In today’s world, standing for what God commands in His Word is likely to find you labeled as intolerant and politically incorrect. The moral, ethical, and spiritual standards found in the Bible go against what our society values. Many think it is more important to fall in line with what the world proclaims is right than to follow the Lord. In many places, faithfulness to Jesus and His Word can be dangerous, costing you your livelihood, your freedom, even your life. Boldness for the Lord is not easy or risk-free.

John the Baptist serves as a prime example of taking a bold stance for the Lord and against society. He was willing to rebuke people at al levels of society, calling them to repentance and to a life dedicated to the service of God. His words were seen as prophetic by the people who came to hear him preach in the wilderness. His call to a holy life led many to believe that he was the long-awaited Messiah, the One who so many hoped would come and deliver them from Roman rule and the corruption of the religious establishment.

John denied that he was the Messiah. He knew that while he issued a call to holy living, he was not worthy to even be mentioned alongside the Messiah. His job was not to be the deliverer of Israel, but to prepare the way for His coming. Luke saw in John the fulfillment of the prophecies of Isaiah 40:3-5 concerning the one who would come to prepare the way for the Messiah. John’s ministry was one of preparation, and his call to repentance was a call for people to prepare themselves for His imminent coming.

The sign John used for repentance was baptism. Baptism was not unknown to Jews of the first century, as it was often a part of the process for proselytes to become full Jews. John’s baptism had a different meaning, and called for a response from those who were already Jews. One who undertook the baptism of John was coming before God to forsake his or her sins and to commit themselves to obedience to the commands of the Word. People came to John not only to hear his preaching, but to make themselves ready for a better way of life under the rule of the Messiah.

John’s message went beyond the call to repentance and to baptism. He also proclaimed the coming of One who was far mightier than John, who would come to judge the hearts of people and to bring the Holy Spirit. John expressed his own unworthiness to even tie the sandals of this mighty One, despite his own prophetic office. It was the Messiah who would sort out those who were faithful to God from those who were not, those who would be brought into heaven from those who would be judged in hell. That was not a message designed to make John popular, but it was the message he had been born to deliver.

Like John the Baptist, we may have an unpopular message for our society. The world does not want to be told that it is in need of repentance, that the standards of God are those by which we must live, and that pursuing our own desires instead of God’s will result in eternal judgment. We need to have the courage and boldness of John to stand for the Lord, even when everyone seems to be opposed to Him and to us. Our faithful service will result in people coming to know Jesus and becoming a part of the coming kingdom of the Lord.

Imagine for a moment that you are an angel, and not merely an ordinary angel but one of God’s archangels, with great power and authority granted by God Himself. You can travel great distances in no time at all, and your very appearance leaves human beings in awe, sometimes even in terror. You come to the earth to speak with one person, someone who has been granted a great privilege by God, and you give him the good news. You anticipate his initial shock at your appearance, and comfort him.

Then this remarkably privileged old man questions your words.

I don’t think we can truly put ourselves in the place of Gabriel at this moment. As an angel of God, he would not be given to reacting in a hasty manner, and he knew that Zechariah had indeed been chosen by the Lord to be the father of the forerunner of the Messiah. Yet I always read Gabriel’s words here with a hint of exasperation. He had been sent from heaven to earth on his mission, showing up in all the glory of an angel, and his words are being questioned.

In my reading of Gabriel’s response, I imagine him speaking not with an ethereal tone, but with the exasperated voice of a disappointed parent. There is no way to get across in writing what I think his next words sounded like. “I am GABRIEL! I stand in the presence of God!” The unbelief of Zechariah led to a judgment of silence until the prophecy was fulfilled, but I suspect Zechariah was struck speechless at the reaction of the angel. It was not a rebuke of anger, but a stern reminder of just who Zechariah was questioning.

His inability to speak did not disqualify Zechariah from completing his term of service in the Temple. His once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to burn the incense has led to a glorious visitation, one which likely led to much thought about just what it all meant. When his service was completed, he went home. Again, one can only imagine the conversation (or lack thereof) with his wife, Elizabeth. Gabriel’s words came to pass, and Elizabeth was humble but joyous when she learned she was pregnant. They would have a child after all these years, an event that took away the social stigma they had lived with for years.

When we receive good news, news which we can’t even imagine could be true, it is natural to question if it is true or not. This is not only because we’re reluctant to believe in our good fortune, but because the source of that news may not be completely reliable. Zechariah went beyond mere shock and uncertainty to wanting Gabriel to provide proof what he said would happen. I will not likely ever see an angel with my own eyes this side of glory, but questioning such a presence seems to require a certain amount of chutzpah. If what the angel says is in line with what God has revealed, it is better just to trust that God’s messenger tells the truth.

We may not be confronted with angelic messages, but we do have regular access to God’s word and God’s promises through the Bible. While some may question the truth and authority of the Scriptures, we should prepare to receive His revelation with faith and obedience, and be ready to live out what God has told us before the world so they may see that truth themselves and come to hear and understand the words of God.

The evidence for the historical reality of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead is powerful. That doesn’t mean that it is easy to piece together the sequence of events on that first Easter morning. Each of the gospel writers brings their own perspective on the story, and each may have had access to different sources for their account. While they agree on the general outline of events, they provide a number of details that fill out the accounts of the other writers.

Mark gives us the shortest account of the Resurrection. There is even some dispute over whether he provided any mention of the post-resurrection appearances of Christ, since much of chapter 16 is missing in the oldest Biblical manuscripts we have. For Mark, writing a few decades after Jesus’ death and resurrection, the important fact was that the tomb was empty, not all the phenomena surrounding Jesus’ return from the dead.

Three women are named as going to the tomb on that morning. They did not expect to find anyone there, so they were attempting to figure out how they could roll the stone away from the opening of the tomb. They likely were shocked to see that the stone, which is described as “very large” here, had been rolled away from the entrance already. Despite this, they entered the tomb.

 Sitting in the tomb was a figure Mark describes as a young man dressed in a white robe. While the other gospel writers are more explicit about the appearance of the angel (or two angels, with one as the main spokesman), Mark describes the angel in terms that would have made him seem more familiar to the women. He comforts the women and tells them that Jesus has risen from the dead. He then instructs them to go tell the disciples that Jesus will be waiting for them in Galilee.

The women are not particularly comforted by the angel’s words. Mark describes them as trembling, astonished, and afraid. They had not expected to find that Jesus was alive, and they did not expect to have an angel announce His resurrection and give them instructions for the disciples. It took them some time to piece together what had happened, and it took more encounters, related in the other gospels, to fully convince them.

Mark concludes with a summary of some of the post-Resurrection appearances of Jesus. Clearly His disciples were not quite sure what to make of this event. While the Resurrection became a central part of the early preaching of the church, it wasn’t something anyone had expected, even after Jesus’ teaching. The reality of Jesus’ return from death only became apparent to His closest followers after they experienced His presence for themselves.

The testimony of those early followers of Jesus has been passed down for almost two millennia now. There is no one left alive on earth who saw Jesus after His Resurrection, but we have the eyewitness accounts related in the gospels. Matthew and John were both witnesses of the risen Lord, and Mark may have possibly been as well; although we have no mention of it in the Bible, his family seems to have been well-known among Jesus’ followers and might have been part of one of the large crowds to which Jesus appeared. Through them, we have the truth that Jesus is alive given to us, and now we are able to experience the reality of His presence in our own lives as we walk with Him day by day.

Our choices determine many of the experiences we have in our lives. When we make good choices, we enjoy the results that come from our efforts and decisions. When we make bad choices, we suffer from the results of those decisions. Sometimes that may just be some small and temporary consequences, but at other times our poor choices lead to changes that affect us for the rest of our lives. Those changes may damage our reputations, our health, or our relationships permanently. It may be difficult, if not impossible, to recover from a decision that has especially serious results on our lives.

In Mark 14:10-11 we find one of these significant decisions. Judas Iscariot was one of the Twelve who followed Jesus throughout His ministry. He was probably the only non-Galilean in the group, and was apparently a man of some ability. The disciples chose him to be the treasurer of the group, indicating a level of trust in Judas and a respect for his ability to manage money. The rest of the disciples must have found qualities to appreciate in Judas, and he continued to travel with them and their money.

This trust would turn out to be misplaced. Judas may have joined the group initially out of a genuine desire to see Jesus’ kingdom come, but his expectations were apparently disappointed in some way. Perhaps he expected a political Messiah and an immediate earthly kingdom in which he would have a prominent role; the gospel writers do not tell us his motivations. What we do know is that he became a thief, stealing from the disciples’ moneybag (John 12:6). As he grew dissatisfied with Jesus and His ministry, Judas began to be led astray by Satan and guided along the path of betrayal.

When a woman came into the house to anoint Jesus with expensive perfume, the heart of Judas was exposed. While Mark noted generally that some complained about what seemed to be a waste of a valuable commodity, John informs us that Judas was the one who gave voice to the complaint. A denarius was a day’s wage for a common laborer, so this was nearly a year’s income poured on Jesus. The alabaster jar of perfume may have been part of the woman’s dowry, set aside for her marriage, but she willingly gave it to Him in her sacrificial act.

Jesus commended the woman, stating that her act would be remembered wherever the gospel went- and it has. This seems to have been the final straw for Judas, though. He went to the chief priests, who were looking for a way to kill Jesus without creating an uproar during Passover. Judas accepted thirty pieces of silver, the price of a slave, to betray Jesus to them. They gladly paid the bribe and waited for word that their enemy was available for capture.

That one choice affected everything for Judas. He lost his place among Jesus’ disciples, the ill-gotten gains of his betrayal, his reputation for the rest of history, his life, and his place in eternity. Judas serves as a sad reminder of the destruction that can happen in our lives as the result of one bad decision. Judas allowed his own desires to overcome his obedience to the Lord. While it is possible he could have found forgiveness, his spiritual state was such that he didn’t even look for it. Judas is a cautionary tale for us today, a warning that we need to remain close to Jesus and not seek after our own desires.

We live in a time of political turmoil all over the globe. There are not only disputes and wars between nations, but battles both physical and spiritual within many nations. In our own country, there are lines drawn between various factions on the political spectrum, and those who disagree with what the government decrees are vocal about their disapproval. When laws, regulations, or orders are made by political leaders at the varied levels of government, some who oppose those decisions vow not to obey the new laws and regulations. People look for any excuse to justify their disobedience.

Even many Christians seek ways to avoid obeying governmental decrees with which they disagree. Now, when a government openly violates God’s standards and rejects the Word of God, Christians must stand up like the early apostles and obey God rather than man. Many laws, however, may be irksome without being opposed to what the Bible teaches. We may not like what the government asks us to do, but when we have no clear Biblical standard that rebukes what the government tries to do, we are to obey the authorities and submit to their actions.

Perhaps no laws are more invasive to many modern people than those that create new taxes for us to pay. We start to wonder just how much money the government needs anyway, and try to find some loophole to get us out of paying our taxes. This isn’t just a modern phenomenon, for many people throughout history have found taxes burdensome and tried to find ways to escape their responsibility to pay.

Even the Israelites of Jesus’ time found the taxes paid to their Roman conquerors to be both a burden and a political shame. Groups arose to oppose Roman rule, and some even planned violence against the government and the troops in Israel. Roman rule was unpopular with much of the population, and taxes were resented as they went to perpetuate that rule.

Thus, the Pharisees and Herodians thought they had the perfect trap for Jesus. If He answered that paying taxes was lawful, many of those who were coming to Him would see Him as a traitor. If He instead answered that it was wrong, the Romans might become interested in stopping the potential threat Jesus and His followers would pose. There seemed to be no good answer Jesus could give to satisfy everyone.

In using the image on a coin as the basis for His own question, Jesus pointed out that the Jewish leaders accepted the benefits of Roman rule, and that the money they had came from the work of the government. It was proper within the teaching of Scripture to pay the government what they are owed, since they made it possible in the first place. But it was also imperative to give God what He is owed, whether money, allegiance, or obedience.

We may not always like what our governments do, but as long as they work within the principles laid down by God we are to obey their mandates. We need to do this while still rendering to the Lord the honor and obedience that are due Him. When we obey the rightful commands of the state, we also submit to the rule of the God who put those governments in place. It may not make us happy, but it will show our willingness to follow the Lord before our world.

Jesus performed many miracles during His earthly ministry. Many involved healing of various diseases and infirmities, while others showed His power over the forces of nature. Some of His miraculous interventions involved the exorcism if demons from those oppressed by them. All of Jesus’ miracles were displays of His power over whatever hurt or held back people, whether individuals or groups, and pointed to Him as someone who had authority over all of creation.

Jesus’ miracles often contained lessons that were illustrated by the way His power took effect. We find one of those miracles in Mark 11:12-14. This seems to be an unusual circumstance, happening just after His Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem. Jesus has stayed in Bethany that night, and as He returned to Jerusalem, He saw a fig tree in full leaf. Despite its full foliage, it had not yet begun to bear fruit, since, as Mark notes, it was not yet the time for figs to emerge. The tree served as a living illustration of many in Israel in Jesus’ time, and of many who claim to be followers of Christ in our own day.

Some people look at Jesus’ actions here and think they are petty and petulant. It wasn’t the season for figs, so why should Jesus expect to find any on this tree? Since this is the only miracle of Jesus that involves destruction rather than healing or restoration, it stands out, and many have struggled to understand it. Some see His cursing of the fig tree as an overreaction to a state that wasn’t the fig tree’s fault, thus being an unfair judgment.

The fact that this miracle stands out from the rest of Jesus’ miracles should cause us to pay careful attention to what Jesus wanted to teach through this. While it was too early for the tree to bear figs, it was also too early for it to be in full leaf. Thus, since it appeared to be ready to bear fruit, it was not unreasonable to expect to find fruit on its branches. A fig tree that bore foliage early but did not bear fruit was also likely to not bear fruit later in the season as well. It’s green foliage hid the fact that the tree was actually not fruitful.

Coming between the Triumphal Entry and the cleansing of the Temple, this living parable was meant to make a statement about the condition of many in Israel, especially the leaders. They looked good, ripe for the coming of the Messiah, yet there were still signs of selfishness and rejection of the Lord’s standards among them. The crowd that welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem was a green fig tree, but one without fruit. Another crowd, perhaps with some of the same people in it, would reject Him by the end of the week.

This miracle serves as a parable about appearances compared to reality. There are many today who look like they are faithful to the Lord, ready for Him to come, and appearing to be faithful. Yet they lack any genuine fruit, producing nothing of value for Christ and His kingdom. You may encounter people who make a good profession of faith, who show up for church on Sunday, and who even do some good deeds. When they reach the point of trial, and ultimately face the judgment of God, they have nothing to show for their beliefs and works. Their “leaves” hide the fact that they are not genuinely fruitful servants of Jesus. In the end, that lack of fruitfulness shows their dead spiritual state, and they will face eternal judgment since they were not genuine believers.

There is one question with eternal consequences that each person needs to answer in their lives: Who is Jesus? Many have come up with answers to that question, but so many of these answers fall short of the truth. People have suggested Jesus was just an itinerant rabbi, a good moral teacher, a prophet, a failed revolutionary, or even just a mythological character. Jesus has been so significant in the history of the world that He cannot be ignored, but those who are uncomfortable in confronting Him find ways to minimize the reality of who He is.

That question goes back to the days of Jesus’ own ministry. Throughout the gospels we see people wondering who Jesus is, where He came from, and how He was able to do the miraculous. Whether it was potential followers, jealous rivals, religious opponents, or even His own disciples, people questioned Jesus’ identity. Despite the prophecies that Jesus Himself often cited, the connections were missed as those who witnessed Jesus’ actions and teachings failed to take a deeper look at Him.

In our reading today, we see Jesus putting that question to His disciples. They had seen what He had done and had heard what He had to say. They had seen Him confronted by the scribes and Pharisees and come away putting them in their place, much to their displeasure. With all of this experience, Jesus knew it was time to see how far the disciples had progressed in knowing Him. They had an awareness of Jesus’ reputation among the people and among the leaders of Israel, but Jesus wanted to dig down and see what they  knew about Him.

Jesus started by asking who others thought He was. They dutifully responded with what they had heard: John the Baptist, as Herod had suggested; Elijah, who many Jews expected to precede the Messiah; or one of the prophets, who had ministered much as Jesus did. The opinions of the people of His time were much like those of modern skeptics. They believed Jesus was a great figure, but just another human prophet.

The next question was directed to the disciples themselves: “But who do you say that I am?” Jesus knew how the general population of Israel thought about Him, but this probed what His own disciples thought about Him. Peter, often the impetuous one, gave the answer: “You are the Christ.” Peter understood that Jesus was no mere precursor, but the Messiah Himself. He was the One that Israel had been waiting for, the divine King who would come and establish His rule over the world.

Jesus immediately taught the disciples about what He must do, to die and rise again, so that He could save His people. The disciples may have had an image of the Messiah as a conquering hero, which was a popular conception in first century Judaism. Jesus wanted them to know that He was going to save in a different way, and that at that moment He was fulfilling the work of salvation by making it possible for sin to be forgiven, rather than by setting up an earthly kingdom. Jesus will come again as the King, and those who place their faith and trust in Him will be part of His eternal kingdom. We need to know the answer to the question of who Jesus is, and to accept Him as both our Savior and our Lord, as the divine and human Son of God who alone has the power to redeem us.

I grew up in a small town, a couple of hours from any big city. My dad was the local Baptist minister, and my sisters and I grew up and went through school in town. It was the kind of town where you knew a lot of the people who lived there, whether on a personal level or seeing them around town. For those of us who were the kids in town, the community was as familiar as our own families. The flip side of that is that no matter what we did, or even what we grew up to be, the people in our neighborhood just weren’t impressed with us or with our accomplishments. This is a common experience for many people, who always are treated like the kids they once were by those who watched them grow.

Even Jesus has this kind of reaction from the people in His hometown. Although He was born in Bethlehem, He grew up in Nazareth, a small village in the north of Israel, away from Jerusalem and other cities. It wasn’t the kind of town that found many of its residents becoming famous or powerful. His father was a builder, who possibly worked building nearby Sepphoris, and Jesus followed in His footsteps. He came from a large family- at least four brothers and two sisters, maybe more. As He grew up, people probably didn’t expect Him to be much, most likely just another builder working in and around the town.

Instead, Jesus became a popular figure among the people, especially around Galilee. His reputation even spread into the neighboring territories, and many gathered to hear Him teach and to see, or even experience, His miracles. In His travels, He returned to Nazareth, to the place where people had seen Him grow up and knew Him well. We aren’t told if Jesus had ever spoken in the synagogue in Nazareth before, although it is possible that He had had opportunities to read Scripture or comment in the services. On this visit, Jesus began to teach in the synagogue, amazing the townspeople with His knowledge and wisdom.

This led to a buzz among the people, but it wasn’t talk of how Jesus had gone beyond their expectations or the insight He gave into their lives. Rather, they were surprised that He spoke with such wisdom, wondered how He performed His miracles, and questioned what a carpenter was doing teaching in the synagogue. Mark states that the people “took offense” at Jesus. They were unable to accept that this humble tradesman was truly a gifted rabbi and teacher, and was someone they needed to give attention. Jesus’ own town rejected Him.

This didn’t surprise Jesus. He commented on how a prophet is honored everywhere except in his hometown, and by his own people. This is a foreshadowing of the rejection Jesus would experience from many of the Jews, the people He came to save. Their unbelief meant that Jesus could do few miracle in town, not because He didn’t have the power but more like because the people didn’t come to Him for healing. They couldn’t accept who Jesus was, and as a result they did not avail themselves of the opportunity He brought to their village.

So many today refuse to see Jesus for who He is, the Son of God who came in the flesh to bear our sins for us. They see Him as something less, like the rest of humanity, certainly no better than us. Jesus is so much more, and what He offers us is greater even than healing and miracles. Only when we see Jesus as the Savior and our Lord will we be able to experience His power to deliver us from sin and bring us eternal life.

Our lives follow complex paths, with many obstacles, challenges, triumphs, and struggles. Many of these require us to push through with all the strength and ability we have to overcome them. Others seem impossible, beyond any power we have, and appear to have no solution we can figure out. In those times, we need power that goes beyond human strength, that steps out past what our abilities allow us to do. We may even need a miracle if we are going to overcome some of the challenges of our lives. Asking for a miracle implies that we are asking someone who can make a miracle happen.

We worship a God who has the power to make miracles happen. In today’s reading, we find accounts of several of the miracles of Jesus. These miracles took many forms, showing His power over a variety of circumstances. We find healings, nature miracles, and even a resurrection. There is no situation in life over which Jesus does not have authority. When we reach the point at which we need a miraculous touch from our Savior, Jesus is able to provide it. What we need to remember is that the way Jesus acts to meet our needs may not be the way we expect Him to work to give us what we think we need.

In each of these miracles, the expectations of the people needing it vary. The disciples wanted Jesus to assure them, but didn’t know what to expect. The demon-possessed man expected nothing, although the demons within him feared what the Son of God could do to them. Jairus expected that Jesus, a well-known healer, would be able to heal his daughter. The woman with the hemorrhage expected she could touch Jesus’ robe and be healed without Him knowing about it. All of them were surprised by what actually happened to them.

Jesus responds to each need differently, but in a way that met an even deeper need of the one involved. The disciples needed not just survive a storm, but to see who Jesus really was. The demon-possessed man needed freedom from his demons, but also to find in Jesus someone who cared about his life. Jairus needed more than the healing he sought for his daughter, and received her back from the dead. The woman with the hemorrhage needed not just healing, but to know the One from whom the healing came. The needs of each one involved in the miracle was met, but not in the way they likely expected.

In the trials of life, we may have needs that we believe need the miraculous of Jesus. Sometimes, though, there is a deeper need we have, one of which we may not be aware. Jesus doesn’t always give us the result we expect, but He always gives us the result we need. As we pray to Him for His power to be displayed on our behalf, we must be prepared to see Him work in a way we do not expect, and to meet a need we weren’t aware we had. That may mean the answer we get to our prayer is not the one we want, or that the need that is met is not the one we believe is our most pressing need. What it does mean is that the Lord knows our need better than we know it ourselves, and that what He provides for us is what we actually need at that moment. Not all struggles of life will be overcome, nor will we always live comfortably in the manner we expect. Through all of our circumstances, however, we will have the Savior going with us, meeting our needs as He knows is best, and preparing us for our ultimate answer to prayer when we reach heaven and see Him face to face.

The first coming of Jesus to earth, from His birth to His death and resurrection, was anticipated by the prophets of the Old Testament. While He came in humble circumstances, there were many indications of who He was when He arrived. Reading through the prophecies of the coming of the Messiah in Scripture, we find many that were fulfilled in Jesus’ birth and earthly life. The Messiah was eagerly anticipated, especially in the circumstances in which Israel found itself under Roman rule. Many Jews were looking for the coming of the Messiah to happen, and to happen soon.

Mark’s gospel begins differently than the others. Where Matthew and Luke include the lineage and birth of Jesus, and John starts with His eternal position as the Word, Mark jumps into the story of Jesus with no discussion of His birth or childhood. His narrative begins with the appearance of John the Baptist, the harbinger of the Messiah. In just eight verses Mark sets the stage for Jesus to begin His ministry.

His gospel does not begin with narrative, however. It actually starts with a quote from the book of Isaiah, which prophesied not the Messiah but His forerunner. The appearance of the Messiah would not come out of the blue, but would be prepared by a prophet who came before Him. Instead of the people seeking clues to when and where the Messiah would come, the Lord would send a messenger to announce his coming clearly.

When Mark does begin his story, it starts with this messenger, John the Baptist. His ministry began in the wilderness, not in the Temple, and his message was not one about sacrifices and rituals but a call to repentance. John was a unique figure, whose dress and diet set him apart from other religious figures of his time. He baptized people who professed their repentance, visibly setting apart those who were preparing for the Messiah to come.

John knew his place in God’s plan of salvation. He claimed his own baptism with water was to lead to a baptism with the Holy Spirit brought by the One to follow him. When Jesus began His earthly ministry, it was to John that He came, and He submitted to John’s baptism as a sign of His identification with those He came to save. The Father’s proclamation from heaven, along with the descent of Spirit, confirmed John’s prophetic preaching. Those who were present to witness this event could not mistake this sign of divine approval on Jesus, and the word would spread of this new rabbi who might very well be the Messiah.

As we eagerly anticipate the second coming of Christ, we look for the signs we have been given in the Scriptures. It is easy to caught up in our own speculations, or to allow our desire for His coming to cloud our vision of current events in light of the Bible. When Jesus does come, we will know it: first His people who are caught up with Him, then the world when He comes after the time of Tribulation. His coming has been announced, and His second is anticipated as eagerly as His first. We wait and watch for now, awaiting the signs prophesied in both Old and New Testaments and then the arrival of our Messiah and Lord. As we wait, we must continue to serve the Lord, to not allow our own will to affect the way we live, and to proclaim, like John the Baptist, the need for repentance as we await His return.