MAKING HIS PATHS STRAIGHT...

READ...MATTHEW 1-4

As we now are coming into the Christmas Season, my thoughts today are turned to the birth of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, his temptation and his beginning preaching. About how the life our Lord lived on earth parallels ours today.

Soon, as the New Year approaches, we in RAVEN Ministries will be entering our yearly season of fasting, prayer and pressing in, together as a family in the body of Christ. A time of resisting temptation and listening even more intently, or focused, than usual, to our God. For vision, clarity, unity, as a family and as individuals, from a God that loves us and wants to share our lives with us. Every part of our lives, every second of every day. This is an exciting time! God always speaks powerfully in this time. It is a time to make His paths straight...to prepare our hearts that he may still enter in and lead us by his very Holy Spirit, his very presence, on the straight path, the narrow way. i take this opportunity to invite those of you unfamiliar with fasting and prayer to join us in this most exciting time.

"And saying, Repent ye for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. for this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah saying, "The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight." Matthew 3:2-3

"The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God." Isaiah 40:3

Prophets crying out, both in their own times for the people to prepare the way of the Lord, to make His path straight. REPENTANCE. The first step anyone, anywhere must take in response to the holiness and righteousness of God, to the divine influence God has upon our hearts, to his grace shed freely to us. With true repentance, our desire and choice is to be holy, righteous and perfect as God is, to live for Him in everything and every part of our life, instead of desiring and choosing to live for the world and sin (Romans 8:1-2). We are choosing God and eternal life with Him, making his path straight, in and through us, now.

John the Baptist was a radical. He came on the scene dressed and living like a hermit and eating locusts and wild honey. He preached a new way of thinking, a radical departure from the norm. REPENTANCE. Change you mind, change your thinking, change your heart! Leave your sin behind you, live righteous, live holy! Jesus, the kingdom of heaven is at hand, and he can only live in and through a pure heart. The Jewish leaders of the day could not buy it, not repentance, not Jesus, it meant they would lose their perceived place of power over the people. And that is what they loved wasn't it, their own selves and their places of power in the world they had created, the recognition, the seats in high places. The do as i say and not as i do power that came from evil hearts, hard hearts, unrepentant hearts, lording it over the people. They just could not change inside, where it mattered most, they could not make a straight path for the Lord in themselves. They did not respond to the righteousness of God. John called them, "O generation of vipers". The same is true today.

Jesus came that man might live, that man might be saved, that upon responding to God's righteousness, holiness, grace, and mercy, we would live with him for eternity in his kingdom. Because Repentance should be a response to righteousness, not sin. From the time Jesus was born worldly powers wanted to kill him. Herod killed the babies when he could not find him, "...in Bethlehem and all the coasts thereof..." Matthew 2:16. In ancient words long written down, the story had been told, it had been written, it had been seen, by a holy and righteous God that sent his Son as the ultimate blood sacrifice for the sin of man. Nothing else would do to reconcile us unto Himself. God has always had a plan and it is as holy, righteous and perfect today as it was then, it is eternal...amen. People still seeking to kill Jesus today.

John preached repentance and his countenance decreased as Jesus' increased, another lesson to be learned by John. For Jesus to truly be Lord in our lives and have that straight path to travel in and through our life, our self, our sin-nature must decrease and die that Jesus may live. John baptized Jesus that all righteousness would be fulfilled (Matthew 3:15) and there would be no question as to the righteousness of Jesus. Then as Jesus began his public ministry he went away to the wilderness to fast and be tempted. Jesus began his public ministry by being baptized, fasting and being tempted in the wilderness (Matthew 3:15-4:3). How do we start our earthly ministry in the Lord?

Jesus fasted 40 days and nights at the beginning of his earthly ministry and in his weakened and hungered state, he resisted three direct temptations from Satan himself. Jesus was human in every way like us, except sin. Imagine it, if you can. My longest fast was water and juice for 21 days and i know my strength had to come from the Lord. i knew his presence with more clarity, i was more focused on the things above and i still carry that with me today. Fasting is denying the self and much more. It is resisting temptation and self-sacrifice. It is ultimately a way to grow in the Lord. A fast unto God will reveal much about your self, but more than that, God will reveal himself to you in new and more intimate ways. As us we resist the temptation to eat earthly food, relying on heavenly food, we become stronger in the ways of the Lord.

As Jesus was tempted in that wilderness, his response was, as ours should always be when tempted, the word of God. Jesus said three times, "It is written", Matthew 4:4, 7, 10. If he resisted temptation by the word of God, then it is a powerful weapon for us against Satan. Indeed it is living and breathing (Hebrews 4:12) and ultimately a vital part of the full armor of God(Ephesians 6) that we should be wearing at all times. He promised in his word that there is no temptation that we cannot bear and by his faithfulness He will always make a way of escape, (1 Corinthians 10:13). His word is true.

Jesus also said, "Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." Matthew 4:4. Jesus says we are to live by EVERY word of God and not live by bread alone. A bread, or earthly food that spoils can never keep us alive in God's economy. It is food of this world, and to live an eternal life with our God we must have a steady diet of the Word of God, it is life eternal. His word is rich with his character, his ways, his likes and dislikes, it is the ultimate way to get to know our God and His Son, live for them, and be ready for the day and hour which no man knows (2 Peter 3:10, Matthew 24:35-44), and is coming soon. Knowing God is the greatest, most exciting adventure a person can endeavor to be part of in this earthly life. It is full of twists and turns, trials and tribulation, joy and compassion, and passion like you have never known! The breadth and depth and width of our relationship with God is larger than can be discerned and there is no end to it. This is exciting to me, to know that i will live forever serving my holy, righteous and loving God is the most important thing in this world to me.

So much to learn in just these few verses of Matthew 1-4. At this season where we as Christians struggle to bring the true meaning of Jesus birth to the world and even our families, it should give us pause. Are we living the life in Him he would have us live right now? How are we at resisting all kinds of temptations? Do we have an eternal perspective? Are we walking in righteous repentance each day? Are praying and reading His word every day? Are we ultimately denying self, taking up our cross and following him each day? Are we hearing God's call to a holy time of fasting unto him? Are we tempting God in the way we live our life? Or are we worshiping Him with each breath and action we take in this life he gave us to live?

Just some thoughts for the Christmas season we are coming into. i pray each of us has a Christmas worthy of the King we serve. May our hearts overflow to all with an abundance of his faith, hope and love unto those around us.. The greatest gift of all and forever is Jesus, i pray we are all bold enough to bring the message of salvation, of the cross, to the lost, dying and back-slidden people of the world this Christmas. God bless you, Have a blessed Christmas. Amen.