TWO VOICES

In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the Desert of Judea and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near,” This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah: “A voice of one calling in the desert, ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight paths for Him.’ Matthew 3:1-3.

When you read the newspaper or secular magazines, or watch TV or listen to the radio, it seems as though God is not important or does not even exist in the world today. Many people display their beauty or their talents through these media, but they do not acknowledge that their gifts or their good looks come from God. It is a silent voice that is telling the world that God is absent, irrelevant, or indifferent to the world He has created.

This is a lie that the devil is passing on to the people in the world. Satan is a liar, and he wants us to believe that he is in charge and that he controls the things that go on around us, and even our lives if we believe him. When we choose to believe him, we open the door for him to bring destruction and even premature death to us and our families.

For four hundred years the Jewish people had not heard a single word from God. There was no prophet to tell them what God was doing or what He was going to do. They must have thought that God had forgotten them or that He didn’t care about them any more. Many of them tried to please God by obeying all the laws in the Torah (the five books of Moses) as well as all the laws their religious leaders had made up to protect the law of Moses. Nothing they did made any difference. God was silent.

Then John the Baptist began to preach in the desert, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” What was he saying? “Change your mind about God. You have been thinking that He’s not here any more. He is here. He has always been here. He is still in charge of your lives. He wants you to believe in Him. He is coming Himself to be with you and show you how to live.”

This message must have shaken the people because they had been thinking the devil’s way and not God’s way for a long time. They began to listen to John and to be baptised by him as a way of saying, “We want to be a part of this new life you are telling us about.”

There are still two voices speaking today. There is the silent voice of the world that says, “God’s not here,” or “God doesn’t care, “or “God’s not interested in you.” There is also the voice of the Word of God that says, “God is here, God is good, and God is in charge.” We can choose which voice we want to hear, and which voice will lead us to death or to eternal life.