Monday, December 23
Journal
Luke 3:1-6
The Proclamation of John the Baptist
In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, during the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah, ‘The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of
God.” ’
Journal Prompt:
John the Baptist comes up again in the above reading from Luke. After reading it once,
flip back to December 11th and reread the Isiah text. Think about your insights from that
day, and read this text. With the theme of “Waiting for Love” in mind, how do the two
texts shape up? To quote Tina Turner, “What’s love got to do with it?”
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