Thanks so much for listening to this bonus podcast. I'm Susie Larson, host of Middays. And throughout the month of

December, we as a team, in fact, quite a few of our listeners, were working our way through the Gospel of Luke,

reading a chapter a day. Well, today I'm looking at chapter three where John the Baptist prepares

the way for Jesus. John went from place to place on both sides of the Jordan River, Scripture says,

preaching the people should be baptized to show that they repented of their sins and turned to God

to be forgiven. Isaiah spoke of John when he said, he is a voice shouting in the wilderness,

prepare the way for the Lord's coming, clear the road for him. The valleys will be filled,

the mountains and the hills will be made level,

the curves will be straightened, and the rough place is made smooth. Then all people will see

the salvation from God. God wants us to make room in our hearts so that we can lay hold of

more of him. And when John the Baptist was saying, prepare the way, he wasn't saying,

clean up your life before you come to Jesus because we can't do that on

our own. But what he is saying is be prepared for change. In fact, if you notice a little bit later in the

chapter, you know, the crowds ask, what should we do? Well, John says, if you have two shirts,

give one to the poor. If you have food, share it with the hungry. And then the corrupt tax collectors came to be baptized, and they said, teacher, what should we do?

Well, he has a different answer for them.

Collect no more taxes than the government requires.

What should we do?

Ask some soldiers, once again, he had a different answer for them.

Don't extort money or make false accusations and be content with your pay.

Everyone is expecting Messiah to come soon, and they were eager to know whether John might even

be the Messiah.

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