It is interesting to reflect on the days we are living in, when fast moving technology is difficult to keep up with at times. In my grandmother's 99 years of life, she experienced this fast moving technology as her mode of transportation changed from horse and buggy to cars. She flew in planes and was also alive to watch man walk on the moon, on television. She lived during both world wars, the Korean war, the cold war and the Vietnam war. She has since passed on and although technology continues at an incredible rate, the world seems the same in many respects.
These days are still the same in the sense that wars and injustices continue throughout the world. Keeping up with world news and witnessing these atrocities continue is a chore in itself. Our world seems to be in a tailspin in which people are losing confidence in governments and religious institutions of our day. Without sounding like doom and gloom, one still wonders where it will all end.
Although technology advances our world in many new positive ways, at times it appears that human nature never changes. As aforementioned, wars and violence continue in which some empires tend to crush the common folk. Unfortunately, history seems to repeat itself throughout the world. I am not a pessimist by any means, but just one crying out to consider these days.
There was a man over 2,000 years ago also crying out from the wilderness for mankind to repent. In the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 3, we come to know him as John the Baptist. He was a man sent by God the Father to prepare the way for Christ’s coming. John the Baptist’s mission was to proclaim what repentance truly meant in God’s eyes. As we study the Baptist, we begin to understand that to repent means to turn away. The Baptist cried out for all to turn from a life of injustice toward our fellow man, to a life in which we are to treat others as we prefer to be treated.
As people were turning away from their former lives and were determined to follow this new way, they were baptized in water as a sign acknowledging such determined change. It was a serious matter to live this new life of considering others before their own gain. It was a life not easy to live in their own strength. Thus enters Jesus and through His life, death and resurrection, the repentant ones are led along this new pathway by His example. After the resurrection, the Father sends further help by sending the Holy Spirit to abide within their lives, empowering them (giving them the ability) to live this new lifestyle.
We have the same opportunity to live a life of repentance that draws us close to our heavenly Father, who will in turn empower us with the Holy Spirit to serve Him and our fellow man. With this Kingdom mindset, just maybe “in these days“ we can find renewed strength to continue impacting our little portion of the world in a positive way.
