A great first full day in Dallas. A combination of mind blowing learning interspersed with wonderful fellowship. I feel so grateful for this time here to learn skills for developing post-corporate-life income and work. I know my family (especially my wife) is dealing with a lot of busyness and stress; that part does not sit well with me.
Luke 1:14-17 [AMP]
And you shall have joy and exultant delight, and many will rejoice over his (John the Baptist) birth,
For he will be great and distinguished in the sight of the Lord. And he must drink no wine nor strong drink, and he will be filled with and controlled by the Holy Spirit even in and from his mother’s womb.
And he will turn back and cause to return many of the sons of Israel to the Lord their God,
And he will [himself] go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn back the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient and incredulous and unpersuadable to the wisdom of the upright [which isthe knowledge and holy love of the will of God]—in order to make ready for the Lord a people [perfectly] prepared [in spirit,adjusted and disposed and placed in the right moral state].
What an amazing passage. Verse 14 is the angel Zechariah saw in the temple making kind of a ‘no duh’ statement about how happy both Zechariah and Elizabeth would be over this child. Of course! They’ve been praying for a child through their married life.
Verse 15 gives some instruction (through the angel) about how to raise and protect John once he is born. It almost looks like he might actually fall under similar requirements as that of a lifelong Nazirite (Numbers 6:1-8). However, because the angel does not mention the ban on cutting John’s hair, this is less probable.
Verses 16 & 17 give the impression that John will have a heavy influence on the turning of hearts and minds back to God and that many would be prepared in spirit for the coming of Jesus. John is one of those figures in the Bible I am anxious to meet in Heaven.