Hello, thanks for joining me today for Give Him 15. The title of today's post is

What America Desperately Needs. In yesterday's post, I spoke about John the Baptist and his road

building calling. He was a forerunner called to prepare the way to build a highway, Isaiah 40, upon which Messiah could enter the earth.

Road builders have to begin by clearing, leveling, forming straight passageways.

This can be challenging and difficult.

When building natural highways, the work begins with bulldozers,

earthmovers, and sometimes even dynamite.

Then the process moves to paving, painting, and dressing up the project, usually with a different crew,

definitely with different equipment. Difficult preparation such as that involved in road building

is true for many types of transitions and seasons of change.

Constructing houses and other structures begins with digging and clearing.

The process is muddy, messy, and ugly.

Restructuring corporations can be chaotic, even painful for some involved. Progress, which often demands

change, can be tough. Without doubt, when referencing the role of John, Holy Spirit chose his analogy very intentionally and carefully.

This will get ugly before it gets beautiful, was the point.

But there was a glorious purpose, an end result in mind.

Isaiah 40 mentions glory, good tidings, rewards, loving and caring for flocks.

All this and more would ride into Israel on this road.

Messiah, our Redeemer, would travel the highway. The change, though painful,

would ultimately be good. Restoring and restructuring nations can also be messy, even more so when deep levels of sin and darkness

are involved. God told Jeremiah he would use him to root out and to pull down and to destroy

and to throw down before using him to build up and plant.

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