One day, One Chapter #3 - Matthew 3

Matthew 3

Scripture - But Jesus said, " It should be done, for we must carry out all that God requires." So John agreed to baptize him.

Observation - Jesus knew he had a mission and a purpose, and even the friends and others closest to him didn't deter his plan. Through out this chapter 3 I can see that life for God is not perceived the most comfortable of lives. John the Baptist could have had so much more in terms of the everyday life in Jerusalem. His father was a priest, a well respected one. However John chose to live another way, calling people to a better life, that didn't actually provide him with many would consider the best of lives in his day and ours. I wonder how many people, including myself, are afraid to call others, hold accountable others and compel others to better lives? At what time is it ok to ask people to own up to what God has in store for them?

I want to know if the idea that we need a relationship with people to talk to them about God has left many people speechless and with tons of friends who are not reconnected with Jesus.

Application - I want to make sure that my life is built upon calling people to "eat the Body, and drink the Blood." With no compromise to what I think all Christ-followers should be doing, loving one another. I want to know love that is accountable, a love that is founded on the idea that sometimes we have to love one another by correction, rebuke and straightening. For myself, I think we live in a time where we are afraid to love in a godly way because we will be loved back in a godly way.

Prayer - Jesus, let your people love in radical ways, and mold us to crave a love from one another that is radical with accountability. I do not have it all together and need help to walk through my daily with you. I pray for security of identity that I may not be swayed to think that a love without accountability is true love. Thank you for a wife that has nagged me to be a better man, rather than letting me just be. Shape me to be your model for this generation as you did John in the day of Jesus. Continue to recall these thoughts for me to flesh out in the daily.