Running Before

By Jerry D. Ousley

            At one time in my life, I was a pretty good runner.  My problem was that, without my glasses, I couldn’t see.  In my grade school years, we played a lot of softball during phys-ed.  I loved playing ball.  But, remember, this was before I knew that I needed glasses.  I thought everyone saw the way I saw, which was blurry figures if they were more than ten feet away.  I knew people were there, but unless they spoke, I had no idea who they were.

            Normally I wasn’t a very good hitter, and I was a worse catcher.  But I could run.  In those days I was the skinny little fellow running from bullies, who could seldom catch me when I was in motion.  A good hit would send me flying around the bases and I rarely got out.

            But this day was different.  A heavy-set kid was up in front of me.  In those days when a child (or an adult for that matter) was heavy-set they were called “healthy.”  You’d hear an adult say, when an over-weight child passed by, “Now there goes a healthy kid!”  I know some of you remember those days.  Well, by those standards, today I’m a pretty healthy guy!

            So, this “healthy” kid somehow managed to get a first base hit and, miracle of miracles, he got on base. I was up and, even though I wasn’t a very good hitter, I managed to lay one on and the ball went flying out into center field.  My feet started pounding the path to first base and I dropped my bat nearly half way there.  I rounded first, heading to second and was streaking toward third.  I heard a lot of commotion but I was on the move and just kept going, making it all the way to home where, instead of hearing the word “SAFE!” I heard, “YERE OUT!”  What?  How could that be?  Then I realized that at second base, when all the commotion started, in my blurred vision I failed to recognize the “healthy” kid and whizzed right past him.  You can’t do that in ball. So, even though I had hit a home run, I was out!  Go figure … I may as well have been crying out, as I cleared each base, “The healthy kid is come, the healthy kid is coming!  Make way for the healthy kid!

            In a sense, that’s what John the Baptist was doing before Jesus.  Isaiah had prophesied of him in Isaiah 40:3, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.”  Malichi also spoke of him in Malichi 3:1, “’Behold, I send My messenger, and he will prepare the way before Me.  And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple, even the Messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight.  Behold, He is coming,’ says the LORD of hosts.”  John’s own father, Zacharias, said on the day of John’s christening, “And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Highest; for you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways” (Luke 1:76).  His mission in life was to let the nation of Israel, and ultimately the entire world, know that the long-awaited Messiah, the One Who would bring deliverance, not from Roman oppression, as the Jews had thought, but for the entire world – all of creation, was right behind him. What a mission John had!  What a glorious message was his to preach!  His was the job of going before, like a servant before a king, announcing, “Make way, make way, the king is coming!”  John was telling the world the Messiah had finally arrived and He was here to baptize the world with the fire of the Holy Spirit.  “Make way, make way, the REAL KING is COMING!” 

            His was the job of preparing people to receive Jesus.  He had the honor of baptizing Jesus, and he witnessed the descending Holy Spirit like a dove, and God the Father speaking from the sky (Mark 1:9-11).  In John 1:29, a few days after he had baptized Jesus, he saw Him in the crowd and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29).

            But you know, our mission today is not unlike that of John the Baptist.  Oh, we may not be called to run around, dressed in clothing made from camel’s hair, with a diet of locust and wild honey, and we may not be commissioned to go around baptizing people but we are running before our Lord.  It is our job to tell others that He is coming again.  We are responsible to let the world know that it needs to get ready because the day is soon approaching when He will come back like He left.

            Just as a large crowd gathered that day when Jesus was lifted in the sky by the clouds and transported to Heaven with God the Father, so He will return and every eye will see Him (see Acts 1:11 and Revelation 1:7).  He is coming back.  Some will be ready and some won’t.  That’s where we come in.  It is our job to let as many as we can know that He is coming and tell them how they can be ready.  Let them know that they must be wearing their wedding garment. We are to tell them how to repent and turn to Jesus for salvation from the destruction that is certainly coming.

            Some think that this world will get better.  That all will be okay.  But I’m running before Christ today to let you know that it will not get better.  Things are only going to get worse. Morals are going to digress more and more.  People are going to accept and tolerate sin even more than today.  It will grow worse until that day when our Lord comes, descending on the clouds to proclaim what He has already paid for.

            Just as surely as you are reading this, our Lord is coming back.  My job, and that of every believer on this planet, is to let you know that you can be prepared.  You can be ready.  We’re running out ahead but don’t hesitate and procrastinate because I believe with all my heart that our Lord is hot on our heels.  He’ll be here before we know it.  Make way!  Make way!  Our LORD is coming!

Jerry D. Ousley is the author of ?Soul Challenge?, ?Soul Journey?, ?Ordeal?, ?The Spirit Bread Daily Devotional and his first novel ?The Shoe Tree.?  Visit our website at spiritbread.com to download these and more completely free of charge.