“Make straight the way of the Lord! Prepare the way! Repent and produce fruit in keeping with repentance! One is coming who will baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
This was the message God sent through John the Baptist as the Messiah was about to be revealed. So what message is God sending today? If such a bold proclamation came at the first coming, will any word come before the second? Scripture reveals He will overtake those in the dark, but those in the Light should not be caught off guard. Paul explained: “Now, brothers, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, ‘Peace and safety,’ destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. But you, brothers, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. You are all sons of the light and sons of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. So then, let us not be like the others, who are asleep, but let us be alert and self controlled.” I Thessalonians 5:1-6
But what if we are like the “others”? What if the church is “asleep”? Will not God’s kindness call for godly sorrow that leads to repentance? Such pleas are made in the letters to the churches in the first chapters of Revelation.
In 1977, a song was released by John Michael Talbot called “Prepare Ye The Way”. A couple of years ago, the group, Caedmon’s Call, released it again. Here’s the first verse and chorus:
The Word of the Lord came one evening
Concerning His bride’s great sin
He’d send down His Word to renew her
To prepare for the Bridegroom again
The Word said repent from seeking vain glories
While the gifts in the Lord’s name you give
Repent of all the first stones cast to kill
While your own self-righteousness lives
Prepare ye the way for the Lord
Prepare ye the way for the kingdom
Prepare ye the way
Prepare ye the way for the Lord
“Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.” Matthew 24:42-44