Day 4 of the #31dbc!

Have you ever heard the phrase “Children are to be seen and not heard”?

I always thought that was kind of sad. Even when My Three Sons were little, it was certainly a difficult task to tell them that they could be with us when we were entertaining guests but they could not be “heard”.

Telling that to my middle son was absolutely futile. I might as well walk up to a concrete wall and speak the words; it would have had the same effect! He could not help himself, he just had so much to share with the world…and at 27 years old today, he still does.

John the Baptist started out that same way. He had a crazy way with fashion, wearing camel hair for clothing, lived in the desert and ate locusts and wild honey for nourishment! He preached a strange message about someone coming after him whose shoes he wouldn’t even be worthy to unloose.

Yet he had known his calling his entire life. He wasn’t about to sit in a corner properly and not be heard. He had too much to say. He was pointing the way to Jesus Christ. He was that voice crying in the wilderness.

Jesus said John the Baptist was the greatest man that had ever lived!

“I tell you, among those born of women there is no one greater than John …” Luke 7:28. His voice still echoes today!

The parents of Jesus found their son speaking when they thought he should not even be in the company of adults, when He was just a young boy.

Their parents had made their annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem because they were devout Jews. There were three festivals each year that demanded such a trip: The Feast of Passover, Pentecost and the Feast of Tabernacles. (Exodus 23:14-17; 34:22-23; Deuteronomy 16:16.)

But by the first century, “God-fearing Jews” made only one trip a year because of the distance, and The Passover was the one celebrated at the beginning of the Jewish year (our March or April). Only the men were actually required to make the trip, so Mary, the mother of Jesus did not have to go, but she was obviously dedicated. Jerusalem was 80 miles from Nazareth, where Jesus and his parents were living at the time, and the journey would take three days of travel.

So after the seven days of celebration, the caravan begins the journey back home. That evening they discover he is missing. They had assumed he was with other family or friends. They start back toward Jerusalem searching for Jesus. It is three days later that they find Him in the temple listening to the scholars and asking questions.

 ^“Now so it was that after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard Him were astonished at His understanding and answers. So when they saw Him, they were amazed; and His mother said to Him, “Son, why have You done this to us? Look, Your father and I have sought You anxiously.” And He said to them, “Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?” 

But they did not understand the statement which He spoke to them.” Luke 2:46-50 NKJV.

It goes on to say that when they returned home, Jesus was obedient to His parents but Mary “kept all of these things stored in her heart”.

Jesus was to be seen and heard! Even at twelve years old He was listening to teaching and sharing and giving. The Bible says they were astonished at His understanding and answers!

He was a voice, not an echo!

Where is your voice today? Are you sitting in the corner being seen but afraid to be heard? Are you timid and shy? Think that what you have to say doesn’t matter? Your opinion doesn’t count? No one cares what you have to say?

You are not educated enough, smart enough, or have the right number of letters after your name?

Or maybe you have tried to be the voice before but you failed?

You tried to reach out but you didn’t seem to help anyone.

You tried to minister, tried to encourage, tried to uplift others but just never seemed to get anywhere.

You didn’t get a Bible Study, no one came to church with you, the door was slammed in your face, and you were rejected, again, and again, and again.

So you lost your voice, and decided to become an echo.

Do you know that all of those “failures” were never failures at all?

That any attempt at ministry or encouragement, done with the right spirit, is always a success?!

That more times than not, you have helped someone but just not seen the result?

Yes friend, that is true, your voice matters. You cannot afford to let it trail off into an echo!

What if John the Baptist had not prepared the way? What if the apostles had not gone and spread the Gospel that went around the world?

Now it is our turn.

He didn’t leave the apostles, the 12 disciples for these last days.

No, not John, Luke, Mark, Matthew, Peter, or even Paul, who was the greatest evangelist that ever lived!

He has you and me here for such a time as this. It is our voice He expects to hear! It is our voice that needs to be sharing the Gospel and encouraging the downtrodden, uplifting the weary, and loving the weak and poor.

Be encouraged, get out of your corner and be the voice that God intended you to be. If you are filled with the Holy Spirit and baptized in His precious name, He has given you the tools you need and the power to stand.

You are His voice, go forward in faith, one day at a time and do the will of the Lord. While there is still time.

“And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.” Romans 13:11.

Sharing with Essential Things, Friendship Friday