While brushing my teeth the other morning I had a revelation from Jesus the Revealer. Now I don’t presume to speak for Jesus’ motives, but I’m pretty sure He speaks to me while I’m brushing my teeth because it may be the only time I shut up. I can’t talk and I can’t talk back. I love when He teaches me when I least expect it. I also love how He teaches me right when I need a teachin’. Anyway. While brushing my teeth, I was thinking about a party we were going to that tonight. I love going to parties. I was looking forward to the fun. Free meal , no dishes, fun coworkers. Secretly, well not so secret anymore, I was dreading the party. Not because I didn’t want to go, but because during this super busy (I’ve done that part to myself) time, it’s just “one more thing.” Remember, I’m trying to keep my ship upright this season.
As soon as I had the “one more thing” thought, Jesus slapped me with the revelation. I’m getting quite a few slaps lately. You see, just that morning I had read a devotional by C.H. Spurgeon called Passion to Save Souls. Here’s an excerpt:
Paul’s great object was not merely to instruct and to improve, but to save. Anything short of this would have disappointed him; he desired to see men renewed in heart, forgiven, sanctified, in fact saved. Have our Christian efforts been aimed at anything below this great objective? Then let us correct our ways, for what good will it be at the last great day to have taught and moralized men if they appear before God unsaved? If through life we have sought inferior objects and forgotten that men needed to be saved, then we will be held accountable.
Ouch, ouch, and double ouch! Doesn’t that just tweak you? Telling us what we ought to be doing…
Are we satisfied with anything short of saving? For ourselves, for others? Do we have a desire to see men renewed in heart, forgiven, sanctified. Paul wasn’t the only one who had this type of passion, the Bible is full of those who did. Remember, Jesus? There was another chap who had this same kind of passion. John the Baptist. Remember, he was the subject of one of God’s big reveals. He came to prepare the way for the Ultimate Big Reveal. John the Baptist, a straight shooter.
“I am not the Messiah,” he said.
“Well then, who are you?” they asked. “Are you Elijah?”
“No,” he replied.
“Are you a prophet?”
“No.”
“Then who are you? Tell us, so we can give an answer to those who sent us. What do you have to say about yourself?
John replied in the words of Isaiah:
“I am a voice shouting in the wilderness,
‘Prepare a straight pathway for the Lord’s coming!’”
Then those who were sent by the Pharisees asked him, “If you aren’t the Messiah or Elijah or the Prophet, what right do you have to baptize?”
John told them, “I baptize with water, but right here in the crowd is someone you do not know, who will soon begin his ministry. I am not even worthy to be his slave.” John 1:19-27
John’s purpose was to prepare the way for the One who can save. John’s purpose was to encourage folks with hearts that were hard and cold to have hearts that were open to receive. Open to receive Jesus, the Ultimate Big Reveal.
“Look! There is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! He is the one I was talking about…John 1:29
The skinny is that instead of dreading our “one more thing,” regardless of what they are, instead of talking about the “have tos” and the “musts,” I should be talking about the “one more opportunities” the “get tos” and “want tos.” I should look at my “one more things” as “one more chances” to tell folks to prepare the way of the Lord. Who knows who God may put in our path. A vendor, a caterer, a checkout clerk, a coworker. A Christmas tree farmer. A packager wrapper. Any number of folks. We are going to have those “one more things” in life. Thank goodness, because they are opportunities to say: “Look! There is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” We say that through our words, our attitudes, our actions, our lives, every chance we get. Those “one more things” may just be moments when we can prepare the way for someone else for the One to Come.