Men God has used

January 24, 2018

Mark 1:1-3

Today let us look at these verses from another view.

Have you given thought to some of the men who God has used to share the gospel with the masses in our time?   D. L. Moody, his dad died when he was only four, leaving his mother, Betsey, in charge of raising nine children, all under 13 years.  His mother encouraged all her children to read the Bible and Dwight was faithful, and yet he only had a fifth-grade education.  At seventeen Dwight became a shoe salesman in his uncle's store and at eighteen while attending YMCA and Sunday school classes, he became a Christian. Shortly after that, he moved to Chicago, where he sold shoes and worked toward his goal of amassing a fortune of $100,000. 

But his new faith conflicted with his goal, and he came to understand that helping the poor was a more significant goal.  In 1858 he established a mission Sunday school at North Market Hall in a slum of Chicago. It soon blossomed into a church (from which, six years later the Illinois Street Independent Church was formed, precursor to the now famous Moody Memorial Church). By 1861 he had left his business to concentrate on social and evangelistic work. He drew the children of the German and Scandinavian immigrant underclass to his mission with candy and pony rides, and he drew the adults through evening prayer meetings and English classes. He was convinced, "If you can really make a man believe you love him, you have won him."  (Taken from Christianity Today)

As we have seen in the life of D.L. Moody, we saw in the life of John the Baptist a man who was used significantly by God, because his message had the power of the Holy Spirit and was straight to the point, Jesus Christ is your answer to life, now and eternal life.  John's message in a nutshell; “Someone more powerful than I will come after me.  “I am not worthy” to stoop down and untie the strap of His sandals.  I have baptized you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

How did John get his start in preaching?  It's very simple, John was chosen by God before he was born to be the forerunner of His Son, the Christ.  How did he get into the wilderness ministry is not shared in Scripture, but in that his mother and dad were up in age when he was born it may have been that while he was still young they died, and he grew up in the wilderness.  But there is much in the way of details God has chosen to keep from us, or did he, in this case, we were told 700 years earlier all but his name.

If we look into the gospel of Luke 3:1-3, we get this report. “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.”

Isaiah, the prophet of God, had this to say around 700 years before John the Baptizer was born.  “As it is written in Isaiah the prophet:

Look, I am sending My messenger ahead of You, who will prepare Your way.
A voice of one crying out in the wilderness:  Prepare the way for the Lord; make His paths straight!”

So our goal as followers of Christ is to share that life only found in a relationship with the living Christ.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice