DAILY FIRE: JOHN'S PROBLEM

JOHN'S PROBLEM  TODAY'S SCRIPTURE: “Jesus answered and said to them, 'Go and tell John the things you have seen and heard: that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me" (Luke 7:22-23).  DAILY FIRE! I want my life to be an example of that merciful compassion, which is Christ exhibited so freely throughout His life, even to death.  John the Baptist had a similar problem to that of the prophets Jonah and Elijah. He preached the fire of judgment, saying:     "Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?… The ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.…His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather the wheat into His barn; but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire." (Luke 3:7, 9, 17)  That is so much like the preaching of the fiery Elijah that it sounds ironic when Luke adds, “With many other exhortations he preached to the people” (Luke 3:18)! “Hell fire” equals “Good News”?  John later saw Jesus at work and saw no flaming judgments fall. He sent to ask Jesus if he had identified the wrong man as Messiah. Jesus sent back the messengers to describe the mercies of God among the afflicted and dying, and to deliver a message: “Blessed is he who is not offended because of Me” (Luke 7:23).  If it were up to us—human beings—we would have wiped out our entire species years ago! But God continually loves us human beings, and He pours out His compassion and mercy upon us generation after generation. It is He who inspires the heart of the evangelist to shine the Good News into a dark and filthy world—and that is yours and mine!  Taken from Daily Fire Devotional: 365 Days in God’s Word by Reinhard Bonnke. Copyright © 2015 by Reinhard Bonnke. Use by permission of Whitaker House. www.whitakerhouse.com

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