ADVENT: PREPARING THE WAY OF THE LORD!!!

Advent; a time of expectant waiting and preparation for the celebration of the Nativity of Jesus at Christmas; a period of spiritual preparation for Christmas when many Christians make themselves ready for the coming of Jesus Christ---

Let us begin to understand WHY we NEED THE LORD MORE THAN ANYTHING else, and HOW our allegiance TO HIM brings us into DIVINE provision necessary FOR the trek through this valley, into HIS KINGDOM...

ISAIAH 3: 1-9 commentary, which has many cross references, explores the facts of our endangered existence when we do so without THE LORD, and HIS MERCY! We are lost, oh so lost when we ignore HIM, when we believe it is well with us in the world, and as we strive to remain in the flesh, stubbornly allowing ourselves to be enticed by worldly ways, and means, forgetting, or putting off until later, arrogantly, the deeper matters of the soul, safety, and *GOD'S* promises for those who LOVE HIM! God's professing people did not know or consider that they owed their lives and comforts to God's fatherly care and kindness.

How many are very careless in the affairs of their souls! Not considering what we do know in religion, does us as much harm, as ignorance of what we should know. The wickedness was universal. Here is a comparison taken from a sick and diseased body. The distemper threatens to be mortal. From the sole of the foot even to the head; from the meanest peasant to the greatest peer, there is no soundness, no good principle, no religion, for that is the health of the soul. Nothing but guilt and corruption; the sad effects of Adam's fall. This passage declares the total depravity of human nature. While sin remains unrepented, nothing is done toward healing these wounds, and preventing fatal effects. Jerusalem was exposed and unprotected, like the huts or sheds built up to guard ripening fruits. These are still to be seen in the East, where fruits form a large part of the summer food of the people. But the Lord had a small remnant of pious servants at Jerusalem.

It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed. The evil nature is in every one of us; only Jesus and his sanctifying Spirit can restore us to spiritual health.

Look around, listen, and notice that soundness IS lacking; that principles are waning; that religion is suffering; that corruption, and self-inclination is rampant, and you will note the NEED for *GOD*, for improvement, for choosing optimally for the OVERALL health of the being! THE LORD IS PATIENT, WAY more patient than we could ever be; HE IS TOLERANT, and IN HIS LOVE, IS FORGIVING, and we must PRAISE HIM, because IF HE weren't, there would be NO HOPE, and certainly, NO LIFE, now, or eternal!!!

THE LORD IS RIGHT, and JUST IN HIS PRECEPTS for our time on this Earth, and THANKS BE TO HIM FOR BEING INVOLVED, otherwise, well, we would SURELY, destroy everything good, as well as one another! It IS HIS WISDOM, HIS LOVE, HIS GRACE, and HIS MERCY WHICH LEADS us TO OPTIMIZATION, TO LIFE, and TO BENEVOLENCE, NOW, and FOREVER, and we OUGHT to consider just HOW GREAT our NEED FOR HIM IS!!!

There are those who say it is not our fault, but know what?, we HAVE CHOICES, and despite our being brought into the 'fall' since Adam, we CAN, WITH THE LORD, change, and exist in what is right, just, and good! We are NOT helpless! We are NOT bound to the world! We are NOT without A WAY!!!

Advent is a time to 'come to' THE LORD *GOD*! HE is CALLING, "Come to ME, and be set free, now, and always"! It is a time to recognize, acknowledge, repent, renew, and to step into TRUTH, in which case, it IS for the FULLNESS of good for our own sake...

Greatly lacking is that which brings one to TRUE DEVOTION in our traditions, however, when we open UP TO HIM, with our heart, sincerely, and honestly, HIS TRANSFORMING WORKS begin! A PROCESS, bit by bit, that is enhanced BY OUR allegiance, adherence, and willingness TO BECOME MORE LIKE CHRIST JESUS!!!

PREPARING THE WAY OF THE LORD IS part and parcel to, our surrendering the flesh, and a REAL desire for HIM, HIS LOVE, HIS WILL, HIS WAYS! It is TRUSTING HIM TO LEAD THE WAY, and RELYING ON HIM for WHATEVER is NECESSARY TO our being made whole! It ISN'T easy to give oneself UP TO THE LORD, because along THE WAY, MANY enemies WILL attempt to curtail our advancements, and to shake us loose, in any, and every way feasible, hence, we MUST EVER study, learn, embrace, and utilize HIS instruction, AS we TOTALLY ANCHOR TO HIM, that NO storm, or disruption might overtake us...

WHY we NEED THE LORD *GOD* IS expressed THROUGHOUT THE BIBLE, as more than sufficient examples depict the endless tests, trials, tribulations, and rebellions of humanity, as they IGNORE TRUTH, and place confidence in the world, and it's ways! AND HE IS THE HOW we CAN spare the soul, which otherwise, might perish along with this fleeting, temporal fraudulent, degenerate globe, with it's evil, wicked influences...

There IS a voice crying out in the wilderness,'MAKE STRAIGHT THE WAY OF THE LORD,' MATTHEW 3: 1-6! Let us HEED HIM! Let us take DEEPLY to heart the knowledge which guides us TO HIM, and safety evermore! The doctrine he preached was repentance; Repent ye. The word here used, implies a total alteration in the mind, a change in the judgment, disposition, and affections, another and a better bias of the soul. Consider your ways, change your minds: you have thought amiss; think again, and think aright. True penitents have other thoughts of God and Christ, sin and holiness, of this world and the other, than they had. The change of the mind produces a change of the way. That is gospel repentance, which flows from a sight of Christ, from a sense of his love, and from hopes of pardon and forgiveness through him. It is a great encouragement to us to repent; repent, for your sins shall be pardoned upon your repentance.  

Return to God in a way of duty, and he will, through Christ, return unto you in the way of mercy. It is still as necessary to repent and humble ourselves, to prepare the way of the Lord, as it then was. There is a great deal to be done, to make way for Christ into a soul, and nothing is more needful than the discovery of sin, and a conviction that we cannot be saved by our own righteousness. The way of sin and Satan is a crooked way; but to prepare a way for Christ, the paths must be made straight, Heb 12:13. 

Those whose business it is to call others to mourn for sin, and to mortify it, ought themselves to live a serious life, a life of self-denial, and contempt of the world. By giving others this example, John made way for Christ. Many came to John's baptism, but few kept to the profession they made. There may be many forward hearers, where there are few true believers. Curiosity, and love for novelty and variety, may bring many to attend on good preaching, and to be affected for a while, who never are subject to the power of it. Those who received John's doctrine, testified their repentance by confessing their sins. Those only are ready to receive Jesus Christ as their righteousness, who are brought with sorrow and shame to own their guilt. The benefits of the kingdom of heaven, now at hand, were thereupon sealed to them by baptism. John washed them with water, in token that God would cleanse them from all their iniquities, thereby intimating, that by nature and practice all were polluted, and could not be admitted among the people of God, unless washed from their sins in the fountain Christ was to open, Zec 13:1.

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BIBLICAL, and/or other references marked BOLDLY IN COLOURS