Mountains Moved, Paths Made Smooth


Jesus said if you have sufficient faith you can say to this mountain be cast into the sea. John the Baptist came to make the path level and smooth for Jesus coming.

Mountains are barriers to travel. But there are mountains that are barriers to God's work in our lives and communities. John came and preached repentance from sin. Sin is a barrier to God's work, lack of faith is another - not believing God capable of doing what he says he wants to do. Making the path level refers to a community change of heart, a new openness and acceptance to the gospel.

God wants to remove barriers completely not just move them to one side. He says with sufficient faith they will be cast into the sea. His emphasis is the faith is not great - just the size of a mustard seed - the emphasis is on the great capable God we serve.

John also made the path smooth. Not only when the Holy Spirit moves in our hearts and communities are barriers cast into the sea, but cobbles and boulders are dug up and pot holes are filled in.

The Holy Spirit is an efficient and through road crew, pointing out sin, alerting us to areas to correct and improve.

God will come to ask - he always leaves it up to us - do you want to be spiritually healed, do you want that spiritual splinter removed from your eye, do you want to be cured of the spiritual cancer that wracks your body and mind?

As we allow his cleansing holiness to make us new then the road is made smooth. Today we drive on asphalt or concrete roads, a smooth path, unlike the dirt tracks Jesus coursed 2000 years ago. These roads today consist of crushed stone with a binder of cement and sand or asphalt. We Christians are the crushed rock, the Spirit binds us together.

Why remove the barriers? Why dig up rocks and fill in pot holes in the road? Why straighten it out? To what end? That the King may enter our communities. So there would be no resistance to the move of the Spirit. That all people would look on him and see his loving smile and experience his benevolent grace.

By removing barriers, and making smooth his path, we as individuals and communities will see a massive out pouring of his Spirit. As access to God is opened up, the spiritually dead will receive life, the lost will be found, the blind will receive sight. Demons will be cast out. The thick veil of darkness that has enveloped our land will be rent in two, revealing God in all his glory and radiance.

As a people we resemble a fly that has gotten stuck in a spiders web. Sin has gotten us into this web. Our struggling to free ourselves has alerted Satan who has enveloped us in a cocoon of web, that we can not free our self from, no matter how hard we struggle. We are without hope. We are doomed to destruction. Soon the enemy of our soul will come sink his fangs into this country and suck out what life remains. We will become another lifeless carcass littering the ground beneath the web. How many lay there! But there is hope. As long as there is a spark of life, of will, Jesus will come and ask us if we want to be release. Set free. This nation need not be another victim.

Come quickly Lord Jesus, the time is short. Invade our lives. Remold Your Church into Your image. May we prepare your way by responding to Your call to holiness. Your wake-up call to action.
 
 

lmv 3/19/2000

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