. He just burns it up.

Here is the really amazing thing that occurs to me for the first time - maybe the unquenchable fire with which the Holy Spirit has baptized us, the fire of His love in our hearts, is the very fire that burns up our chaff (so we can't get it back) and leaves the wheat. 

How great is that? God is determined to cleanse us and He does it with the powerful fire of His love! Wow! Heart cleanup doesn't seem nearly so scary when we look at it like that, does it?

Well, that brings us to our own chaff. I had a little chaff burning yesterday, and will need some more chaff burned today. I have the worst problem with chaff, but praise God He can handle it! Better yet, He prefers to do a daily clean up rather than handle a mountainous mess at once. He keeps our hearts clean and usable that way. 

Take a look at your life, your heart. What chaff are you storing? What needs to go? Today, invite the Spirit to pile all your chaff on the fire of His love. Just imagine the blaze it will make. The good news is this: burning chaff makes the nicest blaze, and it warms you all the way through!

Today, pray that we and our loved ones will recognize the chaff our Lord sees and will invite Him to cleanse us with His love. 

The Blazing Fire (Luke 3:15-16)

The interest of the people by now was building. They were all beginning to wonder, “Could this John be the Messiah?” But John intervened: “I’m baptizing you here in the river. The main character in this drama, to whom I’m a mere stagehand, will ignite the kingdom life, a fire, the Holy Spirit within you, changing you from the inside out.” (Luke 3:15-16 MSG)

What a word picture! Despite all the years of waiting, the people were still anticipating their Messiah and were wondering about John. "Maybe he's the one," they thought. John did not give those rumors time to get started. "Nope. Not me," he said. He went on to tell them a little about Jesus. I wonder what they thought when he spoke about baptism by fire. It is such a vivid idea in my mind. A blazing fire and somehow being lowered into it but emerging (hopefully) unscathed. It brings Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to mind.

When John explained his metaphor, he painted a beautiful picture, didn't he? The idea of igniting implies that the tender is ready and the fire is laid. Jesus is coming, John explained, to ignite the fire in our hearts with the Holy Spirit. It will give us "kingdom of God life" in our hearts and change us completely. We will be fresh and new. Here's the wonderful part that would be easy to miss: the Holy Spirit is coming to stay, to live within our hearts, and Kingdom life (the life God desires for us) is available permanently.

The pilgrims who walked the Emmaus road with Jesus described the experience with these words, "Our hearts were strangely warmed". In the presence of Jesus, that fire of the Holy Spirit burned within them and made them different.

The fire is laid in our hearts, the tender is ready. How bright is that Holy Spirit blaze? Are we keeping the fire stoked with Bible study and obedience to the commands of our Lord? What a wonderful thing it is to be cleansed, changed, warmed by the fire of His love!

Pray today that we would keep the fire burning bright with our faithfulness and that our loved ones will see that fire in us and want it for themselves.

Proving Our Repentance by Our Actions

John the Baptizer was not the typical itinerate preacher. He dressed in camels' hair, lived in the rocky, barren wilderness, and ate honey and locust. I'd probably have shunned him as a religious nut, but his preaching, just as radical as he looked, drew big crowds. 

People lined up to be baptized.

"Being a descendant of Abraham is not enough. Being baptized is not enough. God's wrath is coming and you don't want to experience it. The Kingdom of God will be here soon. Prove your repentance by your actions," John told them. "Live generously. Be kind. Love."

One day, some soldiers were in the crowd. "What about us?" they asked him. "What should we do?" (from Luke 3:14)

Roman soldiers were the toughest guys in the region, the first century version of our marines, but with considerably less integrity. 

If they wanted more money than they were paid, they could demand and receive it from the populace. 

They could falsely accuse someone, demand a bribe, and be assured of getting it. 

They could double fines and skim the extra. 

The soldiers had free reign and limited consequences, but, on this particular day, John's words struck a chord. "What about us?" they asked.

It's a great question. They weren't just hearers. It seems they wanted to be doers, too. 

There was no doubt John would have instructions for them, and that his instructions would be tough, but they didn't want to be left out. 

If the Kingdom of God was at hand, they wanted to do what it took to be a part.

Ponder that for a moment. Jesus has risen and His return is closer than its ever been. The Kingdom of God is available to us today.

Are we willing to do what it takes to be a part?

Are we willing to do what it takes to please God?

If we want to please Him, here's what we should do: Love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength. Love our neighbor as ourself. 

Jesus condensed the entire Scripture into these two laws. They're simple and easy to understand, but they're not optional. 

Love God. Love everyone. 

If we want to be a part of the Kingdom of God, that's where we start.

"Don't just listen to God's Word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves." James 1:22 nlt
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In case you missed it, here's the link to yesterday's post: The Shouting Scripture and the Author Who Didn't Want to Write 

*** I'm sharing about my Jordan Journey at a brunch April 1 at 10:30-12 at Global Outreach home office, 74 Kings Highway, Pontotoc MS, and you're invited. Comment or message me if you'd like to come.***

If God has called you to help with this ministry of digital and in-person outreach (both in the US and around the world), here's the link to give your tax-deductible donations: Global Outreach Acct 4841 or you can mail your check or money order to:

Global Outreach/ PO Box 1, Tupelo MS 38802. Be sure to put Account 4841 in the "for" line.

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Two tunics (Luke 3:11)

And he would answer and say to them, "The man who has two tunics is to share with him who has none; and he who has food is to do likewise." (Luke 3:11 NASB)

This is not my favorite verse. I'm telling you that right up front. I would much rather read "I will never leave you nor forsake you". Instead, for today, we are at the "what to do with two tunics" verse.

John's listeners were people who had spent a lifetime making sacrifices as payment for their sins and throwing a few coins in the offering as an extra gift. There was an order to it. A plan.

John emerged from the desert with something altogether different. He told them they needed more than a sacrifice. They needed a repentant heart. A changed heart.  It was much easier to just give up an animal. Forgiveness? Reconciliation? Repentance? Much harder, but essential for getting right with God.

It was not a familiar idea, and they asked John what they should do. What does this "bring forth fruits in keeping with repentance" look like? John's answer was startling. "If you have two tunics, give one to the man who has none..."  An extra tunic was a precious thing. We are accustomed to closets full of clothes. They were not. They were not giving away unused leftovers. It was something that mattered.

Why did John (the man wearing a camel hide) tell them to give away their extra tunic? First of all, generosity is a theme throughout Scripture. We are to be as open-handed with others as God is with us. Secondly, receiving from God requires open hands and open heart. When we cling so tightly to the stuff of this world, it's not only harder to cling to our Lord, it's harder to receive all He has for us. Extravagant giving requires that we look past our own life and recognize the needs around us.  It requires us to risk being uncomfortable as a result of our giving.

Maybe more important, extravagant giving requires us to recognize Who is in charge and who is not. We are not the source of everything we have.  No matter how hard we work nor how much money we make, God is ultimately the One who provides. It's all His, and when we share what He has given to us, we acknowledge that in a very tangible way. We take our eyes off ourselves and get them on others and on the Giver of all good gifts.

John was trying to help his listeners learn to live their lives in a way that matched up with the new-found repentance they claimed to have. Live like you mean it. That's what John was saying 2000 years ago and it's good advice for us today.

How many tunics are you holding?  Today, live like you believe the faith you claim. Let go and give.

Live like you mean it.