Why Prepare the Way?

Last time I posted here Lord, we talked and worked through the idea of preparing the way for you by living a life of deliverance, community, knowledge and bringing heaven to others. I found that John the Baptist was exhorted by his father to live this way in order to prepare for you. Apparantly he did, for he is noted in Scripture for "preparing the way."

But the consequences of his preparation jump out at me today as I read John 10:40-42. Jesus has just gone to Jerusalem, where many did not hear the message of John the Baptist, for John stayed mostly in the wilderness. The people of the city's reactions to Jesus is simple, they mostly try to stone him, seize him, and arrest him. Now, that's because the leaders of the people in the city are the Pharisees. They hear the message of the Pharisees, the message that is not noted for "preparing the way."

But what about those who did hear John the Baptist? What about those who believed John and were baptized into his way?

John 10:40-42
Then Jesus went back across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing in the early days. Here he stayed and many people came to him. They said, "Though John never performed a miraculous sign, all that John said about this man was true." And in that place many believed in Jesus.

MANY believed in Jesus. In the city, only a rare few. In the wilderness areas across the Jordan, where John prepared the way, many. It's not a coincedence at all. When the way is properly prepared, when people are reminded of and shown deliverance, when they are invited into a Godly community, where they finally know that the LORD is God, and then begin to live that themselves...these people are the ones who will believe. These people will readily find and accept the salvation that Jesus brings.

Thank you Lord for that. Help me to be one who prepares the way. Let me (yes, I forget all the time) remember the ways You've delivered me, and what You have left to deliver me from. Continue to bring the community that I find myself in more into You. Let us know and act on the fact that YOU are God alone. Allow me places to be missional and bring deliverance to others. I pray that for each Christian today, which seems like a big prayer, but how much more evident would Your salvation be if we all began to prepare the way?