Raise A Cry!

      “In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the Wilderness of Judea and saying, ‘Repent, because the kingdom of heaven has come near!’…John himself had a camel-hair garment with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey” (Matthew 3:1-2,4).  A voice in the wilderness was crying out for men to turn from their evil ways. Men heard this voice and their hearts melted. The question that comes to my mind whenever I read this account is, can someone in our time, dressed the way John the Baptist was dressed be listened to today? Sadly, when people these days speak, their physical appearance most of the time determine if they will be listened to or not. No wonder we hear so many messages from the pulpit with the mantra: ‘Dress the way you want to be addressed’! In this age of technology, some will even go as far as checking across various social platforms to see if the person standing before them is worth listening to. By so doing, they get distracted by the physical appearance of the messenger and they miss the message that had been tailored for them by God! 

       In the case of John the Baptist, there was a power that backed the voice that cried from the place of emptiness and dryness; that caused those in the palaces of this world to check and adjust their sitting positions! He only uttered what God was saying and God backed it up with His Power! The Power of God’s Word is not to make us feel good but to call us back and remind us who we are in Him in this world. It was not recorded that John the Baptist performed any physical miracle, but his cry did the greatest miracle of all, of turning men back to their Creator! Beloved, that Power is still on the Throne and is available for us even now! 

       As a child of God, in these dark times, what are you crying out? Don’t be deceived, you are not silent! Everything created by God speaks (Psalm 19:1-6). The social media space has made it even easier for the message to go out and it’s equally a veritable tool to stifle our cry! Beloved, what are you crying out? The present world is unprepared for the next move of God. The Church that ought to prepare them is busy with the affairs of the world. Our music, teachings and lifestyle is getting confusing that we can hardly recognize it as a cry of one on a mission from God! You may argue that you have nothing or you are not in any position to cry out concerning the Gospel of Christ. No problem, but that excuse will simply not do. God saw those in the palaces, the rich, the elites, great men of God and their likes, but He went into the wilderness, a place of dryness and emptiness and picked a man to speak forth His Word to a dying world: “In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, while Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, his brother tetrarch of the region of Iturea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, God’s Word came to John the son of Zecharia in the wilderness” (Luke 3:1-2). 

       Beloved, that very platform you are standing on, God wants you to raise a cry for those around you about His word. Enough of your murmurings about those that are or may not be doing it well. Enough of your calculations to see who is great and who is not! There is no time. He is coming, whether we like it or not, ready or not, He is coming! What would He meet you doing? Or when you hear the trumpet sound, will you Google it or check across the social media platforms to see if it is ‘correct and worth hearing’? It is time, beloved, to raise a cry through our music, our language, our silence, our actions, our attitude and every waking moment about Jesus Christ to a world in sore need of the Savior: “I solemnly charge you; proclaim the message; persist in it whether convenient or not; rebuke, correct, and encourage with great patience and teaching” (2Timothy 4:2).  May the Lord strengthen you and make you see beyond the physical and obvious, so as to carry out His mandate upon your life, in Jesus Christ name, Amen! God bless you.